San Diego Zoo Safari Park

Original photo by Ernie Tyler

On Monday the 22nd of April, my girlfriend, my dad, and I went down to Escondido, CA and visited The San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

We walked and walked and walked all day.  It was very enjoyable.  We saw the whole park and then some, for sure.

On The African Tram Safari Ride around the open space we had an awesome tour guide named Alex.  He was very energetic and funny.  He reminded both my girlfriend and I of Mr. Ping.  He is Po's dad from Kung Fu Panda, who is voice acted by none other than James Hong.

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

We took in one of the shows called The Frequent Flyers Bird Show.  They had a couple of Harris's Hawks, an Eagle Owl, a Secretarybird,  three Helmeted Guineafowl name Larry, Curly, and Mo, a blue Macaw, and a Red River Hog that wanted to be part of the show.  They played The Angry Birds Theme every time the hog came out.  It was an excellent show.

While walking around that area of the park we came upon one of the keepers walking a Cheetah and the Cheetah's dog.  It was really cool to see.  They pair the dogs with the cheetahs to keep the big cats calm.  It really works too.  A fly made the Cheetah jump about a mile, but it's dog partner was just kind of like "whatever" so the Cheetah instantly calmed down.  It was cool to witness.

Speaking of Cheetahs they have a Cheetah Run every day at 3:30pm.  We just missed it unfortunately.  Though we did get to listen to them talk about the Cheetahs and which one amongst the cats at the park hold the fastest time for the set distance.  It was still really neat.

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

We ended our day by hiking up to see The Tigers.  It was really cool because one was out and about.  An Egret thought it would be a good idea to get a drink from the Tiger's watering hole.  That is until the tiger took interest just before it landed.  It was really funny to see the abort process.  The Egret lived to see another day.