Redemption - San Diego Safari Park

After the let down of the zoo yesterday I was hoping the safari park would be better, considering it's a bit out of the way so we actually hired a car just for the day to get there. Well to make it short and to the point, it was well worth it and the Safari Park is amazing, so much better than the zoo. The enclosures are much bigger and better laid out, you still get a wide variety of animals and of course the bonus of adding any kind of safari to your program (for a fee). The tram safari is included in the price and you get driven around and shown a heap of the animals there.

On our trip we were lucky and got good glimpses of animals who would otherwise hide somewhere due to the heat.

You can also do safaris on segways, small trucks, balloon, and the zipline is opening soon. Another of the addon attractions is a meet &greet with the cheetas before and after the cheetah run. The run is basically a long grass track where the cheetah chases a lure and can reach its top speed. They can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just over 3 seconds and from 0 to 40 in just three strides.

They are quite remarkable to see up close, you can see their entire body is build for speed, they are slender and tall with powerful leg muscles and aerodynamic head/body.

The ones that are kept here and do the running are what they call ambassadors, they have been abandoned by their mothers and have been reared by their handlers, along with an animal companion, in these cases dogs. They do this to build confidence in the animals and to give them a security blanket so to speak. It takes a number of years of training before they are ready to run in front of spectators.

Photos of the day below.