Is It the Lion Inside the Cage or the Man?

In my last post, fellow blogger Vanilla Seven had this question: Is it the lion inside the Cage or the Man?

Izu @ Lion Camp, San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park

And Mei had this to ask: That lion in the first photo is placed in a glass enclosure? 

Let me answer these questions first with pictures,

Lion Camp

In the picture above of Lion's Camp, we can see the open space that the lion can roam around, and play around.

Izu and his yard

Mina or Oshana on top of a truck 

Resting Lions on top of Truck

Oshana and Her Little Lion

The lions are in an open space exhibit, and they do take advantage of their roomy camp exhibit by running around and playing.

Lion Camp Field

Izu Moving Around

Baby and Mom Play

How about the man? Is he inside the cage?

Lion  Camp Viewing Area

The structure you see has thick glass panels that separates the lions and men, to keep them all safe. They all are outside. 

Man and Lion

Rochelle further asked, if the glass walls are strong enough, yes, they are! Kids, among many others love to get closer to the glass so they get a chance to see the lions up close, since it is through the glass walls where viewing is as close as it can be. However, not all the time the lions are near the glass, they usually go there when a trainor is there to give us a talk, and calls them. Otherwise, I believe their favorite place is at the top of the truck, or simply lazying on grass somewhere.

Mom and 2 babies

This picture was not shot through the glass, but in other viewing points where there is no glass that separates men and lion, but then, the lion can not cross towards men because of the design of the exhibit, the lions are smart, they do not want to jump on a man-made cliff that separates them from the men. 

Dad, Mom and Baby

There are a lot more exhibits at Wild Animal Park, but you can probably only really get close to them by joining a caravan or other activities in the park.

Photo Caravan Safari

Well, as I am cheap, I have not joined any caravan yet, all I do is take the ride to "Journey into Africa", since it comes with my membership fee,

Journey Into Africa Cart

this is the only tour I do since I do not have to pay extra :) 

the rest, I have to pay extra, and since I live in San Diego, I always tell myself, "next time, there will be many more tomorrows to do it". But there is one thing for sure, despite the many safari tours at Wild Animal Park, no one can get really up close with a lion, without a glass wall.

In my next posts, I will share the other exhibits I have photographed at Wild Animal Park.