| The primary reason for visiting San Diego was to visit the zoo,
which is one of the foremost in the world. We actually spent two whole days
there, 11th and 16th November and I could have easily have spent longer. |  |
 | It covers
approximately 100 acres and houses over 4,500 animals. More than three
million visitors come here every year. The grounds are lushly planted to
provide shade, food, and a natural habitat for the creatures who live here.
They also have the Wild Animal Park which covers 1,800 acres about 30 miles
to the north east. Most of the animals are ranked vulnerable, with many
endangered and some critically so. They have a very high success rate at
breeding both for other zoos and for reintroduction into the wild. An
important factor in this must be the environments which have been created in
each compound, as these are very close to the conditions the animals really
come from. Besides
the animals there are over 700,000 plants within the grounds. The zoo was
founded by an orthopedic surgeon Dr Harry Wegeforth in 1916 and ably managed
and made famous by its first director, Belle Benchley, at that time an
unheard of role for a woman to hold. |
| For a quick overview there is the Skyfari cable car which
traverses the park and which is in constant use with extensive queues all
day. |  |
 | Odd really, because
there is not that much you can see from it. You can however get a picture of
just how much plant life there is in this relatively small area. It
certainly has a forest canopy. |
| November is not really the time to find many trees in bloom but
these caught our eye. The zoo is renowned for its coral trees some of which
are the largest in the US. It also has extensive stands of bamboo and
eucalyptus to feed the pandas and koalas respectively. |  |
 | There are leaflets
which give you a guide to the botanical areas where most of the plants are
named. There is also an orchid house which was not open when we looked. We
just spotted these plantains which will no doubt be used to feed something. |
| Every entrance needs some marker and what else for a zoo than a
couple of topiary elephants photographed here as we left when the zoo closed
at dusk. |  |
|