Travelers can get the feel of an African adventure during a photo safari at Wild Animal Park. (Photo by Lois A. Lowe)
Two installations ‹ the San Diego Zoo, located in the heart of the city, and the Wild Animal Park, 35 miles to the north near Escondido, are among California's favorite visitor features. Both facilities are operated by the Zoological Society of San Diego. They represent one of the world's finest examples of man's caring for the animals of the wild. Both facilities operate on the principal of maintaining animals in surroundings as close to their homeland environments as possible. The Society's stated mission is the preservation of endangered species.

Animals in the wild have to be careful of predators. They also have man as a natural enemy. Men hunt animals for fun, food and profit. Men encroach on natural habitats when they cultivate new land, when they build new communities and when wars overrun areas where animals once roamed with impunity. Some species have already been erased from the face of the earth. Others are being protected and species are being revived through the efforts of the zoo's staff.

In the process of all this scientific and ecological preservation, the Society's operations are a model of how a zoo should look and feel.

Preservation of wildlife through their ultra-modern facility housing the Center for the Reproduction of Endangered Species and a veterinarian hospital facility, still under construction, are both essential to the zoo's mission. Its 40,000 sq. ft. hospital will be the world's largest.

In the zoo, centrally located in San Diego's Balboa Park, visitors are driven on an orientation tour aboard double deck busses that pass separate animal communities. Afterwards, you're on your own and are free to inspect the animals at their leisure. Moving sidewalks also provide transport to exhibits. Finally, there's a "sky tram" ‹ a cable car which soars above the treetops and allows a bird's eye view of the park from one end to the other.

Certainly some areas within the zoo are more popular than others. One is the exhibition of giant pandas. San Diego is one of the few places in the world where those rare Chinese animals have been bred successfully in captivity. There are three current residents in the panda area ‹ a male who is segregated from a female and her year old cub. By agreement with China, her first cub was returned to China after it was determined that a second was about to be born. The pandas munch contentedly on one of the 67 varieties of bamboo growing on the zoo grounds.

Another area is dedicated to polar bears. Their polar bear "plunge" includes a large water tank where they can swim. You can view the bears in their underwater swimming mode in a sheltered area allowing visitors to see them both above ground and under water. We noticed that the keepers provide food by distributing it to various places throughout the habitat area. The bears then have to satisfy their natural instinct to forage for food instead of finding it all conveniently piled up. Another section of the zoo is maintained for koala bears and kangaroos.

Special shows are presented in amphitheaters in the zoo allowing trainers to display seals and a variety of smaller mammals including reindeer, badgers, clouded leopards and an otter that have been taught to perform to the delight of kids and adults alike.

Thirty-five miles to the north of San Diego, near the city of Escondido is the second part of the zoo experience, the Wild Animal Park. It opened in 1972 and originally used only 90 acres as a preserve for East African tigers and lions. Now, on 800 acres, animals are allowed to roam freely in something approaching their natural environment.

Herds of gazelles graze, rhinos wallow in shallow pools of water and nearly 300 species of animals live comfortably and safely. Making it easier to get the feeling of the Wild Animal Park, visitors hop aboard the Wgasa Bush Railroad for a narrated tour which is included with the admission.

In addition to allowing visitors to see animals as if they had gone on an African safari, the animals are protected. Carnivores are maintained separately from herbivores.

One of the recent projects, opened in August, is an innovative installation for lions. Six yearling lions were imported from South Africa. They are housed in a unique one acre facility. A glass protective barrier was built separating the animals from visitors, but the animal side of the glassed area has been heated or cooled (depending on outdoor temperatures) to encourage the animals to rest nearby. This is one of the feeding sites so that the lions feel comfortable near a human population. It's estimated that there are only 78 lions in zoos in North America so the San Diego breeding project will eventually genetically enhance the herd ‹ one of the primary purposes of the zoo's breeding program.

The six new lions will eventually be reduced to one male and three females constituting a "pride." The other two males will be distributed to zoos in North America and ultimately will be bred with the offspring of the San Diego pride to be sure that the offspring are genetically viable. It's this sort of planning that makes the zoo an institution for research as well as one for the display of species not found in our own society.

Two optional features are available to park visitors. First, there are the photo safaris where visitors are taken, in open trucks, into the grazing land and allowed photo opportunities with the animals ‹ a really close up experience. Safari riders can even hand feed the giraffes. In addition, the park offers a "Roar and Snore" adventure. Tents are set up and participants assemble and spend the night in the park with the animals. Campfires and roasted marshmallows are accompanied by the roars and grunts of nearby wildlife.

Park admission packages vary. Reduced prices are available for children and seniors. For current zoo ticket price information and operating hours, call the zoo at 619-234-3153. For Wild Animal Park info, call 760-747-8702.

For anyone unable to travel to Africa to experience wild life in its natural state, the San Diego Zoo options are the closest thing available in North America. And you don't even need a passport.

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