"Something tells me

- Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel, "At the Zoo"

I've always known "It's all happening at the zoo." Like parades, amusement parks, and ice cream trucks, zoos bring out the kid in us. And the San Diego Zoo is one of the world's best. A sprawling 100 acres, the award-winning zoo is home to over 4,000 rare and endangered animals representing more than 800 species and subspecies. It also boasts a botanical collection of more than 700,000 exotic plants.

Entrance sign welcomes you to a world-class zoo.

The temperate climate of San Diego makes this world-class facility a pleasure to visit year-round. Some of the most popular exhibits include Tiger River (a quarter-acre big cat rain forest with a 16,000-gallon crocodile pool), Gorilla Tropics (2.5-acre primate habitat teamed with 90-foot-high enclosed Scripp's Aviary and its many bird species), Polar Bear Plunge (4.4-acre Arctic tundra exhibit, and with a cool pool and underwater polar bear viewing), and, of course, the Giant Panda Research station (home to the zoo's most visible media stars and one of the world's most closely watched breeding-in-captivity programs). But hundreds of other animal species are there for the viewing in quieter corners of the zoo. Two of my favorite exhibits on my last visit were the East African Kopje and the Intui Forest.

East African Kopje
The arid, rocky hills of the African savanna are replicated in this 30,200 sq. ft. exhibit. An inhospitable climate, the kopje's secret to life is the way that the land stores its infrequent rain in nooks and crannies within its granite bedrock. Periodic downpours seep into cracks that support a unique plant-and-animal ecosystem. A downpour comes, followed by months without rain, baking the flatlands dry. But the trees and perennials have adapted to finding water in the cracks of the rock. These plants support the herbivores (antelope, insects, birds), which in turn support the kopje's carnivores, from wily mongooses to swift cheetahs.

An agile African Klipspringer.

This exhibit is home to the rock-dancing klipspringer, a diminutive, athletic antelope that can leap from a standstill nearly 10 feet straight up and land with all four tiny hooves on a spot the size of a silver dollar. This agility enables the gentle herbivores to spring from one rock outcropping to another, avoiding predation by the eagles, jackals, pythons, and big cats of the kopje.

Near the African Kopje is the Elephant Mesa, and one of the zoo's two meerkat exhibits (the other one is in the Children's Zoo). These diurnal mongoose relatives enjoyed a big boost in popularity after the cartoon meerkat Timon captivated viewers in "The Lion King." When Animal Planet network released their Meerkat Manor reality TV show, these engaging little creatures assumed an almost rock-star status.

Meerkats: the "rock stars" of the zoo.

Ituri Forest
This 4-acre exhibit replicates an African rain forest, complete with a 150,000-gallon hippo pool through which the giant mammals can be viewed in their surprisingly graceful underwater antics. Here, too, are monkeys, otters, and the striped-legged okapi. The okapi is a strange-looking animal, an apparent collection of "leftover parts" God had on hand the day He finished making the animals. Its head resembles a giraffe, its legs look like a zebra, and its dark blue tongue is like that of a chow chow dog. Its ears are enormous in proportion to its head, and its tongue is long and prehensile, enabling it to grasp foliage and strip leaves off. It's hard not to smile when you see such an unusual animal.

This exhibit is modeled after a real Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The exhibit includes two full-sized replicas of homes such as those inhabited by the Mbuti tribe, native to that region.

Go eyeball-to-eyeball with a hippo in the Ituri Forest exhibit.

Going to the Zoo
It's easy to spend an entire day wandering the miles of trails at the San Diego Zoo. Of course, services are provided for those guests who are disabled or who prefer not to walk so far, including a bus tour and an overhead tram, both of which are good ways to get a feeling for the zoo's layout before beginning your rambles. San Diego's temperate climate makes the zoo and its sister facility the San Diego Wild Animal Park great places to visit any time of year.

The San Diego Zoo is located just north of downtown San Diego in Balboa Park. For more information, go to http://www.sandiegozoo.org/.

Sally O'Neal hikes, bikes, and enjoys wild and domestic animals from her home base in Washington State. She writes weekly for sportsmansguide.com.