Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo - Canada's Largest Zoo

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In the past, the Toronto Zoo has bred both river hippos (last baby was in 1987) and pygmy hippos (last baby was in 1999).

I work with the zoo's river hippos; we have one male (Samson) and two females (Perky and Petal). Sam and the girls alternate time on exhibit, so some days you may see one hippo, and other days you may see two. There will certainly NOT be any river hippo babies in the foreseeable future, since all of our hippos are siblings.

The pygmy hippos are Harvey (male) and Abou (female). They lived together at their previous home (Mountain View) and bred several times, but never successfully reared any offspring. They are presently undergoing a trial "separation" in Africa pavilion (they stopped getting along during quarantine, and the holding is in the finishing stages of renovation), but the hope is that eventually they will be reintroduced for breeding.
 
what do you mean by "in the finishing stages of renovation?"

and aside from this
Does anyone have the plans for the zoos new Great Barrier Reef Exhibit?
I cannot find any.
 
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@Meaghan: nice links! I see that Coe Lee Robinson from Philadelphia is the design team, and I love the idea of the air hole above the heads of the visitors. The Toronto Zoo will certainly be spending a lot of time and money ($30 million plus) on the north side of the zoo.
 
I heard Cleo went to Franklin Park Zoo, but i thought the National Zoo male came back?And if remember hearing, Sparkey was the last baby right?
 
Zoogoer2000 said:
I heard Cleo went to Franklin Park Zoo, but i thought the National Zoo male came back?And if remember hearing, Sparkey was the last baby right?
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Yes, ZooGoer2000 - Cleo moved to the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston last year. Pogo (her son, and the last pygmy hippo born in Toronto) is still living in Washington D.C. (FYI, Pogo's father was "Psi", one of the progeny of the National Zoo's pygmy hippo program in the 1960's and 70's - when they were all named for Greek letters).

Sparky was the last river hippo born in Toronto - she is currently living at the Calgary Zoo.

@Quartz92 ... I'm not sure how to explain myself further ... they are doing renovations to the pygmy hippo holding and are almost finished.
 
How r the cheetahs.could you give?last i remember was Jamocha,Zeke,Mia,Luke,Emma,Julio,Chico and the other cub
 
if Brytne and the cubs are seperated,where are they living, i would think it would be Brytne in the original yard,the cubs in the holding yard and Rengat in the AGF side yard.I heard that one on the cubs is staying and the other is going to Memphis.If one stays, will they acquire a male for her to breed with becasue if that happened the tigers would be pretty cramped and they'd have to enlarge the nighthouse so every one would have adequeate space.One last question, are they planning on breeding Bryt and Reng again?if so, when would that be?
 
Sorry ZooGoer, I don't keep close tabs on the cheetahs, since most of them are housed in an off exhibit breeding complex, with the occasional rotation up to the main exhibit. We presently have nine cheetahs (4.5) on site:

Males: Zeke, Zack, Luke, and Rafiki
Females: Jamoccha, Mya, Shamwari, Pinki, and Zoey II

Last years cubs (Elio, Chico, Jose, and Emma) moved to African Lion Safari last year. Breeding introductions are going on as I write, and hopefully we will have some more cubs soon.

The Sumatran tiger cubs are usually on exhibit in the AGF Maternity yard, and Brytne and Rengat are together again in the main exhibit. I presume that Brytne is still on birth control, since (as you pointed out) we have space restrictions now and wouldn't be able to easily manage another set of tigers. I have not heard of the plans for the Kali and Indah.
 
Zoogoer2000 said:
is zoey the one with only one eye?
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Yes, and no. Zoey was the well-recognized one-eyed cheetah who would frequently sit net to the viewing glass; however, she passed away in September 2007.

Another cheetah, also named Zoey, arrived at the zoo in July 2006 - because there was already a Zoey, she was rechristened "Zoey II".
 
do you remember the african penguins. I was just wondering what ever happened to them and where in the zoo they lived exactly,when did they leave?
 
The African (also known as black-footed or jackass) penguins lived at the zoo from opening (1974) until 1995.

Originally, they were slated to live in the fur seal exhibit - WITH the fur seals! The penguins were provided with little concrete bunkers on the hillside - you can see them (the bunkers) in this old photo on Flickr:
ADS - VII.V on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

(The exhibit sure has changed in 30 years!). The penguins and seals were introduced together on the day of the grand opening of the zoo (August 15, 1974) ... of course, ten young, rambunctious, and potentially predatory fur seals were not ideal roommates for the penguins, and they spent all of their time huddled in the bunkers staying safe. The penguins were removed from the outdoor exhibit in under a week.

For most of their time at the zoo, the penguins lived in the African pavilion, in the exhibit that is presently occupied by the chameleon display (between the lower pygmy hippo pool and the ibis exhibit). There are photos floating around on the internet of the penguins in this exhibit, but I can't find any at the moment. At the time, the public could view the exhibit from two angles - over the glass (current view) as well as over the pool/moat on the other half of the enclosure. They bred fairly well in this exhibit, and Toronto-born penguins can be found in several institutions, including the West Edmonton Mall and the Georgia Aquarium. The last penguins left the Toronto Zoo in 1995, and went to the Granby Zoo in Quebec.

(Note to moderators: could we get a Toronto Zoo subforum going? This thread is now quite long and cumbersome!)
 
Condolences for the loss of Zoey. She was another favorite zoo cat.

Thanks for that info with regards to the penguins. I was just looking at that picture and wondered what that little bunker was for. I loved those guys!

Do you know what the seal exhibit will be used for once the species is phased out?
 
The exhibit that is occupied by the chameleon exhibit, between the lower pygmy hippo pool and the ibis exhibit. What is there now? Because i couple of times I have went i noticed that they have a infered light on. So i was wondering what the exhibit is used for!?
 
why did the zoo decide to let the penguins go?And, it that pic, how far did the fence go for the seals,they don't have grass anymore.were you there on the first day?What ever happened to my snow leopard friends Lena and Olaf?
 
sorry, i just have a teeny question what ever happened to the chinese leopards,african dwarf buffalo, i have a question about the proboscis monkeys, where did they live,what happened to them and why did the zoo get rid of them.Plus, why are the lion tail's all male now, is Carl still alive?
 
Very quickly...

To Meaghan: what will go in the current seal exhibit is totally undecided. Lots of thoughts have been thrown around, but since the seals could live here for another decade, nothing has been even closely examined.

Quartz92: There is a Nile soft-shell turtle that currently lives in the rest of the old penguin exhibit, primarily in the pool (his name is "Dotty"). FYI, the exhibit was initially for nyala, and had a chain-link fence where the current glass viewing area is.

Zoogoer:

I believe there were some disease issues with the penguins, and after having a few deaths, decided to move the rest to a safer locale (I think they suspected the initial disturbance cause by the demolition of the old Africa paddocks).

The fence in the seal exhibit curled around from the house behind the berm (you can just see it coming away from the house) and came around to more-or-less where the current fenceline meets the bleachers. The bleachers were not present initially - instead, there was a moat around the edge of the pool, and instead of walking up around the entire edge of the pool the public could only access the round section in the centre of the pool (which is why the stairs are there, and why there are now so many twisty paths between the upper and underwater viewing!). You are correct that the seals don;t have grass anymore, but until last fall, they actually did have access to the "meadow", which few people realize is actually part of the exhibit (as you come from Africa restaurant, you can see the fence enclosing it). Unfortunately, the past fall Rosi took a liking to going for hikes back there, and there was concern for public/animal safety as there is no stand-off barrier along that side of the enclosure.

Both Lena and Olaf passed away in 2004.

The last Chinese leopard left the zoo in 1997 to Jungle Cat World, I believe. The exhibit had already been modified for the red pandas by then.

The forest buffalo (the four original animals) were donated to Mountain View in BC in 1993; their offspring were sent off to various places as they matured. The species was phased out in order to provide the warthogs with a permanent home.

The proboscis monkeys never arrived at the zoo - there was quite a lot of debate as to their origins and the importation never occurred (they were to have been displayed in the gibbon exhibit).

We have several female lion-tailed macaques at the moment -Si-Nikel, Screamer, Sitara, and Vina. The males are Karl, Dave, and Guntur. Karl and Screamer live off exhibit, and occasionally the exhibit group is split due to aggression issues.
 
do you have any info about possible seals species in Tundra Trek?also, could you give me a little background info on the mayan temple like current animals,past species,how it was when it opened,when it opened and what happened to the capybara,mara,llama and dall sheep
 
There are no pinnipeds in the Tundra exhibit, Zoogoer - the costs of adding such an exhibit to the project would have been prohibitive.

The Mayan Temple was opened in 1987; currently exhibited are jaguars and spider monkeys in adjacent mesh enclosures, plus flamingos and trumpeter swans. There is a large amount of off-exhibit holding space in the interior which houses a rotating array of animals (currently there are macaws, a piping guan, and a barred owl, I believe).

The capybara used to live with the spider monkeys (one of my favourite mixed-species exhibits). The macaw island/open-air capybara exhibit (at the base of the waterfall) was added in the mid to late 1990's, and was originally going to house the zoo's hyacinth macaws. For breeding purposes, they never made it to the exhibit - a scarlet macaw (Sinbad) and a blue-and-gold macaw (Maui) are usually on the island during the warm months.

A tamandua was held in the building for a while, but was never on exhibit, and the zoo used to have a South American tapir (housed in the temple for a bit, I believe), although I am not sure if it was ever on exhibit.

You can catch see a quick video of the temple under construction at the zoo's website: Toronto Zoo > Meet The Animals > Videos (under "zoo architecture")
 
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