Yesterday we ventured to the "second door" of the world famous San Diego Zoo. This is their sister park in Escondido, California, developed in the early 1970's to breed zoo animals in a more open, natural environment, and now, 52 years later, a major attraction of its own. To us, it will always be the Wild Animal Park, but was renamed to Safari Park in 2010. The park is 1,800 acres, though the majority has been left undeveloped, in its natural chaparel state. (Thanks to my official guidebook of the park, I learned that San Diego County has the most biodiverse ecosystem in the continental U.S., so happy to see so much is being preserved.) With your ticket, you get a tram ride around the African Plains and can pretend you are on safari, without the plane trip to Africa. But as the wait time for that was 75 minutes, we elected to walk around. We ended up walking about 6 miles, if our Fitbits are correct.
This included a little back tracking and some Lion Camp stairs. I feel all those miles today. Along the way we saw almost all the animals featured in my official guidebook: African Lions, Sumatran Tigers, California Condors, Gibbons, Okapi (cousins to the giraffe), Southern Gerenuk from Somalia (giraffe-necked deer that stand up on their hind legs like people to reach the best food in trees), Hornbills, Kangaroos, (one) Wallaby (the albino Wallaby doesn't come out into the sun), Spoonbills, Giraffes (from a distance), Flying Foxes (fruit bats from an island off of India), one crazy Cockatiel, and one lone African Elephant.
The elephants are getting a bigger enclosure, so are behind a construction fence. We were lucky to catch a glimpse of one of these pachyderms while walking down a trail.
But the most interesting animal for me was the platypus. According to my official guidebook, these are the only platypus outside of Australia. As platypus are active only at night, the park has conveniently switched night and day to the benefit of us human visitors. After a long line, you enter the habitat that has darkened to dusk. The platypus are smaller than expected, perhaps a foot long, swimming behind a glass wall. Imagine a mammal that is a cross between a duck and a beaver and lays eggs, and you have the playtpus. Oh, and the male is venomous. Too dark to take a picture, so I provide a photo from the park's information page: https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/platypus.
As for the plants, there are some very unusual ones. My favorite was the boojum tree, which is actually a succulent that can gro 50-60 feet and live 250 years. Can you guess which one it is?
As we worked our way back to the entrance, the holiday lights for Wild Holidays came on, and holiday music began playing. We exited under blue and purple lights. Another satisfying trip to Safari Park.
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