Nonprofits<\/a> and conservation groups estimate that there are today around 415,000 elephants in Africa, and the African savanna elephant is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. <\/p>\n ![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770205516_240_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Water areas in Elephant Valley have been redesigned with ramps and steps to make it easier for the elephants to navigate. The hope is to inspire play. <\/p>\n
(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Studies of the zoo\u2019s young elephants is shared with the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in the hopes of delivering care to elephant youth to prevent orphanage. Additionally, the Safari Park has done extensive examination into the endotheliotropic herpes virus. \u201cThe data that we collect from elephants here, you can\u2019t simply get from elephants in the wild,\u201d Burtis says.<\/p>\n
One of the two entrances to Elephant Valley is outfitted with bee boxes; bees are known to be a natural elephant deterrent and can help in preventing the animals from disrupting crops or communities. To encourage more natural behavior, the plane is outfitted with timed feeders in an attempt to encourage movement throughout the acreage and establish a level of real-life unpredictability in hunting for resources. Water areas have been redesigned with ramps and steps to make it easier for the elephants to navigate.<\/p>\n
![\"Visitors](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770205517_586_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The view from Elephant Valley\u2019s Mkutano House, a two-story dining destination in the new space at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.<\/p>\n
(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
With Elephant Valley, Forjindam says the goal was to allow visitors to \u201cobserve safely in luxury \u2014 whatever that is \u2014 but not from a position of power, more as a cohabitor of the Earth, with as much natural elements as possible. It\u2019s not to impose dominance. Ultimately, it needed to feel natural. It couldn\u2019t feel like a man-made structure, which is an antiquated approach to any sort of safari experience where animals are the product, a prize. In this experience, this is the elephant\u2019s home.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the resulting feel of Elephant Valley is that we, the paying customers, are simply their house guests. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before we see elephants at Elephant Valley in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, we come face to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":565571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[7779,5229,4749,37173,1582,276,8430,4788,21119,246540,246541,42155,10758,91056,246542,42202,3549,7264,783,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,18855],"class_list":["post-565570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-africa","tag-america","tag-animal","tag-bridge","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-centerpiece","tag-conservation","tag-elephant","tag-elephant-valley","tag-fri-forjindam","tag-goal","tag-guest","tag-herd","tag-kristi-burtis","tag-safari-park","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-space","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-zoo"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116012195933858015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}