Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo- Births, Deaths, Arrivals and Departures 2014

Went to the zoo today and
1) all of the zebras were out together getting alone
2) The zoo has receives three new cheetahs from African Lion Safari (2 3 year olds, 1 2 year old) with no bloodline relation to the male Rafiki. They are hoping they will breed (probably not this summer)
 
SeanKinger6 said:
2) The zoo has receives three new cheetahs from African Lion Safari (2 3 year olds, 1 2 year old) with no bloodline relation to the male Rafiki. They are hoping they will breed (probably not this summer)
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The arrivals and departures of cheetahs at the Zoo this spring has been discussed in this thread at length (I think the conversation ends around pg. 17). If I am remembering correctly the Zoo had 7 (or 8?) cheetahs arrive from African Lion Safari, including Rafiki and Emma. I'm not sure about your statement about the cheetahs not being related to Rafiki, as all the young cheetahs that arrived are the offspring of Rafiki and Emma or a second female (from the publicly available studbook).

Cheetahs currently at the Zoo
Males: Zeke, Rafiki, Bomani (Luke x Mya), Patonga (Rafiki x female from ALS), Azu (Rafiki x Emma)

Females: Mya, Jamoccha, Emma, Mahala (Luke x Mya), Tika (Rafiki x Emma), Cleo (Rafiki x female from ALS), Akeelah (believed to be Rafiki x Emma, which would make sense if she was the 2 year old)
Shamwari, Pinkie, and Zoey 2 are scheduled to leave (or have already left) for Oaklawn Farm on the east coast
 
Shamwari, Pinkie, and Zoey II are now at Oaklawn. They left a couple of weeks ago.
 
Adams7 you summed up the current cheetahs and their relationship perfectly. Only addition I can add is that Cleo and Patonga are fully siblings. I can provide all the stats on the cheetahs for anyone interested.

According to Oaklawns facebook page sisters Shamwari, Pinkie and Zoey have safely arrived and are quickly getting settled into their new home. There are several photos of them there. Their exhibit while not fancy looks roomy.

Also I have heard from others that Onyx was put down which is little surprise since Mr. Wrinkly's investigation of the cheetahs found Onyx was recieving end of life care. Now its just Jamoccah who is in that position.

The count of cheetahs now sits at 5 males and 7 females.
 
Went to the zoo today. Not much going on, but here's what I noticed.

- Both Tree Kangaroos were on exhibit with each other. Harrington was following Nokopo all over the exhibit. For the most part she was wary of Harrington.

- Zipline is expected to be up and running in a couple weeks. I'll post pictures of the high and low points of the ride.

- Noticed the Ostrich egg I mentioned is now gone. Not sure Keepers took or moved it.

- Giraffes are still getting use to their new exhibit, so they weren't on full display. They were only visible near the indoors section.

- Gemini the baby yak is a female.
 
Went to the zoo today! Only one of the river otters was on exhibit and none of the African otters were out.

There was a baby golden lion tamarin that was very hard to see depending on which time you happened to be in the Americas pavilion.

Like cypher said, tundra air is expected to up and running in a couple of weeks!

And like Seankinger6, I was also told that the 3 new cheetahs from African lion safari had no relation to rafiki.
 
Forgot to mention that only one River Otter was on exhibit. No signs of the other one being around, not even indoors. As for the African Otter, one was out when I walked by.

Didn't know about the baby Golden Lion Tamarin. Wish I knew about it. Would've tried getting some shots of it.
 
Oh and the last thing I forgot to mention was that some of the cheetahs were artificially Inseminated and it's possible we could see some cheetahs cubs come this fall!
 
That's great news about the giraffes, tamarin baby and zip line. I need to try to get to the zoo as soon as possible. I don't volunteer at zoo camp until the last week of summer.
 
I finally got to visit this year and couldn't have picked a better day with perfect weather and barely anyone there.

Only tree kangaroo Harrington was out. No sign of Nokopo and since a keeper was out feeding I dont know if the bettongs were out and hiding or not out. It was nice to see Harrington wondering around exploring.

I finally got to see the sugar gliders which I have never been able to spot before. Unfortunately I didnt get to see the feathertails. I really was looking forward to them running across the glass but the keeper was busy cleaning the exhibits so they were probably hiding after their exhibit had just been tidied. Maybe next year.

Got to meet polar bear cub Humphrey. He looked like he was waiting on a keeper at the back of the exhibit. Aurora and Nikita were seperated with one in each othe the exhibits. Again they looked like they were waiting on a keeper but it was still a long way off from their keeper talk.

Other than the polar bears there were almost no animals on exhibit. No reindeers, only 2 snow geese, 1 fox, 1 snow owl and I could only see one wolf.

The Przewalski's werent in the drive thru. The mouflon were hiding at the back of the first yard most of the day (two rides and thats where they were both times). The Yaks had acess to all of the yards and all 7 were out including baby Gemini.

I got to see gorilla baby Nneka but only from a distance. All of the gorillas were sleeping. I couldnt spot Charles or Josephine. They might have been hanging out inside or training.

I had a great time watching lemur twins Jack and Willow play with the group. One baby was into playing with an adult who was swinging upsidedown on a rope ladder. The other was fascinated with a cup of pop someone had left behind by the glass. It was trying desperately to grab at it. Pretty funny when its sibling jumped on it and scared it because it was so focused on the cup.

I accidentally went out the wrong door and discovered the wattled crane exhibit. Never knew it was there or that you could see the back of the kudu exhibit.

I didnt get to see the giraffes who have moved which was disappointing but the exhibit looks really nice and I know they will love it once they have adjusted.

No warthogs were out in either exhibit. I wonder if they are introducing Lucy to Norm or Woody or both in private now that Stephan has passed and last years piglets, Zuma, Winnie and Petunia have moved to other zoos.

Everything was good in the hippo exhibit. No flooding.

I only saw 3 kudus out. Owen and two females with one being slightly smaller than the other. Has last falls calf Rio moved on? Or has Daisy who was old died? I have a similar question about the Sable Antelopes because just Puff Daddy and one female were visible.

All 5 zebras were out together and peaceful.

I also heard there as been a cheetah AI attempt.

Something was going on with the hyenas. Both Pinduli and Moja seemed every interested and wary of something going on in their house. Both were running around the yard while almost always keeping an eye on the house. It wasnt like they were interacting with each other. Their ears would perk up and they would run away watching the house then cautiously move back sniffing and repeat. Something unusual must have been going on in there because I passed them once and they were doing that and again 2 hours later and they were still behaving the same. Its the most action I have seen out of them ever.

Sadly I didnt have time to hit Indo Malaya so I could watch the orangs. Oh well.
 
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Glad you got to get your visit in TZFan. To bad the Eurasia exhibit wasn't open yet.
 
It sounds like you had a nice day TZFan. It's too bad that both the giraffe exhibit and Eurasia Wilds aren't open yet, but at least you'll have lots to look forward to for your next visit.

I'm guessing there weren't many animals out in Tundra Trek because of the heat. I know that one of the zoo's snowy owls once passed away from heat stroke, so I'm guessing they don't want to take the risk again.
 
I can wait on the giraffes and the Eurasian Wilds, especially since I could feed a giraffe possibly next spring and maybe I will get lucky and Tiga and Kota will provide us with snow leopard cubs.

It wasn't hot at all Friday. There was a great breeze all day. But then again I wasnt wearing a fur coat and have extra insulation to help for winter. Just bad luck for animal viewing in Tundra Trek that day. It happens.

Other News
The baby tamarin was part of a twin set. The twin died when it was just days old. While unfortunate at least it means that Clare and Dolce will be able to breed more often then if they were consistantly producing surviving twins. Unforunately I didnt have an opportunity to pop into the pavilion to take a look at this baby but I have seen baby tamarins before so I can wait to see another one.

I found out from a friend that Kudu Daisy died last fall. I dont remember seeing that here so its possibly news. Hopefully the zoo will be able to find a replacement female when Rio is transferred out. Then we could be watching two calves play together.
 
I finally was able to go to the zoo yesterday and was extremely happy to see that most of the animals were out. I saw what every body else report but when I went I found the wolves not to be in their Tundra exhibit but rather in the old Canada domain one. Any one know why?
 
The Wolves in the Canadian Domain in a younger pack from the one in the Tundra Trek. The plan is to eventually move the younger pack to the Tundra Trek to replace the old pack.

Lately, the old pack have been hiding themselves from the public making them harder to see than usual. Plus I believe most of the old pack has died out. I think there may only be 2 or 3 left, although I'm not sure.
 
There are 3 tundra trek wolves left. With so few now if they want to hide its easy to think they are all gone. Probably the next death from that pack and they will consider making the switch. Let the old timers live out their days in semi retirement in the relatively quiet domain.

Oh and I know there were questions about missing African otters from someone recently. I did see one in the exhibit while there. It was sleeping which was disappointing because I am almost always lucky with them being active when I visit. Oh well next time.

In sadder news I found out about a couple of deaths that occurred over the course of June.

Onyx, the zoo's oldest cheetah. Not surprising given he was on end of life care and was quite old for a cheetah to begin with.

Stephan, the zoo's breeding male warthog. I know I already mentioned it but I can add more info so will. I remember in the SSP it was mentioned if he died Norm and Woody could be used as replacements for breeding with Lucy so thats a possiblity for next spring. Unless the SSP changes its mind but it seems less likely since Stephan only sired one litter with Lucy and we currently are having problems sourcing new animals.

Fred, the male emu. I didnt mention it but I did find it odd that I only saw one emu while I was there. But with the exhibit having gone wild this year I figured the other one was simply hiding somewhere out of sight.

Seems the zoo is going through a bit of a die off again. I wont count cheetah Elio's passing or the coming passing of Jamoccha because they were part of the African Lion Safari crew. But there the other 3 deaths above, kudu Daisy, giraffe Ginetta, saki Kowa (?), one of the wolves, clouded leopard Merriweather, 1 baby tamarin, 2 polar bear cubs and probably one or two others Im forgetting, all within the last year. Thankfully most are due to advanced age. Hopefully the zoo gets back in the AZA and the losses can begin to be replaced.
 
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Went to the zoo today. Had fun, but not much new things were going on.

- Er Shun came walking outside just as I got there. She came right up to the glass and sat down to eat for a while. Everyone was so excited, they forgot their manners in stepping in front of people with cameras. I'm starting to realize that really young kids (3-6) are the most considerate. Older kids usually need to be told not to do it, and than adult usually step in front of you right after telling the kids not too.

- Got to see the baby Golden Lion Tamarin outside in the caged section of the primates exhibit. Didn't get any good pictures of it though, so I got that to look forward to next visit.

- River Otters were still being kept separated. One outside and one inside.

- Two Hyenas were out, and if I remember correctly, the male Hyena is the one with the scar on his rear end. If that were the case, the female was digging in the pipe structure in it's exhibit. Someone, who is not an employee of the zoo, said that it looked like the female was trying to create a makeshift den, which he's seen before. According to this random guy, who may or may not be talking facts, the female is creating the den in expectation of cubs. So, there's that to look into further.

- No lions were out, which was odd.

- Gorillas were interesting to watch as Ngozi was running around the exhibit with baby Nneka on her back. At one point Ngozi even kicked Johari as she ran passed her. It was odd, but in no way looked hostile.
 
Went to the zoo today. Yeah, I know, I went yesterday, but my brother wanted to go again today and I was free, so again we went. Not much happened, but here is what I noticed.

Komodo Dragon was actually walking around the exhibit. First time I’ve seen that. Looked like it just finished eating, which I wish I got to see.

Humphrey was swimming in his pool, which was nice to see.

Jupiter and Venus were both on exhibit in the Arctic Fox area. Cody was nowhere to be seen.

The Arctic Wolves exhibit was being completely cleaned up. Workers were cutting the grass, while the Wolves were being kept in the area near the wolf housing.

2 Llamas are being kept in the old Giraffe exhibit. On the zoomobile, they said it’s the Llamas summer home, implying that they are on exhibit temporality.

For the Yaks, the commentator said the zoo has 7 yaks. 1 male, 5 females, and baby girl Gemini.

Also, the Giraffes were on exhibit in the first yard today and yesterday. They don’t yet have access to the second and third yards. Today there was a Keeper watch them explore their new surroundings. Mother Twiga seemed more interested in the exhibit than daughter Mstari.
 
Lol llamas really make sense in the old giraffe exhibit. I know the zoo doesnt have any other African species available to move in there but so long as the exhibit reopens with their new inhabitants by next spring I think they could have left it for the summer.

I still want that exhibit to house a mix of African Desert animals, Addax, dromedaries and maybe a gazelle. They could move the camel ride over by the zoomobile station in that big empty spot or over in the field by the Domain.
 
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