Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Developments 2015

A very interesting article indeed that provides us with some more insight into an animal often ignored at the zoo. Bonus for me it helps to confirm some of the names for my list. We have 6 females Molly, Susan, Putsie, Kristina, Kate and Kalamata. Which means the other 6 of the troop are males. It only mentions Bwana Joe. My list has Duncan, Jack and Brian which may or may not be current. That would leave two males off my list.
 
Went to the zoo. Noticed a few things, so here we go.

The Peacock Café is under renovation to make it into a Tim Hortons. Not sure if the Peacock Café brand will stick around. Currently, the building is off limits due to construction.

Red Pandas Ralphie and Cassie are still together, although they hardly seem interested in each other.

I thought I saw a Camel calf at the Camel Palace, but it turned out to be the 2 Alpacas, along with the Miniature Donkey from the kid’s zoo.

Wolf exhibit in the Tundra Trek is still empty, despite the repairs being seemingly complete. I did see Loki being pretty active by the wolf house. Haven’t seen him that active in a while.

I was surprised to see the Flamingos out, along with the Jaguars.
Waxy Tree Frogs are no longer on exhibit in the Americas Pavilion. They’ve been replaced with Puerto Rican Crested Toads.

Black-Footed Ferret is back on exhibit.

Went down to the Canadian Domain. Didn’t see anything new, aside from new signage. I was surprised to see it. It looks great. I’ll post pictures of them later.

At the Cheetah talk, the Keeper mentioned that breeding is pretty dry right now. They’ll be putting a pair together that have never been successful in the past, but who knows, maybe something will happen. Not sure who the pair is. There is talks about the zoo possibly being lent one or two males from Parc Safari that they received from Africa. If they aren’t lent the males, they’re hoping in getting semen for Artificial insemination.

White Lions cubs are doing well. Keepers recently weighed them. The heaviest is 21 lbs and the lightest is 18 lbs. The lightest also seems to be the most dominate of the 4. Keepers say he’s already bossing the others around. In terms of putting them on exhibit, the plan is to have a section at the lion house available for the cubs to be seen by the public, from outside, during set hours. Since the public will be viewing them from outside, visitors won’t be going in the lion house. That’s the plan right now.

Also, there have been no decisions made on how the cubs are going to be dealt with when they get older. The Keeper said that she doesn’t expect Lindy or Jerroh to be going anywhere anytime soon. Most likely the plan will involve sending the cub away when they get older. At this point it’s just a matter of finding homes for them.

The walls of both Chameleon exhibits have been painted giving them a more natural look.

The out door exhibit for the Red River Hogs is under renovation.
 
It sounds like you had a nice visit cypher.

I can't wait for the Tim Hortons to replace the Peacock Cafe. It's nice that it'll be right at the entrance of the zoo.

It's also great that a black footed ferret is back on exhibit and I'm happy that Puerto Rican crested toads are now on exhibit. I like when the zoo displays animals that it is doing conservation work with.

I'm surprised new signs were put up in the Domain since hopefully a new Canadian area will be built soon. I guess they can just move the signs with the animals. I've been mostly impressed with the new signage at the zoo, so I'm glad to see this trend continue.

It's good to hear that the lion cubs are doing well. I can't wait to see them.

Thanks for the update.
 
One thing I noticed with the new signage was that at the bottom right of the sign it said Canadian Wilderness.
 
TZFan said:
A very interesting article indeed that provides us with some more insight into an animal often ignored at the zoo. Bonus for me it helps to confirm some of the names for my list. We have 6 females Molly, Susan, Putsie, Kristina, Kate and Kalamata. Which means the other 6 of the troop are males. It only mentions Bwana Joe. My list has Duncan, Jack and Brian which may or may not be current. That would leave two males off my list.
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When I read the article I recalled a visit to the zoo in the spring where I saw a rather large bleeding gash on the back of a baboon's neck. I was super worried and found a keeper to alert. The keeper wasn't even remotely interested or concerned. I was quite shocked by her response. Perhaps because it was a known battle for dominance the keeper didn't care. But for me it was alarming to see such a gash. But the article explains things a little.
 
I highly doubt the keeper didn't care that the baboon in question was hurt. They probably were not concerned because they already knew about it and they knew the baboon was fine. However for those of us who visit when an animal is injured it is alarming. We don't want them to be hurt and we worry about their well being. You did the right thing by letting the keeper know however they probably could have handled your report a little differently so you wouldn't have walked away thinking staff don't care. But maybe you were the 20th person that day raising a justifiable alarm. It's hard to know what the keepers have to deal with in terms of guest concerns on any given day. May have been a good idea to post signs on the exhibit letting people know what was going on to alleviate concerns like they have done for Bob the snowy owl and like they did when hyena Moja had a deep gash from Pinduli. Just a hey we know... we are aware... vets and keepers have things under control... and the animal is ok.
 
Toronto Zoo release a Cute Alert on Facebook. Here's the release:

"CUTE ALERT: Our lion cubs now weigh between 18.8 and 21.1 lbs! We are continuing to increase their meat intake and they are now being offered 120 g per cub per day. Keepers are now providing them with access to an outdoor play area as the weather permits but remain not visible to the public at this time.

To no surprise, the cubs are very playful and quite rambunctious. Makali is very patient with her four boys and is doing her best to keep them under control "

There are also new pictures to see of the cubs.
 
I saw some german roaches in the displays that contain roaches and the big grasshoppers. I hope they can resolve it before it spreads.

Loggerhead shrike was on display in americas, also a great horned owl and a future display for a barn owl. The zoo is really fun in the winter time, it's a whole new experience and I find many animals are more lively than in summer.
 
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Meadowvale, the barn owl was on display most of the summer. Might be a little nippy for him now. The great horned owl went on display at the same time... some very nice shots of both are in the gallery. The shrikes took over the prairie dog display a couple of months ago.

Glad you got to visit this time of year. Now go at some point over the winter when there is snow. Totally different experience from this time of year. The snow makes many of the animals outside extra active while they try to keep warm. Winter visits are always amazing.
 
TZFan said:
Meadowvale, the barn owl was on display most of the summer. Might be a little nippy for him now. The great horned owl went on display at the same time... some very nice shots of both are in the gallery. The shrikes took over the prairie dog display a couple of months ago.

Glad you got to visit this time of year. Now go at some point over the winter when there is snow. Totally different experience from this time of year. The snow makes many of the animals outside extra active while they try to keep warm. Winter visits are always amazing.
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I had not gone in a long time and it was nice yesterday. Lots of new things to see.

yeah I went last year when we had a big snowstorm and it was wonderful. No people, animals are more lively, lots of native birds by the feeders. Even the pavilions are different with animals moved indoors.
 
There's a cute alert on the zoo's facebook page about the Polar Bear cub for those interested.
 
The wolf packs have swapped places finally! Loki is in the domain for semi retirement. Chinook, Dora and Vera have moved up to Tundra Trek. Now the next goal... spring pups.
 
Great news. It took them long enough to make the switch. The only downside to this is that the Domain just got that much more boring and uninteresting.
 
Might be less interesting to go down to the domain without them but Tundra Trek has just become more interesting itself. Tundra Trek was getting down right depressing with pretty much just Polar bears in any numbers (1 wolf, 1 snowy owl, some snow geese, 2 reindeer and no foxes). And the potential of pups from the pack is exciting as well. That would really liven up the exhibit.

Upside for the domain would be more lynx kittens... ones that live this time and can go on display. As we get closer and close to the zoo working on the Canadian Wilderness it wouldn't be all that surprising to hear they wont be replacing losses so they can get younger animals for the new exhibits once they are ready.
 
The Toronto Zoo website has created a section for the White Lion cubs. It also contains more information on viewing the white lion cubs starting this coming weekend. Also more pictures are included. Link below:

Toronto Zoo | White Lion Cubs
 
Egyptian Goose, Loud, is not dead. He is alive and kicking in savanna holdings with good buddy Annoying. The report of his death was incorrect. An egyptian goose did die. It just wasn't Loud or Annoying or either of the male geese that live with the ibises. It was another one from another off display pair. Why aren't some of these extras not on display? Clip their flight feathers and let them chill with another animal that wont hurt them or be bullied by them.
 
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