Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Discussion thread 2022

A quick look through some old literature says that sunbitterns should moult through the second half of the year, but because of their captive conditions, it makes sense they could be delayed a little. This years chick seems to have fresh flight feathers but her tail feathers are still quite worn. The parents are still looking rough though. It's also possible that they look "frizzy" because they are engaging in defensive behaviour. They might puff up to look bigger in response to anything they perceive as a threat. I've noticed Cher is a little more wary than the other two so I think that's likely as well.

I have heard from a member who is familiar with the big cats, that only one of the cheetahs is pregnant. But I would also take that with a grain of salt because I can't confirm this.

@animalman0341 I also noticed the absence of lemurs on New Year's day. Two days off exhibit makes me wonder if something is going on, but likely nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe they're going through health checks or exhibit maintenance to a climbable area that would not affect the display of the crane or tortoises. I know lemurs are primates but they're quite distant relatives so I don't know if maybe they are being vaccinated against COVID?

I did notice something interesting though. I was going through photos and it looks like the rhino in the pavilion is Kiran, not Vishnu like I had (wrongly) assumed. I did hear that he and mom had been spending a little more time apart since the summer, since Kiran was getting a little overbearing (the mama's boy!). The same thing was said of Theo earlier in 2021 so this could be a sign that they could be preparing Asha to move.
 
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The lemurs could also be off display if the zoo is working on that weird project in the keeper area that they called the lemur vestibule. This would be a good time of year to pull them off display for a little if you needed them off display while you did that work. Few people would miss them... and given the zoo's now gonna be closed no one will miss them. For new members who might not know what Im talking about take a look back in the 2021 development thread. That came up sometime I think late fall.
 
Wow some of those auction items are cool. Thank you @TinoPup! Wish the zoo would advertise it because they would likely get more money. Some of the tours seem sorta redundant because of the wild encounters but others are really neat. The tour with Dolf interests me the most. Good on him for stepping up and volunteering some of his undoubtedly busy day. Sadly that one will be well out of my price range soon enough I bet.
 
The zoo will be celebrating Charles, a male silverback gorilla's 50th birthday today. Charles has been in the zoo since it opened in 1974, and was a father to 12 offspring over his years at the zoo.
 
@ProjectGames Charles is actually the father of 17. Just because 5 of Josephine's died shortly after birth or were stillborn doesn't mean they don't count. I do get why the zoo wouldn't advertise that though. Their Facebook post is wrong too in that they say he's the grandfather of 6. Not sure what grandkids they are forgetting but he has 9 living grandkids and one who didnt make it. Jomo sired 4 kids; a son who died right after birth or was stillborn, son Bakari (now at Oklaholma), and daughters Mondika and Elle (still in Cincinnati with him). Special note he adopted a daughter too, Gladys. Sekani is a mom to 3; son Mosi (now at Lincoln Park), daughter Adelina (still at Little Rock) and son Bukavu (still at Little Rock). The late Subria was the father of 2; daughter Saambili and son Mbani (both at Dallas). Lastly Shalia has a single son Suliaman (now at Columbus). Within the next two years Sekani and Shalia will likely add two more grandkids and Adelina will likely produce his and Samantha's first great grandchild. There is a small chance big brother Mosi could beat her to the punch as he turns 16 this year and might start to be considered for a silverback slot but Adelina is far more likely to be bred to Kivu first.
 
@TZFan I know he's the father of 17, but I just don't want to include the ones that died after birth, and that I'm only including the offspring that has a name.
 
I was also wondering if Josephine had the same health issues all along in her life that led to her lost babies, and her death.

Also, I don't think Charles will have any more offspring at the age of 50.
 
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@ProjectGames, Josephine's issues with her infants played absolutely no role in her death. She died because she was super old for a gorilla. Time just caught up with her. Her infants were another story. Josephine was unable to produce enough milk to nurse them. It did take some time for the zoo to figure that out. At first it appeared there was just a failure to thrive. Now she did have 1 or 2 stillborns but I think I had heard one of them was simply the product of a cord wrapped around the neck. There was absolutely nothing they could do to have prevented that. I think another was due to an extended labor but in those days C sections hadn't been tried yet on gorillas. So no connection at all to her death.

I can't say if the zoo will choose to breed Charles again. It's probably not wise because odds are not in his favor of surviving until the baby is 3 years old and a new silverback could take over. It was iffy enough when Charlie was born. However the zoo does have permission for one more baby from him. A baby is possible if the zoo decides to go ahead.
 
TZFan said:
Wow some of those auction items are cool. Thank you @TinoPup! Wish the zoo would advertise it because they would likely get more money. Some of the tours seem sorta redundant because of the wild encounters but others are really neat. The tour with Dolf interests me the most. Good on him for stepping up and volunteering some of his undoubtedly busy day. Sadly that one will be well out of my price range soon enough I bet.
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Yeah, it's a shame the zoo isn't promoting it! I found it through an instagram post by the AAZK chapter.
 
It's actually baffling they wouldnt promote the auction if they benefit financially from it. But also weird they wouldnt have done the auction before Christmas. We all know people are at their most generous in December and are stingier in January when they get the Christmas bills and tighten their belts.
 
TZFan said:
It's actually baffling they wouldnt promote the auction if they benefit financially from it. But also weird they wouldnt have done the auction before Christmas. We all know people are at their most generous in December and are stingier in January when they get the Christmas bills and tighten their belts.
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It doesn't benefit the zoo itself, it benefits the AAZK branch, which is hosting the 2022 AAZK conference. I think their hosting was only announced recently, every announcement I've seen about it has been since the 1st.
 
Government confirmed reopening plans and zoos are on the list of the openings starting Jan 31st, no official announcement from the zoo yet, so we will see
 
WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY | Orangutan Habitat Project

I was quickly checking the wildlife conservancy webpage and noticed the orangutan project section has been replaced with this message "Coming soon - an exciting update about the new outdoor orangutan habitat at your Toronto Zoo!".

I'm thinking this could be something along the lines of a funding announcement, maybe they secured the rest of their financial goal? My only other idea is a possible opening timeframe, probably a bit early for that though...anyone have any guesses?

Whatever it is I bet we hear about it this month in the board meeting.
 
@GorillaFan15, this is something I noticed for a while now. This page normally listed the remaining amount they needed to raise to pay for the exhibit. Last time I saw it it was are $600,000. So there is a chance that they secured the remaining funding and don't want to continue using this project for donations. It could also be that they're wait for changing this section for when the exhibit opens.
 
Some insight from the zoo's most recent episode of the podcast on habitat design, which I think is quite topical, since it might provide some rationale into the decisions that have been made for the master plan:
- A major consideration to habitat construction is the cost-risk analysis of animal-habitat interactions. They mention that another zoo had spent a lot of money on adding trees to their orangutan enclosure in an effort to make it look more natural, only to have their male snap one of the larger branches in half, essentially ruining its functionality as a platform. So sometimes it may not be worth it to make certain aspects of a habitat look more natural, since the animals can really just undo much of the work they've done. We've seen this with plants in the gorilla habitat, too. On the other hand, it's probably even more expensive to install synthetic structures, like the large trees in the lemur habitat, not to mention that some structures are very difficult for keepers to properly clean and maintain. I know there's been a lot of talk of updating the indoor orang habitat, but these are some of the reasons that were given for why it hasn't been done. Of course, compromises can be made and I would definitely still put it on the table once the outdoor exhibit is opened and they have access to another enclosure during the summer, presumably when any renovations to their indoor habitat would take place.

- A large part of the renovations to the beaver and otter habitats in the Americas was replacing the filtration system, and the windows to the filter room were installed alongside this renovation, in order to highlight just how much filtration is necessary to maintain the water quality in these enclosures (the filtration room takes up about 50% the space of the habitat's footprint) as well as the zoo's effort to water conservation. The zoo plans to add graphics to explain the purpose and necessity of the filtration system.

- While the zoo has made an effort to make behind-the-scenes looks at behavioural husbandry more accessible for guests, they also have to take into consideration that many of these BTS areas are refuges for the animals when they want to get away from guests. So to keep the balance of letting visitors see the work that goes into caring for the animals and giving the animals more privacy, the zoo is shifting towards designing on-exhibit animal husbandry spaces. I personally love the idea of this, and I wonder if this is one of the considerations they made in the new orang research station, because it would be amazing to get to watch a training session that isn't through oil-smudged, slanted glass and a perpendicular metal mesh.

- The zoo puts a lot of thought into subtle designs that make animals comfortable being in highly visible areas. A good example of this is the heated cave in the lion exhibit, that allows visitors to see the lions, even during the cold winter months.
 
Sounds like an interesting podcast. Fantastic summary of it @Kalvin.

Some animals definitely can be hard to design for. Orangs are particularly hard because they are so big, strong and crazy smart. When I did my rhino Wild Encounter the keeper who was with us said that their least favorite animal to work with was the orangs because they would always get into mischief and they always had to be on their toes around them. Exhibit planning sounds fun when we can just picture things we would do but the reality is we don't even know a fraction of the considerations they need to take into account. Probably takes some of the fun out of it.

Not shocked at all the beaver and otter reno involved a lot of filtration work and replacing glass. We have known for years the filtration and leaking were big problems. Just thrilled the zoo finally addressed the issue and now the otters and beaver have a better home and keepers will spend less of their time frustrated.

I like the move towards more training spaces close to the public. Other zoos do it with a lot of success so Toronto just needs to catch up.
 
Great breakdown @Kalvin. Sounds like that episode was filled with information we'd all normally go crazy for.

To get a better understanding for what goes into exhibit design is a nice eye opener. Like @TZFan said, we only know a fraction of what taken into consideration in exhibit design.

Would definitely love seeing training sessions implemented into exhibit design. It's just an educational element that's being missed right now.
 
I finally got a chance to visit the zoo today. Just going to give a bit of what I saw and noticed.

Vishnu was indoor and Kiran was surprisingly outside. Asha’s digestive issue remains ongoing, and staff continue to monitor her as they try to pinpoint the issue.

Sekali was out on exhibit by herself. I notice a white board between the Orangutan and Reticulated Python exhibits, which indicated the Sekali was the Orangutan on exhibit. Thought that was pretty neat.

Sadiki and Nassir were on exhibit. Viewing to the dayroom was closed.

Not sure if this was mentioned before, and it’s been a while since my last visit, so maybe this isn’t as new as I thought. But in the Americas pavilion the invertebrate wing is closed off. Looks like there are tables set up for staff to sit at towards the back, near the Alligators. There’s a door next to the former Prehensile-Tailed Porcupine exhibit, which now has the Boa Constrictor, that has an opened window, which I assume is to showcase the filtration system for the Otter and Beaver exhibits. It’s pretty neat to see some of the behind the scenes of what it takes to filter the water for these animals.

I went throughout just about the entire zoo today, so if anyone has questions, ask away, and I’ll give my best shot at answering.
 
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