Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Births, Deaths and Transfers 2023

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TZFan

TZFan

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New year, new thread to share what we know should or could happen with the animals in 2023.

Thankfully with the border open we should see a lot of moves happening over the course of the year finally freeing up breeding space and bringing in new bloodlines.

Expected Departures
Kookaburra - Karee to Palm Beach
Hippo - Perky and Petal
Hyena - Echo to Turtle Back Zoo
Wrinkled Hornbill - Henry to Europe
Southern Ground Hornbill - Tyrion to Des Moines
Sacred Ibis - 4 to Erie
Zebra - Rey to Bronx, Obi to Fossil Rim and Poe to be placed.
Orang - Jingga to Louisville
Red billed blue magpie - Juliette to somewhere.
Crested Wood Partridge - 2 females to Atlanta
Clouded leopards - unknown
Pygmy hippo - Penelope to Houston
Luzon Bleeding Heart Dove - male to Saint louis, female to Miami
Golden Lion Tamarin - Dave to another Canadian zoo not in the AZA, Kat will go to another zoo with a male from Topeka.
Amur Tiger - Mila to Cheyenne Mountain
Gorilla - Johari to Milwaukee
Giraffe - Kiko to Calgary and Matu to the Lincoln Children's Zoo
Spoonbill - 2 males to Calgary
Cheetah - Berlioz and Toulouse to Cincinnati
Bennett's Wallaby - The Machine to Granby
Black Footed Ferret - 2 males and 3 females to National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center.
White-cheeked Turaco - last years chick to Winnipeg if its a male

The bettong which were on phase out are no longer on phase out leaving us with 2 males, dad Toby and youngest son Gerald who is the exhibit bettong.

Turns out either Reese Witherspoonbill or Rita was actually a male. He will go to Calgary with last years chick if that chick is a male as well.

Expected Arrival
Giraffe - Nabo from Calgary
Caracal - female from Little Rock
Kookaburra - female from Palm Beach
Chuckwalla - 3 from Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Black Footed Ferret- 1 male National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center.
Jaguar - Lua or Estrela from Granby
Spotted Whistling Ducks
Komodo Dragon - Disneys Animal Kingdom
River Otter - female Flash from Roger Williams and males Fraser and Fiddle from Calgary
Grey-capped Emerald Dove - male from San Diego Zoo
Blue Bellied Roller - 4 males and possibly females could arrive from Moody Gardens. They are currently talking.
Palawan Peacock Pheasant - a female has been offered.
Grey Crowned Crane - female from Granby
Green Aracari - they are trying to find a male
Greater Kudu - male offered prior to Maynard's passing last year.

I think the caracal will be a long shot thanks to the pandemic.

Sadly despite snow leopard Pemba's amazing genetics we wont be getting a female snow leopard any time soon.

Now to the speculation category because we have just one confirmed birth.

Confirmed babies
Bactrian Camel - Suria due in early summer

Highly Likely Babies
Red Panda - sad as Dash’s death was they can rebreed this winter.
Grey Kangaroo
Southern Ground Hornbill
Green Naped Pheasant Pigeon
Vancouver Island Marmot
Eastern Loggerhead Shrike
Massasauga Rattlesnake
Black Footed Ferret
Blanding's Turtle
Painted Terrapin
Trumpeter Swan

Possible Babies
White Rhino - Sabi and Zohari have bred with Tom but no pregnancy confirmed or mentioned as of yet.
Przewalski’s horse - Winona and Winnie were recommended to breed with Dudley.
Golden Lion Tamarin - Clare is getting older so odds are dropping.
Saki
African Spoonbill
Sacred Ibis
Scarlet Ibis
Hamerkop
Spiny Turtle
Burmese Star Tortoise
Steller's Sea Eagle - both are now fully mature.

Low Likelihood Babies
Gorilla - Charles could breed Ngozi but the zoo says no.
Flamingos - we have 7 recommended to breed and last year was the first year in some time they nested.
Wombat - I’ve pretty much lost hope.
Marabou Stork - chicks are wanted but the zoo wont breed them.
Chuckwalla - they are elderly but genetically valuable
Bison - the zoo didnt announce any breeding attempts but that doesnt mean they didnt try.
Victoria Crowned Pigeon - they are siblings so despite a recommendation the zoo may not allow it.
Amur Tiger - Despite Mazy's age there is a recommendation to breed with Vasili again. I doubt it.

Only If Transfers Happen
Komodo - female arrives
Kookaburra - female swap
Pygmy Hippo - only if Penelope can find a new home early in the year.
Grey-capped Emerald Dove - male arrives San Diego Zoo
Palawan Peacock Pheasant - female arrives

I think the zoo will need to depend heavily on the new orang exhibit to be the summer draw because there arent any big ticket babies that we can count on.

If the zoo could just see most of the transfers happen that are needed that would help to ensure 2024 and the 50th will be a big year.
 
This is a very exciting year at the zoo for the orangs, but hopefully we'll get a few cool babies elsewhere in addition to the new exhibit. I think last year's orang/giraffe/cheetah trifecta was a unicorn and this year will be a little slower in terms of babies but you never know. I definitely agree that the zoo pretty much has their summer set with the orang exhibit plus Wali will be a little older by the time it opens and will be able to explore it, that'll be a huge draw so they can double dip on him.

I'll believe any of those departures when I see it, Echo and the zebra kids have been set to leave for forever. Not that I want Echo to leave of course. I will say I do hope the giraffe shuffle happens, Matu is almost certainly the last from the Mstari-Kiko pairing and I really want to get Kiko out and Nabo in ASAP so we can welcome a giraffe calf for the 50th next year.

I don't think Penelope's going to Houston anymore but I hope they find a home for her this year, another pygmy hippo calf is overdue

At this point I'll be very pleasantly surprised if the caracal makes it, they're clearly in no hurry to get the hornbill bachelor bros out of that exhibit, this will be their third year in there

The poor snow leopard program, Kita and Mylo were such a success and ever since they left it's just been very unfortunate. Maybe next year

C'mon white rhinos, Tom can't have spent all summer with the girls for nothing

Saki and sea eagle babies would be cool, we've been waiting a long time for those
 
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For what it's worth, when I went today the bachelor hornbill enclosure was cleared of all branches and climbing structures, although that doesn't necessarily mean much. I also still think the exhibit is a bit small for a Caracal.

The Steller's were hanging out in and around the nest when I went by today, so fingers crossed for chicks!
 
How did I manage to leave another orang baby off the possible list? Major oops on my part.

Oh I definitely agree @hyena142 that I will believe a bunch of the transfers when I see them but I leave a transfer alone until I hear something else.

Most exciting transfer on the list in my opinion is the giraffes. Getting Nabo will be amazing. Kiko is a nice giraffe. He is a good dad. But genetically he has little to offer Mstari. Nabo on the other hand is genetic gold. The offspring he and Mstari and later Amani will produce will be fantastic and really be an outstanding contribution to the population. Plus we know Nabo can get the job done even if he has yet to produce a living purebred Masai offspring.

Darn it I left Penelope going to Houston. She will likely go this year but yes not to Houston. I may have modified my 2022 list with updates.

100% agree with both of you that the bachelor hornbill pad is not ideal for caracals. I thought the reason we sent the previous pair of caracals away was that it was too small. Now its the exact same and suddenly big enough? The caracal was recommended just before the pandemic so dont count on it. I have long thought the exhibit would be great for fennec foxes or sand cats or even just to get the meerkats outside in the summer.

A saki infant would be an incredible first for the zoo. We have kept sakis since 1987 and never had a baby. I would love to finally get one. And a sea eagle chick would be great. It feels like we have been waiting forever but reality is we have just been waiting for them both to mature which takes awhile. The positive sign is that Katya has laid eggs in the past. They were infertile but Alik is 2 or 3 years younger than her so it was unlikely he could fertilize an egg. Fingers crossed we get one soon.
 
The zoo has started the process of introducing Jingga to Sekali and Wali. They’ve started doing howdies and both Jingga and Sekali are responding really well.

I’m wondering if this means that it’s unlikely Ramai will conceive again? I know they wanted Jingga to observe Ramai when she has another infant, before Jingga becomes a mother herself. So I’m assuming they’re doing intros with Sekali and Wali since it doesn’t look like Ramai will have another infant, unfortunately. Hopefully I’m wrong though!
 
I know that they were hoping to have multiple orangs out at once in the larger outdoor enclosure, so I wonder if this is just the first intro to get them all used to each other.
 
Jinnga is social. She grew up with Sekali and Kembali as part of the family until Ramai became an issue. I dont think the intros mean Ramai wont breed but it can help solve some management problems. They can leave Budi with Ramai full time if they arent as worried about keeping Jingga with Ramai. It will give Jingga a chance to socialize with others and watch a baby being reared to prepare her for her move to Louisville. Also with regards to that it can help to break that mother child bond Ramai and Jingga have in preparation for her departure. She is 15 and they need to get her there so she can start breeding. Female orangs might have a maximum of 4-5 babies in their lifetime so getting her ready to go is gonna be important. Ramai hasnt had the baby they hoped she would last year. Wali exists and they might as well use Sekali and Wali to help prepare her because they cant keep waiting on Ramai.

With the Ramai situation shes 35 so they can keep trying until she is 40. Hopefully she is cycling. She's not too old. And without a mature male there for so long the girls didnt have to be on birth control except the last year or so the boys were with their moms. Since the boys were separated they really havent had to worry about birth control so the chances of birth control causing issues is pretty low. It would be a real shame if Jingga was her only offspring. Its already a crime she wont have more than 2 infants because Toronto just didnt push for a new breeding male after the one who was supposed to replace Molek passed prior to transport. They were all to happy to sit on their hands and wait for Budi. Cost Ramai and Sekali an entire child rearing cycle.
 
IndianRhino said:
The zoo has started the process of introducing Jingga to Sekali and Wali. They’ve started doing howdies and both Jingga and Sekali are responding really well.

I’m wondering if this means that it’s unlikely Ramai will conceive again? I know they wanted Jingga to observe Ramai when she has another infant, before Jingga becomes a mother herself. So I’m assuming they’re doing intros with Sekali and Wali since it doesn’t look like Ramai will have another infant, unfortunately. Hopefully I’m wrong though!
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What species are these animals? Normally its beneficial to clarify the species being discussed in a post since most members won't know every animal by name, especially those of us who aren't local to the zoo in question.
 
Neil chace said:
What species are these animals? Normally its beneficial to clarify the species being discussed in a post since most members won't know every animal by name, especially those of us who aren't local to the zoo in question.
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They're Sumatran orangutans, I apologize for not stating that in the original post.
 
Neil chace said:
What species are these animals? Normally its beneficial to clarify the species being discussed in a post since most members won't know every animal by name, especially those of us who aren't local to the zoo in question.
Click to expand...
Sorry for the confusion these are Orangutans, they are a hot topic amongst the zoo world right now because they have had a new infant, Wali, and are getting a state of the art outdoor exhibit.
 
On January 19th, the zoo announced that (0.0.2+) Bedotia marojejy rainbowfish were born in December 2022. Toronto is the only zoo in the world to be breeding them in hops of returning them back into the wild.

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I have to ask, since I saw it on the final page of the previous thread, why are they not getting new beavers? They're our national animal and they were even planned to have a lovely home in the eventual new, more accessible Canadian area... :c
 
@AJ the TZ Guy New beavers will almost certainly arrive eventually, however this year we'll likely be acquiring a new trio of river otters, and they're gonna need to use the beaver exhibit for either the newbies or RJ and Talise for the time being until the new otter exhibit at the entrance is ready in a few years.
 
hyena142 said:
@AJ the TZ Guy New beavers will almost certainly arrive eventually, however this year we'll likely be acquiring a new trio of river otters, and they're gonna need to use the beaver exhibit for either the newbies or RJ and Talise for the time being until the new otter exhibit at the entrance is ready in a few years.
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Wasn't the entrance otter exhibit supposed to be a small sea otter one? I can't imagine whatever they can fit in the entrance plaza would be big enough for three river otters.
 
@hyena142, using the beaver exhibit for the incoming otters is just the most likely scenario. Nothing has been officially announced.

@AJ the TZ Guy, the zoo released a proposal for the front entrance which did specifically say several times sea otter. However it wasnt the final drawings or proposal. They changed their mind and, in my opinion foolishly, switched to river otters. Sea otters would have been absolutely the perfect symbol for everything the zoo stands for and tries to convey. Sadly I think cost got the better of them. River otters would not need the kind of facilities sea otters would have required. I will just have to stare at their new exhibit sadly and think about what could have been.
 
How do they even plan to make it work? There's no way there'll be enough room in the entrance plaza without completely removing like half of what's there.
 
@AJ the TZ Guy, thats the plan. They are completely redoing the entrance in two major phases. Phase one is the greenhouse gift shop side of the plaza. Phase two will come a fair bit later and be a hotel in the area of the Peacock Cafe area.
 
But then I still don't see where the otter exhibit would go, unless they want to remove that nice circle of benches and trees, which would be really dumb, or they want to put the otters somewhere in the new structure they want to build off of the old gift shop. Also I hope you don't mean to say they're getting rid of Peacock Cafe, it's iconic and I always finish my visit there... :c
 
Zebra Rey appears to have left without us noticing, today the zoo made this post on Facebook for International Zebra Day and she isn't mentioned in it. Guess that explains why I only ever saw 2 zebras on exhibit last summer. The post also mentions that Obi and Poe are now separate from Jake, and that the zoo is indeed holding off on breeding until the boys have been transferred out as we suspected.
 
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