CA Update - Marcia Ehinger

Marcia Ehinger is a retired physician who writes in many genres, poetry and prose. A member of the Sacramento Branch of the California Writers Club, she has had poems and short stories published in several CWC anthologies and the regional medical society journal.

Family Safari, Part 1

In early 2025, my daughter-in-law and I were looking through travel brochures. Iceland seemed to be very popular with its glaciers, waterfalls, northern lights, puffins and ponies. One trip sponsored by National Geographic featured a solar eclipse in August 2026. I called about availability.

“I’m sorry. This trip was sold out a year ago.” That must be quite an experience, I thought.

A few days later, a brochure arrived from the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco “for those seeking adventure, wonder, and learning…alongside Academy experts.” I called and there were vacancies on an eclipse tour in Spain. While I was filling out the online registration form, my grandson picked up the brochure.

“Look, Grandma. A safari in South Africa. We can see the wild animals.” He showed the brochure to his sister, then Mom and Dad. Everyone began chanting, “Safari, safari.”

My only experience with African animals had been from zoos, television, and The Lion King movies. I was intrigued. Now what? Do we need to choose one trip? Can we do both?

Why was a place called “Academy of Sciences” offering a variety of adventures? Their name sounded like a school for science nerds.

In reality, the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park is a massive science museum and research center, with an indoor aquarium, planetarium and rainforest. I understood why a planetarium with astronomers would have connections to an eclipse, but aside from the old animal hall with its taxidermy specimens of large African animals from collecting safaris in the 1930s, I didn’t see a connection to South Africa.

The Academy was created in 1853, four years after the Gold Rush brought thousands of people through the port of San Francisco. Seven naturalists came together as a society dedicated to surveying California’s natural history. Their first official museum opened in 1874 in what is now Chinatown, and drew up to 80,000 visitors a year. To accommodate its increasing popularity, the Academy moved to a new and larger building on Market Street in 1891. It was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fires.

A replacement facility was begun in Golden Gate Park in 1910 and opened in 1916. Steinhart Aquarium was added in 1923 and the Morrison Planetarium in 1952. The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 damaged the buildings. Funding was approved to rebuild the museum and renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano was hired. He designed a modern eco-friendly building with a living green roof, which reopened in 2008. The Academy now houses a coral reef and a four-story tropical rainforest within a ninety-foot-high glass bubble. The aquarium is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and actively participates in their Species Survival Plan (SSP). The Academy’s current mission is to study global biodiversity and protect endangered species.

Because the aquarium belongs to the AZA, they have housed a popular colony of African penguins since 1983. Their habitat is modeled after South Africa's Boulders Beach, featuring coastal nesting areas and a 25,000-gallon pool. African penguins are critically endangered, and several zoos have penguin colonies in an effort to increase their population.

Of the 18 species of penguins in the world, over sixty percent are threatened by climate change with loss of sea ice and competition from commercial fisheries. We think of penguins as flightless birds who live in ice and snow. Eighty-five to ninety percent live in or around Antarctica, but only the Emperor and Adelie species are permanent residents. Others live in temperate or subtropical lands where cold currents provide a food supply. They are found in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, South America, and even the Galapagos Islands. The northernmost penguins inhabit the volcanic shores of Ecuador.

Our Academy scientist said the purpose of this trip to South Africa—both penguins and safaris—was to study the urban and wildlife interface. Before our trip, we were told that Cape Town is the only big city with penguin neighbors.

However, shortly before we left, my brother who is living in the Melbourne, Australia, suburb of St. Kilda sent an email. He had been out for a morning walk on the beach, and said the little penguins were running all over. The “little penguin,” AKA fairy penguin, native to Australia and New Zealand, is the smallest species.

Perhaps Cape Town isn’t unique in its penguin to big city interface, but our visit would still fulfill the trip’s purpose.
~ Marcia Ehinger