Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Future Developments 2013

Tomorrow is the start of the best week of summer for me. That's because I will be going to zoo camp! I'm going to try to post updates every day this week because at camp I always learn things about the zoo that I never knew before. If there's anything you guys want me to find out just tell me.
 
Anything you find out will be enough to make me happy. Anything new is always interesting for me. Whats the focus of your camp week? Or is it just a general zoo camp? Most important of all, I want you to have a great time. I hope the weather behaves for you.
 
The theme of my camp week is "Wild Careers" so I'm guessing it has something to do with the jobs in a zoo. The focus doesn't really matter though because zoo camp is always the same. Hopefully I'll get to do some cool behind the scenes stuff like I did last year when I got to meet the fish curator or the year before that when I got to pet a Vancouver Island Marmot.
 
Today was an ok start to zoo camp. I was disappointed that we didn't see any animals for 4 hours because we were too busy playing name games.

Here are some updates and things I noticed:

- Do you guys remember when I said one of the zebras looked pregnant? It turns out that I could be right! There's a rumour going around the zoo that we could be seeing a baby zebra sometime soon!
- In addition to the zebra, one of the cheetahs might be pregnant! This isn't just a rumour because a keeper was the one who told me.
- It was really nice to see keepers walking around the zoo with education animals. Today I saw a skunk and a gyrfalcon (a species that I never knew was at the zoo).
 
Day 2 of zoo camp was much better than day 1. I got to ride the zoomobile, see the pandas, watch the bird show, and visit the Mayan Temple and Tundra Trek areas of the zoo.

Here are some more updates:

- I saw the new section of the zoomobile for the first time today. I really liked that the yaks and horses (possibly camels and mouflon in the future) had lots of space. I disliked that the new section didn't make me feel like I was being transported to Mongolia or the Himalayas. I still felt like I was just seeing the animals in their cages. The fences in between the exhibits just made the whole area look uglier.
- The capybara family was very active today. They were running and swimming around their exhibit.
- Once the wolves that are currently in Tundra Trek pass away (they are very old), the zoo will move the male and two females that are in the Canadian Domain to their exhibit. The zoo does plan on breeding the new wolves once they move in to their new home. Right now they are still fairly young.
- There is a new barn owl at the zoo who is being used for the bird and amazing animal shows. His name is Gus.
 
I totally agree with you about the Eurasian section. It lacks a certain wow factor I had been hoping for. For all the hype about it as it sits right now its not deserving of the interest they tried to create. A few horses and a couple of yaks doesnt make it very interesting. I hope they do add in the camels and mouflon just to have some diversity. I'd like to see even more if possible. It would have been cool to have a mountain exhibit to drive through with the mouflon, tur, barbary sheep and tarh, providing they can all live together. Even a smaller combo would have been nice. And that would have freed up their exhibits for other species. Im sure it was a money issue. By the time they renovated the tiger exhibit for the pandas, and built the panda plaza, snow leopard and bird exhibits and decorated the interpretive center the money for the rest probably evaporated.

Were you able to find out the new wolves names?

Any idea what the female capybara is named?

Glad to hear you're starting to enjoy yourself.
 
Sorry but I didn't find out the wolf and capybara names. I'll try to find out the names of the wolves when I go to the Canadian Domain on Thursday.

Tomorrow is my sleepover at the zoo so I won't be posting any more updates until Thursday.
 
Oh this sounds like a cool camp. Lucky you getting to sleep over at the zoo. I definitely want to hear about the sleep over. I've always thought the bush camp was an amazing idea. Have a great time!
 
arcticwolf said:
Today was an ok start to zoo camp. I was disappointed that we didn't see any animals for 4 hours because we were too busy playing name games.

Here are some updates and things I noticed:

- Do you guys remember when I said one of the zebras looked pregnant? It turns out that I could be right! There's a rumour going around the zoo that we could be seeing a baby zebra sometime soon!
- In addition to the zebra, one of the cheetahs might be pregnant! This isn't just a rumour because a keeper was the one who told me.
- It was really nice to see keepers walking around the zoo with education animals. Today I saw a skunk and a gyrfalcon (a species that I never knew was at the zoo).
Click to expand...

Sadly the zoo confirmed the cheetah had a pseudo pregnancy, so no cubs!
But hopefully soon!
 
kknudsen said:
Sadly the zoo confirmed the cheetah had a pseudo pregnancy, so no cubs!
But hopefully soon!
Click to expand...

When did you hear this and who did you hear it from? On Monday a cheetah keeper said she might be pregnant and yesterday someone from the reproduction lab said the same thing.

Some more updates from today and yesterday:

- There are plans to breed the babirusas again.
- I saw the pheasant pigeons and splash back poison dart frogs for the first time.
- The Amazon fish tank was open with unidentified fish inside.
- The painted anemones were off exhibit. In their exhibit were unidentified fish and a pink kind of marine invertebrate that kind of looked like coral.
- Helmeted guinea fowl are now living with the white rhinos and the zebras.
- Both of the moose babies are girls.
- There are new goats in the Kid's Zoo.
- There are baby giant African snails in the off exhibit education animals area.
 
How was your sleepover at the zoo?

And I saw the same comment as kknudsen on facebook the other day. Whoever answers for the zoo said it was a pseudo pregnancy but I'd be inclined to believe your sources. Maybe there were two possible pregnancies and one turned out to be a false one. I mean you have two reliable sounding sources where as we have no idea who the tech person talked to before responding.

Enjoy your last day at camp tomorrow.
 
The sleepover at the zoo was great. I had a really fun time. One of my favourite parts of the sleepover was getting to feed Twiga the giraffe.

Sadly I don't have any updates from my last day of zoo camp. I enjoyed watching all of the lemurs jump and climb around their exhibit. For the first time I got a really good look at the baby lemurs but I wasn't able to get any pictures since they moved so quickly.
 
You got to feed Twiga? I'm so jealous. I want to feed a giraffe. I've always thought that would be cool after seeing it on one of Jack Hanna's shows. You are so lucky.

Im glad you have enjoyed your week. And the weather was great for it too. Now the wait begins again for next years camp for you I guess.

Thanks for everything you were able to share with us.
 
I hope this time the elephants will actually be leaving the zoo. Even though I love the elephants and I'll to be sad to see them go, I'm happy that all of the arguing will be over and the zoo can just move on.
 
I second that opinion arcticwolf. Plus then I can look forward to the new giraffe exhibit!
 
I'm sad to see them go, especially Iringa, got to feed her once while in Bush Camp. But I will be happy knowing their happy. I hope the zoo creates a great giraffe exhibit and hopefully expands the hippos with the space.
 
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