A sneak preview of San Diego’s new, soon-to-open $87 million Children’s Zoo | Travel

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SAN DIEGO – After more than a decade of planning and years of construction, San Diego’s newly designed children’s zoo will open in February.

The 3.2-acre, $ 87 million Denny Sanford Wildlife Explorers Basecamp was designed to immerse visitors in the sights and sounds of ecosystems around the world, from mild rainforests to dusty dunes. And at a time when climate change is increasingly affecting animal and human health, there is a special focus on getting young guests excited about conservation, says Paul Baribault, CEO of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, which supports both the zoo and the also operates Safari Park.

“What we see today are families, young people are spending less time outdoors than ever,” he said. “This is an opportunity for us to inspire the next generation and get audiences to develop a much deeper understanding of the importance of conservation early on in their lives.”

More than 3,000 donors funded the project, including some of the region’s greatest benefactors: Denny Sanford, Ernest and Evelyn Rady, and the Conrad Prebys Foundation, among others.

Sanford, a billionaire banker who owns a residence in La Jolla, contributed $ 30 million. This celebrated donation was put to the test in August 2020 when investigative news organization ProPublica reported that he was being investigated for possible possession of child pornography.

No charges have emerged from the investigation, a point the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance emphasized in a statement to the Union-Tribune. The status of the investigation remains unclear.

“Denny Sanford was and is one of the greatest supporters of our organization. What his gifts have brought to our guests here in San Diego in our parks and what has reached millions around the world through his support for the San Diego Kids program is unprecedented, ”the organization said in an email. “He was not charged and we continue to appreciate our longstanding relationship with him and are grateful for the influence he has had on our organization.”

The new project, called Basecamp for short, is more than 90% complete and is located on the same site as the original children’s zoo, near the new hummingbird and Komodo dragon exhibitions. The big construction began in May 2019, months after the old children’s zoo was finally closed.

Basecamp is divided into four areas that showcase the plants and animals of the rainforests, wild forests, swamp meadows and desert dunes to the world. The main entrance takes visitors into the desert habitat, where they can see prairie dogs, burrowing owls, and fennec foxes. The wetland area, which begins with outdoor pools full of fish, turtles, and crocodiles, draws guests into the 7,000-square-foot building designed by Art and Danielle Engel Cool Critters, which will be home to snakes, giant salamanders, endangered Fijian iguanas, and other amphibians, and reptiles.

Nearby is the section of rainforest that revolves around the two-story, 10,000-square-foot building owned by the McKinney Family Spineless Marvels, immersing visitors into the world of insects, spiders, and other invertebrates. The area next to the entrance looks like an open field, with digital images of butterflies, dragonflies, grasshoppers and fireflies dancing on the walls.

Further inside are huge panels coated with beeswax, which are shaped into larger-than-life honeycombs so that children can imagine themselves as bees. Nearby, visitors can peek through panes of glass and see a real beehive pulsing with activity, as well as learn about native species of bees. And there’s a two-story leaf cutter ants habitat where you can watch these hardworking insects cut pieces of leaf and drag them into underground chambers to grow mushrooms and feed their larvae – not so different from the farmers who grow crops.

For Paige Howorth, the zoo’s invertebrate curator, a dream comes true. She hopes visitors will go outside and see insects as an important part of a healthy ecosystem rather than creepy crawlies. Guests can watch Howorth and her team take care of various spiders, beetles, and caterpillars from behind a clear pane of glass, and can use an intercom to ask the team questions. It’s a conversation that welcomes them.

“It’s easy to love a panda. It’s less easy to love a cockroach, ”Howorth said. “We want to counter this in every possible way with soothing music, with beautiful graphics, with inviting exhibits and habitats for the animals, so that people want to see what’s inside and learn more about them.”

Giving visitors a sense of what it feels like to be the animals they see is also a feature of the wilderness area, where guests can see squirrel monkeys and coatis, small mammals that resemble and are related to raccoons .

The walkways near these exhibits reflect the habitats of the animals, with children able to run and jump on rope bridges, platforms, and an artificial tree similar to the design of the squirrel monkey exhibit. Psychologists call this type of interaction parallel play, and it is an important part of social development in children. The zoo hopes it will also help develop empathy for wildlife.

The new experience will be very different from the original Children’s Zoo, which opened on June 30, 1957. More than 6,000 people queued to enter the San Diego Union, one of two newspapers that later merged to form the Union-Tribune, “A Little Zoo for Little People.”

“You can put your arms around a llama’s neck. You can hug a dear baby, ”the newspaper explained. “There are sea lions to fish and Galapagos turtles to ride. You can mingle with chirping finches and elicit quail from their roosts. “

In recent years, visitors to the children’s zoo have been able to stroke sheep, goats and other farm animals. But times have changed, says Baribault, and a petting zoo isn’t the best reflection of the organization’s commitment to saving endangered wildlife.

Not everyone was enthusiastic about the change.

“Wild animals are rightly taboo for human contact in the zoo, but farm animals?” Wrote a UT reader in 2018 in response to a story about the new children’s zoo. “Don’t rob future generations of this San Diego treasure. Save the petting paddock! “

Zoo officials emphasize that the base camp is not just for children, which is why they avoided calling the new project a children’s zoo. Instead, says Baribault, it should get everyone to think about how they can contribute to conservation, from the young to the young at heart.

“This is going to be a very special place to be discovered,” he said. “We want every guest to come here, feel inspired when they are here, be inspired and have fun doing it.”

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