Wildlife--Up Close ‘n’ Personal

Once upon a time, oh best beloved, there was a summer school for all the wild animals of the field and forest, veldt and savanna, water hole and river bottom.

The school was at the San Diego Wild Animal Park east of Escondido, where 250 animal species, 47 of them endangered, roam over 700 spacious acres in the dry, sunny San Pasqual Valley.

The summer school was for the birds--and for the tigers, gorillas, wildebeests, rhinos and, yes, even for weak and puny man cubs. And for their parents, too. But at this school, the animals were the teachers and the students were the humans.

The school was such a success and the humans learned so quickly that the animals got together and voted to continue the program. (Let the record show that the giraffes had to be bribed with carrots and that Gainda, the Indian rhinoceros, demanded more quality petting time.)

So once again this summer, from now through August, the Wild Animal Park is offering one-, two-, three- and five-morning classes for youngsters from Grade 1 through high school. The emphasis is on hands-on learning. Students join teachers, staff biologists and keepers to pet, feed, count, look at, listen to and--most important--learn about the creatures whose world we share.

And for adults? They haven’t been forgotten. From now through September, animal admirers and wildlife photographers ages 12 and up can sign up for special family and photo caravan safaris into the huge exhibits themselves.

These open-air, bumpy expeditions, with 10 guests and two guides standing in the back of a truck, spend a couple of hours driving on the dirt roads through four of the park’s five major habitats, the East and South African, and the Asian Plains and Asian Waterhole, about 320 acres in all. The guides stop the truck at various places to talk about the different animals and hand out carrots and apples.

A Taste of Africa

“The caravans are a little taste of Africa,” says Larry Killmar, curator of mammals. “They’re not so rugged or stressful as a safari in Africa, but they get the people down close.”

Right! One minute you’re adjusting your sunglasses, the next you’re looking up to see three tons of beady-eyed rhino barreling up to the truck. Then he--or she--stops and thrusts that huge wrinkled face and rubbery lips right next to yours.

You may want to shriek or faint. Yech--kissed by a rhino! Instead, hand over an apple and grab your camera. This is a rare chance to shoot wildlife photos from a distance of six inches.

Bring your telephoto lens too, to snap candids of this year’s crop of shy babies. Says Killmar, who has been with the park since it opened in 1972: “April to August is the heavy calving season. We can have as many as eight births in a day--they happen right out there in the exhibits.”

If feeding fruit to rhinos seems unnatural when the park’s goal is to create an authentic living setting for the animals, you are right. And when excessive contact with humans does interfere with the animals’ social group behavior, park biologists eschew it.

But, Killmar says, offering treats to unpredictable and easily spooked Indian rhinos is the safest way to manage these 6,000-pound creatures.

Familiarity Breeds Friendship

“From day one we get the rhino calves used to touching by the keepers,” Killmar says. “If you give them apples and carrots and goodies, they’ll do anything for you. This allows us to move them around--even crate them--without using any tranquilizers.”

Each caravan has its own surprises. On a recent outing, Wild Animal Park spokesman Tom Hanscom spotted a newly laid ostrich egg lying on the muddy river bank. The eggs are a favorite target for hawks, so he stopped to collect it.

The visitors handed it around and agreed it felt large, heavy and very hard. Just the right size for an omelet, someone commented. “Do you know how to cook an ostrich egg?” Hanscom asked. “You put the egg and a rock in a pot of boiling water. When the rock’s done, so is the egg.”

Youngsters coming to the park from the San Diego area usually are dropped off by their parents or ride the bus from Escondido, but residents of Los Angeles probably will find that the park is too far for a daily drive.

A solution is to enroll the child in a one-day class (held each Thursday morning) and combine it with an all-day family visit to the park. Human cubs, grades one through six, join a “Wild Walkabout,” visiting koalas and kangaroos and all the other strange fauna and flora from the Down Under continent, while students in grades seven to 12 enroll in the class called “Close Enough to Touch,” similar to the photo caravans.

For Budding Zoologists

The older students actually accompany the keepers into the exhibits, through double-chain-link gates to help feed and count the zebras and gazelles and feel the giraffe’s warm breath when it bends down for a carrot.

If a budding zoologist begs for a three-day class, consider a mini-vacation for the family at one of the golf and leisure resorts east of Escondido or motel accommodations in that area.

Start a day at the Wild Animal Park with a ride on the Wgasa Bush Line monorail. The monorail runs around the hills above the major habitats and provides an overview of the 2,500 animals that live behind special fencing called “inrigging.”

The fencing isn’t all that tall, but it has a tremendous overhang at the top. As our monorail tour guide Becky Boomer announced: “The animals get up next to the fence and look up. When they see something over their heads, they think they can’t jump out.”

On the ride, keep an eye out for a family of wild golden eagles circling overhead. The eagles are a few of the wild birds that have taken up residence in the surrounding hilltops and are getting fat on the gophers and mice that help themselves to animal feed.

“We call them locals,” Hanscom says, explaining that the Wild Animal Park spends between $41,000 and $46,000 monthly on animal food. The grocery bill would be higher, but the park actually grows some of its own browse food, such as eucalyptus, on the park’s 1,800 acres.

After the ride, visitors walk around the 1 1/4-mile Kilimanjaro Trail for a closer look into the special, smaller exhibits: the Sumatran tiger’s woody hollow, the elephant enclosure, the lowland gorilla’s lair and the cheetah’s grassy plain. The animals are fascinating to watch, but their presence points to the Wild Animal Park’s real purpose.

Protective Coloration

The park’s protective coloration--the Nairobi Village’s thatched snack bar, outdoor cafe, T-shirt shop, souvenir store, live animal shows, the petting kraal--is designed like a theme park to attract humans. But, Hanscom says, the park’s real purpose is ‘to breed endangered species, and to study breeding problems of animals in captivity.”

For instance, he says, researchers discovered that flamingos wouldn’t lay fertilized eggs unless there were at least 100 birds in the flock. “It’s the number that seems to click the hormones and make them go,” he says.

“And the Southern White Rhino . . . for years, the two in the San Diego Zoo just ignored each other. Then they brought 20 females out here to the animal park and moved the male out here to retire, but all he needed was space and a harem. In 11 years, he sired 65 calves.”

However, numbers aren’t always a determining factor. There are cheetahs in the wilds, but genetic studies reveal that they’re very inbred, probably because they live in isolated family groups. As a result, many females are sterile or there’s a high infant mortality. So the park is breeding cheetahs with better genes, then making them available to other zoos.

The park’s summer programs are scheduled almost every day of the week. Photo caravans run on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons from May through September. Groups of 10 booking together can go any day. Each caravan is 1 3/4 hours long; tickets are $50 for adults 16 and older and $35 for children 12-15 with an adult. Children under 12 are not permitted on this caravan. The East African and the Asian Plains caravan leaves at 2:30 p.m. The caravan to the South African habitat and the Asian Waterhole leaves at 4:30 p.m.

You can take both tours for a full 3 1/2-hour safari; $75 for adults and $50 for children. Because San Diego Zoological Society members get a big discount on all special tours, it may be possible to save money by joining the zoo at the time you enroll. The photo caravans always are sold out and must be booked in advance.

The Family Caravans are similar to photo caravans but emphasize learning about and visiting family groups of animals rather than photography. They run Monday evenings from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tickets are $55 for one adult with one child, and $80 for one adult with two children. Children must be 8 or older and be with an adult.

The five-day summer school runs Monday through Friday from 9 to 11:30 a.m., with a separate class for each grade level from 1 to 9. The three-day summer-school program runs Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The fee is $50 and five different classes serve different grade levels.

The one-day program runs each Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and costs $22 to $35. Different classes are designed for three age groups.

The “Keeper Connection” is a two-session career exploration class for 10th-to-12th graders who are considering animal-related careers. The fee is $50; the first session in August is on the 11th, and participants have a choice for the second second sesssion of any day between Aug. 14 and 18.

You can enroll by telephone and pay by credit card. Call the Summer School Hotline at (619) 740-9383, or the San Diego Zoo at (619) 236-0163. You also can write to the Summer School, San Diego Zoo, P.O. Box 551, San Diego, Calif. 92112-0551, but expect a several-week processing delay.

Wild Animal Park hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Sept. 4 (Labor Day), and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. after. The park is 30 miles north of San Diego on Interstate 15, then east on Highway 78. From Los Angeles take Interstate 5 south to Oceanside, then California 78 east to the park. A ticket package (entrance, monorail ride, animal shows and exhibits) is $12.95 for adults, $6.20 for ages 3-15, ages 2 and under free. Stroller and wheelchair rentals are available. No pets, please; the wild animals frown on it.