CHATFIELD: Happy birthday to our fine park

Happy 40th birthday, Wild Animal Park. Oops! I mean San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Admittedly, I am not a fan of the new generic, timid-sounding and overused moniker that groups our unique, exotic park in the same category as dozens of safari parks across the country.

Indeed, when the park opened in May 1972, there was nothing else like it in the world. Zoos exhibited animals in small, single species enclosures. At our park, wild animals would roam together as they would in nature over acres and acres of open fields.

At the park's opening, zoo ambassador Joan Embrey ---- who no doubt has had the coolest job in San Diego ---- rode through the opening day banner atop an elephant.

At this year's event, she is scheduled to carry the Seussical-sounding hyrax, a mammal dubbed "the little brother of the elephant." Trust me, this furry, rodent-looking football-size critter looks nothing like an elephant.

And that's what is so phenomenal about the park. For 40 years, dedicated keepers and conservationists have enlightened and educated us by bringing the unknown wonders of the animal kingdom to our little corner of the world.

It is fitting that the park opened the same year that the Endangered Species Act was passed. That legislation would task the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with protecting endangered land animals and their habitat and our wild animal park would be on the cutting edge of that movement.

Through the years, the park developed breeding programs for endangered species, such as the California condor, whose population grew from 22 individuals to almost 400.

Before the park opened, the largest international rhino transport, the "Rhino Express," brought the first group of endangered southern white rhinos to San Pasqual. These South African rhinos once numbered fewer than 100. Breeding programs at the park ---- and to date more than 90 calves have been born there ---- make these rhinos now the most numerous rhino species in the world.

The park has been equally successful with their breeding programs for Ugandan giraffes and cheetahs.

All totaled, the park has bred 65 endangered species and reintroduced 30 endangered species back into the wild.

So happy birthday and thank you to the park's many keepers and conservationists!

And probably the best gift we can give to celebrate this milestone is to reaffirm the words on the dedication plaque unveiled 40 years ago:

"Join us here to contemplate the wild animals of the World and Nature's wilderness, to strengthen a commitment to wildlife conservation throughout the world, and to strive toward Man's own survival through the preservation of Nature."