Toronto Zoo Former Toronto Zoo Animals

Really a pity Mila was lost due to a totally freak accident that was so unpredictable and absolutely unstoppable. The one good thing is she didnt suffer for long. They did their best to save her and then let her go. With a spinal injury and already being out cold she probably didnt even feel pain long if at all. And such a loss to the population. Mazy was the top ranked female and Mila even with Vasili as her father was highly ranked. She would have made great contributions to the population. Mila's litter was clearly ill fated. At least Mazy has three surviving cubs with her previous mate Jack, Yuri, Volga and Sputnik. They could all breed. Well Yuri and Volga are together in Winnipeg but Volga could go south to replace her baby sister.
 
Until Sunday there will be a memory wall outside the indoor viewing area where guests can write messages about Mila and memories about her. But we are also not supposed to speak to the keepers about it either, since as bad as this situation may be for those looking in from the outside, it is a ton times worse for those who actually raised her from a little cub and they need time to figure things out. There's also a fund within the Wildlife conservancy for Mila which will help their counterparts in the wild.
 
@Zoo adventures First of all welcome to the TZ forum! Always nice to have a new face here

The zebra killing happened years ago, probably sometime in the 90s before the African Savanna got its big overhaul. Back then the rhinos and the zebras were mixed, but one of the rhinos flew into a rage and killed a zebra. They were separated after that

As for the walruses that's a big sad negative I'm afraid. There are no more walruses in Canadian zoos.
 
hyena142 said:
@Zoo adventures First of all welcome to the TZ forum! Always nice to have a new face here

The zebra killing happened years ago, probably sometime in the 90s before the African Savanna got its big overhaul. Back then the rhinos and the zebras were mixed, but one of the rhinos flew into a rage and killed a zebra. They were separated after that

As for the walruses that's a big sad negative I'm afraid. There are no more walruses in Canadian zoos.
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Thank you for the information, Wow that rhino was crazy. For the walruses, that's sad, I went to see the walruses only twice.
 
Puzzle, Toronto's final Matschie's tree kangaroo, unfortunately passed away due to heart complications upon completing her transfer to Brookfield
 
To bad about Puzzle. I was hoping even though the odds werent good that she could contribute to the population.
 
Zoo adventures said:
Would the zoo get more tree kangaroos?There have been quite a lot of death this year
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Puzzle didn't die in Toronto. She was shipped out I think last fall to Brookfield. She died after getting there. The zoo phased out tree kangaroos. It was too hard to get a breeding pair here. Tree kangaroos are very finicky to breed and with the border being an issue for transfers it was very hard to swap out one of the roos if the pair didn't get along. The population of tree kangaroos is very small and ultimately it was better for the population to keep all of the tree kangaroos in the US were they could be swapped around as needed to promote breeding. It's very unlikely the zoo will get the species back any time soon if ever.
 
Just one note re: border issues...Kangaroos (and australian marsupials in general) are actually one of the easiest groups of mammals to bring into Canada from the states in general! They have virtually no entry requirements beyond a veterinary inspection at the port of entry by the attending border vet.

The issue lies more in institutional bureaucracy, and the fact that, as mentioned, the tree kangaroo population is pretty small to begin with. Toronto's exhibit also wasn't great, especially for more sensitive animals like Nokopo. Open air meant public disturbance was easy, and there wasn't a super good way to have the exhibit divided or offer privacy, as the off exhibit holding is tiny. Subjectively, Toronto also didn't utilize the space to it's full potential, but thats an unrelated gripe of mine.

The sad thing is, had Toronto actually *had* a pair during the Covid lockdown, they likely would have experienced successful breeding thanks to the genuine peace, quite, and privacy the 'roo's would have received. Of course poor Colin's just had to pass away before that :(
 
Interesting insight on the border issues @Hyak_II. One can only wish that moving animals across the border in general was easier.
 
TZFan said:
Puzzle didn't die in Toronto. She was shipped out I think last fall to Brookfield. She died after getting there. The zoo phased out tree kangaroos. It was too hard to get a breeding pair here. Tree kangaroos are very finicky to breed and with the border being an issue for transfers it was very hard to swap out one of the roos if the pair didn't get along. The population of tree kangaroos is very small and ultimately it was better for the population to keep all of the tree kangaroos in the US were they could be swapped around as needed to promote breeding. It's very unlikely the zoo will get the species back any time soon if ever.
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Ohh I did not know that she went to Brookfield. The tree
Hyak_II said:
Just one note re: border issues...Kangaroos (and australian marsupials in general) are actually one of the easiest groups of mammals to bring into Canada from the states in general! They have virtually no entry requirements beyond a veterinary inspection at the port of entry by the attending border vet.
So the zoo exhibit was too small for these tree kangaroos

The issue lies more in institutional bureaucracy, and the fact that, as mentioned, the tree kangaroo population is pretty small to begin with. Toronto's exhibit also wasn't great, especially for more sensitive animals like Nokopo. Open air meant public disturbance was easy, and there wasn't a super good way to have the exhibit divided or offer privacy, as the off-exhibit holding is tiny. Subjectively, Toronto also didn't utilize the space to its full potential, but that's an unrelated gripe of mine.

The sad thing is, had Toronto actually *had* a pair during the Covid lockdown, they likely would have experienced successful breeding thanks to the genuine peace, quit, and privacy the 'roo's would have received. Of course, poor Colin's just had to pass away before that :(
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The tree kangaroo is a beautiful animal. Hope one day they will return to the zoo.
 
Today I found out that the St. John's Airport, there's a display case of animal products, most of which I'd assume were confiscated under CITES. However, the centerpiece of this display is a taxidermied Chinese Leopard named Qiu, who apparently was born at the Toronto Zoo in 1987 before being transferred to the Oaklawn Farm Zoo. Her remains were donated to the Canadian Wildlife Service, and she now resides in the airport.

I knew there were former zoo animals at the ROM, but I never expected to find one in an airport in St. John's!

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Wow that is a cool find @Kalvin. I knew nothing of the Chinese leopards in Toronto other than we had them at some point. Im guessing she was one of the very last to be born at the zoo, if not the last. I really started going to the zoo in the 90's when we were old enough to spend the day there. I dont recall ever seeing Chinese leopards. I have memories of the snow leopards and clouded leopards but no regular looking leopards. But a lot of those early memories of the zoo are just flashes for me so I could be wrong.
 
Kalvin said:
Today I found out that the St. John's Airport, there's a display case of animal products, most of which I'd assume were confiscated under CITES. However, the centerpiece of this display is a taxidermied Chinese Leopard named Qiu, who apparently was born at the Toronto Zoo in 1987 before being transferred to the Oaklawn Farm Zoo. Her remains were donated to the Canadian Wildlife Service, and she now resides in the airport.

I knew there were former zoo animals at the ROM, but I never expected to find one in an airport in St. John's!

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So cool animals that were at the Toronto Zoo. Are Northern Chinese leopards the same as Amur leopards?

Edit: 1975 - May - Chinese leopard, Metro Toronto Zoo - Toronto Guardian
This is another Chinese leopard. This photo was taken in May 1975(from the internet)
She or he might be the father or the mother of Qiu, or a relative
 
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