San Diego Wild Animal Park: Photoessay

In December, we spent a chilly day at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, which is actually located 35 miles outside of San Diego, east of the city of Escondido.  The zoo is huge: 1,800 acres, and was originally envisioned as a breeding facility for rare animals. 

Perhaps the best known feature of this park is the open range enclosures where people are herded into trains to see the animals who are living almost in freedom.  This is a photo from the train, to get an idea of the space dedicated to the Wild Animal Park:

The balloon in the background is another great way to view the park.  There is an additional $15.00 per person charge for a 15 minute trip.  We have not tried this yet, but it looks like a lot of fun.

The rhinos are always a crowd pleaser and you get a closeup view from the train.

Giraffes roam freely close to the rhinos.

Przewalski's Horses, the wild, endangered horses that originate from Mongolia and northern China, are particularly interesting to biologists because all the Przewalski's horses alive today are descendants of the 12 wild horses captured in Mongolia in the early 1900s.  Because of a very successful breeding program there are now more than 1,500 of these animals worldwide today.

The birds displays of the San Diego Wild Animal Park are my personal favorite.  The Hidden Jungle which is another place where birds are free and people visit their environment by entering through double doors into a glasswalled greenhouse.  From March 31st through April 15th, this Hidden Jungle exhibit will house the Butterflies & Orchids annual event.

 This stunning Andrean Cock-of-the-Rock posed for me in the Hidden Jungle.

Lorikeet Landing Aviary is probably the most popular exhibit for children and those who want to get great, colorful photos.  You can purchase little cups of nectar for the birds and they flock to you and eat out of your hand.  These birds are Green-nape Lorikeets and they originate from the rain forests of Australia and New Guinea.

I caught these two Lorikeets gossiping:

The Heart of Africa is a gently-sloped walking trail that houses over 260 animals.  The most popular attraction, the Cheetahs, were off-exhibit while we were visiting, due to a large expansion program, but usually it is very fun to watch them be fed.  They are amazingly agile, and of course, extremely speedy.  However, the trail is still a wonderful visit with some incredible and rare animals.

These Okapi, which are look like a mutated Zebra, but are actually the only relative of the giraffe, were not even known to scientists until the early 1900s.  They live in the very densest rain forests in central Africa, called the Ituri Forest, and are very rarely seen by humans.

If I had to pick a very favorite animal at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, I would have to chose this fellow: the Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, just because he liked me.  I had a hard time leaving him because he kept calling me back to him and even tried to get out of his enclosure to follow me.  And, who could resist those eyelashes?

Despite their macabre reputation, I found this Griffon Vulture, in the Heart of Africa walk, to be quite surprisingly stunning.  He looks almost as majestic as the Bald Eagle.

No trip to the zoo would be complete without visiting the primates and the San Diego Wild Animal Park has several wonderful primate exhibits.  I caught the chimpanze mom in a playful moment with her baby:

The low-land Gorilla exhibit is fantastic.  The Park claims that the gorillas enjoy people watching as much as we enjoy watching them.  This picture seems to support that claim:

These two gorillas seem to be too busy negotiating important gorilla business to have time for people-watching:

As the day ended, I marvelled at all the beauty that I saw from all over the world in one Park.  The way the animals are thoughtfully and humanly exhibited gives you a very realistic idea of the animals in their nature environment.  I will close with some of the wonderful plant life that makes every minute of walking through the park enjoyable:

If you happen to be a resident of Southern California, and you enjoy visiting zoos, you should consider becoming a Zoological Society Member like I am.  For $89.00 per year, 2 adults in the same household can enjoy both the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park as many times as they wish.