San Diego Zoo Safari Park

Overview
The San Diego Zoo Safari Park, formerly known as the San Diego Wild Animal Park, is a zoo in the San Pasqual Valley area of San Diego, California, near Escondido. It is one of the largest tourist attractions in San Diego County. The Park houses a large array of wild and endangered animals including species from the continents of Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Australia. The park is in a semi-arid environment and one of its most notable features is the Africa Tram which explores the expansive African exhibits. These free-range enclosures house such animals as antelopes, giraffes, buffalo, cranes, and rhinos. The park is also noted for its California condor breeding program, the most successful such program in the United States.

The Park, visited by 2 million people annually, has an area of 1,800 acres (730 ha) and, in 2005, housed 3,000 animals of more than 400 species plus 3,500 species of unique plants.

Depending on the season, the park has about 400 to 600 employees. The park is also Southern California's quarantine center for zoo animals imported into the United States through San Diego. The Park has the world's largest veterinary hospital. Next door to the hospital is the Institute for Conservation Research which holds the park's Frozen Zoo. Both the park and the San Diego Zoo are run by the Zoological Society of San Diego. The Park is 32 miles (51 km) away from the zoo, at 15500 San Pasqual Valley Road east of Escondido, California, along California State Route 78. In 2010, the zoo's board of directors voted to change the name of the park to San Diego Zoo Safari Park.[6] The name change was completed by the end of the year.

Asian Savanna and African Plains
9The park's largest exhibits are the open-range enclosures. Visitors view various habitats representing the Asian Plains, East Africa (the largest of the enclosures; it alone is larger than the San Diego Zoo), North Africa, Asian Waterhole, Southern Africa, and the Mountain Habitat. A number of smaller enclosures visible only from the tram are home to Grevy's zebras, Somali wild asses, kiangs, Arabian oryx, gorals, Japanese serows, black rhinoceroses, and Przewalski's wild horses.

Species of note in the open enclosures include two subspecies of giraffe, rhinos (the park has the world's most successful breeding program for Southern white rhinos[citation needed] and was the only New World zoo to have Northern white rhinos; Indian rhinos are also on display), gaur, vultures, Cape buffalo, markhor, african elephants, and many species of antelope, gazelle, wild cattle, and deer. oryx

Nairobi Village and Gorilla Forest
The park's Nairobi Village houses numerous exhibits for smaller animals. Among these are meerkats, pudu, an African Aviary, lemurs, flamingos, babirusa, red river hogs, and bee eaters. A large lagoon is home to numerous species of waterfowl, among them shoebill storks. Lorikeet Landing and Hidden Jungle display feedable Lories and lorikeets, and butterflies, respectively. Also, there is a nursery where visitors can watch baby animals being hand-reared as well as a nearby petting corral. Finally, a gorilla habitat houses a troop of Western lowland gorillas. A flying fox bat exhibit is scheduled to be built here.

Lion Camp
Opened in October 2004, Lion camp houses the park's African lions in a 1-acre (0.40 ha) exhibit. One side of the enclosure is dominated by an artificial rock kopje which has a 40-foot-long (12 m) glass viewing window and heated rocks. The path continues along an acacia-studded ravine and leads to a replica observation tent. This has a smaller viewing window as well as a Land Rover for the lions to rest on.

Condor Ridge
Condor Ridge displays endangered North American desert wildlife. The featured species are California condors (the wild animal park was the key force in the recovery effort for these birds and this is one of the only places in the world where the public can see them in captivity) and desert bighorn sheep. Other species displayed include Aplomado Falcons, Thick-billed Parrots, prairie dogs, black footed ferrets, magpies, and desert tortoises.

African Woods and African Outpost
Formerly known as Heart of Africa, these are two of the park's major exhibits. Visitors go down a trail which replicates habitats in Africa. The exhibit begins in African Woods with scrub animals - vultures, lesser kudu, and giant eland. It then progresses to forest (okapi, duikers, and wattled cranes). The path then leads to African Outpost, which features plains animals - bontebok, warthogs, ground hornbills, and cheetahs - against a backdrop of the open-range East Africa exhibit. A central lagoon has lesser and greater flamingos, waterfowl, an island with colobus monkeys, and an interpretive research camp on a separate island.