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98 species of African ungulates live in woodland habitats
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A stroll through the expansive, walk-through aviary in the Acacia Woodland puts you right in the middle of dozens of African birds—including some brand new to the Zoo—flitting, swooping, and calling just overhead. Look for the intricate, hanging nests of the black-headed weavers Ploceus cucullatus. After a male builds his nest from strips of leaves, he hangs below the entrance, calling and flapping his wings, in hopes of attracting a female who appreciates his handiwork. [caption id="attachment_121884" align="aligncenter" width="1210"] SPECIAL SKILLS(Left) Male black-headed weavers build nests from strips of leaves (Photography by Martin Willis/Minden Pictures). (Right) When bees aren’t available, bee-eaters prey on other winged insects (Photography by jez_bennett/iStock/Getty Images Plus).[/caption] Bee-eaters Merops spp., which excavate holes in riverbanks to make their nests, will catch your eye, too. To make them feel at home, a large wall was constructed to look like a riverbank. And to encourage nesting, “Specially designed nest tubes, filled with dirt, are inserted into the wall,” says Dave Rimlinger, San Diego Zoo curator of birds. Stay long enough, and you’re sure to see a bee-eater in action. These remarkable birds catch bees and other insects in flight, but bring them to a perch to prepare them for eating.
31 countries in sub-Saharan Africa contain acacia woodlands
Seeing Spots
Bigger predators lurk in the Acacia Woodland, too. You’ll come amazingly close to a leopard Panthera pardus—safely. Keepers interact with these endangered predators through a special wall that keeps them safe, too. In fact, you might get to see a keeper and a leopard demonstrate trained husbandry behaviors that help us care for these wild animals. Leopards have one of the largest distributions of any cats; they’re found across Africa and Asia. You might be surprised to find an Amur leopard—an Asian subspecies—in Africa Rocks, “playing the role of an African leopard.” But there’s a good reason, according to Carmi Penny, San Diego Zoo director of Collections Husbandry Science and curator of mammals. “The San Diego Zoo participates in the Species Survival Plan for the critically endangered Amur leopard, and the new leopard habitat provides an additional area for a breeding group of these cats.”
600 acacia (Vachellia and Senegalia) species are native to Africa