I Grew Up In The Zoo
Written: Aug 13 '00 (Updated Aug 15 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It's a must-see, and a very important organization for the animal (and plant) world
Cons: There's nothing wrong with it at all, unless you don't like small children, walking, sunshine, or the admission price
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| dustygold's Full Review: San Diego Zoo |
Yesterday, for the first time in many years, I got to go to the zoo!
I grew up in the San Diego Zoo, you see. When I was a little kid my family had a membership, and whenever there was nothing else to do, we'd go to the zoo. Some of my earliest memories are of this place, and maybe that's why I love it.
Yesterday I went with three of my friends, and finally relived it in all its commercial-but-naturally-beautiful wonder.
The first thing you need to know is that you're going to be walking a lot. The zoo is built on a very hilly landscape, and so it's not just the amount of walking (the zoo covers like 100 acres), it's the strenuous nature of it. But it's good for ya!
Now, yesterday it was burning hot. Hot even for a San Diego summer day... we brought a spraybottle with ICE in it, and lots of sunscreen and drinking water. Do keep hydrated so you can keep up your endurance!
Next, if you do NOT like children, the zoo will try your patience. The place is swarming with little kids. Especially little kids running with ice cream cones. And lots of little kids in strollers. I love kids, and I think the zoo is a wonderful place for them to experience, so they don't bug me at all- but I did notice some adults getting somewhat irritated at the floods of screaming little ones.
Now for the zoo. My friends are members, so they had a bunch of free passes- but the regular adult admission is $18 for adults, and $8 for children. Fidget over that if you like, but do remember all of the endangered species the zoo helps to conserve with that money. Once you see some of these species in their lovely habitats, hopefully you'll understand the importance of keeping them alive.
If you'd like to get mad at some prices, gripe at the price of food, and stuff from the gift shop. They KNOW that they overprice that stuff, but they do it because they have the power to- people come from the other side of the world just to walk through this zoo. But that's the price you pay for something when you feel it's worth it. And it is.
There are something like 800 animal species in this zoo. Anything you could possibly want to see you can find. Lately the attention has fallen almost exclusively on the Giant Pandas. One of them was artificially inseminated last year, and successfully gave birth to a baby female panda, which is a very special accomplishment in the conservation of this species. They almost never breed successfully in captivity, and there aren't enough of them in the wild to proliferate their species. The birth of Hua Mei was celebrated for a good reason, and now everyone wants to see the baby.
The line was about 20 minutes long, but it wasn't much of a problem. Most of it was in the sun, though, so the spraybottle came into full action here. The line filed past the exhibit. Hua Mei, who will be one year old next weekend, was sitting up in a tree, looking just horribly adorable. Then her mother climbed the tree, picked up her baby and started nursing her.
The panda exhibit was open yesterday until 11:30 am, and we got in just in time. It closed and then reopened at 4 pm.
Other exhibits which you might prefer if you dislike intense commercialism include Tiger River. I remember when this opened, and it was just as big a media circus as the pandas are now. Now Tiger River is just sitting there, ho hum. It's very cool though. They've got tigers, yep. The two we saw were both lying on their backs, legs up in the air, snoozing in the shade like housecats. HUGE housecats.
There's also a big hippo pool, in which swam a mother and baby hippo.
There's also Polar Bear Plunge. This looks a lot like Sea World. There's a big lake of ice cold water, with polar bears doing their thing. One of them was up on the rocks, tossing a log around.
Up at the front of the zoo is the Reptile House. This is a dark hallway that leads in a square around a long series of glassed-in cages full of snakes and lizards and turtles. These are pretty cool. The hallway is crowded though, and the little kid theory comes into play, don't trip over the little guys. This is also very near the PETTING ZOO! This is fun for the kids, petting the goats and pigs and things. But, being grown up doesn't mean you don't like petting, so it's for all ages.
If you want to walk less but still see things, take a bus tour.
There are two of these:
1. The 35-minute tour. This is where you get on the bus and for thirty-five minutes, get driven around looking at exhibits, like the elephants, all the gazelles, giraffes, bat cages, past the polar bears, past the pandas (you can't SEE the pandas from here, but you go past them.) This tour is $5.
2. The Kangaroo Tour. This is better, for $3 more you can get an all-day bus pass, and get on or off the bus repeatedly at any one of 8 stops all over the zoo. We did this yesterday, and I'd recommend it over the 35-minute tour. You can get on by the flamingos in the front of the zoo, (or at any stop), and go all the way around and see everything, but also get off and walk or see the animals up closer instead of doing a drive-by.
Or, dig the Skyfari! I did this a million times when I was a small child, it's so much fun! It's a big sky ride, like the one they have at Disneyland, and it goes high over the zoo, over all the massive aviaries, forests and lakes. We didn't do this yesterday because one of my friends was 'scared,' but I've always loved it!
Oh it was so refreshing to see this place again. You can do it without spending TOO much money by bringing your own food and stuff, and avoiding the multitude of lame gift shops.
See all the endangered species, some of which would not exist today if it was not for this zoo.
Have fun. :)
Recommended:
Yes
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dustygold
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