New tour ride brings park visitors closer to its wild animals: journey into Africa replaces longer Wgasa railway that included exhibits of Asia.

Last March, the San Diego Wild Animal Park shut down the 32-year-old Wgasa Bush Line Railway and unveiled the new Journey Into Africa tour in an effort to offer park visitors more "up-close and realistic encounters" with some of the more than 400 species that inhabit the park.

Visitors to the Wild Animal Park in San Pasqual Valley, located near Escondido, take the tour aboard African Express vehicles. The tour departs from a new boarding station near the lion exhibit and shuttles passengers through 213 acres of African-only animal exhibits, showcasing the diversity of the second-largest continent on Earth.

Redwood City-based Rudolph and Sletten General Contractors Inc., which has a regional office in San Diego, is serving as the construction manager for the $28.8 million project launched in September 2005.

"It's a unique project," said Bob Boyles, senior superintendent at Rudolph and Sletten's San Diego office. "It's not every project where you are charged by rhinos and white-lipped deer."

The new tour, the park's largest project in its 35-year history, opened March 14, but before its completion, the general contractor constructed a monorail link to allow the existing Wgasa tour to remain running during construction.

Discontinued after the Wgasa line stopped operating, the link included a concrete bridge spanning 70 feet with concrete walls on both sides and enabled the train ride to operate in half of the original tour.

Now in full operation, there are several differences between the new vehicles powered by biodiesel, an alternative fuel produced from soybean oil, and the retired Wgasa Bush Line Railway trains.

Unlike the Wgasa line trains that followed a 5-mile, 50-minute monorail track route around the perimeter of the park, the five African Express vehicles carrying 104 passengers run on wheels and follow a shorter 2.5-mile, 30-minute route along a concrete road bed 100 feet to 300 feet closer to the animal exhibits.

In fact, park officials said, the only way to view the animals from a closer distance is to go on a photo caravan costing $90 to $130 per person.

Park staff said they believe the closer contact with the animals, especially the large ones, such as cheetahs, lions, giraffes and rhinoceroses, improves the entertainment and education opportunities for park visitors.

There is one drawback, though.

Unlike the old monorail tour, which traveled through both African and Asian exhibits, the new tour is limited to African animal enclosures.

"Going in and out of Africa was a bit confusing," said Michael Ahlering, director of park operations. "We decided to make the new tour an exclusively African tour since that is really what we're known for."

A camouflaged watt barrier that resembles mud banks and rocks separates the Asian open-range enclosure from the African Express tour exhibits. Asian exhibits can still be viewed via the park's walking tour.

New Enclosure

In addition to new vehicles, a new route and an increased emphasis on the African continent, Journey Into Africa also contains a new "boma," an African word that translates to corral, or small animal enclosure.

According to Rudolph and Sletten, the boma was designed to support giraffes and rhinoceroses. However, park spokeswoman Christina Simmons said the park has always used bomas when animals require special attention, such as while they're pregnant and shortly after they've given birth.

"We haven't made any changes to the way we house the animals," Simmons said. "We just needed to move some buildings around, so a new boma structure was constructed within the new tour."

The boma includes specialized birthing rooms and is equipped with restraints for certain medical procedures and basic animal maintenance. There's also a yard for animals that have behavioral problems and need additional training.

"After the animals' needs are met in the boma, they are re-released into the field exhibits," Simmons said.

Large field exhibits, modeled after native habitats, is the method of wildlife housing the park has used since the Zoological Society of San Diego opened the park in :1972. The Wild Animal Park encompasses 1,800 acres and is home to more than 3,500 animals, including many endangered species.

The latest addition to the park is the Great Rift Lift, an elevator tower still under construction that is scheduled to be completed this October.

According to Rudolph and Sletten, the elevator will shuttle more than 1,000 park visitors from Mombasa Village to the lower exhibits of the Journey Into Africa tour daily.

Park officials said the elevator isn't a part of the tour itself but is offered as transportation to "help guests who may be challenged by the hills between exhibits."

Tickets for the African Express are included in a "best value" ticket package available at the park's main entrance.

Darryn Bennett is a freelance writer for the San Diego Business Journal.