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

I'm guessing that the peacock pheasants were transferred to toronto because I heard the zoo was looking for more birds in the indomalaya pavilion. Also I have never heard of this species being at the zoo before.

I'm pretty sure the zoo still has a red legged seriema that is used in the bird show. I for sure saw one last summer.

It's too bad the zoo no longer has a Fiji banded iguana. It's a species that I've always wanted to see.
 
I wondered about the peacock pheasants myself. Someone posted a youtube video in october 2012 of them. Just type in the name and toronto zoo.

My bad on the red legged Seriema. I miss read the entry in the studbook. It says it came in 2008. I thought I saw died. We have 2, a male and female. Because I thought they were dead... again I need to learn to slow down and read carefully... I didnt look at the SSP which would have shown them clearly alive last year. Oops. The bird section i was on got rather dry for me with no names thus no writing to slow me down. Give me something interesting to read and Im locked in fully on the task.

I thought Doni was dead too. And 3 years sounds about right. I only put him down when I checked the SSP and Studbooks dates. The SSP was finalized July 20 2012 and the studbook July 17 2012. How could the zoo miss this when their coordinators for the komodos (they have 2) when they only had to check their own animals? Its very easy. Yep theres Loka. Yep theres Kiliat. Yep theres Kiki. Wait a minute Doni is dead. We should submit that correction. I've seen it in other final drafts where the animal dies just before they go to print and they cross it out and write down that the animal died during the draft phase. The other possiblity and Im really just asking because when I did up their fact sheet I ran into this problem is that we had komodo 123, female, who based on her studbook number would be about Loka's age. No info was give on her. Shes just listed as the mother of Kiliat and Satu. Could we be confusing her with Doni? Could she be the one that died? Could she be the fourth dragon they think we have? I feel like she was moved but without a listing in the studbook Im lost.

With the marsupials I know Ill be able to cover the echidnas, koalas and tree kangaroos in detail plus the wombats probably I didnt check. I might find something cool with the grey roos, wallabies, and wallaroos even though they didnt list their names.
 
Oh yeah almost forgot something thats been bugging me all day. Has anyone heard anything about the fate of Kota the snow leopard? With him mising from the SSP I really would love to know if hes ok and him missing is just a screw up like Doni the long dead Komodo. Any info would be appreciated.
 
The unknown komodo dragon female would be "Draca" (not sure on spelling there, as I've also seen it as "Draka").

She was part of the zoo's original pair, in which she was thought to be the male (named "Draco"). After some sexing, it was determined "he" was actually a she, and the name change came along. That is why Doni had to be brought in later, to make the trio 1.2.

She passed away several years ago (2006?), and produced two offspring during her time at Toronto.
 
Heres an update on the pandas. Very disappointing news though. They wont start trying to breed them until Da Mao is 7-8. At 5 in September that means we lost out on the 2013 breeding season, we will lose out on 2014, 2015, and possibly 2016! We will only get 2 maybe 3 tries... but maybe only one. If they try in 2016 that gives us 3 tries. And depending on when they go to Calgary we could lose the 2018 season. Its so disappointing. Why on earth didnt the Chinese give us pandas we could have bred right away? Well next year at least because they arrived during breeding season. I have a terrible feeling we are going to lose out on cubs all together. Look at how hard its been for the National Zoo in Washington to breed their pair. It took them 5 years after their first cub was weaned to produce a second cub who only lived a week. We could totally miss out while Calgary will get 5 breeding opportunities.

A peek at the pandas: Checking in with the Toronto Zoo?s big stars - The Globe and Mail
 
Now to the marsupials. Unfortunately most of the studbooks didnt offer names for the animals.

We’ve only had 3 short beaked echidna. Norman, Annie and an unnamed female. No offspring.

When the zoo opened we had two Eastern Grey Kangaroos who both died in 1976.

Another interesting species we used to keep, Parma Wallaby. We only had them for 2 years when we first opened.

According to the December 2012 studbook in theory we have about 16 western grey kangaroos. 15 of which were born at the zoo. All males but the one who was born at Cleveland Zoo and arrived in 2003, are neutered. He could mate with 4 of the adult females who share a father.

We had Common Wallaroos from the time the zoo opened until 1981 when the last one passed away.

According to the studbook for wombats we have only housed 5 wombats (plus now Arthur and poor Millie). A male who arrived in 1979 who died shortly thereafter. Then came Hamlet and two females. One died in 2 years. The other lived until 2006. The last wombat was Hamlet’s daughter who arrived in 1994 and now lives in luxury at San Diego Zoo. Maybe we will get lucky and Arthur will receive a new mate.
 
New World Primates was next on the list.

While checking all of the studbooks I found we had 3 squirrel monkeys for 3 months in 1987. They came from Assiniboine Park and Zoo and went to African Lion Safari.

Apparently we have had owl squirrel monkeys. The studbook was confusing but there were several.

Nice news for Kawa the white faced monkey. Theres a September 2012 recommendation for a mate for her. Madeira a seven year old male will be sent up from San Diego Zoo. Hes considered genetically valuable. With Kawa being 26 I don’t know if it will work. At the very least shes getting a new companion.

In 2010 it was recommended that we mix up our spider monkey group by doing some sort of swap with Calgary. No firm plans were given just as suggestion that if both zoos wanted to they could breed and trade at their pleasure. Did Luca go somewhere or die? I don’t have him on my list of spider monkeys at the zoo.

Oddly there was no information on the marmosets. Go figure.

Clare and Dolce the golden lion tamarins have the go ahead to keep breeding. We have 6 tamarins unless more have been born since the March 2012 baby and they are to live in 2 groups. Group one is Dolce, Clare and their babies. The other is Rosalie and sons Jack and Hayden.
 
Old World Primates
Hamadryas Baboons
Our history with Hamadryas Baboon is quiet long. Now I counted them out one by one and the zoo has housed roughly (and I say that because I could have slipped up), 170 baboons. Lots of babied who were born didn’t survive though. A LOT!!!! Also I noticed that on Mar 5 1985 6 of baboons (5 young males and a young female) died at the zoo. Does anyone know the cause? Was it a cull? Adult aggression? There seems to have been a ton of transfers just after that.

Lion Tailed Macaques
Karl has permission to breed with all females except Vina who is his daughter. Theres emphasis on breeding him with Screamer and Sitara because of their higher genetic value. Karl has been quiet a breeder with 19 named children, although most from his days in Winnipeg either died young or were sent to Asia... most went to Asia. Sitara really shouldn’t be breed as she is inbred and the offspring of an inbred mother, Si Nikel. Rama is her father and uncle and grandfather.

Japanese Macaque
Our troop was pretty large over the years. Im not sure the extent of the inbreeding though because for almost all babies no father is listed. During his time at the zoo Harry dominated breeding.

Mandrills
We had a ton of mandrills as well. A lot of the studbook was full of Toronto born animals. After Jabba died it likely would have been very hard for us to find another male in North America that wasn’t related to Willy or Jabba. Still I miss them. They were one of my favourites as a kid because the males looked so amazing.


DeBrazza’s Monkey
I don’t remember seeing them ever but we had DeBrazza’s monkeys until 2002. There were quite a few in the 70’s – 80’s.

Patas Monkey
We also had Patas monkeys. We imported monkeys 271-283, many of whom didn’t have names. There were a lot more who didn’t have named and surivived. Toward the end of the program we really enjoyed inbreeding.

After reading through the studbooks for the old world primates there definitely was a time were the zoo just didn’t care if they were inbreeding. I’m really not surprised we have stopped housing all but the lion tailed Macaques, and even then we probably should stop breeding them until the current troops mostly died out and can be almost completely replaced.
 
On to more birds.

Our Tawny Frog Mouths will not be breeding. They are 27 and 22 years old and well past the 19 year old cut off. Hopefully when they go we will be able to replace them but it might be hard. Apparently 1/3 of the current population is post reproductive. They are trying to bring numbers back up.

The Fairy Bluebirds have a recommendation to breed.

Our Blue Faced honey eaters are all going. The female who is missing her left eye and the male will be sent to Phoenix. The younger female is going to Toledo. No replacements were recommended so I guess we won’t be housing them anymore. That’s from the June 2013 recommendations.

Some changes for our Plush Crest Jays for this year. A 5 year old female is coming in from the Bronx Zoo but isn’t to be bred right now while our female takes her place to breed. Any chicks born to our female once she leaves are to be reared off exhibit or hand reared. That will keep our number down to one jay. Too bad we didn’t get a male for breeding or at least another female for company.
 
We had 7 Southern Tamandulas. I believe we had one named Simon who was featured on Zoo Diaries a fair bit because he lived in the health center and he was one of head vet the head vets favourites. His move to Sedgwick was featured in one episode. Well he passed in 2008 but was able to father 6 offspring before his death.

The January 2013 recommendations for the sloths is confusing. In the transfer section it says we should be receiving 10 year old male Poui-Poui from Granby to breed with Sally and Tania. However in the holding sections for both zoos all of the animals are to be held and not bred. So best I can say is maybe there might be a new male. There is a one year old sloth at the zoo too who might be the monkey wrench but I cant tell if its the 2011 baby or a 2012 baby especially since the studbook is 2010 and doesn’t have an ID number for the baby I can use for comparison.
 
Turns out Calgary zoo is going to have to find homes for a number of animals.

• 2 Hyacinth macaws
• 7 Yellow-headed Amazon parrots
• 2 Prehensile-tailed porcupines
• 2 Two-toed sloths
• 2 Giant anteaters
• 2 Andean condors
• 5 Goeldi's monkeys
• 3 Cotton-topped tamarins
• 2 White-handed gibbons
• 4 Black-handed spider monkeys
• 3 Debrazza monkeys

Personally I would love to see the anteaters come here. Maybe they could exhibit rotate with the capybara. Realistically we have facilities designed to house spider monkeys (some of which were recommended to come here to breed anyway if we had wanted to), gibbons, porcupines, and sloths. We have Macaws so we could add the Hyacinths and the tamarins could possibly exhibit share with the golden lion tamarins and or the marmosets.
 
There are some zoos where giant anteaters live with capybaras so I wouldn't say anteaters are too unrealistic. They are also one of the species that I really want to see at the zoo. There is also the old unoccupied Mara exhibit which could be used.
 
Oh dont get my hopes up arcticwolf. Getting the anteaters even for just a couple of months would be fantastic, but realistically it could be years. I wouldnt be surprised if we absorbed several of the homeless critters. Im not sure about space. But realistically we could take on the ones I mentioned before.

The gibbon group could probably grow. Now having two males might not work but who knows. It appears they were already looking for new homes for them according to the AZA. Male Tunku was being moved but not considered for breeding due to a behaviourial problem. Female Sakura was to be moved as well but is not a breeder because her mother is unknown. She was born at Jungle Cat World in Orono in 2002. Her father is JC but Orono appears not to have had an adult female there at the time so who knows were shes from. She could come and hang with Lenny and Holly who are both non breeders themselves.

We were told we could mix up our spider monkeys with Calgary anyway so if theres room why not let them mix. When everything is ready again in Calgary we can sort them back out depending on what the AZA wants.

The porcupines could probably be fit in. Spike Pepe and Cutie Rosa La Fluer could live here if there is space to fit them in with Nicole and our new male.

We could take in a spare sloth or two. We usually have had a male, 2 females and a baby. Unless Pouli Pouli arrived from Granby which is up in the air as far as the SSP is concerned we only have Sally and Tania and possibly a 1 year old who could be moved out to make room for the others.

The cotton tops could exhibit rotate with the goldens or marmosets provided there is room in the back.

I dont know about the parrots. If they could join the free flight aviary that could work for them. If they cant maybe theres space in the childrens zoo.

If theres space with our current macaws the other could join them. Although its always amazed me that our macaws stay put. Are their feathers clipped so they cant really fly?

I doubt we could take on the condors. The only free space I can think of for them would be the new sea eagles exhibit but geographically that wouldnt make sense plus the building might not even be done and we need that space for the eagles when they arrive.

Likewise I dont know where we would stick the DeBrazza's or the Goeldi's which is too bad because I know its difficult to transport some animals south of the border and they deserve to be in good homes after all they have been through.

Toronto needs to step up wherever it can and take on as many animals as it can to help out Calgary. They have always supported each other and if ever there was a time to help a friend its now.
 
Even if the zoo doesn't have exhibit space for many of these animals, it wouldn't be totally out of the question for them to come and live in an off-exhibit area. The zoo has quite a bit.

I don't think the whole idea of introducing new gibbons would be very optimal. With our gibbons being fairly elderly, and their track record of living well with others... an introduction probably wouldn't be in their best interest.
 
I didnt know Lenny and Holly had a bad track record with other gibbons. At the very least we could house the Calgary pair until new homes can be found by the AZA and Calgary.

How much off exhibit space do we have at the zoo?

I would be thrilled with the anteaters. I've long believed we should have them.
 
Not with other gibbons - with other animals in general
 
Oh ok. I knew they had hated the babirusa but I figured they would be ok with their own species. Worst case scenario they could rotate the gibbons on exhibit.
 
More birds...

According to the Palm Cockatoo studbook we don’t have any, which is nuts because I just saw our pair. Maybe we didn’t put in for the studbook due to our AZA problem... I don’t know.

We had Kea for the first 2 years the zoo was open.

We also had a thick billed parrot for a month after it was seized by the RCMP. It died.

While we had several Hyacinth Macaws only one had a name, Oliver. There were a couple of hatchlings.

Our white breasted cormorants are both males so no chicks on the horizon. They likely wont be receiving females to breed with as it appears they are labelled only as ok to breeds.
We should be receiving a male green aracari from the Bronx zoo. Hes to breed with either of our females. He should be here or arriving shortly.

We had 3 Bearded Barbets that were wild caught in 2001. All were males. One died in 2005. The other two escaped on December 15 2002 after just 3 months at the zoo.

We had toco toucans from 1987 to 1996.

And in answer to someone elses question about penguins. We have only ever housed African penguins. I was pretty certain that was the case but I checked through all of the penguin studbooks just to be sure.

Next up the lemurs group.
 
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