I’d been to the San Diego Zoo twice before in my life. Once was when I was 11 and then again in my mid-20’s. From my recollections, the zoo has changed a lot. And, as was evidenced by our trip there this time, it will be changing a lot more during the next year or two. It seemed like over half the zoo was under construction. We didn’t get to see many exhibits as they were closed for renovation. I was really disappointed that one of the main exhibits closed was the giraffe area.
And since when did the zoo become so hilly! I totally don’t remember any hills…but I have a hard time believing they just added all these hills, so they could have been here before! One thing we found a little bothersome was that there was no logical route around the park. All the trails went every which way and intertwined here and there. There was no way to walk a route and see everything. You either missed quite a few exhibits or you had to backtrack and walk by numerous exhibits a second time to get to others.
The main thing I remember from my second visit here was a penguin exhibit. It was quite elaborate and was definitely the highlight of the zoo. But it no longer exists. I wonder what they did with all the penguins. Maybe it has something to do with that Walk of the Penguins everyone was talking about a couple years ago. Tee hee.
I was surprised to see that there really wasn’t a real wide variety of animals. There were a lot of birds and a lot of various types of monkeys but not many of the large animals you would expect to see at a zoo.
But we did see a lot of things that were interesting and/or pretty. Keep in mind as you look at the pictures that almost every one of them was taken through glass or wire mesh. It was very difficult to get good pictures. I found it interesting that I had the smallest lens of anyone there – of those that had cameras with interchangeable lenses. But the lens wasn’t my problem as lenses don’t make the animals turn around. My mom teased me some time ago about the “butt” shots I would post of the dogs. I don’t know what it is but every time I want to take a picture of any kind of animal, they immediately turn their rear end to me. Mike and I laughed all the way around the zoo because as soon as I would lift up my camera to take a picture the animals would turn around and give me their “best side.” If you’re really interested, I have loads of butt shots! Here's the one and only animal in the entire zoo that didn't turn around when I arrived.
Okay, now for the bad news. I didn't spend too much time reading the signs. I just enjoyed looking at the animals and taking pictures. I figured Mike would know the names of all the animals. Oops, I was wrong. So while I'll include a lot of pictures - I can't tell you what most of them are. Sorry about that.
We started out in one of the bird cages. The first thing I see is this huge Victoria Crowned Pigeon common to N. New Guinea above me in a tree. Of course since he was blue I thought he was very pretty.
A while later I saw him fly down from the tree onto the walkway. So I go over to take a picture and sure enough he turns around and walks away from me.
Now I'm thinking he is just following zoo procedure of turning his back to me. But then I notice he is chasing after a female Malay Great Argus Pheasant.
I really liked this bird cage as I could just wander around and see a lot of birds. This place was huge and was four stories high so the birds had a lot of room - but if you looked around you were certain to see some birds somewhere.
Sitting quietly in a tree I spotted this Pied Imperial Pigeon which is common in the Philippines.
I have no idea what kind of bird this is but in my eyes it was the prettiest. Even his legs are a pretty color!
If you ever go happen to go to S. Molucca (wherever that is) you might see one of these Grand Eclectus Parrots as they are common there.
I'm not sure what this little bird is but he seemed cold...I never saw him move.
This bird looks very common...but again I don't know what it is. But he's blue so you get to see him!
This is some sort of woodpecker. He's probably some exotic kind from far away but he looks a lot like the ones I saw in Florida last year.
These birds were all over and they weren't shy at all. I was probably only two feet away from them but they weren't concerned. Actually none of the birds we saw seemed to care that we were there.
I really thought their red eyes were cool. Maybe a lot of birds have cool eyes now that I think of it...I'm just never close enough to see their eyes.
Mike's not positive but he thinks these birds may be Lorikeets. Whatever they are they sure are colorful! Maybe it's because they eat such colorful food.
It was nice of this guy to stop eating for a second to pose for me.
But it didn't last long and he went right back to his meal.
This was another very interesting looking bird. I wish they would have had signs around telling us what the birds were. But I guess it's difficult when you have hundreds of birds flying around in such a huge area. They'd have to wear signs around their necks I guess.
This has got to be one of most unique heads I've ever seen on a bird. I'm sure there is some useful purpose for all this but I haven't the faintest idea what that would be.
This I believe is some sort of Hornbill. To me it just looks like he has a wooden banana on his head. He must have good neck muscles to hold up such a heavy head.
This is an Andean Condor who was nice enough to take off from the rock just as we were getting ready to take his picture. What a wing spread.
Next we came to an area where that had little ponds and creeks. Here we saw this very interesting looking Snake Bird with his wings spread so nicely for us.
This is a fuzzy white bird. That's not his real name I'm sure it's the best I could come up with.
If you read my blog last year you will recognize this Great Blue Heron as we saw many of them in our travels.
These are so interesting looking. It's called a Spoonbill. They use their bill kind of like a filter as they scoop stuff out of the water, sand and mud.
I don't know what this other than it's some kind of shore bird. That is one long beak.
This stork looks nothing like I saw in the pictures when it brings the baby to the doorstep. Must be a different variety.
Wow, take a look at the size of the stork's feet. Good thing they don't wear shoes or they'd need some almost as big as Mike's.
Of course no zoo or animal park seems to be complete unless they have Flamingos. Here you can see both the orange and pink varieties.
What coordination to be able to stand on one very tall skinny leg and then reach all the way down to the water to eat.
If you look closely in this picture, you can actually see that they eat with their beaks upside down.
They can spend quite a bit of time with their heads underwater as well.
But I find the most fun thing to watch is when they are bathing.
They really move some water around!
I didn't really understand the purpose of this next move. Here you can see the flamingo floating with her neck all the way back across her body.
Then she'd stick her head under water upside down. I guess this was just to prove how flexible they are.
There sure are a lot of different kinds of ducks. Each one has very distinctive and beautiful markings.
For instance, at first glance this duck looks like the one above until you look closely and then you'll notice many differences.
This is the same kind of duck but I liked how the sun was right on his head.
Just another interesting looking duck.
Finally one I know! This is a Merganser.
I was so discouraged that there were so many birds I couldn't name. So when I came across this one I had to take a picture as I finally knew a name! This is a Bird of Paradise. And he even posed nicely instead of moving all around!
The next area we went to had one Asian Otter. He tried to entertain himself as best he could but I'll bet he would have loved to have company. I wonder why they put some of these animals all by themselves. It just doesn't seem right to me.
I learned long ago about zebras so as we moved along I was happy to see something I recognized.
But the darn things just wouldn't turn around and face me so I could get a nice picture.
I tried and tried but it just wasn't happening.
Then I saw this sign and it all made sense. You actually tell zebras apart by the markings on their read ends. So now you should be able to tell who is who!
In the next cage I thought I was seeing more zebras but from what little I could see it seemed like the body wasn't striped. How weird. I waited and waited and waited for this guy to turn around...or even move at all. But no luck. It kind of looks like he is wearing zebra socks. So here is what I saw.
Since I couldn't show you the whole animal I decided to take a picture of the sign for you. Interesting guy for sure.
We were at the zoo in the afternoon and a large majority of the animals were taking their afternoon naps. They had a fairly large exhibit for the Wallaby. But most of them were curled up sleeping. This one little guy did come out for a minute to check us out before he went back to his nap.
Another sleepy fellow was this Guanaco. But he did get up for a minute for a little snack of weeds.
This Singing Wild Dog didn't sing at all while we were there. But he did open his eyes just a bit from his nap so that we could see he was indeed real. He reminded us of a Shiba Inu.
This Warthog had no intentions of budging. So you'll just have to use your imagination on what he really looks like.
This Tapir really made us laugh. He had this huge dirt area with a few trees. But there was nothing there. After looking around for a little while we decided this must be another exhibit that was under construction. Just as we were getting ready to leave I noticed a fresh large marrow type bone. I figured they wouldn't put a bone in an empty cage. So we continued to look - nothing. Finally I got to where I could kind of lean over and look in a big cement ditch that I was sure was meant to keep him in. And there he was sound asleep sun bathing. This reminded us of Slugger so much as he loves to lie down on hot cement and sun bathe.
I don't know why the Tapir in the above picture had to be all by himself in his little pen area when these guys all got to be together. Maybe they are of a different variety.
This Buffalo looked genuinely tired. You may think it doesn't look like a buffalo as it doesn't look much like the North American Buffalo - if I remember correctly this type of buffalo is from someplace in Asia or Africa.
At least his "partner" managed to at least lift his head for us.
These two female lions must have done a lot of chores today as they look really sleepy....oh yeah, cats are always sleepy.
We saw many animals that I just can't remember what they are. Guess I should have taken notes - but I was never very good at that in school so no need to start now! So even though I don't know what these are, I thought I'd share the pictures anyway.
Then we came across the monkeys. At one point I was beginning to think they should name this zoo the Monkey Zoo. It seems like they had 101 different varieties of monkeys. Needless to say, I can't begin to tell you what kind you'll see in each picture.
But these little guys sure did have an interesting hairdo.
These monkeys are all black like the ones you just saw but they don't have the funky hairdo. I called these guys the swinging monkey's as they constantly swinging here and there.
But in actuality they are Siamang monkeys.
I'm not sure what this little guy is trying to say but he seems concerned about something.
This guy looked like a skunk monkey to me. Such long hair!
This guy must have the longest tail of any monkey around. I couldn't even get it all in the picture.
How about the tail on this Lemur?!
Talk about hairdos! I wonder if the zookeepers have to brush him daily?
This monkey had a golden color hair. I wasn't sure I liked him as he seemed to stare me down the entire time I was there. Maybe he just doesn't like his picture taken.
Another variety of monkey!
This poor little baby monkey looks a little scared. What a good mommy to snuggle with her baby to keep it feeling safe.
This is the rare Hanging Monkey Statue that is at the exit of the monkey area.
After seeing what seemed like hundreds of different monkeys we finally got to see something a little different - Orangutans.
There were quite a few there and none of them were moving much. They had a really nice play area but they seemed to be doing more lounging than playing.
This guy looked like he thought he was posing for his current model portfolio.
This guy was right up against the window (thus the reflection of a tree just to the right of his face). But with him being so close you could really see how big these guys actually are. Much bigger than I thought!
After a short walk we came to the entrance for the gorillas. They had quite a few little statues there but I could only get a picture of one as kids (and adults) were climbing on them.
The gorillas were very interesting and we watched them for quite some time. The youngster really seemed to like to entertain all us spectators.
He would do something and then immediately look over to see if we were all laughing. The bigger the laugh the longer he would watch us. As soon as the laughter stopped he would do something else. He really was quite a little show off.
Above the baby on a very large rock was another gorilla. He seemed quite bored with the shenanigans of the baby as evidenced by his constant yawning.
This other gorilla must have been bored too as he was sitting on a big rock picking his nose (and then eating it - Yuck!) - the kids at the zoo all thought this was very entertaining. Needless to say I didn't take a picture of that! But I did get him cleaning his teeth. He must have had corn on the cob for lunch.
The momma was close by just watching over the little guy do his silly kid stuff.
After entertaining us all for quite some time, the momma made a noise. The baby walked over to her and then sat down and pouted. It seemed like she was telling him it was time to stop playing and come do his chores. He didn't want to stop playing so he sat down and pouted.
After a couple minutes the momma convinced his he had to go and very slowly they started walking off together.
I don't know if you can see it well or not but after a short time the daddy went over and joined them. The baby climbed on the momma's back and off they all went.
One gorilla was sitting right next to the window. The glare was just too bad to get a picture of the whole gorilla but I did get a close up of his hand.
Time to move on for us too. Bye gorilla guy.
The next exhibit we came to was the Pandas. Unfortunately we missed the baby panda viewing time which was only in the morning from 9am-11am. Instead we got to see one adult panda.
From everything that I could see, all they do is sit around and eat bamboo.
It seems like it would be awful dry but I never saw him get up to get a drink.
In fact, we never saw him move at all. He just kept chomping on his bamboo.
While he was cute, we got bored after a while and moved on.
The bears were much more active and kept our interest longer. These particular bears are called Javan Sun Bears due to the light brown mark on their chests. When I first saw them I thought there was something wrong with them but that brown mark is supposed to be there!
This big guy was taking a little bath and didn't look dangerous at all.
But when we saw this guy guarding his big new bone, all of a sudden these bears didn't look so sweet and cuddly. Time to move on!
The exhibit that Mike was most looking forward to seeing was the Polar Bear. We were hoping to see him in the water but when we went to the underwater viewing area all we saw was water. So we headed up to the ground level and sure enough there was the polar bear just lounging around.
His paws are really large.
We were very surprised to see that they only had one polar bear. Poor guy must be lonely.
He looks so sad and lonely. (I'll bet Boogie could liven him up!)
But he did enjoy the little snack of fruit they threw to him.
The exhibit that I wanted to see most was the giraffes. But since that wasn't possible my second choice was the elephant. They were not cooperative at all and just wouldn't pose for me at all. I'd go around to the opposite side of the exhibit and they'd turn right around leaving me with a bad shot once again. So here is the best I could do.
My goodness do these guys ever have big feet!
Overhead were big metal containers full of hay.
They'd reach up in there and grab a mouthful of hay.
The amount of space they had allotted for the elephants was very small. But they are now constructing a new area for the elephants that will be six times as big as the current area and is expected to be done in 2010. That seems like a long time for these big creatures to have to stay in such small quarters.
From there we moved on to the hippo exhibit. The entrance to this exhibit takes you to the ground level. It just looked like another empty exhibit...until we went underground below the water level. There we saw two hippos that looked like they were totally in love.
They were so cute with their heads leaning against each other with these silly little grins on their faces.
Even though it looked as though they were sound asleep, they had to go up for air every once in a while.
As you can see, they didn't have to go far to get their air. Sometimes they'd go up together (as in the above picture) but usually they'd each go up for air one at a time but they always ended up right back together.
From above the water this is what it looked like as they came up for air. They didn't stick much of their head out of the water and they only stayed up for about one second.
Sometimes a little while before they would need to go up for air, bubbles would emerge from the hippos.
You may have noticed in one of the above pictures, or in this picture, how the hippos back legs were touching the bottom of the pool.
While they were this way most of the time, sometimes their backend would float up.
These hippos were very popular as evidenced by the fact that there were more people at this exhibit than any other we visited today.
The whole time we were looking at the hippos, Mike kept saying that Slugger looks just like them if you look at them from the side. Poor Slugger.
In a nearby exhibit they had something like a huge fish tank. There weren't all that many things in there but what they had was quite varied. Here you can see Mike trying to take an underwater picture.
This is what Mike was seeing. A few little fish and quite a few turtles.
There were numerous types and sizes of turtles. This guy reminded me of one of the turtles I had as a pet growing up. Quite the story...but I won't go into that here.
And for some reason there was one crocodile there too. Quite a little cot he found for himself don't you think.
The zoo was getting close to closing so we had to make our way back to the gates. On the way we saw a variety of animals. Here are some huge caribou.
In Europe and Asia they call these reindeer (Ragifer tarandus). Unfortunately we didn't get a very clear shot of them as they were hiding a bit.
This is a Kudu.
These are Striped Hyenas. From this picture it looks like they are sharing this bone very nicely. But in actuality one of them kept pulling the bone away to another spot and second guy would quickly run over and try to get a few chomps in before the other one pulled it away again.
There were two camels enjoying the afternoon warmth.
I just think these have got to be some of the strangest looking creatures. At the same time they are very amazing too!
One large area had quite a few different kinds of deer. I can't tell you what any of them are. But you can take a look.
This strange guy is a Peccary. The best way that I can describe them is that they look like big hogs with porcupine quills all over them.
This guy is a type of hog...but I forget his name.
And last, but not least, are the very cute Meerkats.
The are very busy fellows. While many of them are at work, others will stand guard....as you can see here.
Phew! I can't believe we actually made it around the majority of the zoo. I think the only area we skipped was the Children's Petting Zoo. I tried to convince Mike to go there but he was afraid there would be lots of kids there. Hmm, couldn't really argue with that one so off we went.
Debbie
2/7/08
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