Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Discussion thread 2023

Zoo adventures said:
Thank you for the name, the Toronto zoo has quite a very successful calves born at the zoo. I will try to find the names.
Edit: Another question. I read in Wikipedia of Toronto zoo. Why did the zoo get rid of koalas(1988, 1996, 2002), and the golden monkeys(1986).
Also are Clouded leopard on exhibit?.
Click to expand...

Yeah I dont know if you will find a ton more names for the gaur. Might be missing one that was in the original names thread. Beyond that Im not really sure where you can look for more which is unfortunate. I would have happily added them to the family tree thread if I had been even remotely successful.

Toronto didnt get rid of koalas or golden monkeys. They were both just a visiting species much like the pandas.

Toronto borrowed 2 koalas from San Diego in those three years for the summer. The first two visits were smashing successes. The third had good guest attendance but one koala died before even going on exhibit and the other died just before he was to be returned. They havent been back since. That doesnt mean the zoo mistreated them or did anything wrong. I think it was just bad luck.

In 1986 the golden monkeys were borrowed from China. It was a small group. I dont anything else about the visit. I was 3 at the time and wasnt even taken to see them.

No the clouded leopards have been off exhibit since March 2020 when the Malayan Woods closed for the pandemic which turned into permanently. Unless they transferred this fall they were still there as of the summer from what I hear.
 
TZFan said:
Yeah I dont know if you will find a ton more names for the gaur. Might be missing one that was in the original names thread. Beyond that Im not really sure where you can look for more which is unfortunate. I would have happily added them to the family tree thread if I had been even remotely successful.

Toronto didnt get rid of koalas or golden monkeys. They were both just a visiting species much like the pandas.

Toronto borrowed 2 koalas from San Diego in those three years for the summer. The first two visits were smashing successes. The third had good guest attendance but one koala died before even going on exhibit and the other died just before he was to be returned. They havent been back since. That doesnt mean the zoo mistreated them or did anything wrong. I think it was just bad luck.

In 1986 the golden monkeys were borrowed from China. It was a small group. I dont anything else about the visit. I was 3 at the time and wasnt even taken to see them.

No the clouded leopards have been off exhibit since March 2020 when the Malayan Woods closed for the pandemic which turned into permanently. Unless they transferred this fall they were still there as of the summer from what I hear.
Click to expand...
Why does the clouded leopard need to leave? I did not know that the two animals were borrowed. Also what happened to the Scimitar oryx, on Wikipedia, they said it was once at the Eureasia Wild.
 
The clouded leopards are leaving because the zoo has closed the Malayan Woods. The Woods is in not a great spot. Its kinda on land thats eroding so they need to do some massive work to shore up the hillside. I dont think they want to invest in saving the Woods. They will do the work when they start on the Brewery. Plus clouded leopards are a hard species to have in Canada. Toronto and Safari Niagara are the only places with them. Not horrible because you can get them across the border but the problem lays with how fast you need to get them across. Almost all clouded leopards are hand reared to increase the odds of survival and to be able to pair future mates before they are 6 months old. Why you ask? Well its been found that males are far less likely to kill the female during breeding if they have been together before the age of 6 months. If they are introduced as adults he is far more likely to be too aggressive with her while mating and often bites her skull or neck too hard killing her. Pairs that are together since their earliest days are far less likely to see that aggression for some reason, hence the need to hand rear. Toronto would need to ship their cubs down to the states almost immediately which isnt super easy to do and really whats the point of breeding them when you dont benefit from cubs being on display. We could house surplus siblings... heck we house breeding cousins now. I will be sad to lose a beautiful species but maybe they will be back one day. Never know what they will do when they renovate other areas in Indo.

The scimitar oryx was phased out. We had a kinda prolific herd, little too prolific. Eventually they werent really needed because they were overrepresented. When they were readying Eurasia for reno they decided not to keep the oryx. By then we were down to a few elderly animals. They could have decided to bring in a new herd but instead they chose to keep animals that would do the best during our winters like the Przewalski's horse, yaks, and Bactrian camels instead. Im sure there were other factors. I dont work for the zoo so I cannot claim to know all of the reasons why they passed over certain species.
 
Looks like the zoo is preparing to start work on the Conservation Campus, lots of construction walls and equipment are set up around the entrance area. Some of the parking lot is closed off too, probably for repaving
 
Fantastic to hear they have kicked of work on the Conservation Campus, or at least are prepping. Last winter they showed what they can do of the winter with the boardwalk, splash pad bathroom, and still managing to work on the orang exhibit. Lets hope for a mild winter so they can get off to a great start.
 
@TZFan Don't forget they also redid the Australasia aviary and got started on the third Amur exhibit last winter. I've been hearing that it's an El Nino year which means a warmer winter so here's hoping that comes to pass and they get a lot done over the next few months
 
@hyena142, I thought both of those started in the spring. You are probably right though.

This winter too I think they are supposed to tackle the new boardwalk from Indo to Africa.
 
TZFan said:
The clouded leopards are leaving because the zoo has closed the Malayan Woods. The Woods is in not a great spot. Its kinda on land thats eroding so they need to do some massive work to shore up the hillside. I dont think they want to invest in saving the Woods. They will do the work when they start on the Brewery. Plus clouded leopards are a hard species to have in Canada. Toronto and Safari Niagara are the only places with them. Not horrible because you can get them across the border but the problem lays with how fast you need to get them across. Almost all clouded leopards are hand reared to increase the odds of survival and to be able to pair future mates before they are 6 months old. Why you ask? Well its been found that males are far less likely to kill the female during breeding if they have been together before the age of 6 months. If they are introduced as adults he is far more likely to be too aggressive with her while mating and often bites her skull or neck too hard killing her. Pairs that are together since their earliest days are far less likely to see that aggression for some reason, hence the need to hand rear. Toronto would need to ship their cubs down to the states almost immediately which isnt super easy to do and really whats the point of breeding them when you dont benefit from cubs being on display. We could house surplus siblings... heck we house breeding cousins now. I will be sad to lose a beautiful species but maybe they will be back one day. Never know what they will do when they renovate other areas in Indo.

The scimitar oryx was phased out. We had a kinda prolific herd, little too prolific. Eventually they werent really needed because they were overrepresented. When they were readying Eurasia for reno they decided not to keep the oryx. By then we were down to a few elderly animals. They could have decided to bring in a new herd but instead they chose to keep animals that would do the best during our winters like the Przewalski's horse, yaks, and Bactrian camels instead. Im sure there were other factors. I dont work for the zoo so I cannot claim to know all of the reasons why they passed over certain species.
Click to expand...
Thanks for all this information.
 
Zoo adventures said:
Thank you for the name, the Toronto zoo has quite a very successful calves born at the zoo. I will try to find the names.
Edit: Another question. I read in Wikipedia of Toronto zoo. Why did the zoo get rid of koalas(1988, 1996, 2002), and the golden monkeys(1986).
Also are Clouded leopard on exhibit?.
Click to expand...
Koalas are almost always temporary loans, if I recall correctly koalas were on loan from San Diego for 6 months (in 2002 atleast). The clouded leopards are not viewable and I believe they are looking to transfer them to another zoo if they aren’t already gone. The golden monkeys I’d have to guess were never here to stay and went back to China shortly after acquiring them but don’t quote me on that.
 
From Dolf's Story two of the hyenas were out together which has not been done for quite sometime. I do wonder who they are? Please Fill in the Blank if you do happen to know who the two hyenas were in the story.
 
Akula said:
From Dolf's Story two of the hyenas were out together which has not been done for quite sometime. I do wonder who they are? Please Fill in the Blank if you do happen to know who the two hyenas were in the story.
Click to expand...

I hope I'm remembering this correctly but I would guess Echo and Pinduli. I know two have been out together previously and I believe it would have always been the same pair. Moja is quite old, and I doubt it would be Kanzi just based on her personality. That being said my memory is not great, but I'd be relatively confident that it would be the same pair that had been together in the past.
 
Made a quick visit to the zoo to close out my 2023 trips today, so here's some construction updates

Unfortunately it looks like Malayan Woods needs a bit more TLC before reopening as it's still blocked off, so that was too bad. Hopefully I'll be able to get in there on the next visit.

The Conservation Campus construction is in full swing! In addition to the demolition of the Greenhouse Gift Shop there's plenty of walls up around the entrance, both outside and inside the front gates. The small plaza area to the left of the front gates (the spot that used to have rocks to sit on and the big animal pictures) has been completely demolished and there's cranes on site working on whatever that's gonna turn into. I will say that although it felt odd having the Greenhouse be completely missing, the entrance plaza feels a lot more spacious than it used to be thanks to its absence.

The B for Bear area of the parking lot is also completely walled off for construction, probably just repaving.

The tiger indoor viewing is still closed so I guess the Sumatrans aren't fully acclimated to their new surroundings just yet
 
Last edited:
are any new species set in stone to live in the conservation campus. Just curious. Also any behind the scenes herps or birds at the Toronto zoo?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top