Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Births, Deaths, and Transfers, 2019

TZFan said:
Sad news Concave-casqued hornbill, Asha, was put down. She was 51 and you only saw here while out with keepers due to the fact she was blind. In the zoo's obituary for her they mentioned she was actually blinded by our male Jonah while breeding. She ended up with brain damage which resulted in vision loss. Answers a lot of questions I had. Why was she blind? I assumed age. Why is Jonah not allowed a mate? He's known for being aggressive but I didnt think he had hurt her.
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Having mated pairs of hornbills is a delicate affair at setting up pairings and looking closely at individual birds' behaviors'. It is no good idea to put birds from separate aviaries into one after initial period. It is better to have separate aviaries and then a half-way house approach with a small cage in the aviary where the introduction is supposed to take place and let the birds' decide. Aggression or non-pairing behavior is very self evident in this approach. If no or apprehensive it is a no go for further pairing. I am not sure if many or most zoos use this as a common approach now or not. The above story-line might seem to have misread this approach or its indicative behaviors by the birds themselves. Seems - in my humble opinion - not a great pairing ... But as I say it is far from easy ... this with hornbills!!! D.N. underestimate this please (and do not take this as criticism of the zoo concerned, merely some feedback on hornbill management and ecology and how best this may be approached under captive conditions).
 
TZFan said:
Red River Hog, Tisa, has given birth to two hoglets. Finally Philip got the job done. This is a pretty big success for the zoo because Philip and former mate Casey were great pals but neither was interested in breeding with the other. Then when Tisa came they had positive signs but some renos behind scenes resulted in a move to the health unit until work was done. When they moved back they hated each other. It's taken some work to get Tisa and Philip back on track but seems like the keepers have done a great job and now we can enjoy two little hoglets!.
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Just saw the hoglets today! Pictures of them are now in the Toronto Zoo gallery.
 
Wolf pups Claire, Jamie, Murtagh, Dougal, Angus and Rupert are moving to Zoo Sauvage shortly. Darn I just learned their names!
 
The red river hoglets are female. Vote on facebook to name them Hazel and Ginger or Sadie and Stella. I'm a little disappointed we aren't going for the silly pig names like the litter of warthogs named Bacon, Ham, Porkchop and something else food related I dont recall at the moment. I like when they go silly with the hogs.
 
According to a post I got, the Archerfish are back in the Malayan Woods pavilion. Can anybody confirm this for me?
 
More wolf pups!
As per a Facebook post today, both Vera and Dora "denned" (in the same den) just over a week ago, so far 2 pups have been observed but the Zoo doesn't yet know how many in total, or if one or both had a litter.

Hopefully I'll be able to see this year's pups before they are all grown like last year!
 
Przewalski horses - the two females from Calgary, Winnie and Wynona, are integrated with the herd including all but one of the other females and castrated male Phoenix. Pay no attention to the zoomobile commentators - Phoenix will not be "making babies with his girlfriends".

The two you can see from the path by the turs are castrated male Ghengis and F Naghai, who was not getting along with some of the other females.

Youngest male Dudley is on his own now but will be moved with the two new females to their own paddock for breeding.

Red Pandas - 0.1 Malina has gone to St Felicien and new 1.0 Suva is here in quarantine. Ralphie will be moving on sooner or later and a new female will be coming sooner or later for breeding.

Snow Leopards - Ena and her son and daughter Mylo and Kita have been separated for a while. Keepers I have asked just shrug - they have no idea when the cubs will move or a male will arrive for breeding. Such a waste when we have new North American blood in Ena and, although still of breeding age of course, she isn't getting younger.
 
@Mr Wrinkly I'm surprised red panda Ralphie didn't leave with Malina. They are both supposed to be there. If I remember right we are getting a new breeding pair but both are fairly young. I think both are about a year old.

I'm with you on the snow leopard hold up. The twins are 2 time to move on to the next litter. At this point though I don't need the new male to be here and settled in until fall. Need to time spring cubs right. I do hate transfer hold ups.
 
There is a new female saki monkey on display. Her name is Cora and she comes from Cleveland. At 2 she and Maderia would be able to have lots of little ones unlike Tia who was older.
 
4 wolf pups have been spotted out of the den at this time. There may or may not be more especially since both females may have been pregnant. If there is a second litter they may still be too young to emerge. Time will tell.
 
There is a joey! New breeding kangaroo Simon got busy quickly and one of the four breeding females has a joey. There may be more! The keeper I was talking to this morning said this one should be out of the pouch by the time the Kangaroo walk-through reopens. I think that is scheduled for late June.

The Fiji Island Banded Iguana has arrived and is in the exhibit. It is a male and they are expecting a female to arrive. Forgot to ask where they were coming from. Check the gallery.
 
Oh it will be great to see the kangaroo exhibit alive with little joeys again. Go Simon! Now if only he could teach some of his neighbors the same thing. I'm looking at you Arthur and Matilba! I want a wombat joey. Collins gets a pass since Nokopo is the one who wont breed thus denying me my tree kangaroo joey. Our kangaroos needed some new blood.
 
TZFan said:
@Mr Wrinkly I'm surprised red panda Ralphie didn't leave with Malina. They are both supposed to be there. If I remember right we are getting a new breeding pair but both are fairly young. I think both are about a year old.
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Keepers were told there is a medical issue about Ralphie moving but they don't know what it is. Weird to me - you would think keepers would be informed of any medical issue with their charges, and, you know, management skills. Informed staff are more engaged, feeling they are part of a team.
 
TZFan said:
Oh it will be great to see the kangaroo exhibit alive with little joeys again. Go Simon! Now if only he could teach some of his neighbors the same thing. I'm looking at you Arthur and Matilba! I want a wombat joey. Collins gets a pass since Nokopo is the one who wont breed thus denying me my tree kangaroo joey. Our kangaroos needed some new blood.
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I have seen Arthur fleeing when Matilba comes anywhere near him. Not too good for breeding! Keepers say Matilba is quite cranky with him and they feel it is unlikely there will be any breeding.
 
Komodos - 0.1 Kilat was scheduled to move out, to be replaced for breeding purposes but she passed away before moving. A keeper told me yesterday that the replacement might have died, but wasn't sure about that.

TZFan figured out that the replacement was a 5-yr-old named Sha Sha from Brevard Zoo in Florida and I did some checking and found that she died May 10th:

Remembering Sha-Sha | Brevard Zoo Blog

So, again TZ has a valuable male and no mate.
 
Indian rhino, Nandu, is heading for Safari Niagara in 2 weeks. The next two weeks you can go say goodbye. Long time coming for him. They are probably starting to look ahead to separating Kiran from Asha in the fall and will need the space. Wonder if Asha is already pregnant with baby number 3, maybe a girl this time.
 
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