Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Births, Deaths and Transfers 2023

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Good catch @hyena142. We can only hope that Rey made her way to the Bronx like she has been scheduled for quite some time now. With all the movements this fall I wouldnt be shocked that she was able to go. Now to ship out the boys. Hopefully they can go in the spring and we can go back to keeping the adults together as a trio until the next foal arrives.
 
I’m just watching the Facebook live post and they confirmed Rey moved to the Bronx zoo last spring (they said November then corrected themselves that it was the spring at 14:50 of the video)
 
Some unfortunate news today, Greenbird, the zoo's 31-year old African penguin, has passed away. Greenbird has been with us since the updated penguin exhibit opened in 2011, and lived nearly ten years past the life expectancy of an African penguin. His legacy will live on through his three kids and four grandkids that are still with us.
 
Amur tiger, Mila's, transport crate has arrived from Granby (they are loaning the crate) which means she will begin training for her departure to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. She has been fully separated from Mazy a few weeks ago. She will likely be gone by early spring.
 
TZFan said:
Amur tiger, Mila's, transport crate has arrived from Granby (they are loaning the crate) which means she will begin training for her departure to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. She has been fully separated from Mazy a few weeks ago. She will likely be gone by early spring.
Click to expand...

The zoo mentions the departure date as early March.

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Thats unfortunate Fifi passed. She was a big impressive snake. Her mate Pierre is nowhere near as big and he prefers to hide which means the exhibit will look like its empty a lot of the time. Though maybe without Fifi there he will be more comfortable taking over her prefered spots. I do feel bad for her keepers and the vets. Sounds like surgery was their only option for the retained eggs but in the end played a part in her death. Sometimes you are only left with the risky options and you have to go all in and pray for the best. At least staff can take solace in the fact she lived a good long life and they did all they could until the very end.
 
Other sad news I just learned. In late 2022, sunbittern female Cher died. The chick that she and Sonny had in 2021 was a female and unfortunately she passed as well sometime in 2022. As sole surviving sunbittern, Sonny is to be shipped out to Roger Williams Zoo and they will not be replaced. Guess we will have to add another list of phased out species probably by the end of 2023.

I also happened to learn that the scarlet ibises are being phased out too. Adults Rico, Blush, Rouge and the other adult male will be going to Vancouver Aquarium while the single female chick they produced will go to the Montreal Biodome.

These two phase outs will likely raise a lot of questions about the future of the Americas walkthrough aviary. Any discussion about that should probably be done in the discussion thread because there is no firm info on what the zoo's plan for this space is.
 
The zoo announced Southern ground hornbills, Biko and Catelyn, welcomed their 7th chick Nov 20th. The chick is being cared for by the entire family including older siblings Drogo and Gilly. The zoo's math is wrong. It's their 8th surviving chick. They started with daughters Arya, Sansa, Oleana, then had sons Tyrion, Bran and Drogo, and then Gilly whos gender I am not certain of. They also had at least 4 chicks that didnt make it.
 
The zoo has posted an update on the straw-coloured fruit bats, including news of a new arrival. In January bat Jessica gave birth to a pup, unfortunately she was injured in the birth and passed. The pup, named Jesse in honour of his mom, is now being hand-raised by zoo staff. In addition a second pup has been born, although the keepers can't confirm who the parents are just yet.

With closure of Burrows and Caves, all the bats can now be viewed in the large caged aviary behind the spoonbill and ibis exhibit.
 
You missed in the announcement of Jesse's birth and Jessica's death there is another pup that was born around the same time and its doing well with its mother but they dont know who is the mom yet, or either pups dad. So the two fruit bats are the first births of the year as far as we know.
 
The zoo has announced the last chance to see Amur tiger Mila before she departs for Colorado will be the weekend of March 4th.
 
@Zoo member, yep. The river hippos are on phase out. They have been for about 3 years now, covid has helped us keep them longer. Also beneficial that they are older and should never be bred due to age and unknown pedigree and now age.

The plan is for gorilla Johari to leave because she is one of the most genetically valuable females in North America and she cannot breed with her dad Charles or brothers Sadiki and Nassir. At 21 she needs to be contributing to the population as many times as possible before she hits 40 and they wont breed her any more. However I have heard that the zoo has zero intention of agreeing to the transfer. They own the entire troop so they do have final say. Flip side though is family dynamics are terrible for her since mom Josephine's death. Ngozi is the dominant female and she likes to torment Johari and she gets her girls Nneka and Charlie to help assert her dominance over Johari. Charles is too old or just not inclined to put and end to that.
 
And the most frustrating thing (and I realize this is absolutely just preaching to the choir for the most part), is that there are a number of options that could be done to retain Johari in Canada, while also setting her up into a very valuable breeding situation.

Canada also happens to have two of the most genetically valuable silverbacks in North America (Jasiri at Calgary and Jawara at Granby). Assuming Toronto is committed to keeping Johari at their facility, but were willing to part with her for a bit, they could simply send her off to Calgary for a few years until Charles inevitably passes away, and recall her, and any offspring she has with Jasiri, when the time is right. Not only would she likely integrate well into Calgary‘s group (their girls are all fairly affable), but they respond well to Jasiri, and Jasiri is also a Silverback in his absolute prime, who is adequately able to handle a diverse group of girls. Additionally, Jasiri and Johari would produce some of *the* most genetically valuable offspring in North America, as Jasiri is the #7 most valuable male out of 160 males, and Johari is the #5 female, once again out of almost 160 females. Really leaving her at Calgary would probably be best so she could continue to pump out hyper valuable babies for the rest of her life, but I digress.

Assuming they’re dead set on keeping Johari without ever sending her out, as TZfan has suggested, Charles could be moved into a retirement group with Ngozi and Charlie, while Johari and Nneka form a second breeding group with Jawara, who would be brought in from Granby. The boys Sadiki and Nassir could then be sent off to Granby. This entire situation would require potentially one move to the states, Jawaras brother and social companion Zwalani, would have to move stateside, unless he could be integrated into bachelor holding with either of the two boy groups at Granby. However considering Zwalani is also fairly genetically valuable and at a good age to lead a troop, it would just make sense for him to go stateside into a breeding situation himself as well.
 
Im more in favor of gorilla option 2. I have been firmly in that camp since Josephine passed. Ngozi has 3 kids she doesnt need more right now. Bring on Jawara who would be a lot higher if his full brother Ntondo was just removed from consideration as a breeder. He is blind and they wont breed him. He comes from a mother with just 3 offspring. Ntondo wont be bred. Jawara has yet to be bred. Sister Barkari has one daughter. Shes actually less represented then Josephine who has 5 grandkids from 3 kids and 3 great grandkids.

Zwalani isnt an option for Toronto for those who dont know, he is Johari's nephew. He would be a fantastic silverback for the US but he is already integrated with Philly's boys whos names I dont remember. Getting him to the US is better though. Im not sure Granby can handle 5 adult males especially if social dynamics fall apart and they need to split groupings.

@Hyak_II we should make a play for the SSP leader. We have the right kind of ideas. Lol.
 
Four Lau Banded Iguanas have hatched at the Toronto Zoo. This a first from their genetically valuable pairing as the breeding female was an import from Zurich Zoo. She laid the clutch in October 2022 and the clutch hatched from early March onwards. A second clutch are also currently being incubated as well - reported on their FB page.
 
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