Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Discussion thread 2023

@Persephone, no only the Eurasian Wilds drive thru species and the tahr are the only zoomo exclusive animals. Everything else can be seen on foot.

We Canadians are pretty chill. Rules here are pretty loose. I dont think anyone, or at least most of us would care if you post your own species list thread. It would just get lost anyway in any of our discussion, development or animal related news. Sometimes a separate thread just makes sense.
 
TZFan said:
Fort Worth put her on birth control because she was living with her brother still and they didnt want inbred cubs. Its common to put big cats on birth control when they are living in a group with both sexes. They didnt mean to destroy her chances to breed. What they didnt know at the time was that birth control often lead females (particularly tigers and lions) to stop cycling for much longer times than intended to life. Its no longer used now that they know. Some females responded to hormone therapy and successfully went on to have cubs. Others are like Kemala and nothing could be done to save their reproductive ability.

Hari is a mid level male now. Until recently he was one of the lowest ranking males. Obviously some of his family have now passed increasing his value. He was only given a shot to breed before because of Kemala's value and Brythne before her. A top level female was chosen from Palm Beach for him and Kemala was to leave before the pandemic but then it hit and like a lot of transfers that option died. He is unlikely to get a mate because we will need to wait out Kemala first. Its very unlikely anyone will want to take her off our hands.

Luca an older animal and hes not in the best of health. They probably will wait for him to pass before bringing in the new female from Granby or in all likelihood another jaguar because she will need to go somewhere else before he goes.
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I hope there will be a new female coming to the zoo. Thank you for all these information.
 
Zoo adventures said:
Do u know the name of the jaguar that will come to the zoo, Lua or Estrela
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Not sure which Jaguar will be arriving, I will be curious to see how the zoo handles the temple ruins going forward but I’m hoping the jaguars will see a more open exhibit or an actual renovation instead of just combining the Jaguar and old spider monkey habitat.
 
@Haunthow If you read the Master Plan you'll see that the jaguar exhibit is meant to be expanded in a few different ways, Phase 1 which'll probably happen in the next 10 years or so is combining their current exhibit with the spider monkey exhibit, and Phase 2 which is a long way away will add tunnels around the temple ruin area that they'll be able to use to explore a bit. Don't put too much stock in Phase 2 since it's not gonna be happening any time soon and plans can change but the zoo definitely has an interest in doing more with the species than simply tearing down the wall into the monkey exhibit.
 
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hyena142 said:
@Haunthow If you read the Master Plan you'll see that the jaguar exhibit is meant to be expanded in a few different ways, Phase 1 which'll probably happen in the next 10 years or so is combining their current exhibit with the spider monkey exhibit, and Phase 2 which is a long way away will add tunnels around the temple ruin area that they'll be able to use to explore a bit. Don't put too much stock in Phase 2 since it's a long way away but the zoo definitely has an interest in doing more with the species than simply tearing down the wall into the monkey exhibit.
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I didint notice that when I looked over the master plan, would be really cool to see jaguars get some love from the zoo and hopefully see some cubs someday down the line.
 
Haunthow said:
I am Not sure which Jaguar will be arriving, I will be curious to see how the zoo handles the temple ruins going forward but I’m hoping the jaguars will see more open exhibit or an actual renovation instead of just combining the Jaguar and old spider monkey habitat.
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I hope the zoo gives a beautiful exhibit of this female. When do u think the jaguar will come?
 
@Zoo adventures If I were a betting man I'd say next year but you never know with transfers

According to the zoo's website the Temple Ruin has been closed for the season in the wake of jaguar Luca's passing. Looks like the hippos are done for the year as well.
 
hyena142 said:
@Zoo adventures If I were a betting man I'd say next year but you never know with transfers

According to the zoo's website the Temple Ruin has been closed for the season in the wake of jaguar Luca's passing. Looks like the hippos are done for the year as well.
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Why are they phasing out the hippos, Petal and Perky?
Also, they need to change the exhibit of the jaguars.
 
hyena142 said:
@Zoo adventures If I were a betting man I'd say next year but you never know with transfers

According to the zoo's website the Temple Ruin has been closed for the season in the wake of jaguar Luca's passing. Looks like the hippos are done for the year as well.
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I know there has been discussion of phasing out the hippos for awhile now but I haven’t seen anything about replacements or what will happen to the exhibit, honestly if the hippos weren’t going to receive a habitat upgrade this is probably for the best but I hope to see hippos return to the zoo someday.
 
@Zoo adventures They're phasing out the hippos because simply put the zoo isn't the ideal place for them due to the Canadian winter weather, and the cost of either a habitat upgrade or a new habitat entirely that'd also technically have to have two exhibits, one indoor and the other outdoor, is unreasonable for one species that we haven't bred in forever, especially when we have projects like Wilderness North and the Conservation Campus upcoming that are much higher priority than the hippos. The replacements will likely be just flex animals, possibly getting the pygmy hippos outside.

As I said previously the jaguar exhibit is being changed, the Master Plan is very clear on what they're going to do if you're interested.
 
@Zoo adventures, @hyena142 is correct about the hippos, mostly. It's not so much about weather. Yes we do need to build a winter habitat so they arent off display as much of the year if we were to build them a new exhibit but it's almost entirely the cost for a single species. The AZA has asked that all zoos housing hippos in the future have space for bachelor bulls as well as cows with calves. They would like larger groups than 2 plus a calf to be kept. They have long lives and if they arent needed for breeding they will be around for a long while. To keep the population diverse and the age structure stable more holding space is needed. In Toronto's case the exhibit is already undersized for the girls. We would need to expand the exhibit and build a new indoor exhibit. You might say well why not convert their current barn? Yeah that barn is in such rough shape the zoo would like to get rid of the girls and just rip it down. Converting for the hippos just wouldnt be worth the absolutely massive expense. A new barn would be cheaper. Plus the barn is too far from the exhibit and makes transfers back and forth tedious and tricky if one of the hippos chooses not to participate. Another concern would be the absolutely colossal cost of filtration. Hippos are gross and poop tons in their water. That requires very expensive filtration so the pool is as gross. What they have now works but its as old as the exhibit and with a bigger exhibit and a brand new barn they would need to start over. Hippo exhibits are some of the most expensive exhibits zoos can invest in. What they would spend on keeping the hippos is probably equivalent or more than what it will cost to build the Savanna pavilion which will service at least 7 species.

Breeding has nothing to do with it either. Toronto willingly took a sibling set in 1990. They knew then that by taking Sampson, Petal and Perky that they would never have calves as long as all three lived. Their parents pedigree could not be confirmed so transfers were highly unlikely because they would never be requested by the SSP for breeding. However prior to receiving the trio, Toronto as a hippo producing machine with Flagstaff and Perky I producing 6 calves which all survived in just 10 years. Their first calf arrived just 10 months after Flagstaff joined Perky I (she was our first hippo to arrive).
 
I enjoyed the park a lot. Will have a species list and review up for it at some point in the next week. One thing I do need help with: does anyone know what’s usually in Kid’s Kingdom? Pretty much nothing was signed as they were off exhibit for the season.

Will also have species lists for Ripley’s, Safari Niagara, and Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo & Nature Center soon-ish.
 
Persephone said:
I enjoyed the park a lot. Will have a species list and review up for it at some point in the next week. One thing I do need help with: does anyone know what’s usually in Kid’s Kingdom? Pretty much nothing was signed as they were off exhibit for the season.

Will also have species lists for Ripley’s, Safari Niagara, and Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo & Nature Center soon-ish.
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Honestly I don’t recall the last time the kids zoo had even half of its species present, I believe they display various ambassador animals but I’ve seen basically all different species every time I visit.
 
Haunthow said:
Honestly I don’t recall the last time the kids zoo had even half of its species present, I believe they display various ambassador animals but I’ve seen basically all different species every time I visit.
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They should have kept all of them steadily throughout the last few years so you must have just missed some of them sometimes.
 
My species list (* means signed but unseen) was:

Northern Ground Hornbill
Marabou Stork
Domestic Goat
Northern Ground Hornbill
Harris’s Hawk*
Striped Skunk
Domestic Ferret*
Eurasian Eagle Owl
Common Raven
Domestic Rabbit
Alpaca, Domestic Donkey

Nothing in the free flight aviary or the exhibits in it was signed except for the birds of prey at the end.
 
On my visit just over a week ago the alpaca and the donkey were both nowhere to be seen. Over the past couple years I’ve seen other animals spend time in the area, does anyone know what happened to the woodchuck that was there?
 
Haunthow said:
On my visit just over a week ago the alpaca and the donkey were both nowhere to be seen. Over the past couple years I’ve seen other animals spend time in the area, does anyone know what happened to the woodchuck that was there?
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I only saw them on the Zoomobile.
 
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