The Rolling Safari tour at the Wild Animal Park is really fun! You get to ride around on an off-road Segway X2 with a tour guide who talks about the animals that are within view. A Segway can potentially travel at 12.5 miles per hour, but the tour speed is set to 8 miles per hour. Eight miles an hour might not seem too fast, but our group went on the tour on a day when it was 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and we didn’t even notice the heat because of how excited we were!

The tour is about two hours long; it also includes a training session for beginners who do not know how to ride a Segway. During the training, everyone learns the basics. We learned how to move forward and backward, left and right, go over bumps, and play “Follow the Leader.” Learning how to follow behind someone else is an important part of the tour because of the narrow path that the Rolling Safari tour uses. The Rolling Safari Tour is only available at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, and the pathway is very similar to that of the Journey into Africa tour, except that it also goes around the Asian field exhibit.

The tour allows a person to view a lot of animals, including some of the off-exhibit animals that are not available to the public unless you are on this tour. One animal in particular that was off exhibit was a male Indian rhino: he was described as being “retired.” It wasn’t the fact that he couldn’t breed, but that the Wild Animal Park wants a diversity of rhinos, and every baby having the same father would not be considered diverse.

You are free to look around and see the landscape of the Park and all of the animals on exhibit. Some animals that you can see are rhinos, giraffes, and antelope. You can experience their natural behaviors as if they were in the wild. The best part of the Rolling Safari tour was seeing the rhinos in the water, including a baby rhino. It was really scary seeing the rhino’s ear focused on us, because the mom is really protective. Just seeing a variety of animals in a short amount of time is really great!

I highly recommend going on this tour because you get to experience two things at one time. First, you get to learn how to ride a Segway and then you get to cruise around on it for two hours. Second, you get to look at all of the animals. You get to see a whole mini habitat of African and Asian animals in one day. It’s nice to see animals without a layer of glass or fence between you and the animals, and it seems much more realistic. The guides are very friendly and will answer any questions about the animals if you are curious. Overall, the tour was a very enjoyable and unique experience. I loved going on the tour because I learned how to maneuver a new vehicle and I was able to see animals at the same time!

If you would like to have this experience as well, check out the Rolling Safari Tours!

Daniel is a student at High Tech High in San Diego Zoo.

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