page_title: San Diego Zoo Global
section_title: Establishing the Wild Animal Park
hierarchical_section_title: San Diego Zoo Global / History / Establishing the Wild Animal Park
caption_attribution_description: English: Panoramic view of a portion of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, as seen from the Rift Sand Bar looking east on June 27, 2015.
context_page_description: San Diego Zoo Global is a not-for-profit organization headquartered in San Diego that operates the San Diego Zoo, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, and the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy. Founded in 1916 as the Zoological Society of San Diego under the leadership of Harry M. Wegeforth, the organization claims the largest zoological society membership in the world, with more than 250,000 member households and 130,000 child memberships, representing more than half a million people. The organization's mission is to save vulnerable species through animal care based in conservation science.
  In its first few decades, the Zoological Society of San Diego worked to establish and build up the San Diego Zoo. Members of the organization formed groups that later became the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and American Association of Zoo Keepers. In the early 1970s the society established the San Diego Wild Animal Park in the San Pasqual Valley and the Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species, and expanded its captive breeding and wildlife conservation efforts.
context_section_description: In the late 1950s, Dr. Charles Schroeder, who had replaced Belle Benchley as Director of the San Diego Zoo after her retirement, had the idea to develop a "country zoo", an expansive animal farm where rare and endangered animals could be relocated from the somewhat-crowded Zoo and have space to roam, which would encourage breeding. He began searching for a suitable location in 1959, envisioning a facility with few public amenities and estimating the cost of construction at $1 million. The Zoological Society's board of directors opposed the idea, saying it would be too costly, and some even threatened to fire Schroeder if he did not drop the subject. Schroeder persisted, however, and a site in San Diego's San Pasqual Valley, about 30 miles northeast of the Zoo, was chosen in 1962. In May 1969 then-Society president Anderson Borthwick signed an agreement with Mayor Francis Earl Curran to establish a wildlife preserve and "natural environment zoo" on the site, and ground was broken on 1,800 acres of land leased by the Zoo from the city. The new facility received its first animals—South African sable antelope, greater kudu, and gemsbok—in January 1970. A ballot measure was voted on that November, proposing a $6 million municipal bond through which the city of San Diego would assist the society in "the acquisition, construction, and completion of facilities to provide recreational, educational, scientific, ecological, and research facilities in harmony with the open space concept of the valley". The measure passed with 75.9% support from San Diego voters, and the society repaid the bond in full, plus interest, in subsequent years. Over $10 million was spent to construct the park, with the remainder coming from the society's funds.
  Schroeder himself staked out the route for the Wgasa Bush Line, a monorail-type people mover tram that took visitors on a 5-mile, 50-minute tour of the park. A grant from the William H. Donner Foundation enabled the park to purchase ten adult South African cheetahs from southwest Africa and build two 5-acre enclosures for a cheetah reproductive behavior research project. Eighteen southern white rhinoceros, eight born at the San Diego Zoo and ten purchased through Ian Player, chief conservator of the Republic of South Africa, were added to the park in February 1971, as were thirty ostriches donated by the president of a local car dealership. The San Diego Wild Animal Park (later renamed the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park) opened to the public May 10, 1972, receiving 3,000 visitors on its first day. As with the San Diego Zoo, admission to the Wild Animal Park was free to Zoological Society members and to children 15 years and younger. Schroeder retired as Zoo Director later the same month. That fall the Park had its first white rhinoceros calf birth, and added a herd of six Arabian oryx. The Park's first hatching of an Abyssinian ground hornbill also occurred that year, for which the Park received the Edward H. Bean Award from the AAZPA for "a truly significant captive propagation effort that clearly enhances the conservation of the species" in 1974.
  The Wild Animal Park (now named the San Diego Zoo Safari Park; see #Rebranding below) now houses over 2,600 animals representing more than 300 species, and a botanical collection of 1.5 million specimens representing 3,500 plant species. Over half of the park's 1,800 acres (730 hectares) is set aside as protected native species habitat for the California coastal sage and chaparral ecoregion.
caption: A portion of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in 2015. The image description page includes labels of various attractions.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "COOLPIX S6500", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "COOLPIX S6500V1.1", "Image DateTime": "2015:06:28 01:40:02", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2288", "Image SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity", "Image XPTitle": "[32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 0, 0]", "Image XPSubject": "[32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1000", "EXIF FNumber": "16/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "125", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:06:28 01:40:02", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:06:28 01:40:02", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "33/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "53/10", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "920", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "62270", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "30", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4234"}