Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Future Developments 2014

I have heard Nikita was denning a couple of weeks ago and they thought she may be pregnant. Did you hear anything about her? Not that I expect anything from her. I thought Aurora would begin denning early in November. She tends to like giving birth early in the birthing season. Only the first time did she hold on until January.
 
Nikita was in the exhibit. She seemed a lot more active, now that she's by herself.
 
Since Aurora's denning, let's pretend she has cubs. What do you think the zoo should do?

Should they pull the cubs immediately, or should they give Aurora a chance? We know that the reason Humphrey was pulled was because his siblings died, due to Aurora not producing milk.
 
If I were the zoo I would let her try to raise them. They have altered her diet in an attempt to help her nurse this year. Since mother is usually best its worth a day or two to try. However the minute they see one cub even struggling the tiniest bit they need to pull. It is better to have jumped the gun and pulled them then risk losing yet another cub for any reason. To not pull at that point would just be foolish with a bear who has only 2 surviving cubs for 11 cubs born, and those two are only alive because they were pulled. Without intervention she would be 0 for 11. If this litter needs to be pulled Aurora needs to either be pulled from breeding or every following litter needs to all be pulled the minute they know shes done giving birth.

But that's just my opinion. The zoo will do what it wants.

And more from Humphrey's special day part one... since his real birthday is still 3 days away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhCFyXY7u9M&feature=youtu.be
 
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Went to the zoo toady.

Aurora is still denning, so everyone has their fingers crossed in hopes for cubs.

Does anyone know about one of the Beavers only has on eye? Not sure which one, but I noticed it while looking at some of my pictures. Beaver was missing its right eye.

4 Cheetahs were on exhibit today for the first time. Akeelah, Cleo (done her breeding session with 2 males), Tika, and Mahala. Feeding was interesting as 2 Keepers had to throw out meat bones. Cleo and Mahala ran over one another chasing the meat bone that was grabbed by Akeelah. Eventually everything worked out well. Keepers plan on adding Emma to the group this Wednesday. They plan on dealing with a tree in the back of the exhibit that can lead to Emma getting on top the rocks back there.

White Lions were back on exhibit for the first time in over a month today. It was nice to see them again. From what I understand, there was little to no mating between Fintan and Makali. IT was more of gathering information and samples from the lions. Semen sample from Fintan have been collected and frozen. Also, Makali was given hormone shots today, to hopefully put her in heat.

Lastly, something I’ve notice during the last couple weeks, but kept forgetting to mention, the Sumatran Tiger exhibits have a new connecting shoot. Keepers will soon be able to move the Tigers around without having both Tigers go in the holding.
 
If it's opening up to the public after the members sneak peek, I would guess all construction is done, and all animals will be on exhibit.
 
Based on what everyone was saying during the earlier preview they anticipated adding the sea eagles, snow leopards and Eagle owls sometime that month. Why open up with 3 animals still off display? I would guess they should all be out.
 
Went to the zoo today, although there isn't much to report.

Emma has not been added to the group of Cheetah's just yet, however, they have cut down the tree that was posing a possible problem.

Caught Fintan trying to mate with Makali.

Red River Hogs are now on exhibit indoors. Warthogs are off display.
 
a while ago at one of the keeper talks I asked about visitors feeding the giraffes and he said that it may happen but it is up to management. The area by the hippos leading to the other giraffe yard does seem to allow for such a thing to happen.

it was a while ago so my memory is a bit fuzzy on the details.
 
Some holiday help

Hi all,

I wanted to ask a favor of you all should you be in the helping spirit. As passionate TZ fans, who are obviously internet savvy I am hoping you will consider helping me spreading the word online about our campaign projects?

This time of year is a big time of year for holiday related donations to the Zoo. About 80% of all online donations happen in the 30 days prior to Christmas!

If you can take some time to share the links to the fundraising projects page(s) to places you may visit online in these next 30 days, you could really help us raise some funds for these projects. Any websites, forums, blogs, news sites or social media that accept link posts would be very helpful - especially if they are animal, conservation or environment related (related content sites are worth 10 unrelated links).

If willing, all you have to do is copy one or more of the texts below and paste it to the site you are sharing the link with. Including a short personal message is usually a good idea too. The link is built into the text.

Donate to the Toronto Zoo's Wildlife Health Centre

Donate to the Toronto Zoo's Orangutan Exhibit

Donate to the Toronto Zoo's Wild for Life Campaign


If you really want to go above and beyond, additionally send out the links in some emails encouraging your contacts to support the Zoo this holiday season.

Thank you so much. Any way you can chip in would be appreciated. :)
 
The board stuff is up. Sadly there just isn't much of note. Only one big ticket item.

The Health Center will be completed sooner then originally thought. It was to be done in 2017 based on previous documents but now they think it could be ready in 2016. We all know that means add a year thanks to the joy of construction so it should really be ready in 2017. It should cost nearly $20 million.

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2014/zb/bgrd/backgroundfile-73813.pdf

I was sort of hoping to see some news on the old giraffe house demo and rebuild. Or AZA news. I got excited seeing the 2015-2020 Strategic Plan draft but it wasnt what I thought it was. Just the zoos focuses moving forward not actual projects. Just have to wait until the new year for any big stuff... probably because the new council hasn't taken office yet.
 
Some bad press for the TZ.

Toronto Zoo revenues down $8.3 million despite pandas’ arrival | Toronto Star

I'm not terribly surprised. Ripley's is a spectacular addition to Toronto and is in direct competition to the TZ. Given that I am a member at both, I certainly understand the appeal of both and why I choose to go to one over the other. No doubt the weather did not help the TZ, but that was likely offset by the terrible lines at Ripley's.

I hope beyond hope that the healthy competition will force the TZ to look to expand their revenue sources.

I noticed in the Collections magazine that there are tours being offered by volunteers for free. Interesting that volunteers are allowed to do something like this when I'm told one of the main reasons the TZ cannot offer tours for a fee is the cost to the TZ to lead them. If volunteers can lead ones for free, presumably they can run them for a fee too!
 
It would do good for the zoo, to do more things to attract visitors. The Pandas had their spot in the limelight in 2013. I think most people were overall, unimpressed, especially if they came during the Pandas sleeping. I heard that during the summer of 2013 some people waited 3 hours in line to see the Panadas. When they finally got to them they were, as usual sleeping. A huge disappointment for a 3 hour wait.

Plus it would help the zoo to get their AZA accreditation back so they can look into getting newer and different animals. Also, trying for cubs would peak interest, but as we all know, that's not entirely the zoos fault.
 
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