Our Monday morning was spent at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park with the main purpose being to ogle the new lionesses. But like most things, our day was so much more than that.
This amazing place opened in 1972 as the Wild Animal Park. I know I came as a kid at least once and our boys visited often as we had annual passes for years."Join us as we celebrate 50 years of plant and animal conservation here at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. To tell our story, we have placed milestone signs, like the one to the right, throughout the Park. Look for more 50th Anniversary stories today as you visit the Park."
In 1969, San Diego voters passed the $6 million bond issue on the November ballot to fund the building of the Wild Animal Park—now known as the San Diego Zoo Safari Park—by a 75.9% “yes” vote. This sort of support was unheard of at the time and was an exciting step forward for wildlife conservation. What history.Upon entering, we headed directly to Lion Camp to meet the new residents. Turns out the girls were sleeping in so we boarded the tram for an educational 30 minute, narrated Safari.Each tour guide offers different tidbits of knowledge, so no two rides are the same.Yahoo, the lionesses appeared. The three new residents, 8-year-old female African lions Malika, Zuri, and Amira are from the Caldwell Zoo in Texas. The lionesses, who are sisters, just arrived in July.“We are excited to welcome these lionesses to their new home,” said Lisa Peterson, executive director. “The lionesses carry on a great legacy of lions at the Safari Park. They are the great-grand cubs of the Safari Park’s beloved male lion Izu and lioness Mina, who lived here for 18 years.” When we were here in May, Izu was still holding court. His loss was greatly felt. It was wonderful to see these three girls looking so content in their new environment.Everytime we were return to the park, we discover/learn something new. For instance, did you know a bottlebrush blossom is made up of many tiny flowers along a stalk? Those are the stamens you see-the petals are hidden beneath.
Bottlebrush nectar is an important food source for birds, insects, and some mammals. As bark sheds, it creates food and shelter for ground-dwelling insects, and recycles nutrients back into the soil. Interesting, right?No visit is complete without visiting Walkabout Australia to see if there are any new joeys poking out of their mom's pouches (currently there weren't). I just love looking at these sweet critters.Speaking of sweet critters, we even ran into our friend Dale who is a volunteer here. Oh man, if I was in town for any length of time, I'd join him.This visit was a pause on the way to somewhere else and for half a century this has been a part of my life. "The San Diego Zoo Safari Park was one of the boldest wildlife preservation projects in the history of the United States, and continues to positively impact conservation efforts around the world. The Park’s 1,000 acres in Escondido’s San Pasqual Valley have been expertly transformed into diverse habitats for more than 3,600 animals and over 1 million plants, while preserving an additional 800 acres as an undeveloped Biodiversity Reserve—with large expanses of coastal sage scrub vegetation at the nexus of two regionally important wildlife corridors."
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