San Diego Zoo

     No trip to southern California would be complete without a visit to the San Diego Zoo.  What started from a bunch of exotic animals abandoned after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, has become possibly the best zoo in the United States.  The zoo pioneered cageless exhibits.  It started the Center for the Reproduction of Endangered Species in 1975, and it is one of four zoos in this country that displays giant pandas.  The San Diego Zoo has been the most successful zoo in breeding giant pandas.  They have had five births, and all but one of these babies have been sent back to China to participate in breeding programs.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_Zoo
     The first thing we did when we got to the zoo was take a bus tour to get the lay of the land.  When we entered the big cat area, our bus driver pointed out that cheetahs are paired with dogs from animal shelters.  Unlike big, hungry, man-eating tigers, cheetahs are fraidy cats.  They are more afraid of us than we are of them.  Dogs give cheetahs confidence by being their friends.  Check out this video of a zookeeper walking a dog and cheetah side-by-side.  http://shine.yahoo.com/animal-nation/dogs-cheetahs-unlikely-friends-185400115.html
    

She looked thirsty.

The Most Dangerous Animal of All

        The zoo is also an arboretum.  They grow 40 kinds of bamboo for feeding the pandas and 18 kinds of eucalyptus for feeding the koalas.  They also have a safari park, but we're saving that for another vacation.