Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo- Births, Deaths, Arrivals and Departures 2013

Oh that would explain why I didnt find them. Why in the world did I think they were palm... Guess because they are both black and have red on them. Glad your around arcticwolf to correct me! I need to start reading signs while Im at the zoo.

I havent gone far into any of the lemur books just identifying which ones to look at and Im surprised the number of species of lemur and lemur like creatures we have had. I honestly only thought we had maybe had ring tailed lemurs before but I wasnt even sure about that. I have faint memories of seeing some kind of lemur kept in a very small circular cage in the middle of a pathway from when I was fairly small. But that could have been any number of places or just another manufactured memory like the one I created of the pandas first visit to Toronto... I still feel like I saw them...
 
In June, a black footed ferret named Poppy gave birth to three kits. In fall 2013, they will either be released into the wild or sent to another breeding facility.

Also, I don't know how many lemur babies were mentioned on this thread, but according to the zoo's Facebook there are five. There are some cute pictures of them on Facebook too!
 
Im pretty sure several people reported seeing 5 little lemurs. I however failed on both attempts... wait I saw one tiny tail... does that count?

I think we would have more ferret kits down at the breeding center. They are usually successful down there. Is Poppy on exhibit? No matter what though any babies, especially were endangered species who could be returned to the wild, are welcome.
 
I'm pretty sure that I heard there were 5 baby lemurs too. I only made that post to confim it.

Poppy is not on exhibit. She is behind the scenes with almost all of the zoo's other BFFs. I'm sure there are more ferret babies. The only reason that Poppy's kits were mentioned is because they were her first babies.
 
We have housed both greater and lesser bushbabies. The Greaters arrived around the zoos opening. While our founders weren’t listed the first birth occurred in 1976. And we transferred out all of them to either Calgary or Cleveland in 1979. The lesser arrived before the zoo opened and stayed until our final pair were transferred to Calgary in 1986.

Apparently we housed ruffled lemurs for a month in 1980. Who knew?

Black lemurs lived at the zoo from its opening until 1998. Our last baby arrived a month before the final moves.

Brown lemurs lived at the zoo prior to opening until 1980 when the whole group moved out.

We housed Loris’s over the year. First we had Slow loris from 1974-1987. An d one slender loris for the first year the zoo was open. Then there was a pygmy loris from 1994-1995.

Another animal was the potto. We had them upon opening however we killed 3 within days of arrival. Of the two survivors one lived 6 more months and the only real survivor was transferred to Cincinnati in 1978. Pottos look pretty cool.

Oddly the 2010 studbook doesnt list our ringtails. The book was mid year so I would have thought our lemurs would have been included as ours but maybe they hadnt arrived yet... I cant remember when they came exactly. Even odder they arent even listed in the October 2011 SSP. I know they were there then. Saw them that June. And that was before we got kicked out of the AZA.
 
Raptors
Unfortuntately this group doesn’t have as many of the studbooks as it should. No eagles, hawks, falcons and few owls.

Our spectacled owls will not be breeding. All are genetically overrepresented.

Currently we only have one Secretary Bird. He’s the fifth highest ranked male for genetic value so I’m guessing we will one day receive a female to breed with him. But with just 35 birds and more males and female we might not.

We a king vulture pair from the opening until the male died in 1984 and his mate was transferred out for good in 1990. No chicks were born.

According to the burrowing owl studbook we only have had one female who we received in 2006. She was excluded in 2010 from breeding due to unknown pedigree. Based on the fact someone mentioned the signage was down for her exhibit shes either moved or died since then. I thought we had more owls at some point.

We have or had one Eurasian Eagle Owl. We got him from African Lion Safari a couple of year back. I don’t remember seeing him but I never went in the discovery zone or watched the bird show.

We should be impressed with our snowy owl pair. Our female is 24 year old and is the second oldest female snowy owl. She is the 4th oldest overall. At 16 years our male is the 6th oldest male. Pretty impressive. Yet neither bird has bred in all that time. Considering their advanced age we may have to replace them at some point.

Ratite and tinamiformes
The zoo had two greater Rheas when the zoo opened. The male died in 1975 and female in 1978.

Last summer we had 12 elegant crested tinamou but by this years SSP published in June we were down to 8 youngsters under 4 years old. 7 of them needed to be sexed. Clearly one is a male or we wouldn’t have the clutch of eggs. They all have a do not breed recommendation but I think thats due to their questionable genders and relatedness. If we knew what gender they are we could send them out for breeding or bring in new animals.
 
Rhinos

Unfortunately the Rhino studbooks didn’t offer names so what I learned is limited.

Though the stubooks were from 2010 there wasnt anything new for the Greater One Horned Rhinos. They still want Asha and Vishnu to breed.

I didn’t know this but we used to have Eastern Black Rhinos when the zoo opened. A female from Dublin, another from St. Lousi, and a male from Denver. No calves were born. The Dublin female moved to San Antonio Zoo in 1976. The male and female from St. Louis died in July of 1977 within a day of each other.

The white rhinos have been at the zoo since it opened as well. Does anyone know if the whites and blacks were exhibited together? Also the white rhinos ssp has chosen Tom as the breeding bull. He has the 2013 go ahead to try breeding with Sabi and Zohari. Should the zoo decide to use Tony instead they need to conact their program leader so Tony might have a shot in the future if the girls don’t take to Tom or if Tom cant perform his duties as breeding bull.
 
Is that our first Snowy Owl pair or second? I know we have had two pairs, at least I think we did. If I also remember correctly we had at least two burrowing owls. The Eurasian Eagle Owl I believe is in holding.
 
I'm glad that the zoo finally acquired a Eurasian eagle owl. I know that was a species that the zoo was planning on getting. I'm guessing it will go on display in the Eurasia wilds when it opens in 2014.
 
The 2013 Snowy Owl studbook lists them as our current pair. The female has been with us since June 1989 while the male arrived in October 2010.

I thought it was odd we only had one burrowing owl in the whole studbook. Maybe an accidental omission?

There 2012 Eurasian Eagle Owl studbook lists us with a now 3 year old male. The SSP mentions that we could be recieving a young female from Caledonia. She would be potentally very valuable as shes not even in the Studbooks and would become a new founder if her breeding with our male is approved.

The note reads...Male #204 is genetically valuable to the population. Please contact the Program Leader when pedigree information on the previously arranged female (a potential partner for 204) is available, as breeding recommendations cannot be produced until her pedigree is analyzed.

So if the deal has come through we could have two right now. I missed checking on the SSP before posting my origional comments. I hope they arent going for the eagle owls instead of the sea eagles. Unfortunately the Sea Eagles stubook and ssp hasnt been put online.

Another thing I just found out while browsing the zoos website, 3 of the lemur babies have been sexed. Lily has a boy and a girl. Ruby has a girl. And Lucy's twins havent been determined. None have names yet.

Toronto Zoo | Toronto Zoo | Weekly Media Send Outs
 
Did we receive 2 sumatran tigers and a polar bear? My source is from the subscriber's magazine.
 
We have two sumatrans. Kemala arrived late last year and Hari arrived a little over 2 years ago. Our Amur tiger Vitali left the day after Kemala arrived and was sent to Riverbanks Zoo in the US.

Techincally we did recieve a polar bear this year but its not what you might think. Last fall when Aurora was expecting the triplets who died just after birth, their father Inukshuk was moved to Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat to make room for the new arrivals and to keep his 1 year old son and the zoos little rock star Hudson who had outgrown the nursey yard. When the cubs died Inukshuk was needed back for breeding. That mean Husdon needed a new home so he went to Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg to free up space for his father to return. He left in January and shortly there after Inukshuk returned to breed with Nikita. He'll probably stick around depending on Nikita's success, and the number of cubs that survive. If she has a big litter he will probably go again to keep the cubs with their mother until shes ready to seperate from them in about 2 years time or if they are hand reared to give all the bear exhibit time. Really hoping Nikita can be more successful than her sister.

The studbooks and SSP's that I've been through dont suggest we would get any new tigers or polar bears. Hopefully this answeres your questions.
 
Inukshuk is heading back to Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat on either July 25th or 26th. I'm personally surprised he stayed even this long, as I would've thought that it'd be better to move him in late spring. He will travel overnight, and the date will depend on how cool the temperatures are.
 
That seems rather soon. They have the space for 3 adults and they dont even know if anyone is pregnant. Its hardly far to Inukshuk to keep moving him back and forth every couple of months just for breeding. Nikita isnt even a proven breeder so there could be no point at all in moving him. If Aurora wasnt bred he could easily spend time on exhibit with her while any cubs are being raise by Nikita. Plus Aurora wouldnt have to spend roughly 2 years without companionship while her sister is raising cubs. If there was no need to move him while Hudson grew, theres no need to move him while another litter grows, especially if they are being raised by their mother. All this moving isnt fair to him. Maybe when they move him they need to take a sample and work with AI next year if no cubs come or give up on breeding for awhile. He shouldnt have to be moved around all the time just so we can see cubs. I hope Nikita has cubs this winter and Inukshuk can stay in Cochrane for awhile without being moved.
 
While there is always stress in moving an animal, I think Toronto is making the right decision with this system for several reasons...

The first is space. Lets imagine that both Aurora and Nikita breed successfully and each produce a litter of cubs this year. For the first few months of the cubs being on exhibit, the mothers and their respective cubs would probably be rotated in the maternity yard (as the big yards aren't very friendly for younger cubs). However, as time goes on... the families will need more space. In turn, every yard may be full... including the maternity yard. With Inukshuk in Cochrane, everything is much less crowded... and no one has to be stuck in the maternity yard because another group/bear needs time in the big yards. The facilities up north also provide Inukshuk himself with a great deal of space, as the vast amount is only divided between 2.0 individuals.

Another thing to consider is stress created by Inukshuk's presence. While Aurora and Nikita enjoy his company now, I'm not so sure that they'd appreciate seeing him so much if they had cubs with them. Even though there is no danger of having him managed separately in the same facility as cubs, taking him out of the picture for some time will probably take the edge off for the females if they have cubs.

Finally, the opportunity is there for him to have an improved situation (extra space, more freedom in choosing where he gets to explore, not having to share the space with multiple bears)... so why not take it. While there is obviously stress in moving every animal, this isn't new for Inukshuk... and seeing as they're moving him overnight, I wouldn't be surprised if he sleeps most of the journey. This entire situation enriches his life, as he gets to experience a variety of different spaces and situations.
 
You bring up excellent points. Space and stress for the new mother are good points. Your right that they will eventually need the main exhibits especially if two litters arrive. In that case one less bear is great.

But considering we dont even know if breeding with one female was even sucessful would it not be more prudent to wait and see if cubs do arrive and if they survive the first critical week. I agree we should likely send him off if even one healthy litter arrives this winter, especially if there are 2 litters. However given the zoos track record with breeding Aurora, 1 survivor out of 8 cubs who wasnt even raised by her, and no cubs with Nikita, theres a pretty good chance Inukshuk will need to be moved back here yet again next breeding season. I hope things work out and healthy cubs arrive and Inukshuk can stay away a couple of years but reality is that might not happen. They could and probably should wait to see if 2013 has been a good year or another failed attempt. No reason he couldnt be moved once a healthy litter arrives and his job is done. Saves him and frankly the zoo (transporting costs money that could be better used elsewhere) from unnecessary moves. No cubs he will be back in early 2014 for more short stays until there is cubs. The zoo could pay for his transport twice a year for the next 10 years without success. Why go to the expense until your certain its worth it.

Does anyone know if they have tried AI on polar bears? This might be a good oppportunity to try. While Inukshuk is a proven breeder they could try AI on the bears to save him all the moving around. We dont need a male physically here if his sample is here and AI can work. If it works we could pioneer a new practice. Imagine all the bears right now that they are having trouble breeding. Without the need for natural breeding they could keep bears who get along together but breed them with the most genetically compatible animal who is across the country. If it can work for pandas who are notoriously hard to breed, why not polar bears who seem kind of troublesome themelves?
 
Rodents

We had Rock Hyrax from 1974-1976. Boy did they reproduce here. 19 babies in just 2 short years but we had trouble keeping them alive for more than the first year of life. Probably why we got rid of them.

Our Crested Porcupines while genetically valuable are not to breed. Pumpkin originally came to the zoo with her sister 694 (no names were listed so I did the math). Anyone have any idea what happened to her? Im guessing shes died because I couldn’t find her in the SSP which is from last year.

Last spring it was recommended we receive a new male prevost’s squirrel from Columbus Zoo and a female from Kansas city Zoo to replace our previous squirrels which must have died because a transfer wasn’t recommended for Toronto animals. The new pair is recommended to breed.

Prehensile Tailed Porcupines must have a recommendation to breed again. During the last SSP for them there was a priority to replace Presley who had died during the draft period and when I was there I saw Nicole on exhibit with another porcupine so our new male must have arrived. If there were no plans to breed there would be no need to find her a mate.

We haven’t had North American Porcupines since 2007 when the last one died. There’s no plans to bring any in from another Institution.

Next up small carnivores. Wonder what we will learn there...
 
Small Carnivores

We had white nosed Coati for the first 3 years the zoo was open. Most came from Riverdale. There were no births or deaths. All were transferred out.

We have at least 17 grown black footed ferrets, 4 of which hasn’t been sexed.

We had one Kinkajou from 1976 until his death in 1981.

Oddly our meerkats weren’t included in the 2011 breeding plan.

We had one Asian Clawed Otter from 1976-77 ehn we transferred her elsewhere.

Our river otter girls obviously cant breed due to a lack of a male. Maria is too old to breed. And at two Talise could be bred especially since she is wild born and therefore valuable. Maybe if a young unreleasble male is rescued in the near future they will take him in.

African otters Fred and Ginger arrived her from Tanzania in 2000. Both were the highest genetic value otters. Only one otter was born at the zoo and died in a month but not to Fred or Ginger. They never bred. Theres no info on the new otter keeping Fred company because the studbook and SSP are from before Gingers death.

Our Red pandas might be changing up before we see them again. The October 2012 SSP recommended changes. Ellyanna who is post reproductive is to go to Minnesota for display. While my list says we have a male named Rong Nen the SSP says its 6 year old Big George. Big George is being transferred to Valley Zoo to breed with Pip. Maki is to be held but not bred due to medical issues. Cassie is to stay and breed with a new male Ralphie from Valley Zoo. The trade with Valley Zoo is to give Big George and Cassie a chance to breed with proven breeders.

We had a pair of ringtails to start. The male died after 10 months. The female lived 4 years before dying.

We had a pair of wolverines for four months in 1980.


Ill fill out the names section for the otters and red pandas later.
 
Why are hyraxes in the rodents category when their closest relatives are elephants?

I wonder if the zoo actually acquired a new pair of prevost's squirrels since on my past few visits there has always been some kind of bird in their exhibit.
 
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