Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo - Canada's Largest Zoo

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Oh, im sorry about the overviews.I had to study for my year end tests all week and then i had to go to the hospital.I'll try doing more tonight
 
O sorry to here you had to go to the hospital, and I still have to study for my exams but don't rush if you can't do them, I understand.
 
kk, it won't let me edit so i'll do more here

cheetah habitat: The cheetah habitat is another great cat exhibit.I like the rockwalls and the big glass windows (especially when Zoey was around).The cubs were the best.I remember going when they first went on view.They kept coming to the glass but Mya kept tyring to take them up the hill.I'd like in the future to0 see a chase lure going right by the window.The exhibit is overall good and presentable.What is the holding like and are they planning on more breeding?

baboon habitat: The babboon habitat setup it somewhat of a copy of the cheetahs, on the outside at least.The inside oif the area is actually very good and natural,The logs and termite mound are great and the water feature and waterfall are cool.the glass is nice except there never neat it.But there animals,they do what they like.

ING Direct Lion Habitat:The lion is habitat is the best cat one.The tunnel view is fanominnal as has such great view...WITH NO HOTWIRE...yah!the rockwork is awesome and the habitat is so roomy and nice.The part wheere they can go over the viewing tunnel is good as well,it wraps it all together.Is the smaller area new,i'd never seen it?There are also a buch of door near the caracals that lead to the lion range.Whats that about?What does the holding look like and are they going to acquire more lions?

caracal habitat:The caracals have a better habitat than some other zoos.There mesh is kind of ick but its fine.The interior is ok.The cave and viewing are nice.What are the holdings like and what are the names?

hyena habitat:I'd like it if they put african huting dogs in this exhibit and have the hyena down in the lion side yard.maybe add more rock work to the current hyena habitat.What are the holding like and what are the names,i thought they were Tigger,Woozle and Rabbit but i may be wrong,this is 2002 or so info.

giraffe habitat:The giraffe habitat is one i have a great idea for!I would love to see a giraffe feeding deck, you'd be able to go on a deck and buy giraffe ellet or whatever then you could eed the giraffes!The area is nice except for the disgusting chain link.Did they renovate here during the african redo?I wish they add some rocks or fake termite mounds or maybe a fake baobob tree!I'd also like to see a mix of some kind,maybe bongo?What do the holdins look like and what have twigas babbys been named and when were they born?

seal habitat:The fur seals have an enclosure that i think is good despite age and freshwater.The bleachers are a good idea but whats there exact purpose.Since the zoo is phassing them out, i don't think theres are purpose to expand or renovate.I do though have an idea for when they leave,penguins.Maybe they could house penguins like before minus the seals and then have them inside during winter.What do the holding look like here?

another thing i'd love to see is a smaller sub-pavilon called Mysterious Madagascar housing lemur and other madagascarian animal.Finally im done studying (I used the calculator so much that i felt like saying thats it and snapping it to pieces.Again,i'd love to here all your opinion and i hope you guys start doing overviews too.
 
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Good overview of the exhibits, Zoogoer2000!

I believe that is the names of the hyenas. As you could tell from my avatar, they're among my favorite animals at the zoo.
 
The zoo used to have Topi's right?

Well where were they housed?
When did the get them and when did they leave?
 
Yep, there was Toby the Topi, back a few years ago. Not sure where he went, but I do remember him being in the yard that houses the Grevy's Zebra stallion. I unfortunately never got a picture of him :(
 
I remember him to,the site still has a topi enrichment sheet
 
Do you know where ugulate has been it's been a while since he has been on?

and

Zoogoer are you still doing reviews?
 
remember,Ungulate is a zookeeper.He has to work long hours probably.Im doing a review once very week.I have to rest alot to as the reason i was in the hospital was because i had a huge appendicitis sickness and i had to get it removed.Not fun,now i just sit around the house for about another 3 days missing school and Im way to tired and groggy to do anything but sit and watch tv.
 
I know he is a zoo keeper, but he hasn't been on in four days, I was just wondering because he usally makes it on every day or two.

and get better soon, I wasn't trying to rush you. You just said "I hope you guys start doing overviews too" so thats why, again I was just wondering.
 
Great review, Zoogoer!
Here are some of my thoughts (and answers) on the first half of the exhibits you reviewed. I'll try and get to the Indo Pavilion proper soon.

The rhino house always feels big and a bit cavernous to me, although the Mandarin ducks do help fill it out. Having natural substrate (like in the pygmy hippo exhibits in Africa) would probably be good for the rhinos, but the smell would be even stronger! :-) I think the current trend is to increase the variety of surfaces available, and there is now some soft flooring in the holding stalls in the back. Having plants grow inside is almost impossible when you have heavy animals like rhinos walking around ... it is hard enough to get grass to establish in the outdoor exhibits! I would like to see the garden between the rhino and tapir get more attention - it kind of gets lost behind the walls instead of bursting forth. In the back, there are three large rhino stalls which run longways along the building (you can see the three doors into the pens at the back of the rhino exhibit). There are two tapir stalls, which run "into" the building, i.e., perpendicular to the rhino pens. The first one has the door leading to the outdoor exhibit. The hope is to be able to breed both the rhinos and tapirs ... we just have to wait for the rhinos to be old enough, and for Tanuck's girlfriend to arrive!

Hi Ungulate,

Do you use sandy or soft-cover substrates in the house (like mulch which is eco-friendly and composts/desynthesizes the urine+smells and their excrement is easy to just push out into the bucket?
Any crush cage or protected contact training for footcare and hormonal essays and semen collection?

Can you describe the outside exhibit? In what ways is it specifically designed to house the species and reciprocate their natural surroundings?
Are essentials like mud-wallows and boulders (for the female to evade the male when not yet receptive) for the GOHR much frequent water sources in the wild too?

What kind of enrichment and training do you provide for your the rhinos?

At what age do you feel confident enough to let the male Vishnu mate Asha (late 2009 as bull is 1,5 years older than cow and at 5 she is reproductively capable)?

Cheers,

Jelle
 
[QUOTE

Can you describe the outside exhibit? In what ways is it specifically designed to house the species and reciprocate their natural surroundings?
Are essentials like mud-wallows and boulders (for the female to evade the male when not yet receptive) for the GOHR much frequent water sources in the wild too? QUOTE]

Jelle, there are some photos of the outside and the inside of the rhino exhibit in my gallery :D
 
I can describe the indoor.There is an averagely sized pen with a cement floor,a moated front and a few logs and hanging baskets on the walls.There is a door at the back leading to the holding stalls to.The outdoor is fairly large and it has a large mud wallow at one end.I think Vish and Asha are seperate since on my latest visit Asha was indoors,Vishnu out but he was sitting at the gate leading to the back yard calling to her and she was calling back.It was funny to see Tanuck as he was quite alarmed since the noise was extremly loud.
 
Coming up for air ...

Hi everyone,
I am alive. This past week was especially busy, and zoobeat is not at the top of my priority list! I have just started a vacationing road trip of Michigan's zoos, and may or may not have time or energy to catch up with all of the questions until early July. (My day started at 4:20 this morning!). Here's a start:

Hyenas: yes, they are still Rabbit (the fat one - she's the only girl), Tigger (he has a notch in one of his ears) and Woozle. Wild dogs have been talked about, but I don't think the enclosure is quite big enough for them (there is room to expand towards the zoomobile station, though!). What "lion side yard" are you thinking of, ZooGoer?

Topi: we only ever had one ... Meaghan was almost right with his name (officially he was "Dopi", but "Toby" does sound nicer!). Dopi was born in San Antonio (I think), and arrived in Toronto in 2001(ish). He was on exhibit in the "around the bed" exhibit as you walk from giraffes to the Canadian Domain (this is usually known as the white-tailed gnu exhibit, since this species was housed here for the first 20+ years of the zoo) - Shaka the zebra is out there this summer. He (Dopi) moved out to Mountain View in BC a few years ago, and has since passed away.

Indian rhinos: Great job ZooGoer! I love the mud wallow in the big rhino paddock - it is quite large (considering, say, the size of the river hippo pool), and the rhinos seem to love using it. There are a few palisade visual barriers in the paddock, as well as some trees protected by guards. I'll have to return to the rest of your questions later Jelle.

Lion exhibit: the original lion house is between the caracals and the outdoor exhibit - that's where those doors go to, ZooGoer. There were also windows into the house so you could see the lions when they were inside I think there are murals in them now). The general shape of the exhibit has not changed since the zoo opened, but you may be interested to hear that there was once a viewing window at the top of the kopje, looking onto the "bridge" between the two halves. Right now, the lions are having some social issues (Rowdy and Lyndy fighting), so you will only see two out at a time (Rowdy and Nokanda, or Jerroh and Lyndy). I doubt we'll be getting any more lions until these issues get resolved.

Quartz92 - what are your thoughts on the exhibits that ZooGoer has reviewed? (or, how would you describe the same exhibits). Or, do you want to review another area?
 
Thanks for the head's up, Ungulate. I truly appreciate the hard work you do. Looks like I was close with Dopi's name ;)

Glad that there has been talks of African Wild Dogs. I went to the North Carolina Zoo on my family's vacation while we were driving to South Carolina, just to see them. I think they would make an awesome addition to the Toronto Zoo; they're such fascinating animals and their social interactions would no doubt draw people in and care about the plight of their species.

Does anyone have any personal visions for the Toronto Zoo?

I have a personal vision, of sorts, of what I'd do with the mentioned area by the zoo mobile station (and the area where the mandrill males are being kept in their old outdoor exhibit). Wild Dogs aside, I would like to see Hirola, perhaps in an mixed species exhibit with other hooved animals, and some smaller animal species exhibits for jackals, ratels, Hyrax, dik-dik, etc. Maybe another primate, such as the Black and White Colobus.

I would also like to see a larger hippo exhibit with glass underwater viewing, stocked with tilapia fish. They could help their keepers out a bit with the cleaning ;)
 
The african Pavillion: I do not think they should do anything new here but maybe add a few other species, and let people walk in the area they now have closed off, Why is that?
I would like to see an outdoor area for the pygmy hippo(Cause i love them) the birds, meerkats, and mandrills, spoonbill etc. i would like to see more spoonbills. :)

Elephants: I think the only update they need to do to this, is the elephant house, so the winter houseing for the elephants is a lot more conforatable for them and they can interact with each other indoors. Why does the public not able to go in there anymore?

Hippo: I personally love hippos, they are absolutly cool! :P I have a great idea for them. They should the exhibit they have now but build another yard were the African Shamba Farm is, with an underground veiwing and a complete updated area there. That way the zoo can breed an amazing species better than ever, i think they should breed the hippos, both pygmy and river.

And I agree with Meaghans vison of having some more exhibits near the outdoor male mandrill enclosure, by the way I have seen it but I can't remember were it is?

Warthogs (outdoor): I think that the red river hogs should be dispalyed here, aswell as the warthogs in the summer, and if it wasn't already asked, what do the holdings for them look like?
I have never really understood the warthog exhibit, to me it seems confusing. They should have more plants in this exhibit, or make it seem more natural looking.

The Gazelles Zebras, Kudus, Rhinos, Storks: I love this exhibit it replicats the african savanna, the only thing i would change is add some more vegitation in like an island area in between the zebras and rhinos and also hide the fence that divides the enclosures. I think they should open up all the exhibits so that they can rotate through them to be like a real savanna. I also think the animal should be able to get to the watering hole, other then that I really like this portion of the zoo.

Cheetah: I like this exhibit aswell, but I would put a big replica of a large african tree or a reall large tree in the middle of the exhibit to add to the boringness, or they can but a pile of rocks in the middle so that it looks like they are watching the nearby prey (other savanna exhibits)

Baboons: Good exhibit, all they need to add is some more vegatations maybe a forest in the back middle area.

Ostrich: Love it, what ever happened to the babies? and this exhbit aswell, they need to put an emphasis on a centre peice or somthing, and also add more trees and shrubs.

Lion: I think they need to have more space, and i thik they need to do a good cleaning of this area, they need to clean the Kjope.

Hyenas: Needs to be cleaned, expanded, maybe alternate the hyenas and a different species such as wild dogs. Im my opionion this is the worst exhibit in the zoo.

Giraffe: Excellent, can't be changed, nothing different, but a feeding deck may be a cool thing, but to add anything to an animal exhibit it should be reserched first.

Seals: I think they should get more, but since they are a Phase Out species this would be perfect for a colony of peguins. I think they penguins will bring the attendance level of the zoo up a lot. If they can get them sooner, and alternate the seals and penguins if possible.

I agree with Meaghans idea about the area where the mandrill males are being kept in their old outdoor exhibit, should all be re constructed to add multiple new species, maybe even add a second pavillon here to house madagascar species, and they definantly need columbus monkeys and howler monkeys. And also add bongo and okapi, leopards also would be a great addition. The future of the zoo should be good:)

And Ulgulate, you should bring this to the hippo staff and see if they think its a good idea to expand the hippo yard.

Off the African Savanna topic I would like to see and outdoor holding for the vancover island marmot
 
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Im going to postpone the Canadian Domain review unti lnext week but until then i had an idea that we should all write a list of animals we'd love to see at TZ and where?
 
Indomalaya
francois langur(on and off with the lion tails)
blackbuck and elds deer(indian rhino paddock)
golden pheasent(Malayan Woods free flight room)
bintuong(bring closed aviary bids to free flight and renovate the colded aviaries to house binturong)
fishing cats(switch on and off with clouded leopards)
siamang gibbons(in the valley area of Indomalaya in beetween pavilion and malayan woods)
bearded pigs(in valley with siamangs)
asian otters(with the white handed gibbons)
sun bear(in sumatran tiger maternity yard or in exhibit somewhere on the hillside nearest Africa)
pallas cat(on hillside nearest africa)
bateng(with gaur)
babirusa(with gibbon)
 
Great review, Quartz92 :) Another area I'd redo, if it was up to me, would be to add some more stuff to the African Pavilion's "basement" where the Naked Mole Rats, etc are.

As for the species I'd like to see:

African Savannah:

-African Wild Dog
-Hyrax
-Chimpanzee
-African Leopard
-Ratel
-Jackals (any)
-Wildebeest (any)
-Thomson's Gazelle
-Brown Hyena
-Blesbok
-Nyala
-Gerenuk
-African Wild Ass
-Martial Eagle
-Saddlebilled Stork

African Pavilion:

-Colobus (maybe have an indoor/outdoor exhibit)
-Okapi (with an outdoor exhibit)
-Dik-Dik
-Shoebill Stork (in the free flight aviary where the Hammerkop is)
-Golden Cat
-Lemurs (any)
-Fossa (perhaps have the Madagascar species in the "basement")

Indonesia:

-Baberusia (I love the idea of them being with the gibbons)
-Sun Bear

Eurasia:

-Giant Panda
-Spanish Lynx
-Snub-nosed Monkey
-Golden Eagle
-Takin
-Saiga
-Pallas' Cat
-European Genet
-Markhor
-European Wild Boar
-Asiatic Black Bear

Australasia:

-Dingo
-Tasmanian Devil
-Quoll
-Red Kangaroo
-Cassowary

Americas:

-Ocelot
-Maned Wolf
-Coatimundi
-Bush Dog
-Black-neck Swan (somewhere on this computer I have a postcard scan of these swans in the Capybara area)
-Galapagos Tortoise
-Nine-banded Armadillo
-Giant Anteater
-Bush Dog
-Pudu

Tundra Trek/Boreal/Mixed Woodlands:

-Wolverine (fingers crossed that they will be getting them!)
-Coyote (maybe the zoo can take in some "problem" animals that would be otherwise killed)
-Grey Fox
-White-tailed Deer
-Loon (any)
-Sea Otter
-Bighorn Sheep
-Mountain Goat
 
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