Friday, May 22, 2009

Elephant Odyssey Opens This Weekend At The San Diego Zoo!!

For most of my life I have been a member of the Zoological Society of San Diego. I remember begging my mom to buy me a red panda shirt when the very first pandas came to the zoo. I remember buying the 7" vinyl of a song dedicated to Ken Allen, the zoo's notorious oranguutan who seemed to manage several enclosure escapes, and I remember crying when Chester, the Alaskan Brown Bear that would wave to tour busses passed away. I also remember that my first concert ever was seeing Andy Gibb (in his foxy red leather pants) at the Wild Animal Park. Most notably, however, has been watching the zoo change in my 32 years from the kind of zoo with cages and faux enclosures to one with a genuine focus on conservation, breeding, and creating comfortable habitats. There are still some areas that could use modernization, but one that was desperate for space was Elephant mesa, and have they ever fixed that issue.

This weekend marks the opening of Elephant Odyssey, the new elephant habitat and education center where the zoo has made painstaking modifications for the comfort of the elephant herd. The habitat will be open to the public on Saturday. I'm gonna catch the media opening with Natalie and we'll be posting photos and tweeting from the event (@sddialedin & @toosunnyouthere). You can also follow zoo news on twitter (@sandiegozoo) You can read all about Elephant Odyssey here.



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