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

I found a cool article online that said an Australian zoo was using 20 year old frozen semen from Canada to artifically inseminate a Scimitar Horned Oryx. It never said it was Toronto Zoo sperm but as we had some awhile back is it possible on of our males could father the calf long after his death? I have no idea if they were collecting the sperm from our oryx nor do I know how many other Canadian facilities held them. Just wondering if anyone else might know more.

Zoo to use 20-year-old sperm - Story - NZ News - 3 News
 
TZFan said:
I found a cool article online that said an Australian zoo was using 20 year old frozen semen from Canada to artifically inseminate a Scimitar Horned Oryx. It never said it was Toronto Zoo sperm but as we had some awhile back is it possible on of our males could father the calf long after his death? I have no idea if they were collecting the sperm from our oryx nor do I know how many other Canadian facilities held them. Just wondering if anyone else might know more.

Zoo to use 20-year-old sperm - Story - NZ News - 3 News
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I thought it was a zoo in New Zealand?
 
Oh I reread the article and see where I got muddled. It said that the female was too old to transfer to Australia. I thought it said another zoo in Australia. Sorry for the confusion and thank you for the correction.
 
We have all wondered what might happen when good old Charles passes, sometime in the more distant future. I found the draft Gorilla SSP from 2009, which might give us an idea of what could happen. In 2009 it was recommended in the draft that Subira be returned to Toronto to to become a future breeder from Granby. According to the document he was not being kept in a social group with the other males there so coming here would have given him more social opportunities. Guess he could have hung out with his brother and sisters and Josephine. In that same year its noted that Nassir was due to arrive shortly so they were probably considering him a potential partner for Ngozi should Charles pass. But that was just a draft and for one reason or another they decided against moving him back that year and every year since. At 17 right now hes just about ready to lead a troop so who knows if he will one day replace his father as Toronto's silverback or be moved elsewhere to breed. A lot of that will probably depend on Charles and which of the many male gorillas Toronto owns (and there appears to be quite a few young studs in the wings), will be the best match for Ngozi and any of the young females we might keep or bring home (Toronto seems to own a couple who will need to be moved from their natal group in the future). I just thought it was interesting to let everyone know the front runner in 2009 to be Charles successor was Subira.

http://gorillassp.wikispaces.com/file/view/Gorilla+SSP+2009+Draft.pdf
 
The 2009 recommendation was that Subira be transferred to Granby as their future breeder, rather than him coming back to Toronto. He still has not been paired with any gorillas (males or females), but with his genes... I'm quite sure he will not be alone forever. I suppose he could come back to Toronto in the future, but with only one unrelated female for him to possibly breed with (Ngozi), it would probably make more sense for him to go to another facility... with Toronto receiving a less-related male (one of Calgary's ?)
 
Ok thats it I needed to start reading the words on the page very clearly. I could have sworn until I checked again that it said to Toronto and it clearly says from. The sad part is I did check the info twice before posting. Stupid dyslexia. I've been trained to predictively read and clearly my brain said to me to instead of bothering to read the word from. Im clearly going to need to start reading more carefully and much slower for awhile.

One could go either way with the males or females for future troop breeders since Julia, Catherine, Amanda, Tabitha and Barney were/are Toronto property and every so many of their offspring belongs to Toronto. Looking through the studbook for gorillas it too me several second generation gorillas to realize we were owning them but not housing them... There are lots of second and third generation gorillas that belong to Toronto, lots of whom are not related to Charles or any of his offspring so Johari could stay on as a breeder with a new male or Subira could come in as the new breeding male and other Toronto owned girls could join him to rebuild the troop. Depending on how long Charles goes even Nassir could be a candidate, be it a remote one.

Possible Males Not already breeding
Patrick, 23 (Barney)
Subira, 17 (Charles and Samantha)
Jawara, 15 (Julia)
Zwalani, 13 (Tabitha)
N'Tondo, 20 (Julia)
Mbundi, 20 (Tabitah)
Bakari, 7 (Jomo, son of Charles and Josephine) remote possiblity

Possible Females with no offspring
Catherine ,30 (Barney and Caroline)

Ok theres far more males than I thought. Maybe it is easier to bring in any one of the boys. And find unrelated females. Probably keep Johari and bring in anyone but Subira, while shipping out Sadiki and Nassir (depending on his age).
 
You cant help but feel for poor Lobi in all that muck. Well all the animals. I've posted an number of articles, particularly ones with photos, in the Calgary forum for others interested. The zoos facebook page is directing anyone who wishes to help with a financial donation to do so on their website.
 
Ok I folded and bought a membership to the AZA which enables me too look at studbooks and breeding plans. Let me know if theres anything I can look up for you.
 
In July 2012 the Sable Antelopes were recommended to be bred. So with an 8-9 month gestation period there could be 1-2 calves born any time this year if the zoo decided to breed Puff Daddy with Savannah and/or Millie. I dont know about any pregnancy just the recommendation. I shall continue my mining of the studbooks and breeding recommendations.
 
One of our two black duikers died last June. According to the 2013 studbook it was stated that they hoped by this spring our other surviving male would be shipped down to LA to breed.

Did anyone know we had aardvarks for the first 2 years the zoo was open? Sent them off to Australia though. Wish we had kept the species. They are cool and would go great in the burrows area providing we built an exhibit for them.

Wow in 2010 we had 3 Brazilan Agouti males ranging in age from 13-20 years old! Wouldnt think such little creatures would live much past 10.
 
TZFan said:
In July 2012 the Sable Antelopes were recommended to be bred. So with an 8-9 month gestation period there could be 1-2 calves born any time this year if the zoo decided to breed Puff Daddy with Savannah and/or Millie. I dont know about any pregnancy just the recommendation. I shall continue my mining of the studbooks and breeding recommendations.
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While all 3 sable antelopes are together on exhibit (and have been for awhile), a keeper told me that the females are likely to old to breed now, so they aren't expecting a birth.
 
I thought their ages seemed old but I didnt know their usual lifespan and if they could keep breeding in their late teens. The girls are 17 and 14 and Puff Daddy is 10. I wonder why they would recommend breeding for animals too old to breed. If Puff is very valuable move him and let nature take its course for the girls with the aim of bringing in younger animals to replace the first one to die.
 
The bettongs have a recommendation to breed from last summer. A male and female were to be sent in and our two females were also encouraged to be bred. We had a male who died during 2012 but he wasnt to be bred. So in theory we have 4.

Caracals Clive and Clint were tranfered to different places. Clive went to the International Zoo Research and Exchange in Tennessee. Clint went to Memphis Zoo possibly to breed with their female who wasnt on birth control in 2013.
 
Oh big news on the giraffe front. The breeding recommendations from may 2013 says we should be recieving 4 year old male Miles from Houston to breed with Twigga. Ginetta has a no breeding recommendation due to age, shes 30 in august! Twigga is 23 in October and is the number 1 ranked female in genetic value. Stripes was the 11th ranked male prior to his death. Miles is currently ranked 10th so any babies would be very valuable. Hopefully they can ship him up.
 
Kudus Ogden and Odin were moved to African Lion Safari together. Owen and his boys are very genetically vaulable. Owen and Ramosita can breed again if the zoo wishes knowing they might not be able to take the calves into the US easily. Daisy is too old at 15 for breeding.
 
TZFan said:
Oh big news on the giraffe front. The breeding recommendations from may 2013 says we should be recieving 4 year old male Miles from Houston to breed with Twigga. Ginetta has a no breeding recommendation due to age, shes 30 in august! Twigga is 23 in October and is the number 1 ranked female in genetic value. Stripes was the 11th ranked male prior to his death. Miles is currently ranked 10th so any babies would be very valuable. Hopefully they can ship him up.
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This is great news! Hopefully once the elephants leave, the zoo will have a large giraffe breeding group. I wonder if the zoo is going to wait for the elephants to leave until they get more giraffes. Maybe they can bring in some more females too since the ones they have now are getting old.

Also, thanks for posting these interesting pieces of information. If you find anymore, please post them here!
 
I will definitely post them as I find them. Im trying to go through group by group in order so I miss nothing.

I was frankly surprised to here we might get Miles. Given both girls ages and the issues with our barns size I would have assumed we would have to wait until the elephant exhibit conversion was nearing completion before any giraffes were added but they could be worried about Ginetta's health and how Twiga would cope as a single giraffe. But there is the difficulty of getting hoofstock across the border which might be why an early recommendation was made. He might not arrive until the building is ready. I would guess more will come when we are ready to house more.

If theres any former animal species someone wants to know more about in the past I can see whats in the AZA records.
 
Havent reached the arctic foxes yet but I'll keep a keen eye out when i get there.
 
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