Zoo: Reptile Walk Opening Day

The signage for the San Diego Zoo’s newly opened Reptile Walk.

To celebrate July 4th, I decided to take a trip to the San Diego Zoo to experience the opening day of their new Reptile Walk area. While there, I tried to remember what I had done on July 4th the previous year. Oddly enough, I did the exact same thing. I went to the zoo that day to take photos of the zoo’s old reptile and amphibian houses for a post about their collection of tropical frogs. Strange how things work out. Anyhow, read on to view the slideshow of the zoo’s newest attraction.

Construction on the new and improved Reptile Mesa has been ongoing for the past several months. The area can be easily overlooked if you don’t have a map in front of you because it sits behind the reptile house and Wegeforth Bowl.

Here are the basics of the overhaul. The three old, dated reptile and amphibian houses that lined the northern border of the mesa have been removed and replaced with two new, open-air structures: amphibians and California native species in one, aquatic turtles in the other. The new structures nestle up against the sides of the existing center island-style iguana and agama enclosures. A new Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis) pond has been added between the two new houses. The final change I noticed was the addition of at least four Johnston’s crocodiles (Crocodylus johnstoni) in the old gharial pond.

For more particulars, enter the slideshow:

Click to view slideshow.