The San Diego Wild Animal Park, a sister park of the San Diego Zoo, is located 30 miles away from the latter. The park is a favorite place of both San Diego people and foreign visitors as well as it is one of the treasures that makes San Diego and California popular vacation destinations. The park's renowned feature is that it brings the visitors close to wild habitats, where only the invisible glass separates a viewer from awesome fangs, claws and teeth.
The San Diego Wild Animal Park is subdivided into large natural enclosures that permit visitors to meet eye-to eye with cheetahs, antelopes, lions, giraffes, elephants, zebras, Przewalski's horses, rhinos, and gorillas... through the glass, certainly.
The Lion Camp is home to African lions, which climb and lounge among rocks and boulders or pamper, pounce and wrestle on the green grassy plain among the hills. Six lions, living in the Lion Camp, were raised around people and are quite curious about the humans, who visit them.
The Condor Ridge is a six-srory tall exhibit, spreading over 2 acres of land. The area is home to California condors, desert bighorn sheep and thick-billed parrots, black-tailed prairie dogs and western burrowing owls, desert tortoises and black-footed ferrets. Numerous animals and birds, belonging to rich North American habitats, live, wander and fly among the generous foliage of towering pine, fir, redwood, spruce trees and native American shrubs.
The Elephant Cart has the African elephant exhibit and the Asian elephant exhibit. A special elevated walking path, called the Elephant Overlook, passes in between two exhibits so that unique views of both enclosures are available.
The area, called the Heart of Africa, is home to such exotic animals as okapis, ground hornbills, warthogs, flamingos, cheetahs, giraffes and storks. The plants, growing in this part of the San Diego Wild Animal Park, will also fascinate you. Aloes and fortnight lilies, fever trees and cape honeysuckles, fountain grass and cycads create will charm you with lovely natural landscapes.
The Nairobi Village is a place that has collected exotics from mysterious distant lands. Paths, wooden walkways and a copy of a Congo fishing village surround the Mombasa Lagoon, a center of the Nairobi Village. This lovely and peaceful watering lagoon is home to pelicans, storks, flamingos and ducks, along with the many migratory birds, like herons and egrets, which are not part of the San Diego Wild Animal Park's collection, but visit it every year during the migratory period.
The Nairobi Village is a wonderful place for kids, as it offers encounters with the gentlest animals, such as blackbuck antelope, gazelle several deer species, which wander freely in the Petting Kraal, the zoo's animal habitat and children's playground.
An annual spectacular event at the San Diego Wild Animal Park is Butterflies & Orchids (April 8 through 23). During this period, the park turns into a festival of colorful orchids that cover a walkway in the Nairobi Village and thousands of rare and dazzling butterflies that fill the air in the Park's Hidden Jungle