Say Goodbye To The Zoo's Historic Sea Lion Pool

So, I had planned to finish this post last weekend, but the Fundraising novel wiped me out.  I also now have additional information, which I will post at the end.

The week before last, I saw this at the Sea Lion Pool. 

Before getting into the thick of my opinions about this, I'll say, this did not require a banner.  Anyone following along will might remember my issue with spending money on single use banners. There are cheaper ways to note this happening, like the small coming soon signs at Snow Leopard (see this and that), that only require a color printing and laminating.  

Now for what I think of this.  I hate everything about this.  I hate the choice of location.  I hate that this will destroy an iconic piece of Zoo history.   

Before I expand on the opinion above,  I must note that most of all, I hate that an area wasn't built for these poor Birds years ago, and instead they became part of the Animal Hoarding the San Francisco Zoo likes to do.  The Female Condor was already acclimated (and appearing on the banner!) at the Puente exhibit.  Then all of a sudden she is moved off exhibit to the FCC (now WCC), and a male acquired for breeding, under curious circumstances.  They have never been introduced and have been hoarded away for at least three years.  The Fossa living at FCC have been hoarded in various places for near five years.  As well, I put the Orangutans in the hoarding category as they did not have a dedicated space for two years.  Hoarding in my opinion is acquiring an Animal that has no dedicated place to live.  The Condors were supposed to have a place on exhibit, and the Fossa were brought here for the Madagascar exhibit, which is still in progress.  They should have remained where they were until there was an appropriate place for them.  As well the Orangutans, and I don't need to repeat their sad story.  

Last year the Zoo acquired yet another Animal for the Madagascar exhibit, a pair of Aldabra Tortoises.  These Animals require a certain temperature, as well grow to be huge.  The Zoo has no appropriate place for them.  They first landed in the Komodo enclosure.  Sharing the night quarter area, and using the outdoor yard.   The yard was great for them, when the weather was warm enough, but when it wasn't right for them, they had to stay in the night quarters.  As well, they started to grow, and I was wondering if they wouldn't get too big to even get through the door to the outside.  During that time of wonder, they were brought down to the Farm to live in the former Duck corral.  A great space for them while this size, but same issue remains.  They have to be inside a small barn when weather isn't permitting for them to be outside.  I was lucky to have seen them outside once, enjoying the sun.   

That all said, it's another curious transfer here, before there is an appropriate and dedicated place for them.  I sure hope the home for them in the Madagascar exhibit, is sizable and has both a temperature controlled indoor viewing space and an outdoor yard, because they need both. 

Ok, where was I?  I digressed a bit.  So, the choice to renovate the Sea Lion Pool for the Condors... Big Fail in my opinion.  First,  the Condors were supposed to have an enclosure to the side of the Tropical Building.   Why isn't that location being used?

My main issue is, I have a problem with destroying an exhibit that could have a future use, that because of lack of funds, can never be replaced.  The Sea Lion Pool is an iconic part of Zoo History.   It went vacant for years before Silent Knight and Henry needed a home.  Thankfully, it was available to give them a forever home.  I've learned that because of the size and depth, only blind/vision impaired Pinnipeds could be housed there.  Of course, I would hope there are never Animals injured as such that they would be in need, but what if there were?  We are close to the Marine Mammal Center where Silent Knight and Henry were rehabbed, which probably played a part in choosing the SFZoo for their home.  The San Francisco Zoo does not have enclosures ready to accept Wildlife in Need, and they should.  More and more, the need seems to be there.  If that Pool is destroyed, what happens if that need comes up?   I understand that they might not want to keep the Pool empty waiting,  but it doesn't have to be only for Pinnipeds.  They could rescue Water Fowl in Need.  As well, they have left exhibits empty for years, shit they demolished the Primate Center and had no problem leaving a big hole in a main portion of the Zoo for over three years, and will probably be five til its done. ... I would have liked to see Silent Night and Henry's story stay up, as a tribute to them and tona wonderful contemporary use of this historic pool, as well signage on the history of the Pool.  There is a way to make it alive even without currently having Sea Lions.

It just makes me sad.  I miss hearing the Sea Lions barking.  It was such a joyous sound to hear throughout the Zoo.  It might be an odd thing since there aren't any Residents, but even having recorded barking in that space, maybe even activated by visitors would be comforting to those who miss it.

So let's talk about the space outside the Tropical Building.  This space is huge.  It's large enough for a night quarter and two side by side enclosures, that could be designed to have a retractable divider to make it one big space.  So, again, Why is this space not being used?

A bit of history of the space over that last dozen years.  When the Zoo acquired Squirrel Monkeys in 2010, they were supposed to be temporarily housed in the Primate Center, until their home at the side of the Tropical Building was built.  It was weird with the white base structure, and kids playground next to it, but that's a whole other craziness.  Here's the design for those who haven't seen it.

That never happened, and the $250,000 donation for it has been MIA, meaning I have asked many an no one knows what happened to that money.  You can search Squirrel Monkey on this blog to learn more about their saga at the Zoo.  

While looking back at the blog archives for something, I started reading one of my posts from a Joint Zoo Meeting in 2015, when Director  Peterson announced the Zoo would put $250,000 towards upgrades to Triple Grotto for the Chimpanzees.  That barely happened, but what I now find curious, and can't figure out why I never made the connection, is that dollar amount.  The Zoo was crying poor even in 2015, and they never did anything for the Chimps in near thirty years, and all of a sudden they are putting $250,000 into their home?   I have to wonder if that money wasn't the Squirrel Monkey money?

So, after the illusion of a new home for the Squirrel Monkeys evaperated, The Zoo moved the Dinosaur sculptures there.  Then a stupid ropes course that they bought and built a place for and never used.  It needs to be used for something.  Again, Why aren't the Condors going there?  

The whole plan seems illogical and an irresponsible choice considering, there's an ideal space, that won't destroy an existing space.   It reminds me of what I first heard they were going to do with the Hippo area.   I will write about that in the next post.  Who knows if it is still part of the plan or not.  Things seem to be very fluid with construction plans.  They seem to do things without any long-term thought or care to aesthetics or logistics.  It's almost like they say,  Oh let's do this,  let's do that, oh wait, let's do this.  It's like a short attention span thing.  Just like when they spend money to do things and then they change their mind and take it down and spend more money to redo it.  It's insane, considering there's allegedly not a lot of money to be had.  Or at least not for needs.

So, I do need to talk about money, but first I'll share what I learned this week.  What I wrote above is purely based on my opinion about the location choice.  I had not talked to anyone about it two weeks ago when I first saw the banner.  For that matter, I hadn't even noticed that the pool had already been filled in, which made me feel even sicker.  This week I did have a chance to ask a couple questions.  One was if there was an issue with the pool preventing it from being used as a pool.  There is, but it didn't sound major, meaning not something that couldn't have been fixed.  Certainly it didn't warrant filling the pool in, so fixing it wasn't even an option.  I also learned that the space on the side of the Tropical Building, is going to be included in this Condor plan.  Good Grief, I'm sorry, I can't even with this.  Additionally, if this is the plan, Why not start with the other space and see how that goes, before making an irreversible decision with the pool.

I'm all for as much space as possible for any Animal, but it doesn't seem like that whole combined space is necessary.  That said, there is quite a distance between the two areas, I can't even imagine how that is going to work, without another huge build and frankly the Zoo has seen enough huge builds in the past five years.   Additionally, the Zoo has a poor history with completing multi-phased projects.  

My big question, or maybe it's just a statement.   Who is paying for this?  Two enclosures that will require netting, yet they can't afford netting for even one Grotto for the Orangutans?  Not to mention various smaller netting projects.  All I can say, is like every project, there is usually a lead donor, and it sure does once again seem like the donors hate Great Apes. 

This whole thing just seems like another fail for the current state of the Zoo and for the future state of the Zoo.   

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