Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Developments 2022

I asked this in a roundabout way the other day - but curious if anyone has any insight. Those photos looks amazing - but also potentially misleading?

There are 5-6 orangutans in the same exhibit in those photos, whereas currently they make a big deal of how they are solitary creatures in the wild. Are they going to try mixing up the rotation groups if they have more space to self-isolate if they choose to?
 
As much as they do preach that message about Orangutans being solitary, they can live in groups. In the past grouping of Toronto they often had a dominant male and two breeding females plus an infant or two and maybe 2 juveniles. So yes a combination of 6 is possible and has actually been done before in Toronto but since the death of Molek the previous breeding male they have all been split up. Now Ramai is quite and aggressive female and she does bully others but when a strong male who can keep everyone in check is thrown into the mix she is fairly ok, she did grow up with Sekali so they could live together and with Budi hopefully he will take after his noble father and can keep everyone calm and in their place.

Now in some rare scenarios so many groupings are possible... As we know:
Mother and Daughter Duo (Ramaia nd Jingaa)
Male and Female Duo (Sekali and Budi and Ramai and Budi)
Brother and Brother Duo (Budi and Kembali before the breeding for Budi began)
Mother and Son Duo (Puppe and Budi for some time)
Mother and Mother duo (Sekali and Kembali mixed with Ramai and Jingaa)

Those are just a few in other places they have been able to mix 10 orangutans together most commonly in Zoo Tampa. This is impressive but also rare. Another very rare outcome was in one of the Europen Zoo's they have had two full grown flanged males live together.
 
Akula said:
As much as they do preach that message about Orangutans being solitary, they can live in groups. In the past grouping of Toronto they often had a dominant male and two breeding females plus an infant or two and maybe 2 juveniles. So yes a combination of 6 is possible and has actually been done before in Toronto but since the death of Molek the previous breeding male they have all been split up. Now Ramai is quite and aggressive female and she does bully others but when a strong male who can keep everyone in check is thrown into the mix she is fairly ok, she did grow up with Sekali so they could live together and with Budi hopefully he will take after his noble father and can keep everyone calm and in their place.

Now in some rare scenarios so many groupings are possible... As we know:
Mother and Daughter Duo (Ramaia nd Jingaa)
Male and Female Duo (Sekali and Budi and Ramai and Budi)
Brother and Brother Duo (Budi and Kembali before the breeding for Budi began)
Mother and Son Duo (Puppe and Budi for some time)
Mother and Mother duo (Sekali and Kembali mixed with Ramai and Jingaa)

Those are just a few in other places they have been able to mix 10 orangutans together most commonly in Zoo Tampa. This is impressive but also rare. Another very rare outcome was in one of the Europen Zoo's they have had two full grown flanged males live together.
Click to expand...
Apenheul perhaps?
 
I just googled Apenheul. Looks interesting! That’s two times this week that I wished I had found this group while we were living in Europe. The other was for the Zurich Elephant house
 
Indian Rhino Asha is again going under anesthesia this morning again, as he condition is not stable. Below is a quote from the zoo's instagram page.

"Despite our update last week that our greater one-horned rhinoceros Ashakiran was showing signs of improvement, her progress this week has stalled. She has had some good days, but they were interspersed with bad days, in which her appetite, demeanour, and fecal output declined.

These continued struggles are concerning to our Veterinary team. Asha will undergo anesthesia again this morning for additional diagnostic testing. Our last examination indicated that her stomach was very full and suggested that she might have a partial gastrointestinal obstruction, which would explain the delay in emptying her stomach. While it did not appear to be a full obstruction as she was still eating food and passing feces, consistent signs of improvement should have been observed by now if it was a simple impaction.

Given her sheer size (Asha weighs over 1,800 kg), diagnosing Asha’s ailment is a major challenge for our Veterinary team. Further adding to the technical difficulty are the significant risks with rhino anesthesia. The decision to anesthetize her again was not taken lightly, and we hope that the procedure goes as smoothly as it did last time.

We will keep you updated as our team learns more. Keep Asha and her dedicated team in your thoughts today"
 
It definitely sounds like Asha is having a rough time. Poor thing. Really hoping they can get some solid answers this time so she can get on the road to recovery. She has the benefit of an amazing team behind her and the zoo will likely be calling in experts from Guelph as well and reaching out to other rhino experts around the globe.
 
Poor Asha ... hopefully we get an update in the next day or two. I'm so impressed by the TZ's transparency about the health and wellbeing of the animals. It's so nice to see the TZ recognize that members care about the animals too!

Oh and I love the videos TZ is sharing of Emarah's cubs ... they are so adorable! It's such a delight to see them show up on my FB/IG feed :)
 
@kknudsen, the increased transparency since Dolf took over has been a breath of fresh air. Being open and honest is the best policy. They can prepare people for bad outcomes. They can show that they did their all to save an animal. People will cut the more slack then they used to when randomly you would hear an animal died with no context. Letting us in has really I think helped to put the zoo in better light. It doesn't just have to be the successes like the cheetah cubs we hear about that shapes our opinions. They are huge helpers no doubt but getting people rooting for an animal to pull through and showing the zoo's battle to save them can be just as powerful. One of the smartest moves the zoo has made, along with increased social media presence and just hiring Dolf!
 
@TZFan "breath of fresh air" is right!! Dolf is remarkable and you're right, a truly smart hire!

I mentioned to my hubby when we were there on the weekend, that I once told him that my ideal date night was going to the San Diego Zoo, doing a behind the scenes tour to hear the cheetahs purr, having dinner at Albert's Restaurant and sharing my love of the animals, birds and plants with him (... ah :D) I think we are getting close to being able to do that at the Toronto Zoo! I'd love to see a brewery/finer dining restaurant as discussed. I think Dolf's vision is inspiring and recognizes that the zoo doesn't just have to be for families. His desire to tap into the dual-income-no-kids market is very wise ... and I for one appreciate it a lot :)
 
The zoo has launched an augmented reality app called On Thin Ice on the app store and google play. It lets you see arctic animals in your world and if you have a VR headset be a polar bear catching seals. Its free.
 
Update on Indian Rhino Asha, she recovered well from being put under firstly. More testing was done and while they think she has a serious gastrointestinal issue they couldnt conclusively determine what. They are waiting another week or two for more test results to come in. Her body condition is now deteriorating so the nutrition team is stepping up to do all they can to keep her going. This honestly is starting to feel like its not gonna have a happy ending though I hope it does.
 
Yeah this isn't looking good, even if she comes through there's a chance Asha gets an early retirement from the breeding game and no one wants that. It's entirely possible her transfer gets cancelled as well. I guess right now all we can do is cross our fingers and hope for the best
 
@Kifaru Bwana the zoo has yet to put any label on what is wrong with Asha other than gastrointestinal issue. They thought partial blockage on the last round of testing possibly but even then said they don't know for sure what the cause is. She got a little better but started to slide again.

@hyena142, wouldnt really rule out her as a breeder if she pulls through just yet. Depends what the cause is. A genetic problem sure or she has to take some kind of medication that would make her sterile or harm a developing embryo or they need to do some kind of operation that would render her unable to carry a calf to term safely or at all, then sure. But for now too little is known to worry about that just yet. The bigger question right now is can they help her pull through or are they entering palliative care for her or even making that tough call.

Given all our Indian rhinos value if she does pass I would hope the zoo works hard to get Nandu and Kiran south ASAP as breeders. Would be good for Vishnu too but Im not ready to give him up just yet. The tiger projects are a ways away in all likelihood.
 
We were at the zoo today so I tried to take a closer look at the outdoor orangutan exhibit since there was some chatter on the trees last week.

it’s next to impossible to see in the photo - but there are still trees inside the exhibit perimeter and I cannot imagine they wouldn’t have taken them down first if they weren’t staying - so I suspect we have our answer. 7306013E-3353-4247-BBB1-0BE4C0E944FA.jpeg

The Americas pavilion was also closed for maintenance and construction - but I wasn’t able to speak to anyone to find out why (it was pretty quiet this morning).

The entire giraffe house was also closed - I thought you might still have been able to see Kiko, but I guess not. Make sense - keep noise and disturbance to a minimum.
 

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Looks like it's slowly but surely getting there. Still not sure if a Victoria Day opening is in the cards but I'm willing to bet it's gonna be open by Canada Day at the latest. Very excited to see what the final result looks like
 
I'd love to see the video of the first orangutans entering the space and being outside for the first time. I suspect it's going to need a long slow integration to get them comfortable.
 
I’m not sure if this is the right thread or not, but you heard it here first, Toronto zoo will most likely be acquiring Emu’s in the near-ish future.
 
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