Like Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, The Lorax drew kids’ attention (and parents’ cameras) Sunday on a crowded first weekend of the San Diego Zoo’s new children’s zone.
But the human-sized Dr. Seuss character was but a brief distraction from the 3.2-acre Denny Sanford Wildlife Explorers Basecamp on the zoo’s south end, where the smaller Children’s Zoo stood since 1957.
“The name reflects the underlying goal of the area,” said Shawn Dixon, chief operating officer of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. “We are calling it a Basecamp because it’s designed to serve as a launch pad for budding conservationists of all ages to be inspired to care for and protect the future of our planet.”
Basecamp, which opened Friday, is described as a state-of-the-art, multi-ecosystem experience designed to provide guests an up-close look at nature with high-tech interactive opportunities that “nurture empathy for wildlife and encourage future caretakers of the planet.”
Featured are “full sensory and multifaceted elements,” including “parallel play” opportunities like climbing and crawling around a massive tree house.
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Interactive touch screen games and microscopes are part of the experience and specialized animation using artificial intelligence, dynamic lighting and whole-room scented environments.
“Wildlife Explorers Basecamp speaks to the budding conservationist within us all and shows us the marvels of the natural world,” said Paul A. Baribault, president and chief executive officer of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
“Through these gates millions of world changers will begin their journey with nature, and demonstrate the power of empathy and compassion as they join us to become allies for wildlife.”
Basecamp encompasses eight buildings and habitats dispersed throughout four zones, featuring wildlife that live in these ecosystems: Rainforest, Wild Woods, Marsh Meadows and Desert Dunes.
The Rainforest zone revolves around the 10,000-square-foot McKinney Family Spineless Marvels building, where guests will experience invertebrates — including crustaceans, arachnids and insects—such as leafcutter ants, spiders, scorpions and stick insects.
Inside, there is a pollinator experience with giant beeswax-fragrant honeycombs and an observation pane that gives guests the chance to see the workings of a real-life beehive.
The projected migration flyover encounter showcases various insects, including migrating monarch butterflies, grasshoppers and dragonflies as part of a large meadow scene that curves along walls and encompasses a domed ceiling.
The Wild Woods area offers guests the chance to visit coatis and squirrel monkeys native to Central and South America. The space features the striking Prebys Foundation Discovery Bridge and a 20-foot-tall Tree of Dreams — a tree house designed as an ancient oak.
This nature-play tree provides multiple points of access for guests — from a suspension bridge and net tunnel to a spiral staircase — and a parallel play experience to the squirrel monkeys that live in the adjacent habitat.
Water play is another focus of this woodland-themed zone, which includes a waterfall that flows into a gentle meandering stream, an exhilarating splash pad, unpredictable water jets, and a bluff area with a boulder scramble made to encourage exploration.
Marsh Meadows aims to evoke a sense of visiting marsh-like habitats, including swamps and estuaries. The pathway through this area was designed to help convey a sense that guests are inhabiting the marsh along with frogs, fish and other wildlife that lives there.
The central hub of Marsh Meadows is the Art and Danielle Engel-funded Jake’s Cool Critters building — a two-story herpetology and ichthyology structure with more than 7,000 square feet of immersive environments, digital media, learning opportunities and educational classroom spaces.
Its wildlife includes snakes, amphibians, crocodilians, turtles and lizards, including endangered Fijian iguanas.
At the nearby Rady Ambassadors Headquarters, guests will meet a two-toed sloth and a prehensile-tailed porcupine.
At Desert Dunes, a dry desert wash-themed area where kids can climb, reptile sculptures and petroglyphs can be found among the rocks, while cool caves provide shaded areas where guests can beat the heat, like their desert wildlife counterparts — including the fennec fox, prairie dog and burrowing owl.
Sustainable materials are used throughout the camp, funds by more than 3,000 donors including $30 million from billionaire Sanford.
When the Sanford gift was announced in January 2018, the projected cost ($69 million) and donation were called record amounts for San Diego Zoo Global.
A portion of the Spineless Marvels building was made with ethylene tetrafluoroethylene — a fluorine-based plastic created to be more resistant to corrosion.
The system is 100% recyclable, and consists of a series of custom-sized Teflon multilayered “air pillows” that, when filled with air, provide solar insulation while also reducing the need for artificial lighting.
The Zoo’s horticulture team worked to identify more than 100 trees from the previous habitat to preserve and replant within Basecamp.
Wildlife Explorers Basecamp is included with zoo admission.
