The fur seals werent just an expense issue. Dont get me wrong the cost to fix what was wrong with the exhibit and its plumbing as well as improve the exhibit was a consideration, but the biggest issue was sourcing more seals and dispersing young. Toronto was the only zoo in North America with a colony of Cape fur seals. No one else was really that interested. Im not sure about collections elsewhere but getting more was not going to be easy by the 90's when our originals started dropping off. Ultimately the species just didnt make sense. The zoo would have been smarter when they built the zoo to have put the pool in Tundra Trek and that would have allowed them to keep any species of North American based pinniped. At least then there would have been rescues available as well as transfers to bolster numbers and genetics as well as allow for easy placement of young. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
The foxes is just a lot of bad luck. Who knew the red fox would make a break for it after just a few months at the zoo? The Arctic foxes well we all know that was just a lot of horrible luck. A fox species though could always return.
The tapir left because we were finally breeding the Indian rhino again and had a breeding pair of babirusa that unexpectedly needed to be housed in the rhino barn. The barn simply didnt have space for several rhinos, babirusas and tapir. Toronto did get a mate for him but she died during quarantine and the zoo had been waiting forever to get a mate for him, despite his high genetic value. Ultimately when they looked at the numbers and future breeding potential the rhinos and babirusa made more sense then the tapir so he was sent to Parc Safari who was thrilled to take on the species. He has an amazing exhibit there with a big pool and so much grassy space.
Pangolins are almost impossible to acquire these days. I dont know about difficulty in keeping them. Just know the zoo even if they wanted one would be very hard pressed to source one.
