Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo - Births, Deaths and Transfers 2015

Matschie's Tree Kangaroo Harrington, 16, is retiring to Philadelphia. Keepers don’t know if there is a new male lined up yet. Harry has been obviously slow-moving and tentative for quite a while.

Cheetah Zeke, 12, was euthanized last week. No surprise since he had not been well for a while. Since Rafiki died earlier this year they have been waiting for the SSP decision on what male they will get.

Zebra Tori is believed to be pregnant again.

Asian Rhino Ashakiran, who is due to give birth mid-to-late January, was not eating as usual for a few weeks, but is back to normal and everything seems to be going well.

Palawan Peacock Pheasant male died and the zoo is trying to replace him.

The lion cubs have been sexed by the keepers (3 for sure and the 4th a maybe) and they have been mentioning it at the talks. However their official check-up is coming in the next week and there will probably be a big announcement soon, so I am not saying. There will be a naming contest.
 
Replacing Harrington might be tricky. While there are more males than females, Nokopo is one of the least genetically valuable females. May be hard to pair her. As of the last analysis of the population she could not breed with 7 of the 23 males. All other pairing were considered detrimental to the population (Harrington included). Only 4 males alive at the time of the analysis would be considered not horrible matches. Morobe from Riverbanks. A young male born at Dallas World Aquarium. Harrington's son Noru (the only proven breeder in the mix) who is at Lincoln Park Children's Zoo. It would be cool if Noru who himself was born at the zoo came home to sire the next generation. However consider he and his mate Milla are so successful together (5 sons to their credit) they may not want to split them. On the flip side Nokopo is a better genetic match and it would be good to split a successful pair so they aren't over represented together and can help prove if others are have a medical reason they aren't breeding or just a poor pairing. And lastly Omeo who is in San Antonio to breed.
 
Sad news to pass along. Dhole, Martha, was put down Nov 6th. That leaves sister Patty as the sole dhole in Canada. The sisters are quite elderly so its not all that surprising one would pass. It wont be long before dholes are gone completely.
 
Aurora gave birth to two cubs on Wednesday November 11th, sadly one cub did not survive, so they took the second one! The have sexed her already to be female.
 
This is great news! This has to be the best year for zoo babies ever! It's also nice to finally have a female polar bear cub. I hope she remains healthy.
 
Interesting that the birth happened on November 11. They're probably only now bringing this into the public eye as the cub was probably touch and go for a while.
 
While I'm happy the one cub survived I'm very disappointed the zoo again waited until one of the cubs died before pull the survivor. Aurora cannot nurse. This isn't new or news. The entire 2012 litter was lost because of nursing issues and Humphrey was the only survivor of the 2013 litter for the same issue. I know they were trying new things to help with nursing but... Frankly if they continue to breed Aurora the need to just pull the cubs. Admit she can't feed them and just hand rear as soon as they know she's done giving birth. She has given birth to 13 cubs but only 3 have survived the first days. That is a terrible ratio. Or... and this is the scenario I would prefer... stop breeding her.

I hope for the cub's sake Nikita finally gives birth and they can get her with her siblings/cousins. Just a pity we cannot ship her to Columbus to be hand reared with their female cub. Stupid laws.

At least being a female she would be more valuable to the population than another male who belongs to Aurora and Inukshuk.
 
I got so absorbed in my rant I forgot other news.

Egyptian goose, Loud, died leaving Annoying all by himself. Best name pair in the zoo is no more.

The reindeer herd is down to two. Apparently since the zoo has lost two in the past two months. I know I saw 4 on exhibit when I was there. Sad for Tundra Trek. It's down to 2 reindeer, a couple of snow geese, 1 wolf, 1 snowy owl and no foxes. Only exhibit thriving is the polar bears. Though once the young pack of wolves swaps with Loki that will change things a little. Wonder what will replace the reindeer? Part of me is really hoping for muskox but realistically I highly doubt that. And the continuing question of what will happen with the fox exhibit persists. Geeze going to Tundra Trek in the spring could be like a whole new exhibit if they got some replacement species.

The shrikes are in the prairie dog exhibit because the last of them has died. Not that its new news but its a confirmation that the zoo is out of prairie dogs.

In happier news... Camel Sally is pregnant and due in the spring. I thought she was pregnant all summer so guess they were wrong then, hopefully they are right now.

For those of you worried about the plush crested jay, Artful Dodger, the cunning little escape artist has been moved across from the boas so he cannot get loose again.
 
On the Polar Bear news, I agree that if the zoo decides to keep breeding Aurora they need to make the choice of pulling the cubs immediately to ensure their survival. I know it would be ideal for Aurora to raise the cubs on her own, but I think it would be more ideal to have all the cubs survive.

As for the Reindeer, I hate that exhibit. It's poorly accessible and the Reindeer can easily head towards the back of the exhibit to stay hidden. The exhibit itself is probably fine, but the accessibly needs to be fixed, by allowing more points of view to the animals. I hope they fix that before they bring in any other animals, although I know it's doubtful.

On Monday, Tom was trying to breed with both females. By try I mean he mounted each other them multiple times, but he never actual breed with either of them during the hour I watched them. So my guess is that neither of the girls were pregnant prior to Monday, or at least confirmed pregnant.
 
Gaboon Viper, Gracie, has died.

Snow leopards, Ena and Kota, have begun intros through the mess already. I thought it might be awhile before they were allowed to be that close but hey all good things for those of us holding out insane hope for spring cubs.

Gorillas, Sadiki and Nassir, have begun spending alone time together. It just signals what we all knew as inevitable the boys are slowly being separated from the group to form a bachelor pair which will be transferred to another zoo eventually. Charles can only deal with the much younger and increasingly stronger Sadiki for so long. It would only be a matter of time before the separation is final for Sadiki. By doing it slowly it will give time for Nassir to adjust to the change that's about to happen in his life.
 
RIP Gracie. She was probably my favourite snake in the zoo. I wonder what they're going to do with her exhibit now.

I hope the snow leopard introductions go well and the two breed. I still remember the last cubs from 6 years ago and they are probably the most adorable animal babies I have ever seen.

Sadiki and Nassir have been close for a while now. When I did my zookeeper for a day, the two were together the entire time. It's nice to know that when they do have to move, at least they'll have each other.
 
Komodo Dragons - there won't be any more breeding at TZ for a few years. Kiki had an MRI to confirm her sex - she is definitely female but has undeveloped ovaries and too much fat. So obviously she is on a diet. They say there uis a remote possibility the ovaries will develop. In Canada there are only the four young females at Calgary who are a couple of years away from breeding. Getting Kiki here from the U.S. took two years to complete permissions and paperwork, so minimum two years and probably longer. And where would Kiki go - another difficulty.

Snow Leopards - all three are getting along thru the mesh. They are even going to discuss putting Tiga and Ena out together since Tiga was OK with another female in the past and they have only shown curiosity about each other. In any case they won't be putting Ena outside for a while yet, only because she needs to be good and settled inside so they don't have difficulty bringing her in. Keeper said they haven't decided yet whether to try to breed Ena this winter or next. My guess is the pressure will be on from above for this year.

Distinguishing the Snow Leopards - this was asked about on the TZ Development Thread. Any differences I know of are only meaningful if you see them frequently enough. They are quite different sizes for one thing. Last year during the member access to the holdings I saw a board with Kota and Tiga's weights - 46K and 28K. A keeper told me yesterday Ena is noticeably smaller although at 4 she is full grown. I always though Kota had a big head, and I remember watching them many times in their old exhibit over the years and thinking they had quite different personalities. Kota kept his distance and ignored visitors, while Tiga would respond, and actually one day last winter she was chirping at me a little from about 2 metres away.

White-eye in Malayan Woods has died. Too bad -that was a very pretty and very active little bird.

Clouded Leopards continue to be put together frequently to become familiar. The female still isn't letting the male near her but she is not nervous or panicked. Last week I watched them for about an hour. She went to the highest perch and watched him creep closer to her level by stages until he was about a metre away. Then he dozed off and a minute later so did she!

Sumatran Tigers - no mating because her cycles are not intense enough to attract him. They have tried a hormone shot and are discussing what else to do.
 
Jake.Roberts said:
The Toronto zoo posted more on their Facebook page about the white lion cubs, including the sex! And we have 4 males
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how I feel about this news. Most importantly, I'm glad that all four cubs are healthy. The part that I'm worried about is that they're all male. Since they're male, they won't be able to live with their father once they get older and they will probably have to move to other zoos. The problem is that at most zoos, white lions are not in demand and I'm pretty sure that the AZA even recommends that zoos stop keeping them. It's possible that the zoo neuters the cubs like they did with Jerroh and Lyndy so they can live with Fintan. The main problem with that is I hope there is enough space.
 
I was thinking along the same lines arcticwolf. Glad they are all healthy, but they might be harder to place the females. I figure the zoo will want to eventually send the cubs off to other zoos, regardless of gender. Keeping four females would lead to them being spayed or Fintan being neutered.
 
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