ince I live in San Diego, a trip to the Wild Animal Park isn't exactly a "vacation", even if it is about a 40 mile drive. However it was a good place to take a bunch of pictures with my (at the time) new digital camera, and most of the photos turned out pretty well. My camera's auto focus works great with good lighting, when aimed at things at least eight feet away.

All photos taken in late June, 2002.

Most all of the photos on this page are reduced in size and cropped, and if you click them a new window will open up with the larger size shot.  Enjoy.

Birds and Beasts

There are a lot of birds at the WAP, but more beasts, at least in exhibits.  The problem with the beasts is that their enclosures are very wild, acres across in some cases, and if you can manage to see some of the lions or tigers, they are usually under some trees, behind some rocks, or just 200 meters away, through a fence.

There are huge herds of roaming animals also, but they are far away out in the African Plains exhibit, and you need a zoom to get a good look at them. Which is hard when you are viewing them mostly in a moving tram. Plus, they're big brown dirty animals, basically glorified cows.  Birds have brighter markings, can be seen from closer, and hold still for the camera. 

That explains why there are so many more bird shots here than anything else, despite me not really giving a damn about birds, personally.

Some sort of vulture type thing.  This was about the least promising shot I took all day, with the bird just standing on a rock near a path, not even in an enclosure or anything. However it turned out nicely in focus, with the pretty jagged background, and the light pretty on the feathers.

Lots of exotic birds there are free to fly around wherever, and just stay at the park since that's where the food is.  I hope these aren't endangered species.

The flamingos were very pretty.  How pink the were varied a lot from one to the other, and some were almost white. The problem was the ground they were sitting or standing or nesting on, which was filthy with dirty feathers, shit galore, etc.

There was a big flock of them in the water, and a few single ones apparently asleep on their nest mounds.  I was playing with the zoom on my camera, and took this of one that was 20 or 30 feet from the enclosure wall.  Focused pretty well.

I remember hearing years ago that flamingos aren't actually pink; they get the coloration from some sort of shrimp or algae or something that they eat, and sometimes when the food dies off they'll all turn white and zoo visitors will worry that they are sick.

While we're on the subject of pretty birds on dirty nests, there were a bunch of these guys on twigs and sticks, most of which were literally white and cemented together with their shit.  They do have pretty wing markings though.

Pretty macaw in an aviary.  Click him for the very big size shot.

This bunch of trees were probably half a mile from where I took the picture, so this was sort of a test of the zoom capabilities of my camera.

You can't really tell from this picture, but there were a ridiculous amount of giant birds in these trees. Egrets and such, like the kind that could carry off a baby stroller and pick out the infant's eyes to feed to their offspring.  Not that I'm suggesting anything.

The whole trees were in motion and swaying from breeze and the weight of the birds, and they kept flying out and in; birds far larger than you thought had any chance of not just breaking limbs and falling down like pachinko balls.

Some sort of giant tropical moth.  This was taken with full zoom on also, and in poor lighting.  There were moths all over the place in the South America-simulating green house, but the trick was to find one sitting still to get a photo of.

This is on a trail that cuts through a forest area going up hill from near the back road to the elephant encounter. It's not all this pretty, but some spots looking up the hill through the jungle foliage were very nice.

Yes, meercats are adorable. Like weasels crossed with dogs.  They were quite busy with belly-scratching while I watched and tried to zoom in.

Huge panorama shots

Click this to see the giant sized shot.

This was about the last one I took all day, when I wanted to get a wide view of the giant open African plains exhibit.  You take a tram ride for miles around the outside of the exhibit, and it's hard to show in photos just how huge it is.  The cheetah shot looks along the valley that this shot points across sideways.

This shot is from the lowland gorilla exhibit, and it was an interesting tale. Up behind the gorilla area is a steep hill that's entirely natural.  Just brush, eucalyptus trees, etc.  No visitor access and no landscaping.

What was interesting about it was the orange jumpsuit-wearing women's prison work crew.  They were clearing brush or cutting up trees or something, and just leaving or going for lunch when I was at this exhibit. The gorillas did not like having people up there, and the big male went wild, racing around and standing up and pounding on his chest, and even engaging in some of the fabled feces-flinging.

The ironic part was that hundreds of people were over across the moat where I was taking pictures from, and the gorillas didn't bat an eye at us.  They are used to people over there, and keepers up above them, but the prisoners drove them nuts.

Click this image to see the full sized shot, which is far larger than this one.

Click this for the giant version.

The two cheetahs were very cool.  The keeper put five pounds of raw hamburger up on the tree for them, and they gobbled it down, messily. It looks like they could just run down to the plains in the background, but no, there are fences down out of sight, or so we were told. 

Before the feeding time there were a bunch of giant birds waiting around, African vultures and such, that the keeper had to disperse. Once he was out there and then the cheetahs showed up, the avian crowding became ridiculous. Dozens of birds were waiting around and flying just overhead while the cheetahs were eating, and the minute the juvenile cats finished most of their food and bolted back down the hill into their unseen quarters, the birds swarmed.  All that excitement for maybe a pound of uneaten hamburger seemed ridiculous, but clearly the birds like the raw flesh.

I wouldn't exactly take a nap around there, if I were you. 

Cool elephant skulls.  They are enormous.  Click to see full sized.

Filthy Humans

Me in the aviary with mom taking the picture. The glass ceiling to the aviary filtered the light oddly, since you can see how gray my shirt looks here, compared to the actual greenish color that is more accurately-represented in the gorilla outline shot below.

Mom in the aviary with me handling the camera.  The macaw and moth pictured above were in the same area.

A photo spot that no one could resist, despite knowing how stupid they looked in it.  That's the height and outline of a gorilla on the glass behind me, if you couldn't tell.

Pic of mom near a little outdoor garden shop near the entrance.  They had a ton of plants and other large heavy things for sale, like any nursery. Seemed odd; obviously you wouldn't buy it when you got there since you couldn't carry it around all day, but I guess people buy them to take home.  But who goes to the zoo to shop for garden supplies? Especially when they have hundreds of rare and endangered plants on the grounds.

It's like going to the zoo to pick up some elephant steaks or something.

The WAP trip was fun and while it was sunny, it wasn't baking, so even the weather cooperated. We saw damn near the whole place, fittingly, for it was the first time either of us had been there in years, and had a good time.  Even the food there is pretty good, and reasonably priced, for a theme park.

Mom got a huge chicken romaine salad for lunch that they made while we watched, for about $7, and I got a giant plate of nachos with fresh cheese and guac and sour cream for $5.  All fresh ingredients; basically restaurant quality. For dinner we got very good fish sandwiches with drinks and chips for about $7 each.  You can't get a bottle of water for that much at Disneyland or Magic Mountain.

I probably spent more on food at the WAP than I would have at other parks, just since I didn't feel like I was getting so hugely ripped off.  A truism the "$7 Coke" convention centers world wide could take a lesson from.

All site content copyright "Flux" (Eric Bruce), 2002-2007.