The San Diego Zoo : Pride and Joy of the City Is the Nation’s Pacesetter

There are two national zoos in the United States. In Washington, there is the National Zoo, supported by public funds appropriated by Congress. There is no admission charge because the nation owns it. It is the nation’s zoo.

But some say the real national zoo is in San Diego.

Of all the zoos that say they are the best in the country, none can better make that claim than the San Diego Zoo.

It’s got the most animals.

It’s got the most money.

It’s got the most publicity.

It’s got the most paid attendance.

It’s got the largest support organization.

Those factors may not alone make a great zoo. And other zoos around the United States may claim better designed and more naturalistic animal exhibits, or more successful breeding of some species, or more accomplished research in a particular field. Indeed, every major zoo has got the best, or the most, of something or another.

But, on the whole, the San Diego Zoo and its sister San Diego Wild Animal Park are generally considered to be leaders in the field of captive wildlife.

“The San Diego Zoo, in my view--and I believe I represent the nastiest and most critical of the zoo community--is considered a most distinguished collection, with a fine and productive staff. In some areas, they have blazed a trail,” said William Conway, director of the New York Zoological Society.

David Towne, director of Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, said, “The San Diego Zoo is looked at with a certain amount of jealousy, fear and speculation as to whether they’re doing the right thing.

“Zoo directors are famous for not agreeing. There are fairly heavy egos and reputations at stake, and it’s hard to get a consensus. But the San Diego Zoo is the pacesetter. It’s considered by the public, if not by professionals, as the standard.”

If it is fashionable or tempting to criticize the person or institution on top--whether it be the boss, a political party or a baseball team--then maybe that is why the San Diego Zoo appears to be under a mild siege these days.

When zoo officials last month unveiled their much-ballyhooed “Diamond Edge,” a master plan designed to guide the zoo’s development into its 75th anniversary in 1991, local newspapers and television stations received calls from a handful of employees and a zoo volunteer saying that the zoo was being misguided.

Too much money was being spent on frills and not enough on the animals, they complained. The zoo’s management was more sympathetic to the visitors’ comforts than the animals’, they said. Several animals had died because of human error or exhibit design flaws, they said.

Such criticism irritates zoo officials.

“I’m concerned about the criticisms because, hey, this is still a hell of a fine institution, and I don’t want the community to think any differently,” said Charles Bieler, who was executive director of the San Diego Zoological Society from 1973 through February. He has remained on the staff as chief fund-raiser, making him particularly sensitive to the public’s perception of the zoo.

“Nobody around here claims perfection; I didn’t in my time,” he said. “We have problem areas, and we’ll take them on, one at a time. But, doggone it, this place is important to San Diego and the world.”

The San Diego Zoo, which is neither the smallest nor largest in terms of acreage, neither the oldest nor the newest, has nonetheless grown to become the most prominent--primarily through the leadership of two doctors.

Dr. Harry Wegeforth, an orthopedic surgeon, founded the zoo in 1916 by adopting a small collection of animals left over at Balboa Park after the Panama-California International Exposition. He sweet-talked San Diegans into helping him feed and care for the menagerie, thus establishing the Zoological Society. In 1921, the San Diego City Council, succumbing to what some considered Wegeforth’s folly, turned over to his society 100 uninviting acres of hot, barren mesas and steep canyons in Balboa Park that were thought to be unusable for any other civic purpose. The animals were moved to their permanent home, and Wegeforth began to expand the collection.

Five decades later, another San Diego Zoo director, Dr. Charles Schroeder, a veterinarian, persistently argued the need for an expansive animal reserve with larger, more naturalistic enclosures to assist in the zoo’s breeding program. Thus the Wild Animal Park opened in 1972, 30 miles north of the zoo in the San Pasqual Valley, and it remains the only facility of its type in the United States. Six hundred of the park’s 1,800 acres are developed so far; one enclosure is itself 125 acres--bigger than the entire Balboa Park zoo.

Management of the zoo and Wild Animal Park today is in the hands of three men, all in their 30s, whose backgrounds are in “turnstile” business operations rather than animal research or veterinary science.

Doug Myers, 35, took over as executive director of the Zoological Society in February. He got into the animal business in 1971 as an animal keeper at the now-defunct Busch Gardens bird sanctuary in Van Nuys. He supervised the animal shows and the zoological operations before becoming operations manager. He became general manager of the Wild Animal Park in 1982 and today administers the Zoological Society’s $45-million annual budget, the largest of any zoo operation in the United States.

Terry Winnick, 36, is general manager of the zoo, having been groomed as a planning and development executive by MCA Inc., a Los Angeles-based conglomerate that operates Universal Studios Tours, Universal Amphitheater and the Yosemite Park and Curry Co.

Bob McClure, 31, is general manager of the Wild Animal Park, having teethed in the business as manager of food services at Universal Studios and Marineland, near Los Angeles.

The three men say their business backgrounds are crucial for the success of the zoo and the Wild Animal Park, even though the two facilities are in the business of animals.

“If you don’t make enough money to pay your bills and improve your facility, then you go the way of most nonprofit organizations,” said McClure. “You become an endangered species.”

The zoo and Wild Animal Park are governed by a 12-member board of directors, chosen for their stature in the community and for their service on a variety of zoo committees. Directors can serve until they are 75 years old; when a vacancy occurs, fellow board members select the replacement. A directorship is considered one of the sweetest plums in civic duty.

The group meets monthly, in private and without pay.

The directors are Sheldon Campbell, a stockbroker and author, who is the current president; Dr. J. Albert Anderson, a dentist and former Mr. San Diego; J. Dallas Clark, an industrial developer and grandson of the founder of San Diego Trust & Savings; Ivor de Kirby, a former San Diego city councilman, auto dealer and Mr. San Diego; Bill Fox, general manager of KCST-TV (Channel 39); George Gildred, a builder-developer; Victor Krulak, formerly vice president of Copley Press Inc.; Dr. Lee S. Monroe, a retired internist; Robert Sullivan, a retired executive in the lumber business; John Thornton, a prominent businessman; A. Eugene Trepte, president of one of San Diego’s largest and oldest construction companies, and Betty Jo Williams, the only female board director, who is former president of the Junior League and a fund-raiser for her alma mater, Stanford University.

No other zoo operation in the United States makes--or spends--as much money as the San Diego Zoological Society, with a $45-million annual budget for the operation of the zoo, the Wild Animal Park, and breeding and research programs. The New York Zoological Society, in comparison, has a budget of $26 million, for the operation of its Bronx Zoo, an aquarium, a marine science research laboratory, international conservation work and a 65-acre wildlife breeding center on an island off Georgia.

The Zoological Society’s income during 1983--the most recent year with audited figures--includes $19 million in admission charges; $18 million in such “auxiliary” activities as food and souvenir sales, tour bus and Skyfari rides at the zoo and monorail rides at the Wild Animal Park; $4 million in society membership dues (the more than 100,000 society members get free admission to the two facilities as well as other premiums); $3 million in contributions, bequests, grants and endowments, and about $1.3 million in tax revenue from the City of San Diego, thanks to the voters’ approval in 1934 of a small property tax assessment. No major zoo in the country receives a smaller percentage of its revenue from government sources.

During 1983, the single biggest operating cost was $13.8 million in “auxiliary services”--the cost to the zoo of the food and gifts and in maintaining the various rides. On the balance, zoo officials note, the auxiliary services generated more than $4 million in profit.

The second most expensive item--$13 million--is for maintaining the animals and their exhibits. Administrative overhead cost $6.4 million; public relations, marketing and advertising (including publication of Zoonooz, the Zoological Society’s monthly magazine) cost $5.8 million; veterinary and research activities cost $2.2 million, and membership and educational activities cost $1.5 million.

During 1983, the zoo made $5 million more than it spent, but the Wild Animal Park--with attendance less than half of the zoo’s--came up $772,000 short of breaking even. In 1984, the Wild Animal Park’s income was $825,000 short.

The fact that the Wild Animal Park has made money only one year in its 13-year history is a point of concern to some officials who say the long-range plan is to at least break even. Defenders say that its original purpose was to generate animals, not money, and that it is as consistent for the zoo to subsidize the animal park as it is the veterinary and research programs.

Aside from repaying a revenue bond that helped pay for construction of the Wild Animal Park, the Zoological Society has not borrowed money to pay for its operating costs or capital improvements. Instead, it has paid in cash for new projects.

And, as at other zoos around the country, the ongoing debate is on how best the money should be spent. At the zoo, for instance, should a handful of older exhibits be renovated, or should one or two entirely new ones be built? Should money be spent on improving important--but, from the public’s point of view, invisible--research and medical facilities? Or should visitor amenities, such as food stands, be improved to entice the visitor to spend even more money?

Over the last 10 years, $9.4 million has been spent on animal-related projects, including $3.5 million on the construction of the “Heart of the Zoo” bird and primate exhibits in 1982 and $1.4 million on veterinary, laboratory, research and quarantine facilities.

Over the same period, the zoo spent $4 million on visitor-related amenities, including $1.2 million on food stands and the restaurant, $1 million on the gift shop and $600,000 on the double-decker bus fleet.

Zoo executives say the gift shop, food outlets and new buses will pay for themselves within 12 to 18 months and thereafter become a steady source of income--generating money that can be spent on the wildlife. The zoo’s popular Skyfari ride, for instance, was built in 1968 for $557,000. It paid for itself within two years, and now produces more than $500,000 each year in profit.

Officials note, too, that two recent big-ticket items--the new, $1.9-million administration building and the $800,000 Hunte Amphitheater of Animal Behavior--represent donations given specifically for the construction of those facilities.

Sheldon Campbell, president of the Zoological Society, said, “The critics ask us why we built an amphitheater when the dog and cat bedrooms need repair. The problem is, people don’t give us money to repair things; they donate money for new things they can put their name on.”

Bieler, the chief fund-raiser for the zoo, added, “Few donors want to put a plaque with their name on it on the side of a bathroom.”

The Zoological Society’s “Diamond Edge” blueprint for new exhibits and renovations generally calls for a regrouping of animals and plants at the zoo into “bio-climatic” zones. The transition may take more than 20 years, depending on the intensity of fund-raising.

The first evidence of the new theme will be a kopje habitat, which is a rock outcropping found in African grasslands. The $700,000 habitat will feature six separate exhibits displaying hoofed animals, small mammals, birds and reptiles.

Attention will then turn to Cascade Canyon, which is now home to swans, ducks, geese and antelope along a running stream.

Plans call for the canyon to be transformed into a rain forest habitat; the eucalyptus trees will be replaced with the likes of ficus and bamboo, and the first of several new animal exhibits will be for Sumatran tigers, which now are exhibited only at the Wild Animal Park.

The new rain forest habitat “will be as natural as we can possibly achieve within an unnatural environment,” said Jim Dolan, curator of mammals at the zoo. “We can’t carve off a piece of Sumatra and plunk it down in the zoo. But it will have the kinds of plants you’d find in Sumatra, with the right amount of shade and sunlight, and with water, to become the best tiger exhibit anywhere in the world.”

The redesign and reconstruction of Cascade Canyon will cost $3 million; so far, $1 million has been set aside, and the Sumatran exhibit itself will cost $750,000.

After Cascade Canyon is completed, $3 million to $4 million will be spent on building new, larger and more naturalistic gorilla grottoes. They now occupy concrete homes. Zoo officials hope to have the gorilla work completed before the end of the decade; in the 1990s, they say, they will build new bear grottoes.

In addition to the new construction, the zoo is renovating older cages and grottoes by removing concrete floors--considered the state of the art 50 years ago for sanitary reasons--and landscaping with soil, vegetation and rocks.

Zoo officials say they also are working to repair cat exhibits, which were constructed around 1928 and which have been cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture--which licenses zoos--for structural defects.

The fact that the cat exhibits needed attention is hardly news; last year’s fund-raising theme at the zoo was “Year of the Cat,” and $90,000 was raised when Tony Bennett appeared in a one-night “Cats in Concert” benefit.

Water quality in the sea lion pools was also cited by the Department of Agriculture’s inspector, veterinarian Frank Enders, for not meeting standards. But Enders said more recent tests show the water is all right.

Enders said the San Diego Zoo is generally in good shape, considering its age. “From what I’ve been told by my colleagues around the country,” he said, “there’s no zoo anywhere that doesn’t have some problem with it.”

At the San Diego Wild Animal Park, the future holds other possibilities.

One proposal for making some money is construction of overnight lodging at the park, perhaps in the form of cottages along the five-mile route of the Wgasa Bush Line monorail encircling the facility.

Supporters of the idea say such an overnight stay would extend to the visitor a sight-and-sound experience that could not be duplicated except on an African safari.

Critics say it would compromise the integrity of the Wild Animal Park by turning it into little more than a disguised hotel operation at the expense of the animals.

Campbell isn’t ready to pass judgment on the concept. “We’ll never make any move until we’ve thoroughly examined any possible causes of trauma to our animals,” he said. “But the animals we have at the park are highly adaptable. At first, the train (monorail) was strange to them, and now they totally ignore it. On a safari in Africa, you can drive up in a Land Rover to within three feet of a pride of lions, and they’ll totally ignore you.”

A common criticism of the Wild Animal Park is that, because of its very expansiveness, visitors have little close contact with animals. They may leave disappointed, and not return for several years.

To offer a greater sense of intimacy, park officials have begun offering a variety of what they call “close encounters.”

- A cheetah, serval, python or koala is occasionally taken out of its exhibit and placed in the park’s village complex where visitors can get within feet of them and ask questions of the keepers.

- At the keeper’s discretion, adults are allowed to reach through a flap and bottle feed babies in the park’s animal care center.

- Visitors have been allowed to enter the park’s elephant barn for closer inspection, and to walk out on a deck overlooking the elephant yard where they can reach out and hand an apple to an elephant. That particular “close encounter” is being evaluated by park officials.

- A new gorilla bedroom will be built with one-way glass so visitors can peer in and see where the animal spends its nights.

- Apparatus similar to a garage door spring will be installed so visitors can test their strength and compare it to that of gorillas.

- Wildlife trivia questions and answers are posted around the park.

- Along the monorail, at least one and perhaps several stop-off points will be added so visitors can spend time at a particular exhibit before getting back on a later train.

“People have considered the park to be a ‘passive’ experience because they are generally so removed from the animals,” said McClure, the general manager. “We’re trying to enhance their experience with the close encounters.”

Zoo critics say they are alarmed by several animal deaths at the zoo related to human causes.

A young pygmy chimpanzee contracted a human respiratory illness several months ago--perhaps by eating food tossed into its exhibit--and died.

A litter of Chinese dholes (wild dogs) died of hypothermia because the animal keeper did not realize the mother had given birth, and mistakenly put her inside an enclosed bedroom while the newborns remained outside.

A siamang ape died, perhaps of trauma, after it jumped off its island exhibit and was recaptured with use of a tranquilizer. It died soon afterward.

Officials say death is as much a part of reality as birth at the zoo, and they note that the survival rate of animals in captivity is much greater than in the wild.

Zoo and animal park officials aren’t convinced that the display of endangered animals is enough of a drawing card to bring people to their facilities.

So, to further entice visitors, the zoo offers three different types of animal shows, two large gift shops, a restaurant, and traveling road shows featuring the likes of the Chipmunks and the Care Bears. At the Wild Animal Park there are ethnic food, steel drum bands, fire dancers, a gift shop and concerts featuring such entertainers as Pat Boone, Glen Campbell and Jan and Dean.

The tactics are used at zoos all around the country as officials look for every possible way to lure visitors--and money.

“We’re competing for the same tourists who go to Sea World or Universal Studios or Magic Mountain or Disneyland,” said Winnick. “Yet, we don’t have the same sources of revenue they have. We can’t issue stock to get millions of dollars to build something. We have to entice people to come here, and to give them the opportunity, maybe aggressively, to spend their money once they’re here.

“Tell me that it’s not appropriate to offer the Care Bears show if it brings the family out together. And, once they’re here, they’ll spend five or six hours, see the animals and get our message. And the money we generate on those visits--well, that’s the nature of a nonprofit organization, to make money and put it back into the operation.”

There’s no doubt that the San Diego Zoo has an ego.

“We have wound up with what is now the greatest zoo operation in history,” Campbell said unabashedly.

Bieler is a bit--just a little bit--more tempered.

“Every zoo I’ve gone to has done something better than we do in San Diego. And I’m aware that our competitors are gaining on us,” Bieler said. “San Diego, with Dr. Schroeder and his predecessors, set a standard. And now the challenge is to continue to match what the competitors are doing in trying to get ahead of us. I don’t think they will.”