Discovery Days only started in 2009, so they may seem like they just popped up. The idea was to create fun, animal-related four-day events for zoo members and other guests to enjoy three times a year
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Sign up for our eNewsletterDiscovery Days only started in 2009, so they may seem like they just popped up. The idea was to create fun, animal-related four-day events for zoo members and other guests to enjoy three times a year
For most people in the world, a visit to the San Diego Zoo requires plane tickets, hotel nights and vacation days. But for those of us lucky enough to live in San Diego’s Uptown neighborhood, it is simply our backyard
The sky is dark as animal keeper Rick Schwartz makes his way through the San Diego Zoo for the 6 a.m. shift. His flip-flops make a quiet slap on the cold pavement
You turn the corner and there it stands: red, blue and green, reaching to the sky. Tall like a giraffe, but covered by frenetic movement.
Then you are there: A whimsical, island-hut-themed playground covered with children, smack dab in the San Diego Zoo
Once upon a time, San Diego Zoo guests could watch baby gorillas grow up through the windows of the Children’s Zoo nursery. People would return again and again to watch the babies being bottle-fed and mark off the milestones of their growth
It wasn’t easy. It certainly wasn’t pretty. Backing up may have been the worst. Although rounding the curves seemed just about as dicey.
Yes, I tried driving one of the San Diego Zoo’s iconic double-decked buses
There are a lot of bears at the San Diego Zoo: polar, Manchurian brown, grizzly, sun and sloth. There’s the beloved panda that made big news this month when Bai Yun gave birth to her fifth cub. And then, near the top of Center Street, is one of my favorites, the Andean bear
A kangaroo’s fur is soft. Softer than a pillow. And fluffy, like the down on a baby duck.
The skin of a rhinoceros is rough, but not sandpaper scratchy. Rough like dried earth, except inside the folds, where it is tender as a baby’s neck
The first thing animal trainers focus on to get birds ready for a big outdoor show is their exit.
That way, the finish is what they remember the most clearly. That way, it is the move the birds do most instinctively.
That way, no matter what happens during the show, the bird can always get back home
After nearly 70 years, the California condor is back on exhibit at the San Diego Zoo. At first glance, though, there couldn’t be an uglier bird.
A bald pink head, black beady eyes and fierce hooked beak poke out from a bustling bunch of black feathers. Younger birds with black heads are almost as homely.