Toledo Zoo Toledo Zoo

I have a question, My partner and I are thinking of making a winter zoo trip in February to both the Detroit Zoo and Toledo Zoo. We were wondering how Toledo is in the Winter? How about viewing the hippos, are they inside and can visitors see them indoors? Any other exhibits or things to be aware of in the winter in Toledo? Thanks!
 
Toledo is not a great winter zoo we love coming here for Zoolights,in fact we just recently spent the day at the Detroit Zoo and came to Toledo at night for Zoolights.However in February and having never been to the zoo before I think you might enjoy it more in the summer.The indoor viewing for the hippos is terrible,its a tiny window looking into a tiny pen and pool.At the moment this entire area is closed for renovations that includes hippos and elephants.The polar bear and seal exhibit is really nice as well as the wolves.They have an average indoor great ape house and a historic but small aquarium.The hippoquarium is the best attraction here and so for that reason we would recommend a summer visit but its your call any questions don't hesitate to ask

Team Tapir
 
History is important

Ungulate said:
I was a bit disappointed with my recent visit to the Toledo Zoo. It has been about ten years since my earlier visit, but while there have been some major changes in that time, the zoo still felt "old".

The first exhibits you come to are the Arctic Encounter (polar bears, grey + harbour seals, wolves) and Africa!, both of which are relatively new (less than 10 years old).

The Arctic Encounter felt like a fairly standard arctic exhibit, with above and below water viewing of polar bears and seals. I was disappointed with the polar bear exhibit, primarily due to the fact that while the rockwork was new, that was all their was - no natural substrate to be seen! The underwater viewing area was nicely set up in an indoor facility, with an elevated overlook as well as a lower area where people could get closer to the glass. The most innovative part of the exhibit was an area where the seal pool went under the polar bear exhibit, with a skylight to allow the bears to look down at the seals. The interpretation was the best part of the exhibit for me - there was a "choose your own adventure" style quiz with seven or so stations, where you were given a situation and two choices ... the next station described why one choice was the "right" choice, and related it back to life in the arctic for both people and animals. Very well done.

Africa! was a major disappointment for me, although it really wasn't that bad. The most shocking thing was the sheer volume of people amenities in relation to animal exhibits! There were only two exhibits - a paddock for African wild dogs (nice size for this roaming species) and a large mixed species exhibit with various hoofstock and birds. A train circles the complex, presumably with a narration. Unfortunately, the train completely circles the wild dog exhibit, making for very poor viewing from the visitor pathway, since you have to look over the train tracks and through chain link.

The open savannah exhibit was a large area, although not as large as I had envisioned based on the guide map. Inhabitants included Masai giraffe (3), brindled gnu (3), greater kudu (~4), impala (~5), Nile lechwe (one very old male), Grant's zebra (2), plus ostrich, white stork, vultures, and some guinea fowl. Viewing is from one vantage point (unless you are on the train), and most of the birds and the impala keep to the far back of the exhibit. The oddest thing about the exhibit was the addition of sculpted features and animals ... hyrax set along the viewing area, a fake hammerkop nest, and two crocodile posed at the water feature!

People amenities in Africa! included a gift shop, the train station, a restaurant, beverage, and bathroom complex, two large rentable pavilions, a face painting and caricature store, another restaurant area, and another souvenir stop.

The old half of the zoo (reached by a pedestrian bridge over the highway) contains the Hippoquarium (1988) - still the premiere exhibit at the zoo in my eyes, with underwater viewing of river hippos that rivals the new hippo exhibits being constructed now! I also really enjoyed the Cape clawless otters and their exhibit, but the rest of the "Savannah" exhibits felt small and somewhat lacklustre.

The reptile house was shockingly Gothic (flagstone floor, wrought-iron chandeliers), the aquarium very standard, and the aviary was neither here nor there for me.

The Primate Forest exhibit (new in 1998ish) was an interesting concept, with three outdoor mesh enclosures and two indoor dayrooms. The five species of primates exhibited (white-cheeked gibbon, Francois' langurs, colobus, Allen's swamp monkeys, and diana monkeys) are rotated through the different enclosures on a day-to-day basis, giving the animals a different environment on a daily basis. The colobus and swamp monkeys were together in the same enclosure on both days I visited, but everyone else moved around (an interesting take on the rotational exhibit).

The great ape complex (with orangs, chimps, gorillas) didn't feel that special to me, with indoor dayrooms and outdoor mesh habitats. The outdoor chimpanzee exhibit was quite densely vegetated, which surprised me, but the orang exhibits were boring to look at, with a mowed grass "floor", and regular timber climbing structures.

Other exhibits include renovated bear grottoes for sloth bears and tigers, a penguin pool, mesh-enclosed waterfowl pool, and "Cheetah Valley" (looking down into the exhibit from the old stone terrace at the heart of the zoo). The (temporary?) amphibian exhibit was well done, but the building it was housed in seemed cavernous in relation to the exhibit.

And that is basically the zoo ... it may be "complete" in terms of displaying representatives from most taxa, but the haphazard arrangement (a pet peeve of mine) and seemingly few exhibits did not leave me with a great impression. I would rank the Toledo Zoo beneath the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in terms of overall experience (or, I would visit Cleveland before Toledo).
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I have to disagree with your comment with the zoo feeling old, the use and reuse of the zoos older buildings is what I love about Toledo, other zoos ie: cleveland insist on tearing down all history at the zoo. I find Toledo to be a great zoo and has a certain charm to it with the older buildings, just my opinion.
 
Zoos have to balance preserving their historic buildings with upgrading to more modern facilities.Some zoos do a better job with this than others.Carnivora Cafe at Toledo is a great example of this.Another Zoo off the top of my head which does a good job here would be Brookfield in Chicago with exhibits like The Swamp and The Fragile Desert.

Team Tapir
 
I truly can't wait for Vasha to give birth to Ali's third calf! I hope our females have more success with Ali though. Natural breeding isn't working out lately with the girls and they are aging quickly.
 
Several years ago the Toledo Zoo came across private money to be given specifically for a renovation of its African Penguin exhibit.The zoo took bids on the project but then ran into some some kind of snag in its design with those who were giving the money.We have been told the whole thing is indefinitely on the backburner.

Team Tapir
 
We had wonderful time on our trip to the Toledo Zoo today to see the zoos new amur tiger cubs Talya and Victor they were a blast were alone worth the trip.There is plenty going on at the zoo.

1. The zoos new elephant exhibit looks great and is set to open this summer,however no grand opening date is yet to be set.It appears as if there won't be any public access to the elephant barn.

2.The zoos aquarium is set to close in october to be completely redone.The renovations are to include a 90K gallon Tropical Reef Tank,a new shark tank,a new amazon tank and a touch tank.The renovation is expected to be finished by 2015.

3.The zoo is currently breeding its snowleopards and has high hopes for cubs this year.

4.The zoo is renovating its grey wolf exhibit.For quite some time now the wolves here in Toledo have been digging trenches along the fence line staff would often monitor this assuring people there was no way they could escape like this and they are probably right however the zoo has opted to redo the entire perimeter of their enclosure.

Team Tapir
 
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