The San Diego Zoo Safari Park just opened a new depot where visitors can embark on Safari Excursions to experience animals up close in the savanna habitat. But there is more to appreciate at the park than just cute animals.
When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was work with animals, especially wild animals in Africa where my grandfather had worked for the United Nations. My parents took me to the San Diego Zoo all the time and, until I was a teenager, I would have my birthdays there. I was inspired by movies like "Born Free" about Joy Adamson, who famously raised the lion cub Elsa.
I was also impressed by zookeepers I met at the San Diego Zoo and the work the zoo does to help preserve wildlife around the world.
Last month, Marco Wendt met me at the Safari Park bright and early, brimming with enthusiasm.
"We are in my favorite place in the entire world," Wendt enthused. "This is the 1,800-acre conservation park called the Safari Park, in the town where I grew up — Escondido. It's over 3,500 animals that thrive here, and it represents over 300 different species. Not only that, if you look above us, all these beautiful trees, there's 1.3 million plants that live here as well."
But his passion is not the only reason he’s the perfect wildlife ambassador for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
"It started because I didn't want to work with people. I loved animals," Wendt said.
I absolutely identify with that. And it is even easier to understand when you see all the amazing animals roaming through San Diego Zoo Safari Park. But it’s not the exotic animals that make the biggest impression on Wendt.
"Part of our park here — about 900 acres — is a wildlife biodiversity reserve," Wendt explained. "So a section of our park is reserved for local wildlife. My favorite moment at the park is coming in early before it opens. The sun is rising, and then I see turkey vultures soaring over San Pasqual Valley."
Or sunning themselves in the trees, as I got to witness. But if he wanted to protect the animals he loved, he needed to enlist people to help.
"A lot of us here in this field realized that conservation 100% begins with human beings. And we want to inspire that desire to get connected with Mother Nature," Wendt said. "Maybe a small child from the local school comes into the Safari Park and sees a tiger face-to-face for the first time, and gets that excitement over that animal, and then hopefully, in the future, possibly they can become an advocate for conservation or maybe take part and get hands-deep with these conservation efforts happening globally."
To help foster those connections, the Safari Park just opened a new depot.
"This is called Safari Excursions," Wendt explained. "This is the point where all our guests can embark on those amazing adventures. Guests can't access this entire park by foot so our wildlife safari truck, as an example, is the perfect way to get into those large field habitats where you can see herds of giraffe and rhino, and you can go out and just feel like you're out in a savanna in Africa and see wildebeests running over a hill as the sun is rising."
You can also get close enough to smell them.
"Honestly, my favorite smell of the Safari Park are the gorillas," Wendt shared. "So there's just something about a gorilla that will just wake you up in the morning."
And you can hear them.
"Even a little thing like hearing a rhino snort in the morning will really just remind you of the beauty of Mother Nature," Wendt added. "This is what we're going to offer every single day is a unique experience here at the Safari Park."
One surefire attraction is baby animals, like the baby koala — or joey — born at the San Diego Zoo recently. While cuddly animals get clicks, Wendt wants to highlight conservation work that isn’t always obvious to the public.
"We're San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance as a whole organization — an international nonprofit," Wendt explained. "We have eight conservation hubs around the world. You're going to see depictions of these projects along the side here of this waiting area. My personal favorite is this, this little detail, the border that you see around each photograph actually represents the chromosomes of these species we're referencing right now. You see that connectivity. A reminder, too, not only is it a zoo, we're also a conservation science. We have one of the largest frozen zoos of genetic living material here on the planet to help out, hopefully, in case we need to, for future conservation efforts with a variety of different species."
Wow. That's something I wasn't even aware of, and it's amazing.
Wendt hopes the Safari Park can be a catalyst for activism.
"I tell people this is an opportunity to have an adventure, get inspired about Mother Nature, but also take part in something bigger than yourself and all this community work that we do globally," Wendt said.
Talking with Wendt reignited my childhood ambition to work with animals. If you want to take action, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has suggestions on its website.
But a few adorable babies do make the zoo's plea for activism more appealing.
