Toledo Zoo Toledo Zoo & Aquarium news 2023

I was reading the 2021 news thread and there was mention of seeing a common wombat from the train. Is this still possible? Also, what is the experience that ZooChatters have had with seeing the wombat and with the train ride itself?
 
wild boar said:
I was reading the 2021 news thread and there was mention of seeing a common wombat from the train. Is this still possible? Also, what is the experience that ZooChatters have had with seeing the wombat and with the train ride itself?
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The wombat(s) can only be seen if one pays for the behind-the-scenes tour dedicated to them. On my one and only visit to Toledo in 2021, I didn’t do this tour, and I never saw any on the train ride; in fact, this is the first time I’ve heard the latter being mentioned. The train ride itself is enjoyable, as it offers many more views of the two Africa! habitats. You may also get a glimpse of the cheetah’s off-display area and some of the off-display pens for the savannah animals.
 
 
New site is great and was long overdue imo as it loved crashing every time I tried to load the animals and now it actually works. Plus, while still not all the animals, it still lists more of them than before. In regards to the new logo, as a nerd about that stuff as well (mostly audiovisual film and TV logos as I edit AVID, but that in turn makes me more perceptive of print logos than the average person)... did you need to guys? The logo you were using was just fine. This is a downgrade. It's literally one of those "simplified logo" memes.

Edit: the fact that you can no longer read about each animal and that it's instead just a list is... not cool. The more extensive exhibit coverage is really nice though, and as a whole it's far easier to navigate and hasn't crashed Firefox yet.
 
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Zoofan15 said:
Kodiak Ridge Opens

Toledo Zoo unveils exhibit for three bears Thursday | wtol.com
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From what I've seen in various videos, the exhibit looks rather boring and unimpressive apart from the "smelling log." I was wondering how great an enclosure that is home to three brown bears could be if it is only 14,000 square feet, and my worries might have been confirmed. Out of a couple of things, the seeming lack of underwater viewing is the most puzzling. I know I've been spoiled by the Minnesota Zoo's marvelous Russia's Grizzly Coast but certainly some things could have been done better. I should be going to Toledo again this July and will see for myself. Hopefully, I will be surprised with what I see. It also can't help that the Facebook posts and news pieces weren't that good.
 
wild boar said:
From what I've seen in various videos, the exhibit looks rather boring and unimpressive apart from the "smelling log." I was wondering how great an enclosure that is home to three brown bears could be if it is only 14,000 square feet, and my worries might have been confirmed. Out of a couple of things, the seeming lack of underwater viewing is the most puzzling. I know I've been spoiled by the Minnesota Zoo's marvelous Russia's Grizzly Coast but certainly some things could have been done better. I should be going to Toledo again this July and will see for myself. Hopefully, I will be surprised with what I see. It also can't help that the Facebook posts and news pieces weren't that good.
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I might go to Toledo next weekend for my school assignment, I will upload some picture after the visit, hope that would help you.
 
Here's another article about Kodiak Ridge:

Visitors can come "face to face" with massive Grizzly and Kodiak bears at Toledo Zoo's unique new exhibit

Toledo Zoo has some spectacular WPA-era buildings (Aquarium, Aviary, Reptile House, Museum of Natural History), but the zoo is really disappointing when it comes to many key mammal species. This new bear enclosure already looks small and barren, plus exhibits for polar bears, wolves, tigers, snow leopards, elephants, gorillas and orangutans are all ordinary and too tiny for their inhabitants. Are any of those mammals in modern, top-class habitats? Nope. The zoo has done a fantastic job overhauling some of its historic structures in recent years, but to have that many popular megafauna species all in poor exhibits is a real shame. It's why Toledo is almost universally never recognized as an elite zoo, as there is too much mediocrity other than the magnificent animal buildings.
 
I must say this exhibit looks quite disappointing. It doesn't look like this exhibit is much bigger than the one it replaced, an improvement for sure, but more definitely could have been done. It reminds me a lot of the Brown Bear Exhibit at the Lake Superior Zoo, a relatively small and barren exhibit that is only marginally better than what came before. At least Lake Superior has the excuse of being comparatively small and underfunded compared to Toledo. We've seen what Toledo can do with exhibits like the ProMedica Natural History Museum, so why can't something like that be translated for their outdoor exhibits?
 
I made a brief visit to Toledo over the weekend. While the new bear exhibit is visually pretty boring, in my opinion it is far better than what it replaced. The exhibit now extends into a pretty significant chunk of the former hoofstock exhibit that most recently was used for camels and yaks a couple years back. Its size more than doubles the old exhibit and is comparable in square footage to the celebrated brown bear exhibits at Minnesota and Woodland Park. It also has a far larger percentage of natural/diggable substrate than previously, though some grass would have been nice. Viewing is also much better than before, as the bears were previously pretty much invisible. All in all, a perfectly fine exhibit that's probably a solid B -- good viewing, good elements for the bears, weak exhibitry. That's enough to make it probably the fourth best large mammal exhibit at Toledo after the Giraffe/Antelope savanna, Cheetahs, and Hippos (though these three are each flawed in their own ways).
 
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