Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Discussion thread 2023

@Neil chace, I can confirm we still have the Burmese Star Tortoise.

The website is garbage as @hyena142 said. Massively out of date. You were smart to just ask about species. If there is anything else you want to see its easier to ask here.
 
Zooer said:
@hyena142 the website has the pavilion as closed tomorrow and has listed these animals as out of sight due to maintenance since at least the Mila announcement was made:

Americas Pavilion
Two-toed sloth, golden lion tamarin, white-faced saki and river otter are all currently not viewable due to habitat maintenance.
Click to expand...

The otters were outside yesterday so I dunno what that's about
 
There's been a fair amount of construction work in and around the primate wing in the Americas Pavilion. During my last visit a few weeks ago, it was not accessible due to construction.
 
The zoo is probably rejigging the primate wing of the Americas now that they dont need 3 exhibits following the death of the last common marmoset. If they had to clear out the animals I hope that the privacy of the health unit will help convince the sakis to breed.
 
It will be neat to see the primate wing broken down into 2 sections rather than 3. 1 large mixed exhibit would be even better. The exhibits have seen vast improvements with the mural work, so any further improvements will be happily welcomed. Personally, I'd like waaay more lighting in those exhibits. Natural lighting would be best, but that may not be possible at this time.
 
Went to the Zoo today.

Eurasia
Began my zoo journey going to the Amur Tigers First. Mila is really filling out in size and I figured this was my last chance to see her before her big move south of the border. She was quite active in the second exhibit. The main exhibit had one of her parents not sure who, I think Mazyria but not 100%. I say Mazyria because the cat who was in the house was roaring loads which really fits Vasilis character. Then, I decide to check out the Amur Tiger Expansion and oh boy it does looks promising just based on size. I would say its bigger than the second/smaller exhibit but maybe not quite as big as the main exhibit, still a really good size though it could definitely hold 3-4 tigers.

The Red pandas were out and about but they were separated with Suva in the first exhibit after the Amur Tigers and Paprika in the one closer to the camels. Probably the first time I have seen them so active and foraging on the ground.

The camels were split into 2 groups the breeders and non-breeders. Zip was checking one of the girls out in the big field exhibit while Suria was following the 2 around. I did take pictures to show the belly difference between the two females. Suria with the calf is definitely bigger.

No sea eagles in site just the Eurasian owl. So I guess the Sea Eagles are in the Americas which was closed except for the pavilion. Anyways I found Pemba today hiding in his cave and he eventually ventured out for food which was nice to see he does seem like a smaller male when I think of Mylo but who knows there really is no one to compare him to currently.

Australasia
Bucky being in the old tree kangaroo exhibit feels weird as he is such a big pig in a small enclosure I am not a fan of it. But it doesn't seem like he'll be staying long as he had two crates in the exhibit and the outdoor aviary part is getting a fix up with multiple construction tools in the outdoor part. The wombats have been separated as matilba has a nest box now to encourage breeding and Arthur has the bigger half of the exhibit. So its nice to know that they are now encouraging breeding by building a nest box fingers crossed.

Tundra Trek
Tundra was so packed as I arrived there just around feeding so I just decided to speed run it and skip right through and just focus on the wolves. The wolf pack still seems so huge even though they have shipped some away the size of the pack is really impressive.

Americas
The Americas was nothing special as I only got to see the pavilion. The 3 exhibit primate wing is getting yet another renovation to add on a fourth exhibit to it. The animal was unnamed but did have a sign saying "this exhibit is being setup for an animal" Nothing in it just some mulch and a box so my guess is a bird or primate. The river otters were indeed breeding when I looked into their exhibit. That's pretty much it for the Americas

The hill up to Africa after America is the location of the new boardwalk forcing me to walk all the way back to the entrance in go through Indo-Malaya and then up to Africa.

Indo Malaya
The Indian Rhinos were both on exhibit one outside and one inside. The Butterfly pavilion is officially closed for good and the doors have been boarded up. The Orangutan Exhibit is looking really great as the towers are so tall that you can see them from the giraffe exhibit. On Exhibit today was Puppe, always cool getting to see North Americas oldest orangutan in action and in the Gibbon exhibit was Hoot. The Sumatran tigers were both out and about too.

Africa
Nothing much outdoors for Africa. I went the way with the penguins first but I ended up skipping them as there was a crowd around them. I should note by now it was noon so the animals had eaten and were sleeping or at the back of the exhibits. But the Hyena on exhibit was doing laps and really creating a show probably the most active I have ever seen one of them. The lions were way at the back of the exhibit hiding behind the rock that is in the center of their exhibit. The Zebras and elands were off exhibit but then I could see the horns of one of the eland moving above the caging that leads them onto exhibit. Funny thing is that today I counted 8 or more baboons ad I normally count 6 or 7 so maybe the troop is getting along again. The cheetahs are all still together but I doubt that will be the case by the end of summer or sooner as the cubs are gaining massive size and mom may not be able to handle all of them soon. The rhinos and kudu were off exhibit along with the hippos and giraffes. The giraffes were inside and the house was packed so I just looked above the crowds head to see Mstari, Matu and Amani. I sure hope Nabo from Calgary arrives soon as Mstari is being wasted right now.

African Rainforest
The pavilion was damn jammed! I barely got to see anything or the little details so I really just sped to the Pygmy Hippos and then the Gorillas. Kindia and Penelope are still together I guess they get along well enough the share the pool and space and then Harvey was sleeping on the other side of the pygmy hippo exhibit. The gorillas were all eating or sleeping when I got to the exhibit. The zoo better do something about Johari, she is getting skinny and is not even eating with the troop anymore and Charles is doing his best but when he tries to punish Nneka and Charlie they have ran off already and he can't catch them as he is way too slow. A young new silverback would really do some good. I pretty much wrapped up with the gorillas and headed home as the crowds were getting huge on Family Day and I'm not big on crowds so I figured its best I just head home.

Pictures will be up soon and feel free to ask any questions.
 
Thanks for the update!

That's great news they're still interested in breeding Arthur and Matilba, for the last few years I've figured if it was gonna happen it would've happened by now

Ooh fourth exhibit to the primate wing, I guess they're expanding the old pygmy marmoset exhibit then? Makes sense, common marmoset Samantha used that in her elder years to keep her separate from everyone else and now that she's gone they can use it for something. The idea that something new is coming to the primate wing is unbelievably exciting. Cotton-top tamarins please!

If the doors have been boarded up to Malayan Woods that could imply the clouded leopards have left, unless there's a staff entrance I don't know about. We already know the butterflies are all gone and jumbo gourami Flesh and I believe the birds as well have all moved to the Indo pavilion. No way they'd completely lock it out with animals still inside.

Being able to see the orang towers from the giraffe exhibit is cool although part of me is annoyed that it'll kinda mess up the theming of being on an African safari. Ah well it's not the end of the world, this is already the zoo where you can go from an Inuit camp to an Amazonian waterfall in about ten seconds

Does anyone know how many baboons we have left?

Poor Johari, as much as I love her and would happily keep her over Ngozi and the kids I really wish that last year's transfer had gone through now that she's still being bullied and Charles can't do much about it.
 
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@hyena142, try not to hold out any hope for the wombats. Matilba is now 10 and has never even had a joey that didnt make it. Its not like the zoo doesnt have access to info from successful breeders. Matilba was born to the most successful zoo in North America for breeding them. Like with the river otters there is pretty much no hope.

Interesting they are making a 4th exhibit and not just combining exhibits. More space is better not less space. If I get a vote on a new species Emperor tamarin. Sadly neither of us gets a vote. Lol.

There is most likely a staff entrance to the Woods. They likely boarded up the front doors so people stop trying the get into the pavilion. The leopards may or may not still be there.

The orang towers might be visible this time of year but once the trees fill out there is a decent chance they would be invisible or almost so.

Toronto and the gorilla SSP need to listen to me. I have the ideal answer. Boys to Granby. Jawara to Toronto to become silverback for Johari and Nneka both he could breed with. Charles retires with Ngozi and Charlie. Problems solved. Zwalani could then go to the US where he could become a silverback to his own group too.
 
I do feel bad for the zoo. Terra Lumina was only to be a short term run and for most of the time they tried to run it the pandemic ruined it. They only had a few months of it being opened before the pandemic struck. Should have been a good draw for them based on projections from a world before the pandemic. Im sure it never really did what they thought it would do. Crazy thing is they took out a loan from the city to fund it. Hope they made their money back.
 
Terra Lumina was never something I was interested in, but it was a neat side project that the zoo had going. The pandemic really curbed that whole thing, never allowing it to reach it's full stride. A shame, but for me personally, not too surprising. I'm not even sure how long it was supposed to originally run for.
 
I think Terra Lumina was to run for 5 years. Initially it was supposed to open I think fall 2019 but it didnt open until mid to late December if I recall. Then the pandemic hit in March of 2020 and it didnt reopen until late July of 2021, and even then at reduced capacity. So it's ending about a year to a year and a half earlier than anticipated but like many things the pandemic just messed everything up. At least it didnt mess up our time with the pandas like it did for Calgary. I would much rather the pandemic ruin a light show then a limited time animal of the pandas caliber.
 
Does anyone know if we will ever be getting snowy owls again? I really hope they fill up the empty exhibits in Tundra Trek. It feels so bare now without the arctic foxes and snowy owls :(
 
@Flixox101 to my knowledge there are no plans to get new snowy owls. If they were I would hope they would build a bigger and better exhibit. No reason why they were in such a small one. None of the birds we had were rescues who couldnt fly. All were captive bred.

And there are no plans to get more arctic fox, which is a good thing given most of them died of a neurological problem that sounds like the same thing claiming virtually all of their lives. Only exception I recall was Cody who was killed by a great horned owl. His sister Sarah may have died from other causes too I dont know. Either there is something wrong with the exhibit or the bloodlines we got them from (I think all of them came from the same source except the original pair of Cody and Sarah).
 
Thanks TZFan!

The likelihood of them renovating those existing exhibits to accommodate those species feels highly unlikely. That's a shame!

Is the renovated aviary connected to the Australian pavilion just going to be an open-air aviary? I wonder if they will ever bring back lorikeet feedings.
 
Didn't they say the snowy owl left because terra lumina was too stressful in the evenings? With it gone maybe they could reconsider (albeit your comment on the size of the exhibit still being very valid).
 
Yes, I remember Terra Lumina being a key factor in moving the Snowy Owl from that exhibit. It'll be interesting to see what occupies the exhibit after Terra Lumina ends.
 
Any clue on what is happening with the exterior aviary connected to the Australasia pavilion? I was looking at the plans and it looks like a portion of it will be fenced so there will be a portion where you can view that fenced portion of the aviary. Curious if they will bring in new bird species or just house the existing birds in the pavilion during the summer. I also noticed a shed in the exhibit which I found a bit odd.
 
Is there a place to found out the names of the all names? I know the gorillas, red pandas and a few others. But where is everyone learning there names from?
 
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