Behind-the-Scenes Tiger Tour at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

Petting a sugar glider at the
Wildlife Workshop

Well, this tour was awesome. One of the perks of working at the Safari Park is that I get to go on tours of the rest of the Park! This week I went into work on my day off to take a behind-the-scenes tour.

Delta, the eldest female Sumatran tiger at the Park,
in her Tiger Trail bedroom

On the tour, guests ride on a golf cart with a guide to different off-exhibit areas. Our first stop was the brand new Tiger Trail bedrooms. Five Sumatran tigers were on exhibit and we were able to get up close and personal with the oldest female, Delta, in a bedroom. She was enjoying clove and cinnamon enrichment scents when we saw her. What a change from the tigers I worked with at the Binghamton Zoo! The Safari Park houses Sumatran tigers, the smallest subspecies, whereas the Binghamton Zoo cares for Amur tigers, the largest subspecies. Delta, weighing in at 172 pounds, was a mere kitten compared to Koosaka's 382 pounds! I can't imagine feeding a tiger only four pounds of meat each day instead of 12--so much easier to carry. And the Park's tiger keepers don't even have to carry the meat uphill in the snow...

Stealing a drink!

Next, we went to a behind-the-scenes viewing area of the elephant exhibit. All of the elephants were roaming through their six-acre exhibit, so one of the keepers called some of the elephants over and gave them a shower from a hose. One of the older elephants was sucking up water from the hose using his trunk like a straw. But every time he tried to squirt the water into his mouth to take a drink, a younger elephant would insert her trunk into his mouth and steal his water! I absolutely loved getting to experience the Park's dynamic elephant herd from a few feet away.

Listen to what the little kid on my tour says when he notices that an elephant drinks using its nose...

The fun didn't stop there! I also got to see Lembe, a female black rhino, and her four-day old baby. The baby was born on July 12, 2014, and doesn't yet have a name. Afterwards, our group continued to the okapi barn, where we saw the newest baby and fed some female okapi. After feeding giraffes every day on my caravan tours, it is remarkable to be able to feed their only living relatives!

Unfortunately our tour had to end at some point. We finished at the Wildlife Workshop--the area where all of the ambassador and education animals are housed. A keeper introduced us to an echidna (the closest relative of a duck-billed platypus) and a sugar glider.

Meeting the echidna

I really enjoyed the entire tour! It was especially interesting to hear another guide's style and perspective. As a former zookeeper (or a "zookeeper on hiatus" as I think of myself), it was interesting to compare the bedroom layouts, food brands, safety mechanisms, and husbandry tools between the Binghamton Zoo and the Safari Park. For example, using a crate as part of the tigers' shifting hallway so they become desensitized to going in the crate? Brilliant. I noticed lots of minor differences between small and large zoo management styles. And who can complain about meeting new animals?