Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo - Developments 2016

If the crawl through for the kids is gone that just means more space for exhibits. Well not a lot of space lets be honest. It's not a terribly large area but fence it off put in a very small barn and bingo Arctic Hare or Snowshoe exhibit. They don't need a lot of space and honestly the zoo doesn't need a lot of them. A boring species but now that their are not the Arctic fox to go through that dramatic colour change from white to grey why not bring in rabbits for a much smaller exhibit. I would be super upset to see the Arctic fox exhibit go to them but I'm totally fine with a small exhibit being built for them. And frankly a barn doesn't even need to be built just a small shed keepers can keep them in when it's too hot or too cold. There isn't much room for anything else there. I guess one could put in a lemming or rock ptramagin exhibit. Kids will like the bunnies best. However they will probably just leave the space empty.

Ok I have decided to do them a favour. Here is how Tundra Trek should look. Leave the polar bears alone. Leave the wolves in place but if they like shade install some rocky outcrops with cooled rocks or overhangs so they can be cool. Bigger trees if necessary. Snowy owl lets give the exhibit some vertical height and create a tunnel for guests out of mesh and let the owls fly across into a second exhibit on the other side since there is a small green space there. People would love seeing snowy owls fly overhead. Or alternatively kill the teepee area and devote all of it to a large snowy owl avairy with multiple pairs. Now we have space for multiple owls. Let's level out the reindeer exhibit so people can see more then a small fraction of the exhibit. Now we either bring in caribou and muskox and leave the exhibit pretty much the same or we move the moose. If we are going caribou and muskox then put in a small pond up front and move the snow geese in there. If we are going moose then put in a big long pond with some up front and stretching back into the exhibit. Throw in a few more trees. In this case leave the snow geese alone in their crappy exhibit. Back to the caribou and muskox idea... now the snow geese exhibit gets retro fitted for rock ptarmigan in a fully enclosed aviary. The teepee area can either go owl or be left alone and have a rustic gift shop opened with a trapper shack feel. Then put the Arctic hare or snowshoes in where I just suggested them. And have the fox exhibit expand to double its size with a new barn for lynx. I didn't spend a lot of money, maybe a million, and made the area soooo much better.
 
I got the name Gerald & the relation to Tobi from the keepers...his name could be spelled with a J...

TZFan said:
Good to hear we didn't loose the kookaburra. They are my favourite bird at the zoo and I remember at one point they were looking to remove them from the collection. I still do not understand how Karee who is the most genetically valuable bird in North America has not been given a mate.

Interesting they named the last of the bettong joeys Gerald. The older joeys had names that started with the first letter of mom or dad's name based on gender. Thus we had Tobi and Jemma. You know the keepers and their love sticking to naming patterns. Unless... maybe Gerald isn't Tobi's brother. Breeding male Tucker was over represented so he was shipped out. Breeding female Julie is genetically valuable and they wanted a fitting mate for her so they were waiting on the birth of a good match. Bettongs breed a lot like bunnies... often... so a new male could already be here. Although it's equally likely the keepers just chose to break with their little pattern.

As for the fox exhibit. The lynx moving in there would not be that unreasonable. They are a great geographic fit. Then take a look at google earth and the size of both the fox and lynx exhibits. They are roughly the same. The things that would have to change are the barn... pitifully undersized and another brilliant move on the zoos part like the ostrich barn... and the fencing because its ultimately too low. Add vertical height and get a new bigger prefab barn and you are set. In fact if the exhibit is undersized there is a a clump of trees behind and to the left of the exhibit that could be utilized to nearly double the space. Not a terrible idea when you are already working on fencing. It would be an expensive little project but would bring a worthy animal into Tundra Trek and like I said make room in space and budget for the Canadian Wilderness. It works on a lot of levels. Wolverines would need a lot more in terms of space and facilities but if you move the lynx from the Wilderness plan now you have some space and money. Plus if they would listen to me and move the moose to Tundra Trek too I just found even more space and funds. With their being a parasite that is killing off the reindeer, caribou while preferable to reindeer in terms of theme don't appear to be the correct choice. Although you want to give me muskox in there and I would be a happy camper too. A choice about the reindeer exhibit must have been made because there are plans already for their barn which is not that old to be replaced. One can only hope that means a change over to muskox or moose... but I will take caribou too if they think it's safe.
Click to expand...
 
Went to the zoo today, noticed a few tidbits.

Clouded Leopard exhibit is under maintenance. Seemed like enough maintenance to close the exhibit for a couple days.

The day room for the Gorillas has been boarded off. There was also a notice sheet explaining that Nassir and Sadiki have officially been removed from the main troop, although they only spend days together. Once they spend nights together, they will officially be a bachelor troop, making them the zoo’s first ever bachelor troop. So don’t expect to see Nassir back with main troop any longer.

Pygmy Hippos are still in separate exhibits. I’m really excited to see how they react to each other, so I plan to keep everyone updated on them when I can.

Red River Hogs are also still separated. They seem to alternate being in the outdoors exhibit.

Happen to be at the America’s Pavilion at the time of the Otter feeding and some discussion about the new male Otter that’s coming was brought up. The Otter is coming from either Buffalo or Bronx zoo, Keeper couldn’t remember, although I remember hearing Buffalo in the Births and Deaths thread.

Anyways, it turns out he was supposed to arrive this last week, but he bit a Keeper. The zoo has a policy that he must now be quarantined, for 2 weeks to 30 days. After that, he can be shipped out to the Toronto Zoo, where he will undergo another quarantine, which is usually a minimum of 30 days, but with this situation, it could possibly be cut down, because he’s in quarantine now and being tested. Either way, Keeper’s plan to try and introduce him to our female Talise as soon as possible. Keepers are hoping to have them introduced to each other by the end of this year.
 
Juno was given access to the main pool yard, to explore for the first time. On facebook you can watch a video of her taking her first plunge into the water. She will be given access to the pool yard on a rotation basis.
 
For those interested, there was suppose to be a board meeting October 27 with the next meeting taking place in December. That's changed.

No meeting in October, it's been moved to November 28, and the December meeting has been cancelled altogether.

Sucks that we have to wait until November for the next round of info, but hopefully we'll finally get a look at the new master plan which is suppose to be done by the end of October.
 
Went to the zoo yesterday. Not much to report on, but I noticed construction taking place in Panda Da Mao's outdoor exhibit. His cave has been boarded closed, and there looks to be and addition in the works, being placed in front of the cave. A type of climbing structure.

Hopefully this is being done to move Er Shun and the cubs over to that yard, giving people a lot more space to view them.
 
Couple things I noticed during my last few visits.

I mentioned that the tunnel walk-through for children in the Tundra Trek was demolished. Turns out they are rebuilding it. So no luck in a exhibit expansion or new, albeit small, exhibit.

Da Mao was back out in his yard over the weekend. The construction I mentioned has been completed, as far as I can tell. Along with the cave being sealed closed, there are 2 large wooden structures that have been added to the exhibit.

Cassie is still on exhibit. I only mention this because she was scheduled to leave.
 
I don't think Cassie is headed out right away. Like I said the recommendation for the move is new. The move might happen over the winter or in the spring.
 
Just to follow up on cypher's post regarding the construction on the larger outdoor panda exhibit. I was at the zoo today, in the morning Da Mao was in his yard however by the afternoon they had shifted Da Mao to the smaller outdoor exhibit and they had staff members continuing to work on the new structures in the larger exhibit. In addition to the wooden structures that cypher mentioned, they have also attached a small hammock like thing to one of the wooden structures. It seems to be rather small for Da Mao, so maybe there is still reason for optimism about the cubs being in the larger exhibit! I took a couple photos of the structures and will post them in the gallery.

On a different note, during the cheetah talk someone asked about the breeding. The keeper didn't offer firm details but mentioned new blood coming in the new year, so maybe a new male?

Jerroh was out on exhibit all day, although this was apparently unplanned. During the keeper chat, the keepers said that despite 4+ hours of trying to get him back into the house this morning he refused to budge! Was good to see him out, and they did mention that he is doing quite well since his brother's passing.
 
The cheetah new blood is very likely the ssp recommended female from San Diego. Either Akeelah or Tika will head south in the swap. But could be one of the Parc Safari males they have been angling to get for a couple years.

Here is a short video of zebra foal Rey.
http://www.insidetoronto.com/news-story/6915337-toronto-zoo-zebra-filly-isn-t-your-typical-baby/

Oh if they are heading to San Diego for the cheetah swap they might well take zebra, Leia with them because she's scheduled for a move to the Safari Park.
 
Couple notes from my visit on Friday.

Lion Jerroh was out on exhibit, and has been out since Tuesday night. They tried to get him indoors Wednesday morning, but he was having none of it. They've stopped feeding him, and plan on turning off the heated cave, while leaving access to the indoor area, hoping he'll come in overnight. Apparently, the higher ups were pretty angry that the White Lions haven't been out for such an extended period of time.

At the Cheetah talk, I asked about any new blood coming to the zoo for breeding purposes. It seems plans had changed from before, which was getting a new male from Parc Safari. That has been changed to a female swap. The current plan being talked about is sending two of our females (either Tika, Akeelah or Cleo) in exchange for 2 unrelated females from Parc Safari. the plan is to do this for only a couple months, and then switching back if breeding in unsuccessful.

Also, Cheetah Tika is on exhibit by herself, but will be alternating days with trio group Emma, Akeelah and Cleo.
 
Went to the zoo today. Here’s what I got.

Gaurs Flower and Wilma were out on exhibit today. They seemed more alert than usual. Forrest passed anyway on Sunday. Not sure from what.

Kudu Owen was out on exhibit in the earlier morning. He was soon brought indoors so the 3 girls can get some yard time.

White Rhino Sabi was cycling today, so she was out with Zohari and Tony. Problem was Tony seemed very uninterested in Sabi’s obvious advances. Sabi did everything she could to get him to mount her, but nothing happened. Around 1:00 to 1:30 Tony was brought in and Tom was brought out to get a shot with Sabi. Problem with that was that Sabi seemed exhausted from her day long attempts to woo Tony. Around 2:30 Sabi laid down with Tom laying next to her. It should be noted that Zohari did nothing but get in the way of both Tony and Tom. Keeper said she was acting like a brat.

At the Lion keeper talk, I spoke with the Keeper about Jerroh’s passing, which was on Saturday. Earlier in the week Jerroh came indoors with his mouth (gums and tongue) looking pale. Vets saw that he wasn’t getting any better, so they decided to put him under to get a better look at his condition. Jerroh never woke up. A necropsy was done and it was found that Jerroh’s pancreas had failed. There was nothing anyone (vets or keepers) could’ve done to stop this from happening. It’s one of those cases of, it happened sooner rather than later.

As for the White Lions, they seem to be vocalizing more compared to before. Jerroh and Lyndy were usually the ones that were vocal. The White Lions mainly responded to them. Now that they’re gone, the White Lions seem to be picking up the slack.

Also, the White Lion cubs have been put up as surplus animals, opening the doors for other zoos to consider taking them. Nothing yet, but It could happen at anytime. There is also no rush in getting rid of the cubs, as they now have space to continue holding them. There are no plans in neutering any of cubs, thankfully.

Hyenas Echo and Kanzi have not been put together because the zoo doesn’t have any room for potential cubs. Completely forgot that Moja and Pinduli are still at the zoo.
 
Super disappointed that valuable hyenas are being wasted by worthless hyenas. Give them to anyone in Canada that wants hyenas and free up breeding space. Seriously. Hyenas desperately need new blood and Echo is the top ranked male with Kanzi a highly ranked female. They need to be breeding. Too bad they couldnt ship Pinduli out when there was the rec for that. Hopefully the next ssp will dispose of them for us and we can get the first hyena cub born in Canada.
 
According to a facebook post Hudson and Humphrey are officially back on exhibit rotation. There is no confirmed timing for them as they are on rotation with Aurora and Nikita. The wording of the post leads me to believe that Hudson and Humphrey won't be on exhibit with each other, but I can't confirm that for sure.
 
Someone asked on that facebook post about Hudson and Humphrey being together, the zoo replied "They are currently separated but will be introduced to one another shortly."
 
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