San Diego Zoo

Mother and Baby Panda



Entrance to San Diego Zoo

 

Mother and Baby Hippo

Polar Bear Playing with Ball

Polar Bear Loves to Swim

We finally got the opportunity to see the famous San Diego Zoo that we have heard so much about over the years.  The zoo, located in Balboa Park, has over 4,000 rare animals and is one of the few zoos in the world that houses the giant panda.  San Diego Zoo also has the largest number of koalas outside of Australia.  Zoo entrance fees and purchases at the zoo help support the zoo’s conservation and research work aimed at saving species and habitats worldwide.  We were impressed not only with the variety of rare animals and birds, but also with the beautiful and unusual plant life.  Favorite stops included watching the hippos and polar bears swim in their respective pools and the opportunity to see the adorable pandas.  The new baby panda, born at the Zoo about two weeks ago, can be seen with her mother on live cam – www.sandiegozoo.org click on “media,” then click “live cams & video,” and then the “panda cam.”  Baby and mother panda look soooo adorable!  The Zoo is privately operated by the nonprofit Zoological Society of San Diego on a 100 acres of parkland leased from the City of San Diego.  Ownership of all animals, equipment, and other assets rests with the City.  Interestingly, the San Diego Zoo grew out of the exotic animal exhibition abandoned after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition.  Dr. Harry Wegeforth founded the Zoological Society of San Diego which met in 1916, following the precedent set by the New York Zoological Society at the Bronx Zoo.  A permanent tract of land in Balboa Park was set aside in August 1921, and the zoo began moving in the following year.  The Zoo’s Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species (CRES) was founded in 1975 at the urging of Dr. Kurt Benirschke; the name was later changed in 2005 to Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES) to better reflect its mission.




The Okapi



Rare Java