Toronto Zoo Former Toronto Zoo Animals

TZFan

TZFan

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
I was reading in other forums about animals no longer at zoos people wanted back and found this great list of previous species kept at Toronto thanks to Meaghan Edwards in 2009. I thought I would repost the list here because it would be a neat look back at the zoos past. I have removed animals from her origional list that we have back. If I miss some let me know so I can alter it.

Mara
Grizzled grey tree kangaroo *
Wallaroo
Tasmanian Devil *
Kowari *
Eastern Quoll *
Llama
Woolly Opossum *
Grey-headed flying fox *
Indian fruit bat *
Brush-tailed porcupine *
Tamandua *
Slow Loris *
Potto *
Senegal Galago *
Guereza Colobus *
Vervet Monkey *
Debrazza's Guenon *
Patas monkey
Hamadryas baboon
Gelada baboon *
Japanese Macaque
Liberian mongoose *
Cusimanse *
European Genet *
Zorilla *
Hog-nosed badger *
Fennec Fox *
Raccoon Dog *
Bat-eared Fox *
Bobcat *
Chinese Leopard *
Aardvark *
South American Tapir *
Damara zebra
Grant's zebra
Pronghorn *
Chinese Water Deer *
Siberian Roe Deer
Pere David's deer *
Barasingha *
White-tailed Deer *
Mule Deer *
Water Buffalo
Congo Buffalo *
Nilgai *
Sitatunga *
Nyala *
Bongo *
Springbok *
White-tailed gnu *
Gemsbok *
Nubian Ibex
Dall's Sheep *
False Gharial
Desert Hamster
Aldabra Tortoise *
Chimpanzee (from what I remember reading, were never put on display; the zoo decided to exhibit gorillas instead) *
Black Rhino (I recall reading an article where there was a similar switch to the Southern White Rhinos like the gorillas/chimpanzees) *
Scheltopusik *
Barn Owl
Pied Cormorant *
Woodland Caribou *
Leadbeater's Possum (the zoo still has her, but she is off display)
Golden Monkey (visiting) *
Koala (visiting) *
Common Crow
Mandrill *
Coyote *
Black Bear *
Hyacinth Macaw *
Bengal Tiger *
Musk Ox *
Impala
Thomson's Gazelle

Here is the original thread I found it on.

http://www.zoochat.com/22/animals-no-longer-your-zoo-youd-68317/

Adding things off the top of my head is harder... I'll just check the stuff I posted last summer throughout the Births and deaths for 2013 section.

South African Fur Seal
African Elephants
African Wild Dogs
Stingrays and whatever was with them
Amur Tiger
Clouded Leopard
Caracal
Black Duikers
Greater Flamingos
Ocelots
Madagascar Button Quails
Demoiselle Cranes
Fiji Banded Iguana
Eastern Grey Kangaroos
Parma Wallaby
squirrel monkeys
owl squirrel monkeys
Scimitar Horned Oryx
Kea
Thick billed parrot
Bearded Barbets
Toco Toucans
Greater Bushbabies
Lesser Bushbabies
ruffled lemurs
Black Lemurs
Brown Lemurs
Pygmy Loris
King Vulture
Greater Rhea
Rock Hyrax
white nosed Coati
Kinkajou
Asian Clawed Otter
ringtails
wolverines
 
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Great list! The toronto zoo had so many amazing species that I sadly never got to see. I would love to know where they were all kept.

The zoo now has a giant salamander so you can remove that from the list.

Also white lions are still considered african lions so you can remove that too.

Finally I saw blue faced honey eaters recently and I don't think they're gone yet.

Anyways, thanks for sharing this.
 
Greendottie a chimp in the 80's is impossible, sorry to say. We just had one female, Sudi, for the first year the zoo was open and Im not even sure if she was ever on display. If there had been more I would have caught it in the studbook. I feel like we had galapagos tortioses too but I easily could have confused them with the Aladabras. I wasnt... and am still not a reptile person.

Thanks Arcticwolf for the fixes. I absolutely agree there were so many awesome animals in the past I never got to see as well. A ton of the animals were only around at opening and were phased out within two to ten years. I cant help you place most of them in exact locations. From what I can remember (and excluding the ones you probably remember)...

Mara, Llama - generally where the reindeer are now.

Grizzled grey tree kangaroo - probably in the old tree kangroo exhibit which based on photos looks like its the echidna exhibit and possibly the mixed exhibit. That's only a guess based on two photos and a fuzzy memory.

Grey-headed flying fox - Australiasia pavilion in the free flight aviary in the space where the doves were (I think you said the kookaburra was there).

Tamandua - Im not sure they were ever on display.

Hamadryas baboon and Gelada baboon - they had their own exhibit that was round in shape if I remember out on the savannah. They werent there at the same time. I faintly remember the switch but off the top of my head I cant say who came first.

Japanese Macaque - They lived in the barbary ape exhibit.
South American Tapir - I believe it was held with the capybara but it wasnt around long.

Damara zebra, Grant's zebra Thomson's Gazelle and White-tailed gnu- a big field exhibit with ostriches and white rhinos as well (until the zebra killing)

White-tailed Deer and Mule Deer - they had an exhibit along the monorail route.

Congo Buffalo - Im not entirely certain I saw them here in Toronto but I feel like they were in an exhibit just outside the rainforest pavilion.

Bongo - They had an exhibit in the rainforest pavilion or you could see them from inside it... I distinctly remember peering through some privacy fencing to see a mom and tiny baby.

Aldabra Tortoise - They had an exhibit outside between the burrows door and the regular door to the rainforest pavilion.

Golden Monkey - I think they were in the lion tailed macaque exhibit.

Koala - I dont know about their first visit but more recently they were in the current tree kangarro exhibit.

Bengal Tiger - they lived in the sumatrans exhibit. We used to have a white female.

Musk Ox - A monorail exhibit.

Demoiselle Cranes - I believe they were in the outdoor exhibit beside the australiasia pavilion, where someone said the kookaburras spent part of the summer.

Parma Wallaby - I would guess the outdoor wallaby exhibit.

Thick billed parrot - never on display. It was a seizure and it left once it was healthy and a new home was ready.

Asian Clawed Otter - it was a single animal part of a seizure and I dont remember what happened to it.

We need someone older than me or far more informed to fill in the other blanks and correct my childhood memories.
 
And the mandrills replacements in the pavilion were the lemurs. It's hard to say I would get rid of the lemurs to keep the mandrills but I wish we could have found a way to have both. I loved the mandrills.They are so striking. Part of me is hoping when the olive baboons are finished being phased out the zoo goes back to mandrills in that exhibit but they dont fit in the savanna so my hopes will most likely be crushed. It will be a return to Hamadryas baboons most likely.
 
I'm right on board with you when it comes to the African Wild Dogs. If I could only pick one animal to add to the zoo it would be the wild dogs. I would love walruses but the odds of getting the animals for that are exceptionally small. And I would love to see the tasmainan devils come back to stay but only if they were breeding. But African Wild Dogs is a realistic dream. Finding that info made me so sad because I would have loved to see them at the zoo. They are one of my favourite species.

I can live without grey wolves because we have the arctic wolves. There's no chance those are coming back. With the Canadian Wilderness moving up beside Tundra Trek that just wouldnt make sense to have two wolf packs so close together.

If we are talking about species we like back... naturally I would take all of them. But being realistic in my dreams thats never going to happen. I would love to see wild dogs, aardvarks, mandrills, bongos and Asian Small Clawed otters return. I know I said the devils before but we can easily source all of the others and get breeders. Devils is a distant dream due to Australian regulations and even if we could get them what would I sacrifice in the pavilion to keep them? I like the tree kangaroos, komodos and wombats to much to get rid of them leaving me no space. I can find spaces for the others easily.
 
Apparently it wasnt just one chimp we cared for in 1976. The keepers twitter says there was three. Sudi, the one I found in the studbook and two others Nugu and Ngumi. We were a stop over for awhile before they went to Trinidad. I thought it was Europe but Trinidad makes more sense for a short stay in Toronto than recrossing the Atlantic. I love throwback Thursday on their twitter. There's always a good chance you'll learn something new.
 
can anyone tell me which species of Oryx the Toronto Zoo would have had in 1987? Was it gemsbok (O. gazella), beisa (O. beisa beisa), or fringe-eared oryx (O. beisa callotis)? (At the time the latter two would have been considered subspecies of O. gazella).
 
The Toronto Zoo had gemsbok in 1987. I have a DVD from the early 1990s that shows the zoo having gemsbok and I believe there is a picture in the Toronto Zoo gallery of gemsbok from the late 1980s.
 
Nikki, the Indian Rhino, has passed away July 3rd, at Cincinnati Zoo. She was born at the zoo on Christmas Day 1991 to Patrick and Indira and from my records it looks like she was the first Indian Rhino born at the zoo. At Cincinnati she became the worlds first Indian Rhino to give birth to a surviving calf concieved through AI.

Cincinnati Zoo endangered Rhino dies
 
Gorilla, Jomo, is about to become a father any day now. The baby will belong to Gladys Porter Zoo.

Here's an interesting article on how ownership of babies, like Jomo's newest offspring, is decided regardless of species. The mothers owner gets the first born. The fathers zoo gets the second born. It doesnt say it but the birthplace facility if it owns neither parent does get in on the third birth.

Cincinnati Zoo gorilla expecting but 'ownership' is complicated matter | WVXU
 
I've seen some recent pictures of Jomo and his baby on flickr. Really nice.
 
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