There's currently a surplus of NAROs in the AZA, and places which have had pups have been having a difficult time placing offspring. If Toronto has the means to house otters, it's imperative for the SSP to send them otters now and free up space elsewhere. A number of zoos have been dealing with separation/multiple groups of otters because they've reached sexual maturity before they can be placed at other zoos. So while it may not make sense at the institutional level to acquire them prematurely, at the SSP level there are a number of otters in need of placement right now.
Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Births, Deaths and Transfers 2022
- Thread starter TZFan
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Right @Neil chace, the time is right to strike and get a set of otters that will be young and active for the new exhibit when its eventually ready. If they wait they may have trouble getting some young ones in a few years. I had wondered how they were planning on housing them prior to Ward's passing. Their exhibit really isnt suited to hold 2 groups of otters. But the beaver exhibit is a great alternative. How you get them into the holding might be more interesting but they probably thought that through when they did the reno of the exhibits. Sounds like they knew Ward's time was growing shorter for some time.
Back by popular request... ok by Hyena142 only... the end of year summary. I do not claim that this is a complete list, just what I caught and happen to remember to have logged.
Births
1 Spoonbill
1 White Cheeked Turaco
14 Eastern Massassagua Rattlesnakes
4 Cheetah - Marie, Berlioz and Toulouse and unnamed
1 Masai Giraffe - Matumaini
1 Bennett’s Wallaby - The Machine
1 Sumatran Orangutan - Wali
3 Plush Crested Jays
5 Tur - Turmite, Boyd, T Rex, Shamrock, Tursee
15 Black footed ferrets - 5 boys 2 girls.
3 Bison - Patriza, Session and Daniel
18 Eastern Loggerhead Shrikes
12 Vancouver Island Marmots
1 Red Panda - Dash
The list isnt too long but we got a giraffe, orang and cheetahs which were real crowd pleasers. Wali was a huge achievement being the first orang in 15 years. The conservation programs rocked it yet again with lots of ferrets, shrikes, marmots, rattlesnakes, and 3 long awaited bison calves born through cutting edge tech. I am certain there were plenty of Blanding's turtles hatching but they never released a number to work with. And the real shocker of the year likely for the keepers is the turaco because they all thought parents Bruce and Linda were just too old since it had been quite awhile for them.
Deaths
1 Cheetah - unnamed cub
1 Galaha - Graham
1 Indian Rhino - Ashakiran
1 Cougar - Bailey
1 Chamois - Julie
1 Common Marmoset - Samantha
1 Red Panda - Dash
1 Bennett’s Wallaby - Stevie
1 White Handed Gibbon - Holly
1 Prehensile Tailed Porcupine - Nicole
1 Alpaca - Botan
1 Beaver - Ward
1 African Spotted Necked Otter - Fred
It was a hard year with so many long time residents going. The shocker for us all was probably the loss of Asha. No one really expected to loose such a young rhino but the zoo fought so hard and so publicly for her. I for one applaud their openness in that struggle for her survival. It was also hard looing the cheetah and red panda cubs, especially little Dash who had been thriving so well before he just tanked.
Notable Departures
5 Arctic Wolves - Veolia and Valentina to Magnetic Hill and Nuna, Anori, and Inneq to Saskatoon
56 Blanding’s turtles - released into the Rouge.
3 Spider Monkeys - Eve and Poppy to Magnetic Hill, Lucas to Granby
17 Black Footed Ferrets - all went to the National Black Footed Ferret Conservation Centre
1 Tree Kangaroo - Puzzle to Brookfield
1 Grey Kangaroo - Adelaide to Brookfield
1 Red Panda - Adira to San Diego
A lot of the moves just freed up space for others or redevelopment.
Notable Arrivals
2 Bennett’s Wallaby - Wallace and Florence from Peterborough
1 West African Dwarf Croc - Brenda
1 Veiled Chameleon - George
3 Meerkats - Marvin, Ashton, Demi
1 White Handed Gibbon - Hoot
Hey we got meerkats back and we have all wanted that for some time. Sadly its a sibling set again and all on the older side. They will buy us time until hopefully we can get a breeding group in the future where covid quits fouling things up.
And in a depressing new category we might as well add...
Species Phased Out
Common Marmoset
Galah
Cougar
Prehensile Tailed Porcupine
Matschie’s Tree Kangaroo
Beaver
African Spotted Necked Otter
Spider Monkey
I think this was one of the biggest years since I started doing this for completed phase outs. I suspect we also may be out of elk and zebra doves but I cant prove it.
Tomorrow I start a new thread with all the expected births, and transfers I know about (spoiler alert 1 birth only).
Births
1 Spoonbill
1 White Cheeked Turaco
14 Eastern Massassagua Rattlesnakes
4 Cheetah - Marie, Berlioz and Toulouse and unnamed
1 Masai Giraffe - Matumaini
1 Bennett’s Wallaby - The Machine
1 Sumatran Orangutan - Wali
3 Plush Crested Jays
5 Tur - Turmite, Boyd, T Rex, Shamrock, Tursee
15 Black footed ferrets - 5 boys 2 girls.
3 Bison - Patriza, Session and Daniel
18 Eastern Loggerhead Shrikes
12 Vancouver Island Marmots
1 Red Panda - Dash
The list isnt too long but we got a giraffe, orang and cheetahs which were real crowd pleasers. Wali was a huge achievement being the first orang in 15 years. The conservation programs rocked it yet again with lots of ferrets, shrikes, marmots, rattlesnakes, and 3 long awaited bison calves born through cutting edge tech. I am certain there were plenty of Blanding's turtles hatching but they never released a number to work with. And the real shocker of the year likely for the keepers is the turaco because they all thought parents Bruce and Linda were just too old since it had been quite awhile for them.
Deaths
1 Cheetah - unnamed cub
1 Galaha - Graham
1 Indian Rhino - Ashakiran
1 Cougar - Bailey
1 Chamois - Julie
1 Common Marmoset - Samantha
1 Red Panda - Dash
1 Bennett’s Wallaby - Stevie
1 White Handed Gibbon - Holly
1 Prehensile Tailed Porcupine - Nicole
1 Alpaca - Botan
1 Beaver - Ward
1 African Spotted Necked Otter - Fred
It was a hard year with so many long time residents going. The shocker for us all was probably the loss of Asha. No one really expected to loose such a young rhino but the zoo fought so hard and so publicly for her. I for one applaud their openness in that struggle for her survival. It was also hard looing the cheetah and red panda cubs, especially little Dash who had been thriving so well before he just tanked.
Notable Departures
5 Arctic Wolves - Veolia and Valentina to Magnetic Hill and Nuna, Anori, and Inneq to Saskatoon
56 Blanding’s turtles - released into the Rouge.
3 Spider Monkeys - Eve and Poppy to Magnetic Hill, Lucas to Granby
17 Black Footed Ferrets - all went to the National Black Footed Ferret Conservation Centre
1 Tree Kangaroo - Puzzle to Brookfield
1 Grey Kangaroo - Adelaide to Brookfield
1 Red Panda - Adira to San Diego
A lot of the moves just freed up space for others or redevelopment.
Notable Arrivals
2 Bennett’s Wallaby - Wallace and Florence from Peterborough
1 West African Dwarf Croc - Brenda
1 Veiled Chameleon - George
3 Meerkats - Marvin, Ashton, Demi
1 White Handed Gibbon - Hoot
Hey we got meerkats back and we have all wanted that for some time. Sadly its a sibling set again and all on the older side. They will buy us time until hopefully we can get a breeding group in the future where covid quits fouling things up.
And in a depressing new category we might as well add...
Species Phased Out
Common Marmoset
Galah
Cougar
Prehensile Tailed Porcupine
Matschie’s Tree Kangaroo
Beaver
African Spotted Necked Otter
Spider Monkey
I think this was one of the biggest years since I started doing this for completed phase outs. I suspect we also may be out of elk and zebra doves but I cant prove it.
Tomorrow I start a new thread with all the expected births, and transfers I know about (spoiler alert 1 birth only).
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Are these marmots on exhibit? I didn't realize Toronto kept this species, and it's not listed on the website. If it is a species on exhibit, that'd be one more new animal for me when I hopefully get to Toronto over the next few years.
@Neil chace, unfortunately, Vancouver Island Marmots are not on exhibit. This is a species the zoo works with behind the scenes solely to help breed and return them back to the wild. Seeing one on the off chance at the Health Center is probably the only way I can think of in which you can see them. And that's a completely random occurrence.
I can confirm from San Diego Zoo's social media pages that Adira has safely arrived and is settling in well.
@Neil chace, I can confirm Cypher is right. Your only hope is the health center. I was blessed enough to see one in there one day. It was so cool seeing an animal that literally no one else in Ontario gets to just see. Other than the volunteer in there with us no one else realized how immensely rare that is. The marmots are never taken out of the breeding center if they can avoid it. They do as much medical stuff on site as they can at the breeding center to reduce possible exposure to anything. Its the zoos most bio secure area.
@TheGerenuk I will go change it then since I still can.
@TheGerenuk I will go change it then since I still can.
hyena142
Well-Known Member
yay my request fulfilled lol
This was a solid year all around. Some high profile births, especially Wali being the first orang baby at the zoo in well over a decade, but also some very unfortunate deaths and transfers out including that massive list of phased out species. I'll definitely miss the tree kangaroos. At least the beavers and the cougars we'll probably get back eventually, just not for a while for various reasons. Asha's passing is still so shocking, I still kinda expect to see her on my visits almost a year later. Sorry to see Holly go as well, the gibbons have a bit of a murky future at the TZ now that she and Lenny are gone. Hoot can't be alone forever I imagine. On a brighter note it was nice getting meerkats back relatively quickly after they vanished early last year, although another sibling pair is a touch disappointing. I'll join in on your hope TZFan that the current trio are seat fillers that'll stay in the exhibit while we wait on a breeding group.
This was a solid year all around. Some high profile births, especially Wali being the first orang baby at the zoo in well over a decade, but also some very unfortunate deaths and transfers out including that massive list of phased out species. I'll definitely miss the tree kangaroos. At least the beavers and the cougars we'll probably get back eventually, just not for a while for various reasons. Asha's passing is still so shocking, I still kinda expect to see her on my visits almost a year later. Sorry to see Holly go as well, the gibbons have a bit of a murky future at the TZ now that she and Lenny are gone. Hoot can't be alone forever I imagine. On a brighter note it was nice getting meerkats back relatively quickly after they vanished early last year, although another sibling pair is a touch disappointing. I'll join in on your hope TZFan that the current trio are seat fillers that'll stay in the exhibit while we wait on a breeding group.
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Oh wow the barbary macaques are finally gone! They have been on phase out so long its almost impossible to believe they are done.
I wondered about the chamois. Someone said there was a sign out saying off display but signage being down is a sure sign Bailey passed. Weird they did a obituary for Julie but not Bailey since he was the last of his kind and was technically on display even though he was rarely visible. I get no obituary for the Barbary macaques because they have been off display for what a decade or so.
Those two just make the phased out list even sadder.
I wondered about the chamois. Someone said there was a sign out saying off display but signage being down is a sure sign Bailey passed. Weird they did a obituary for Julie but not Bailey since he was the last of his kind and was technically on display even though he was rarely visible. I get no obituary for the Barbary macaques because they have been off display for what a decade or so.
Those two just make the phased out list even sadder.
hyena142
Well-Known Member
Oh wow that's so sad to hear Bailey passed so quietly when Julie at least got a twitter post. End of an era, I'll absolutely miss the chamois. Glad I managed to catch him one last time this year. It'd be cool if they used that exhibit for something new, it shouldn't go to bachelor tur or mouflon considering they still have the drive-thru that they can put them in if they need the space but I'm not gonna get my hopes up.
Crazy to hear the barbary apes are finally gone after so much time being kept behind the scenes, when the decision was made to let them live out the rest of their lives at the TZ I can't imagine any of the keepers expected them to last this long.
10 species phased out this year. Man. Frankly I'm surprised it wasn't 11 considering the clouded leopard and gibbon situations but that's still a monster number.
Crazy to hear the barbary apes are finally gone after so much time being kept behind the scenes, when the decision was made to let them live out the rest of their lives at the TZ I can't imagine any of the keepers expected them to last this long.
10 species phased out this year. Man. Frankly I'm surprised it wasn't 11 considering the clouded leopard and gibbon situations but that's still a monster number.
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The gibbons almost made the list. Just a few months and they wouldnt have needed Hoot. The clouded leopards are probably like most other animals right now held back by the border. Its only this fall where animals really started to move again. I wouldnt be surprised if they were gone by the end of 2023.
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