The San Diego Zoo

This review is sponsored by Scott Holmes from Helping People to Help Themselves. Helping People to Help Themselves is a nonprofit organization based on Maui, Hawaii which is working to build a world-class orphanage in the Philippines.

The San Diego Zoo was an attraction I knew I would have mixed feelings about. By nature, the idea of taking animals and creating a synthetic environment for them is not one that I can easily accept. Keeping this in mind, I will try to be as unprejudiced as possible, and to keep my comments subjective.

During my day at the zoo, the time seemed to go by very quickly. By the time I was needing to head home, I had seen only a few exhibits. These included: The flamingos, the reptiles, the zebras, the polar bears, the birds, the monkeys, and the sea lion show.

Considering the amount of ground which must be covered to get from one exhibit to the next, it should not be expected that one would see much more than what I did.

The first attraction we saw, was the flamingos. These are probably the only birds I can find truly interesting. The most pronounced feature about them, for me, was the habit of standing on one leg. Though the sign near the birds did not explain the curious ritual, it did highlight a number of interesting things about the natural habitat of the pink-plumed bird.

I next visited the reptile building. This was a post-office-sized building with outward-facing glass window displays. Inside the displays were mini-habitats, set up to comfortably house their tenants.

Some displays were created to emulate the desert, complete with an unrealistically round tumbleweed resting comfortably against the wall. Some displays were adorned with green leaves, kept alive by a drip-line-sprinkler system.

At each display, I would pause to take a look at the contents of the display. Invariably, my eyes would take a moment to adjust, and I would give a little twitch of surprise each time a slightly-moving scaly creature would focus into my vision.

I found the variety of snakes to be quite extensive, though some seemed to be nearly alike, and one had to look quite closely to see the differences. The boa constrictor was the largest of the bunch, and at first appeared as a swaying, thick rope. The most disillusioning aspect of this display, was that it was not wrapped tightly around a tree-branch or small rodent; Instead, it was drooped, as if haphazardly thrown, against the wall.

As I rounded the final row of lizards and came in contact, once again, with the brisk San Diego air, I felt a kind of relief: I was ready for something else…I wanted to see something furry.

Built into the ticket price (I had paid slightly extra) was a ride on the  “sky-tram”. This sky tram was, in fact, not unlike an unraveled Ferris wheel. Each group of four people would be herded into a small cart, and following a brief pause, would be hoisted into the air. The cart then travels at 20 miles per hour, across and over the grounds. It sets you down at the opposite end of the zoo, where there was said to be a “polar bear plunge” exhibit, as well as zebras, monkeys, and more. I was excited.

I’m not going to lie: The polar bear plunge was pretty cool. The polar bears are quite theatrical. They jump, play, swim, and lean their half-ton weight against the class, all for some enthusiastic screams from the children on the other side.

While there are many animals of note, which you pass as you continue along the paths to the more “high-profile” displays, only a few caught my attention. Among these were: Speke’s Gazelle, the Bornean Bearded pig, and the Okapi. While many of the names create descriptions for themselves, I do want to highlight the Okapi:

This animal appears as half-zebra, half horse. It has the legs of a zebra, and the head of a horse. It is difficult to describe the animal, so a photo will have to suffice.

The other main exhibit I visited was the Panda Bears: These little bears were quite cute, but the viewing is somewhat limited by a slow-moving line in and out of the display. It seems to be regulated only by the people’s attention span and politeness. In the exhibit were three bears in total: The father panda, kept separate from the other two (while I was there he was seen happily munching a piece of bamboo), the mother panda, and a cute little baby panda. They are every bit as cute as in the national geographic films…actually, a bit cuter. I just wish the display traffic was handled a little better.

As I was getting ready to exit the park (believe it or not, even doing a small amount can tire you out when walking around the whole time) I took another look at the brochure: A Sea Lion show was happening just to my right in no less than five minutes. I took a few moments to think it over, then turned right.

The Sea Lion show was a spectacle. I thought the Sea Lions themselves were fairly impressive, though the arctic wolf who came out, was not so. I find canines to be absolutely fascinating…but this dog was being paraded around with a short leash. Not my idea of an uplifting show. As the final Sea Lion waved goodbye and stood on its head for the final time, I stood up and walked off. It was impressive, but depressing.

All in all I would say the San Diego Zoo is…well…a zoo. I have been to a few others, and, while there were double the species in this one, I didn’t find it much more impressive.

If you run out of other things to do, or your kid is dying to see the aminals (that was an intentional mis-spelling), feel free to check it out. If you are an independent backpacker who can find adventure on your own, skip the zoo.

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Tagged as: California