Toledo Zoo Toledo Zoo News 2021

Well, Tembo Trail's theming is relatively new, but yeah, the structural facilities are a bit on the aged side. The only real renovations I'm aware of is the revamp of the elephant barn and exhibit expansion back in 2010ish? (please correct me if I'm wrong)
 
A new exhibit for elephants and rhinos where the current main entrance is despite Tembo Trail still being a relatively new facility? What would take up Tembo Trail then?

I believe the new entrance. Its the area of the main zoo closest to the new parking lot. But its not exactly shown in the graphics, although you can see a proposed tunnel to this area from the lot.
 
Well, Tembo Trail's theming is relatively new, but yeah, the structural facilities are a bit on the aged side. The only real renovations I'm aware of is the revamp of the elephant barn and exhibit expansion back in 2010ish? (please correct me if I'm wrong)

The project still cost 15 million o_O Which when compared to the 25 million spent on the museum renovation seems like a lot for what they got.
 
I see. Were the paddocks across from the elephants (rhino and the exhibits currently holding camels, yak, reindeer) by chance renovated back during the construction and revamping that would lead to Tembo Trail?
 
In addition to the Amur Tiger Cubs, two juvenile Reticulated Giraffe's have arrived as the Zoo shifts away from managing Masai Giraffe. The male, Winston, comes from the Gladys Porter Zoo while Zeena, the female, comes from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The pair is recommended to breed, however likely not for years to come as they're both very young.

Toledo Zoo welcomes tiger cubs, two young giraffes
 
In addition to the Amur Tiger Cubs, two juvenile Reticulated Giraffe's have arrived as the Zoo shifts away from managing Masai Giraffe. The male, Winston, comes from the Gladys Porter Zoo while Zeena, the female, comes from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The pair is recommended to breed, however likely not for years to come as they're both very young.

Toledo Zoo welcomes tiger cubs, two young giraffes

What a bizarre move for an AZA zoo to make, opting out of the priority giraffe program in favor of breeding already overpopulated hybrid giraffes. Can't say I'm a fan of that.

~Thylo
 
This is to move valuable Masai giraffe out of a facility that has repeatedly lost giraffe...
OK, fine with that single item and reasoning.

Just not so overjoyed alike Thylo over the indecision within AZA/SSP to confront the issue of phasing out and/or preventing breeding from suspect and crossbreed giraffe with no conservation value in the region. You would have to agree that the reticulated/Rothschild's crossbreeds occupy way too many and precious "giraffe" spaces that would be of some importance to breed up the numbers in the purebred Masai giraffe and moving away from the crossbreeds and attempting to significantly reduce their numbers (in order to enable AZA/SSP to switch to setting up another purebred giraffe conservation breeding).

(amen ..., no rant, just a mere personal observation of mine).
 
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AZA institutions ARE trying to phase in Masai but most are unable to because there are so few of the subspecies compared to the number of institutions that want to hold them. Breeding continues with "generic" giraffes because the Masai population is so small that it is not enough to sustain a captive population in addition to the high infant mortality rate for the subspecies. If we want giraffes in North America, get used to seeing "generic" giraffes for a long time.
 
This is to move valuable Masai giraffe out of a facility that has repeatedly lost giraffe...

That's a pretty good reason then, I wasn't aware of Toledo's repeated issues with keeping Masai.

OK, fine with that single item and reasoning.

Just not so overjoyed alike Thylo over the indecision within AZA/SSP to confront the issue of phasing out and/or preventing breeding from suspect and crossbreed giraffe with no conservation value in the region. You would have to agree that the reticulated/Rothschild's crossbreeds occupy way too many and precious "giraffe" spaces that would be of some importance to breed up the numbers in the purebred Masai giraffe and moving away from the crossbreeds and attempting to significantly reduce their numbers (in order to enable AZA/SSP to switch to setting up another purebred giraffe conservation breeding).

(amen ..., no rant, just a mere personal observation of mine).

While I do eco your frustration with the slow pace of the Masai phase-in and with the AZA for deciding to hybridize the other populations in the first place, the sad reality is that @Echobeast is correct in that there are far too few pure Masai and too slow of breeding to replace the generic giraffe population the way we would like to. The situation in America is quite different to that of Europe, where cross-breeds are still bred in many zoos meanwhile there are four pure giraffe programs, some of which are unable to grow and others suffering from overpopulation due to a lack of available holders. Sadly, I would be very surprised if we ever see American zoos import giraffes from overseas to initiate a new program. Apart from the sheer cost of importing a sustainable founding population, the US has their ever annoying importation laws when it comes to ruminants that would make such an endeavor insanely costly and difficult.

~Thylo
 
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