The Toledo Zoo & Aquarium will go cashless on July 12. There will be kiosks for people to transfer cash to cards.
Toledo Zoo Toledo Zoo & Aquarium news 2023
- Thread starter TigerValley98
- Start date
I visited recently and have a few notes. This was my first visit so I'm only posting this because I don't want all of it to go unmentioned for a while.
- Prevost's squirrels are off-exhibit
- the leafcutter ant terrarium was gutted
- signage for the golden-headed lion tamarin in the aviary building was removed and I didn't see any anywhere
- the common wombat passed away
- a baby slender-horned gazelle is in the main Africa field
- at least four Victoria crowned pigeons are living alongside white-throated ground doves in the Museum of Natural History greenhouse
- nicobar pigeon, sunbittern, Siamese fireback, and Himalayan monal chicks have all hatched recently
Last edited:
Two females from Toledo are now at Paradise Park in Cornwall. Paradise Park - APPEAL FOR PALM TREE TRUNKS – Can you...
The zoo appears to be planning a hellbender and turtle building.
They did have a special trailer type building for hellbenders breeding behind reptile building some years ago. Did the amphibians buildings occupies get moved into natural history museum? Good news to hear about devotion to turtles too! Toledo is must zoo for species other than usual abc species. It's why Toledo Zoo is always on my radar as place to visit!!!
I took this photo of the 'Hellbender Conservation Center' in 2018. Does it still exist?
Thank you for sharing photo. I have seen this building.I took this photo of the 'Hellbender Conservation Center' in 2018. Does it still exist?
I took this photo of the 'Hellbender Conservation Center' in 2018. Does it still exist?
The path to where this building is on the map was blocked off on my visit in June.
I saw this building in 2019.I took this photo of the 'Hellbender Conservation Center' in 2018. Does it still exist?
I took this photo of the 'Hellbender Conservation Center' in 2018. Does it still exist?
I've seen it myself for a few visits, but it was blocked off when I went around late May.
As I'm fried from being there basically the entire day and walking almost all of it, I'll edit this if I remember more, and I think I am indeed forgetting something.
Idk if this was already known or not, but if not, there is a grey seal in Arctic Encounter.
Bridge ramp is closed for construction. Later in the day, the stairs were closed too, and I had to go through this creepy tunnel below the road that I didn't know existed. Part of the construction appears to be three new small exhibits. Small as in they would probably maybe fit sulcata tortoises or prairie dogs, idk what else.
Maybe half of the aviary enclosures have unsigned red whiskered bulbuls now, they gotta have well over 20 of those birds at the moment. All the nicobar pigeons were nesting, and I suspect a few babies. Pesquet's parrots have officially left, nowhere in sight.
There was a baby ostrich in the Barnyard named Dennis in the pasture between the Mangalitsa pigs and alpacas. He's been there for 3 weeks, he's a bit larger than a turkey at the moment, and his parents live in Africa. The hope is that he can stay there as ostriches are technically farm animals too, but he bites so aggressively that there was a keeper by him to tell kids not to feed or pet him (who also generously answered my questions as to what the heck it was doing there).
There is a tiny baby white cheeked gibbon, old enough to swing by itself but young enough to be smaller than a lemur.
There is a second flock of Caribbean flamingos near the cinereous vultures and Northern bald irises. There was no sign for them. I wonder if I was peeking into quarantine.
There is a unsigned male silver pheasant in the Mandarin duck and scaly sided merganser exhibit.
There are unsigned white headed ducks in the penguin exhibit. I would like to thank the keeper feeding the penguins for correcting my stupidity after I said "look at the ruddy ducks". Kinda embarrassed.
The room in the Promedica Museum of Natural History with the inland taipan and other venomous snakes was closed, and rather frighteningly it was closed for being "dangerous" at the moment. You could still see the komodo dragon and other second floor reptiles outside of the room, as well as the arthropods.
The Quetzalcoatlus that was in the Reptile House was replaced with an Argentine tegu exhibit. Therefore, the Quetzalcoatlus is outside near the Reptile House. There is no signage or anything, it's just there without explanation. It's a very bizarre thing to behold lol, especially if you didn't know that it used to be inside the building.
And that is all I can think of now. Pics of Dennis the ostrich and misplaced flamingos later.
Idk if this was already known or not, but if not, there is a grey seal in Arctic Encounter.
Bridge ramp is closed for construction. Later in the day, the stairs were closed too, and I had to go through this creepy tunnel below the road that I didn't know existed. Part of the construction appears to be three new small exhibits. Small as in they would probably maybe fit sulcata tortoises or prairie dogs, idk what else.
Maybe half of the aviary enclosures have unsigned red whiskered bulbuls now, they gotta have well over 20 of those birds at the moment. All the nicobar pigeons were nesting, and I suspect a few babies. Pesquet's parrots have officially left, nowhere in sight.
There was a baby ostrich in the Barnyard named Dennis in the pasture between the Mangalitsa pigs and alpacas. He's been there for 3 weeks, he's a bit larger than a turkey at the moment, and his parents live in Africa. The hope is that he can stay there as ostriches are technically farm animals too, but he bites so aggressively that there was a keeper by him to tell kids not to feed or pet him (who also generously answered my questions as to what the heck it was doing there).
There is a tiny baby white cheeked gibbon, old enough to swing by itself but young enough to be smaller than a lemur.
There is a second flock of Caribbean flamingos near the cinereous vultures and Northern bald irises. There was no sign for them. I wonder if I was peeking into quarantine.
There is a unsigned male silver pheasant in the Mandarin duck and scaly sided merganser exhibit.
There are unsigned white headed ducks in the penguin exhibit. I would like to thank the keeper feeding the penguins for correcting my stupidity after I said "look at the ruddy ducks". Kinda embarrassed.
The room in the Promedica Museum of Natural History with the inland taipan and other venomous snakes was closed, and rather frighteningly it was closed for being "dangerous" at the moment. You could still see the komodo dragon and other second floor reptiles outside of the room, as well as the arthropods.
The Quetzalcoatlus that was in the Reptile House was replaced with an Argentine tegu exhibit. Therefore, the Quetzalcoatlus is outside near the Reptile House. There is no signage or anything, it's just there without explanation. It's a very bizarre thing to behold lol, especially if you didn't know that it used to be inside the building.
And that is all I can think of now. Pics of Dennis the ostrich and misplaced flamingos later.
Last edited:
Yes, there are two of them (unless one has passed away since my last visit a couple months ago).
They were there when I visited a couple months ago too. Doubt it’s quarantine at this point.
Interesting, because that space contained young Galapagos tortoises for a while after they removed the statue from the building. Guess they wanted to change things up
I was wrong about the ostrich's name as he is actually Denny, not Dennis. Catch him while you can, he's going to another zoo when he hits adulthood and he's growing so fast that he looks even bigger in the video than when I was there (also cuteness overload warning for the video, little man has the zoomies). The Toledo Zoo on Instagram: "Keeper Sheyenne introduces us to Denny, our outrageously adorable Ostrich chick who loves doing “happy spins” in the Barnyard exhibit! #ToledoZoo #ToledoOhio #Zoo #ZooAnimals #Ostrich #BabyOstrich #CuteAnimals #FunnyAnimals #OstrichEgg #OstrichFeathers #ZooKeeper"
Would anyone know where Toledo’s greater black-backed gulls came from? I’m assuming they’re rescues, but was wondering nevertheless
ZooNerd
Well-Known Member
The zoo announced that a male giraffe was born on September 9th to father Rocket and mom Tuli The Toledo Zoo on Instagram: "It's been a tall task keeping this secret... A new Giraffe calf has joined our tower! The 165-pound male, Franklin, was born on Sat, Sept. 9, to mom, Tuli, and dad, Rocket. A neonatal exam found that both Franklin and Tuli are healthy and doing well off-exhibit. Once their zookeepers have successfully introduced Franklin to the rest of the herd, guests can meet him in the Africa! exhibit later this month. #ToledoZoo #ToledoOhio #Zoo #ZooAnimals #ZooBorns #Giraffe #GiraffeBaby #BabyAnimals #GiraffeCalf #Giraffes #BabyAnnoucement #Baby #CuteAnimals"
Was this a Masai giraffe or a hybrid? I know the female is Masai but the only male named Rocket is now at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Ohio.
It appears so, Toledo does have a generic male named Rocket. He arrived a couple years back from the Gladys Porter Zoo I believe. I know they wanted to pair him with the other generic female, Ray, but they were both pretty young at the time. I’m guessing this pregnancy was a mistake, especially given Toledo wanted to phase out Masais.
Last edited:
That baby giraffe is definitely not pure Masai by any means - either generic or generic x Masai hybrid (looking at the photo alone).
It is, very unfortunately, a Masai x generic hybrid…. What a gut-wrenching “oopsie” baby… With a pregnancy as long as a giraffe’s, that’s a lot of wasted time in that female’s reproductively viable lifetime. The Masai population is struggling enough as it is… I don’t understand why she was not moved when the generics were brought in after Toledo’s poor track record with Masai. I understand not moving the two older females, but there’s no excuse to have not moved a reproductively viable female if they did not intend to manage the herds separately. Especially considering birth control in giraffe is not known to be wholly reliable…