Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Discussion thread 2021

@hyena142 I believe it was in fact Kanzi! What a beautiful animal!

I agree! Let’s get the Mandrills back in their exhibit. The lemurs would look great in a renovated ibis/spoonbill area. If not, let’s add some additional lemurs! These are more realistic options so hopefully we’ll see if they have a chance of happening before long.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be sad if they just gave all that room to the Sakis, Tamarins and Sloths. It just looks so much better in their now! A lot less institutional.

@TZFan I guess Fernando has just grown! Last time I was in there was spring 2018. He’s awesome!

That’s great to hear about the Bleeding Hearts. Kind of sad about the Mandarin Ducks. We’ve really lost a lot of those aquatic birds over the years.

@TZFan I really hope they’ll be around for one last visit! Would be hard after this long not have any of them there on top of whatever else might be gone by then. Tree Kangaroo, Barbary Sheep, Chamois, and the off display Lion-Tailed Macaques, Barbary Macaques and Clouded Leopards might all be gone too. Definitely a big time of change for the zoo! You can kind of tell things will start to change in the near future when walking on the grounds. One thing that’ll be neat to be greeted back with will be the Australasia outdoor aviary! It didn’t look nearly as overgrown on this visit.

Considering Phillip has those facial warts I’m pretty sure it was him. Not 100% sure, but like 99%. Reason I took notice is because all three other hogs look relatively similar.

That would make sense about the hippos!

Very cool about the wolves! Must have been great enrichment for them. I wonder if the zoo would ever consider getting a dog to walk around every now and then. Or just bring an employees dog around. Cool stuff!

That’s excellent news!! Really hoping we’ll see some chicks in the coming years. I love a Toronto Zoo first!

The ferret just had treatment, but knowing pancreatic tumors, the story usually doesn’t end too well.
 
@animalman0341, false gharial Fernando would have been smaller. We picked him or her (not sexed) as a youngster. Sadly a decision about its future will need to be made in the next few years because its nearly mature and the SSP will likely need it in a breeding situation. Toronto doesnt have a large enough exhibit to house a mature, breeding pair. So its either invest in a reno which they have been discussing (not sure how they do that without loosing the waterfall) or letting Fernando go and bringing in another immature animal. Wouldnt be bad to go for a youngster we could watch grow again. People want to see babies anyway. Get some hatchlings.

I agree totally I want the old timers around for as many visits as possible. The phase outs I can live with, despite my extreme disappointment over some of them.

Ah so the red river hog boys didnt develop their facial warts like dear old dad after being castrated. I wasn't sure if that would be the case. Guess its like a castrated male lion who wont grow a mane.

There are probably service dogs at the zoo more often then we think. You need to be in the right part of the zoo at the right time to see a service dog in action. They likely have dozens of visits a year from service dogs.

Sea eagle chicks would be awesome. They are difficult to breed but we are lucky because they are happy and comfortable enough to mate and Katya is able to produce the egg. Will they get a fertile egg? Hopefully. Will they be good enough parents to incubate the eggs? With luck they will be better than our good friend marabou stork George who is an egg tosser. Lol. But if they can get them off the nest and into a holding pen the keepers may choose pull the egg for incubation and return it once its hatched.

Yeah you are right that ferret wont be breeding in the spring. Even if its still alive they wont take the risk of breeding him or her again. Hopefully they can provide it with a good quality of life for as long as possible.
 
@animalman0341 I would suspect that the fewer number of birds in the rhino house may have to do with animal care. In 2019, I remember there being two cattle egrets and a mandarin duck in there, and maybe there were more prior to that but we seem to be down to one egret now and I think the duck that used to be in there is the one now in Indo, but I don't know for sure. It was likely easier to care for the birds in a part of the zoo that housed other birds, rather than trying to keep them with large ungulates (though that doesn't explain the lone egret - maybe they can't catch/move it?). Otherwise the more simple answer is they haven't really had to put more birds in a building that hasn't been open in two years, because who would be there to see them?

There is still a clouded leopard wild encounter which isn't too pricey if you're a member and probably your only shot of seeing them. Having a one-on-one watching Pavarti forage for her food is a really great experience. I don't see them stopping that WE for the foreseeable future since they know how much people want to see them, they just won't reopen the pavilion to the public for reasons that have been discussed here before, which is really unfortunate.

There are pheasant pigeons in the small aviary next to the entrance of Indo as well as in the large, free-flight aviary, and they may be harder to find in the larger space.

I also don't love that the hippo boardwalk in the rainforest pavilion is closed off. I know it was open for a couple of weeks but I guess they closed it off again with rising case counts. It's understandable but still sad.

I wouldn't be surprised if we get a couple of orphaned beaver pups in once Ward passes (knock on wood). Most of our non-threatened Canadian species are not bred and so we just take in whatever orphans or non-releasables we can from wildlife rescues, and there's no shortage of those. Beavers just tend to be territorial so they probably won't bring in more while he's still around.

I'm glad someone else is enamored as I am with Julie the Chamois! I make sure to say hi every time I'm heading through Eurasia.

I wouldn't take Philip's absence as anything serious. The door to their holding is always open and he could just be having a nap in the corridor where he wouldn't be visible from the exhibit. From the pictures I have and have seen from others, the hog that was in the WHC for the fractured jaw should have been one of the boys, so he wouldn't be MIA for that reason. Actually as I am typing, I remember I saw Philip the other day, in the outdoor enclosure. Maybe he's being separated so which ever hog was injured can recover without any roughhousing taking place.

If anyone wants a winter update on some off-view animals, we still have lion-tailed macaques! Don't know if that's really a surprise but we have lost a lot this year, so you never know. And the eagles seem to be interested in nesting again. It's about that time of year anyway, so here's hoping for some spring chicks!
 
@Kalvin, the clouded leopards could go at any time as they are available for placement elsewhere. They will totally milk them for every penny they can though until the zoo has to ship them out which is understandable. I do love how beautiful they are and will miss them. Wish Indo was larger or had obvious options to bump it out so we could keep them.

Interesting point about removing red river hog Philip if he was perhaps an aggressor or just a concern while someone recovers. I just assumed @animalman0341 would mention if one of the hogs they saw had stitches or shaved spots if they had noticed any. That's part of what made me think it was Philip who was the injured hog. But you have a good point. And possibly the repair to the hog could have been addressed inside their mouth or from underneath where it would be harder to see. Might have to just wait until someone catches a keeper and can ask.

Do you know how many macaques are left? Last time they did a Facebook Live on them they only had Dave and Vina out and made no mention of Guntar. I think they specifically said they had 2 which was interesting. Could be he was separated due to social issues between the boys but then why say 2? Flip side the keeper could have mispoke or I misinterpreted that they were saying.

Oh beavers. We can get new beavers pretty easy from Zoo Sauvage. They almost always have a litter every spring. Its where we got June and Ward. Wont be shocking in the least bit that they will give Toronto replacements.
 
I remember over the summer they mentioned all three on the zoomo and not at the same time. I think they would have out Guntar and Vina and sometimes Dave and Vina or some other combination. For all I know they could have been using an old script but I thought it was strange they would switch up the names if we didn't still have all three. I saw two at the same time last week but of course I don't know which two.
 
That's a fair answer. I would think if they were rotating the boys with there sister they might update the zoomo drivers daily but we also all know they most of the commentators just prattle off the script they memorized. Some are really good and can go off script. Most cant. For now we just have to chalk it up to a mystery.
 
Pretty uneventful today. There are three scarlet ibis immatures, and based on plumage and what I can remember I think we initially had two, one from each pair, and then a third shortly after. Seems weird that they only did a fb live with the third one though so maybe I'm off with that timeline. But we have a total of 7 scarlet ibises.

Could not find any keepers to ask about the red river hogs, but the recovering one is definitely one of the boys, he looks like he's got a scar from the surgery, but otherwise seems totally unfazed, rooting through the dirt in their habitat with no visible issues. Philip was on his own outside again, so I do think that has something to do with the other hog's recovery.

Can't think of anything else of note right now but if anyone wants any updates I should be able to provide them
 
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