San Diego Wild Animal Park
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:San Diego Wild Animal Park sign.jpg The San Diego Wild Animal Park is one of the main tourist attractions of San Diego and Southern California. It houses a variety of wild and endangered animals including species from the continents of Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Australia. The park is in a semi-arid environment and one of its most notable features is its large, natural looking enclosures for the animals. The enclosures hold such animals as cheetahs, antelopes, lions, giraffes, elephants, zebras, Przewalski's horses, rhinos, and gorillas. The park is also noted for its California condor breeding program, possibly the most successful program in the country.
The park has an area of 1,800 acres (7 km²) and, in 2005, housed more than 400 species of animals and 3,500 species of plants. Access to the animal exhibits is by several miles of walking trails, a five-mile (8 km) electric railway, and by caravan on a flatbed truck inside some of the larger enclosures.
Depending on the season, the park has about 400 to 600 employees. The park is also Southern California's quarantine center for zoo animals imported into the US via San Diego.
Both the park and the San Diego Zoo are run by the Zoological Society of San Diego. The Wild Animal Park is 32 miles (51 km) away from the zoo, at 15500 San Pasqual Valley Road east of Escondido, California, although technically it is still within the city limits of San Diego City.