Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Births, Deaths and Transfers 2023

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How many species are in the malyan woods currently now that its reaopened? I only know the two confirmed ones clouded leopard and jumbo gorami. Is that it or am I missing one or two species? As for the tamandua my money is on the kids zoo. My reasoning is the D.Z is lacking species while the americas pavillion has enough species to still attract visitors.
 
I apologize to TZFan if you did not approve of me using the discovery zone intials as you are the only one who has regularly used it. (it is efficient though)
Also another question any species housed in the zoo's amphibian rescue centre? There seems to be wyoming toads but are they still there and any other species in the rescue centre.
 
How many species are in the malyan woods currently now that its reaopened? I only know the two confirmed ones clouded leopard and jumbo gorami. Is that it or am I missing one or two species? As for the tamandua my money is on the kids zoo. My reasoning is the D.Z is lacking species while the americas pavillion has enough species to still attract visitors.

I should have wrote down the 3 bird species that were in there but just 3 of the same in the indo pavilion. I know one was a bleeding heart dove just don’t remember the other 2.
 
I should have wrote down the 3 bird species that were in there but just 3 of the same in the indo pavilion. I know one was a bleeding heart dove just don’t remember the other 2.
I was in there briefly yesterday and I remember seeing prominent signage for the Nicobar Pigeon...sorry, didn't look at them or at any of the other signs, I was just trying (and failing haha) to see the clouded leopards.
 
So two out of three birds identified. Also are the did you see any tokay geckos darting around the indo malaya pavillion? I wan't to know if they are stilll there(Even if they are still there they are free to roam around the walls so they might not be seen).
Are the clouded leopards hard to spot or the visitor's crowd out the areas where they visible(like a human wall)? Seriously I want to know. Thank you for answering my first question too!
 
@antilio capra I'm pretty sure the tokay gecko infestation is long gone, or at the very least contained. I've been in the Indo pavilion hundreds of times and never seen one. You never know though, they might still be living in the walls, spying on us and plotting their revenge. Well done on knowing that bit of TZ trivia though

The clouded leopards can be tricky to see for a number of reasons. The window their exhibit is against often leads to sunlight hitting the glass in an unfortunate way so the exhibit is hard to see into, plus the walkway in front of them is a slim one resulting in crowds, and the leopards' natural camouflage sometimes kicks in, it's a brown cat in a brown exhibit with a few corners and hiding spots for them to duck into. Needless to say you can count yourself lucky if you see one. From what I recall our current two are more guest friendly than the previous generation was tho
 
@antilio capra I'm pretty sure the tokay gecko infestation is long gone, or at the very least contained. I've been in the Indo pavilion hundreds of times and never seen one. You never know though, they might still be living in the walls, spying on us and plotting their revenge. Well done on knowing that bit of TZ trivia though
I did some researching right after I posted and found out they(multiple, many of them) were still there two years ago... Could that mean they are still spying on us or running (or plotting as you said) around behind the scenes as they were recorded there.
We’re #LIVE with keeper Ben in our Indo-malaya pavilion to learn more about our Tokay Geckos! #ClosedButStillCaring #TheZooToYou | By The Toronto Zoo | Facebook

The reason I know about the geckos is because of the old Toronto zoo magazine I had from 2016 or 17 and the fact that I saw one. (I may or may not have thought it was a statue and complmented the zoo for how realistic it was. But only realized it was not fake when I came back and the gecko was gone )
 
I saw both of the clouded leopards today. Pavarti was out first and Mingma was looking through the window from the back room where they can see each other. Then they switched Mingma was running around and climbing. Would come up to the window with those big gorgeous eyes and look out. He was walking along the top and itching his face and meowing while in there. Both of them were super active today
 
Yesss finally! I was starting to wonder if it was gonna end up as a 2024 baby. The video the zoo posted of him on their socials is super cute, I love the last shot where he's sleeping and Sabi's keeping a watchful eye on him, I think she knows as much as we do that her first calf has been a long time coming.

Since it's a boy I'm guessing we're gonna get another T name to keep him in line with dad Tom and older brother Theo. My prediction is Terry
 
That was the longest wait for the end of a pregnancy in quite some time. Early September... oh wait end of December. But its logical given Sabi's difficulty conceiving. Here is baby boy's first news article.

Toronto Zoo announces birth of white rhino calf

And please no to Terry. I will accept if we feel the need for a TJ (Tom Jr). But I think we can move on from T names. How about an S name to honour mom Sabi's struggle in having him?
 
SMH the article says Sabi's second baby. They couldn't even get the research correct. Disappointing.
 
SMH the article says Sabi's second baby. They couldn't even get the research correct. Disappointing.
Maybe what they meant was that it was the father, Tom's second baby. Sabi's half-sister Zohari had a calf, Theodore in 2017 so what it might have meant to say was that it was Tom's, not Sabi's second calf.
 
As is tradition at this point here is the year in review. Disclaimer this is based on what I know and have recorded. I might have forgot something or simply be unaware of something.

Births
1 Southern Ground Hornbill (late 2022)
4 Straw Coloured Fruit Bats - Jesse, Poppy, Piper and Pumpkin.
4 Fiji Banded Iguanas
Many Moon Jellyfish
11 Vancouver Island Marmots
11 Black Footed Ferrets - Seal, Squid, Seajus, Sand Dollar, Banjo, Hurdy Gurdy, Valeria, Senor, Madison, Mi Hijo and Chiquito
1 Western Grey Kangaroo - Howie
1 Bactrian Camel - Carrie
1 Southern White Rhino - male

The year went largely as expected with births. It was shaping up to be a light year right from the start. The fruit bats were a bit of a surprise since the zoo hadn't bred in years but the group was getting older and needed to be replenished a bit.

Deaths
1 African Penguin - Greenbird
1 Reticulated Python - Fifi
1 Straw Coloured Fruit Bat - Jessica
1 Wildebeest - Abercrombie (Abe)
1 Grizzly Bear - Samson
2 Raccoon - Fergus and Elora
1 River Otter - Talise
1 Boelen's Python - Prince Theo
1 Jaguar - Luca

This was a year for a lot of the zoos older individuals to go. Wildebeest Abe was the only not elderly animal to pass from the list but even he wasn't a spring chicken.

Notable Departures
2 Amur Tiger - Mila to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and Vasili to Calgary
1 Bactrian Camel - Zuri to Zoo Sauvage
1 Polar Bear - Humphrey to Aquarium Du Quebec
1 Pygmy Hippo - Penelope to John Ball
4 Scarlet Ibis - Rico, Rouge, Blush, and Tut, to Vancouver Aquarium, 1 female (the chick) to the Biodome.
1 Sunbittern - Sonny to Roger Williams
1 African Spoonbill - Rita to Calgary
55 Blanding’s Turtles - Released to wild
1 Wildebeest - Ben to Safari Niagara
11 Vancouver Island Marmots - to Tony Barret Mount Washington Marmot Recovery Centre
9 Black Footed Ferrets - Squid, Seajus, Sand Dollar, Banjo, Hurdy Gurdy, Valeria, Senor, Mi Hijo and Chiquito to Ferret Conservation Centre
1 White Handed Gibbon - Hoot to Winnipeg
2 Red Pandas - Paprika to Vancouver and Suva to Winnipeg.

Species Phased Out
Wildebeest
Boelen's Python
White Handed Gibbon
Jaguar
Scarlet Ibis
Sunbittern

Notable Arrivals
4 Black Footed Ferret- 1.3 from National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center
2 Domestic Rabbits - Gandalf and Frodo from Toronto Animal Services
1 Watusi - Ralph from Magnetic Hill
1 Capybara - Tootsie from Fresno Chaffee
1 Sloth - Netty from Montreal Biodome
1 Raccoon - Macro from Toronto Animal Services
1 Cheetah - Tika from Vancouver
1 Grevy’s Zebra - Maizy from Edmonton
1 Screaming Armadillo - Kronk
1 Three Banded Armadillo - Kuzco
1 Southern Tamandua
1 Snow Leopard - Jita from Granby
1 Red Panda - Sakura from Vancouver

New Species
Screaming Armadillo
Three Banded Armadillo
Southern Tamandua

These ones were huge surprises. I dont think any of us really were expecting new species to arrive. No one is sad to see some new faces.

If I missed or forgot something feel free to add to the list.
 
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On the animal side of things this was definitely a bit of a weird year, not a lot was going on until we got rushed with a bunch of cool stuff right at the end like the baby rhino and the surprise new species.

For the births they didn't do moon jellies this year, they bred the pot-bellied seahorses instead. All in all a solid year though. It's a shame the rhino calf waited until the last minute to arrive so we didn't get to see him this year but it's something to look forward to for next summer. Carrie was very cute and it was cool to see how dedicated the zoo has become to the Fijian iguanas.

In deaths you missed that wildebeest Chuck also passed this year. We lost a few TZ icons this year like Samson, Luca, Greenbird and Talise, so that was difficult, but looking back at how rough 2022 was I think we managed to escape 2023 without losing too many big animals. Hopefully that's a trend that'll continue into 2024. Fingers crossed we get our new jaguar early next year because it'd just feel wrong to not have jaguars with us for the 50th.

Lots of exciting arrivals and departures this year. The pygmy hippo, snow leopard and (hopefully) zebra programs finally restarting after such a long break is fantastic, as are our surprise additions of the tamandua and armadillos, can't wait to see them next year. Sucks that our red panda program has to go on pause but hopefully the new indoor viewing will be worth a few years without cubs.
 
There is also the loss of former Male Watusi Millhouse. 2023 also marked the end of woodchucks and genie pigs in the Kids zoo. I suspect all died because of old age.

@hyena142 Makes some good points about return of a few breeding programs as well. Will be interesting to see what comes next year.

I am guessing once the Sumatrans go back to their enclosures int he summer we could expect some Amur tiger movements into the zoo. I wouldn't be surprised if we see some movement in the male giraffe department, although if Matu's hoof is still an issue I suspect they won't be sending him out until that is cleared up.

As for new babies, still no news on a second Orang baby, I am assuming they are still trying with Budi and Remai. I am guessing we will get some new gibbons, as they still have the species list on the website, just as "not available to view".
 
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Ah rats I thought Chuck and Milhouse were tail end of last year. I really should have double checked.

Why did I think there were jellyfish babies then? Meh. I could try to figure it out or I could move on. I shall move on.

Even if I did visit the zoo I wouldn't have known about the woodchuck or guinea pigs being phased out. I avoid the kid's zoo. Well that gives us two more phase out species. We cant say for certain everyone is dead but its likely as you said.

Im sure there are other things I have missed.

@Jefferson, dont worry tomorrow when I can start a new 2024 birth, death and transfer thread I have some cool things to look forward to. Sadly I dont have any news on a pregnancy because nothing has been announced but we have some amazing potential for babies, and arrivals. I have some expected movement news I have been sitting on as well as reminders for things we already knew about but things that are always good to note again for a new thread.
 
@Zoo adventures They'll be in the Kids Zoo somewhere, not sure where yet. Until it reopens next summer the Outreach team will be taking them on zoo tours for guests to see so if you're lucky you might catch them on a visit
 
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