Horticulture at Elephant Valley: Important and Immersive

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Speaker 1: Ruby.

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Speaker 2: When to this world Marco went and this is Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of wildlife from around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts. This podcast is in production with Iheartradios, Ruby Studio and San Diego Zoo. Wild lef Allions, an international nonprofit conservation organization which oversees the San Diego Zoo and the Safari Park.

00:00:34
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of.

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Speaker 2: Benefits to being a spokesperson for a zoo, Like one of my favorite things is coming into the zoo the park in the morning and just it's totally a privilege, but just being able to walk around areas that maybe guests can't access or seeing unique things like maybe the tiger's vocalizing in the morning. So, for instance, I'm still at the Safari Park. Yeah, and no surprise to all of you, I haven't left. Last episode, we talked about elephants, you know, because we have a brand new renovated habitat that we're going to be featuring earlier next year. And I find myself in the really unique spot everyone that you're going to experience once you're here. And again Nick in the previous episode talked about all those interesting experiences you're going to have where you're really going to feel immerse in the hurt. But you know, it's not just mammals, it's not just birds, it's not animals as well.

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Speaker 1: It's also the plants.

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Speaker 2: And in my opinion, it's really the plants that create that atmosphere, that vibe that I love so much about the park in the San Diego Zoo. So, you know what, we're going to be talking all about plant power here and we have someone super special joining me today. I think it's the first time we've had to you on the episode, right an Eagle.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes it is.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's exciting.

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Speaker 2: Now can you tell me your name and your position here at the Safari Park.

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Speaker 3: Yes, I'm Raj Brown.

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Speaker 4: I'm the director of Horticulture here at the Safari Park and also the Botanic garden curator.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's really cool. Now, I know you guys do so much here at the Safari Park.

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Speaker 2: Could you give me like just a few little snippets of like what exactly does the whole culture team do in this eighteen hundred acre conservation park.

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Speaker 4: Certainly so, we manage all of the botanical collections and that's plant material both inside of our wildlife habitats and out and around the park. And we're an accredited arboretum and botanic gardens, so we also manage all the collection information on those plants.

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Speaker 1: That's a lot to do.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I've always tell guests everything from specific conservation examples with plants like maybe the tory pine is an example.

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Speaker 1: Also food for.

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Speaker 2: Our animals there were you're here like bamboo for the giant panda, is right. I use the word vibe because it's really what I love about the zoo in the park so much. Is this atmosphere that you and also the Zoo Order Culture team create for all of us. So thank you for the time in coming out here. But you and I am Ego. We're here at the Elephant Valley renovations that are happening at the moment, so you might hear some construction sounds, some beeping of trucks, but we wanted to be here physically to help really communicate some of the uniqueness.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 2: Because there's something I learned from you, Amigo, about a very.

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Speaker 1: Fun word called zuki.

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Speaker 2: Could you tell me exactly what's zuki and what is its importance here at the Safari Park.

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Speaker 1: Particularly here in Elephant Valley.

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Speaker 4: Sure thing, Marco, I think you pointed out that sense of place that the plants spring about, and in this project, creating a sense of immersion and an authentic sense of place was really one of the goals that we had here, and that's both inside and outside of the habitat.

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Speaker 3: And so in planning out the planting plan.

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Speaker 4: Inside of the habitat, we had this goal of let's get African savannah plants and plants that are safe for elephants inside of the habitat.

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Speaker 3: These are all plants that they could consume.

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Speaker 4: Theoretically, and part of that safety aspect is how do we get thriving plants inside of a habitat while making sure our elephants are safe and that biosecurity aspect of making sure we have soils that are going to create thriving conditions for plants, Yeah, but are also going to be safe for our elephants. And that's where the zuki that you asked about comes into play.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: No, it's super interesting for the kids. It's particular in case maybe it escapes them a little bit. There's so much that you have to think about about the dirt, right every little part of a habitat with an animal. You all have to really investigate all the little solo nuances because they can dig into it, they can interact with these plants or the soil that you use. Right, So that's part of what, Zuki, why it's so special, right exactly.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So, Zuki, what it is is the manure.

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Speaker 4: Okay okay, right, talking animal poop from herbivores okay, okay, And we generate a lot of it. So the elephants, rhinos draft, they generate a lot of poop.

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Speaker 2: I mean we're almost talking like literally just buckets and butt truckloads, tons and tons.

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Speaker 3: Of poop every day, every day, every day.

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Speaker 4: And so we have a relationship with San Pasqual Soils, which is located right across the street from us, and they are a soil production in company. And so what we've worked out with them is that we can bring our manure there and they do a process called hot composting.

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Speaker 1: Hot composting, hot composting. What's what's that? What's that?

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Speaker 4: So essentially what that is is it's composting that raises the temperature of that manure above one hundred and thirty five degrees for an extended period of time, and that's like three to five days somewhere in that realm. And in doing that hot composting process, it kills off pathogens that could be problematic for wildlife.

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Speaker 2: You're saying it like pathogens like little microorganisms with unwanted things you may not want to reintroduce in a habitat, is what you're saying exactly.

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Speaker 4: And so in doing that, we are able to ensure that harmful pathogens in bacteria are not reintroduced back into the habitat when we bring the compost back. And so what we did was we went through this process. We sent the product zuki off to labs to do both agronomic testing, which is testing the nutrients in the zukie to.

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Speaker 2: Make sure like there's enough basically food right for the plants.

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Speaker 4: Food for the plants, yeah, nitrogen, all the beneficials that a plant would need to thrive. But also we sent it off to a separate lab to look at pathogen analysis to make sure that we had a product that would be healthy to go into habitat. And then we shared that information back with our veterinary wildlife health team to ensure that this product would be.

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Speaker 1: Suitable there's so many partners in this.

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Speaker 2: It's not as simple like I'm thinking like compost at home, right, you know, like I add a little water, sometimes, add a little extra stuff, turn it around, and eventually I get some nice soil for on more plants.

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Speaker 1: But this is a collaboration one Wildlife Care.

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Speaker 2: Right, they're picking up all that delicious animal poop and by that I mean just nutrient rich for the plant, not meat.

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Speaker 1: Don't get icked out, everybody.

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Speaker 2: But also collaboration with an outside party here in the Sampleskull Valley, which is really great. But also you just said you're sending it up for a while, so there's science involved in this mechanism. And you're also double chucking which is great with the Wildlife Care health teams to make sure that everything is copastic. Right, everything is looking good. You got the green light to introduce the stuff back into the park grounds.

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Speaker 4: Right, well said yep, good summary. And you know you mentioned your backyard compost. The process is similar, Oh it is. Yeah, So we're still looking at carbon rich materials. Okay, things like dried leaves hay which are digested by the elephants as.

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Speaker 3: Part of their diets in comes out exactly.

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Speaker 4: And then moisture, oh yeah, some water is introduced into this equation as well, and then aeration turning the piles as well, and so that process goes on similar to what you would do in your backyard, just on a larger scale. And then the heat element, which is a natural process within composting as well. We're just managing it and monitoring temperatures to make sure we achieve the heat requirements one percent.

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Speaker 1: Now, can I ask you the zuki? Which I love the word? By the way, was it you that came up with that word?

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Speaker 3: I don't know why they came up. I can't take credit.

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Speaker 2: Well, kudos to whoever came up with zuki, but I love the concept. Can I ask you for a zuki where an elephant valley is going to be applied?

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Speaker 1: Basically is my question.

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Speaker 3: It is throughout the project.

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Speaker 4: It's the only soil amendment inside of our habitat, So there is no synthetic fertilizer component inside of habitat at all. So it's the only soil amendment inside of the habitat.

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Speaker 1: Home grown here at the sample skull valley.

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Speaker 3: Right, that's correct.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, but we've also used it in our planters for trees and shrubs and underneath the sod that's going in the Mukatano Park area as well, so it is embedded throughout the project.

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Speaker 2: Oh wow, that's interesting. I'm sure the guests are going to be super excited. I know that little nuance with then going around, and honestly, when I was waiting for you Ron to come up here to this spot, I always got like a big smile on my face when I'm looking around. It's all the little details that the horticulture teams do, honestly for that immersion experience.

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Speaker 1: Right, which I absolutely love.

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Speaker 2: And there's another store that you had told me about that I was really interested in. It had the trees. Now, I love all the shrubbery, the smaller plant species. I'm a huge fan of trees and growing up here. There are some trees here that have had relationships with and by that I mean I've just known them since I was sixteen. Right, And you were telling me there's something unique you did with the trees here at Elephant Valley that guests may not be aware.

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Speaker 1: I can you tell me a little bit about that?

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Speaker 3: Sure?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So we did a lot of direct intentional growing for this project, but also looking at trees that we had here on grounds that are no longer available for viewing.

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Speaker 3: For the guests.

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Speaker 4: And these are trees like that were on the old monorail path that were part of the guest experience fifty years ago, fifty years ago, but are now no longer guest bacing. And so we looked at what trees really fit this Savannah Africa immersive experience and really are magnificent trees though, yeah, guests don't get.

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Speaker 1: To appreciate, no, totally, yeah.

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Speaker 4: And so we identified those trees and we relocated many of those trees into this project so that the project really has this feeling that it's been here, that it's mature. The shade that you experienced between the elephant habitats is from trees that some have been at the Safari Park for fifty years. But in doing that, you know, relocation, it was definitely a prolonged effort of research and development of our own practices of how do we relocate some of these trees that are not really found in southern California, So the best practices don't necessarily existe.

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Speaker 2: So you're saying, like you and the team they're trying to figure it out here in the Safari Park. You can't really go to other resources at the moment. You got to kind of make it up as you go in a way, right.

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Speaker 3: A little bit of that.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So it's looking at trying to find anecdotes, right, like things that are done professionally that we have experienced with and adapting those to the specific species we have here.

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Speaker 1: Part Oh wow.

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Speaker 2: I mean there's so many plant stories that I love about Elephant Valley.

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Speaker 4: One.

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Speaker 2: I love when you were mentioning certain trees and shrubbery that guests can experience in the past, you know, because maybe they were a trail like the old monorail paths. To your point, there's these they're sort of like an aloe tree. Forgive me if I don't know the species, but I grew up with those trees that were at Benbo, So I'm really happy that they're here as well. But not only that, I'm going to use this term upcycling right, that we're using our resources, our teams, our ingenuity to create these experiences.

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Speaker 1: But there was some I'm calling it the force field. You know what I'm talking about, the forest field.

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Speaker 2: Tell me about what I call the force field here at the Elephant Valley because that was a really cool story.

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Speaker 4: Yes, so I think you're referring to a product that we use to create a structural soil system.

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Speaker 3: The product name is called a silver cell.

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Speaker 1: A silver cell, okay.

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Speaker 3: But essentially the.

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Speaker 4: Way that we use this is we moved some trees that are decades old. They've been living here thirty to fifty years, and we put them into areas where there are guest pathways that circumnavigate the whole tree root zone.

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Speaker 1: Okay.

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Speaker 4: And these are pathways that are concrete, and they're in areas that aren't ideal for a tree. So developing within a tree's critical root zone is definitely not something you want to do because it can hurt the tree. And so not only are we relocating the tree, but also planning out pathways underneath the trees. And so in order to achieve this successful relocation of these trees, we looked into this product called silver cells, which allows us to build a concrete pathway by cantily bringing it out over the root zone, rather than directly constructing within the root zone and disturbing the roots. We floated our concrete pathways over the root zone to provide oxygen, water, and access to nutrients for the tree without disrupting its critical read sound.

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Speaker 2: Oh man, that's for speedy, That's what's gonna say. It made me smile so much when you were saying that one, you know, because I think people just kind of forget about just how amazing you guys are on the plant team and honestly the ingenuity and what you do for the vibrancy of the health and here at the Alliance, you know, it's not just the health of.

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Speaker 1: A polar bear or a platypust.

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Speaker 2: We're also incorporating our plants, which is really vital. So that was really wicked and thank you for sharing that, because I think most guests when they navigate through here, that new and improved Elephant Valley, they won't know that, you know, and I'm sure you and I were making jokes and plants specialists, I'm sure might look at this structure like, hey, what's going on with that tree?

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Speaker 1: But now they know right that you had this new and improved structure.

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Speaker 4: We're out there exactly, Yeah, And I think the goal is that you would never know it. You feel like you're out in the wilds and you're interacting with elephants and its seamless.

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Speaker 1: Oh no, I love that friend, you know. Can I ask you what are some of your favorites?

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Speaker 2: You know, because I always like to ask people either a favorite animal, favorite location. You representing the horticulture team, do you have a particular lux an area that you just absolutely love that you want to bring up? For instance, front for me the zoo, it's Fern Canyon, my favorite spot for Safari Park. I gotta throw some love at the Baja Gardens, Like there's a bench right there overlooking Australian condoor ridge that I love so much.

00:14:17
Speaker 1: Do you have a particular favorite spot at the park?

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Speaker 4: I have a number of favorite spots. I think up towards the top of the park. Baja Old World Succulents just have beautiful plants and vistas of the entire valley. Walk About Australia is one of my favorites as well. I've spent a year in college in Australia. Oh so just that feeling of transportation that you get in walk about Australia is awesome.

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Speaker 1: Oh no, I've bet.

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Speaker 4: And then I think down in the we call it the Lower Village African Woods area, that walk below, Oh copies.

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Speaker 2: Oh, that stream and those flowers are all that exactly.

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Speaker 3: That's fantastic for me.

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Speaker 4: It's just walking beneath the thorn trees and it's very peaceful and just a really nice place.

00:15:03
Speaker 3: Oh I love the water.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great.

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Speaker 2: This is another question that I really love to ask people because everyone's like origin stories are very different.

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Speaker 1: Can I ask you like, did you always have a green thumb of ego?

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Speaker 2: I mean I never did, and I'm getting better at it, but we're always like passionate about plant life. Was there a little ros like with a bucket and some soil, you know, digging up some plants?

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Speaker 1: So how did this get about for you?

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Speaker 4: That's a good question. I think it emerged as a child. My family bought a walnut orchard in the Central Valley when I was a kid, really, and it was a walnut orchard that wasn't a productive orchard. The trees had a black line disease, so they were dying. But it was that process of working with my dad and figuring out, well, what are we going to do with this land. We're removing trees, yeah, we're figuring out what trees are salvageable. How do we want this place to look and feel and perform over time? And I think that creative process and just working with plants is what led me eventually towards becoming a landscape architecture. Ah.

00:16:09
Speaker 1: Man, I love that story.

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Speaker 2: It's Papa inspiration, your parents, see right, so you kids sat there. Sometimes you can get inspirations just from your family alone, which is amazing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Definitely hopping on the tractor as a kid with my dad.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Oh, I love that rows. That's great.

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Speaker 2: Can I ask you before we finish this interview here, is there something you want to brag about or recommend for our listeners when they come to Elephant Valley when reopen earlier next year, And a little thing that you're proud about that you want people to be aware of.

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Speaker 3: I mean, there's so much.

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Speaker 4: I think the team has worked really hard on this project for the past six plus years. There's been intention around dedicated growing of plants from seed for over six years for this project, and also this identification of trees and specimens succulents that are on grounds that have been here for decades and then figuring out how to move them and allow them to thrive in their new environment. So I think that karen attention to detail. Is this something that I'm proud of, and it's throughout this project and involved so many people.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, you know.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and then there's story is embedded throughout that, you know, I'm happy to share if you come out and check it out. Okay, you know, there's a lot of cool things to see, a lot of great psychads and thorn trees and caglias, just beautiful trees.

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Speaker 1: Oh friend, no, thank you. That was great.

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Speaker 2: And again, I hope when you get the experience of coming to Elephant Valley listeners, you can come and not only appreciate this beautiful herd of African savannah elephants, but please hit a moment look up and appreciate those trees.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 2: Remind the root system is going on, all the little subtle nuances that plants and also the not so subtle things that positive things that plants offer here at Elephant Valley. So, Roz, that was great, Thank you so much. Give me some plant knuckles a ego.

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Speaker 1: That was so thanks.

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Speaker 4: Thank you, Margo, Yeah, thank you.

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Speaker 2: I love my job. I'm learning so much every single day now. That was super interesting. And I know I'm gonna be looking at Elephant Valley in a completely different light.

00:18:10
Speaker 1: So you're cruising around the zoo and the Safari.

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Speaker 2: Park, you see those planning themes knee deep and dirt, maybe turning up some browse for animals some food. Make sure you give them a big old thank you and a big thumbs up for all the incredible work.

00:18:22
Speaker 1: That they do.

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Speaker 2: Now, friends at word highlighting so much going on in Africa from the elephant herds, where plants here at the Safari Park. But you know there's some other very unique species here in Africa that I wanted to highl out. So stay tuned for more adventures here at the San Diego Zoo or Safari Park.

00:18:40
Speaker 1: Now Marco went Stay wild.

00:18:47
Speaker 2: For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to SDZWA dot org. Amazing Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio. Our supervising producer is still in Fagan, and our sound designers are Sierra Spring and Matt Russell. For more shows from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.