Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Future Developments 2014

Im not overly surprised to see the big drop for 2014. The winter was horrible so no matter how cute Humphrey and Nneka were they couldnt bring in enough people. Also the big summer draw, the Eurasian Wilds, proved a complete bust. People have seen the pandas but there was nothing new for them.

2015 will be better. The wilds can be promoted now. There is the new African hoofstock, Watusi, Eland and Wildebeest... if we are really lucky more giraffes. The giraffes may get trained for feedings which would be a good draw. Plus some big draw babies would be a big boost and the zoo is trying very hard to get a lot of those. And lets not forget they could see a good boost in tourists thanks to the Pan Am games.
 
kknudsen said:
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!
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These winter tours have been run for at least a year or two, although they are not well advertised. The volunteers also lead a free tour of the Tundra Trek most days... there is usually a sign for it by the plane.

To run tours would have high staff costs, even if they are run by part-time staff. Unless the zoo becomes less restrictive on behind-the-scenes tours, I don't see enough revenue coming in from tours to support the staff costs. Also, the zoo is unionized, so there is likely something in the collective agreement that prevents volunteers from leading paid tours. In most companies/organizations, a volunteer cannot do tasks that an employee could be doing.
 
I live too far away to make a trip for Eurasia. I will be waiting until spring. I would guess a couple will go either on the 1st or over the weekend during yhe member preview.
 
I'm hoping to go this weekend for the members opening. I'm also going later today.
 
Like I said earlier, I went to the zoo today. It’s been a while and it wasn’t too cold today, so what the heck.

Still no replacement for the Lionfish in the Australasia Pavilion. Couldn’t find a keeper to ask about how much longer the wait will be.

Asked the Keeper at the Polar Bear talk about Aurora, and she said Aurora was inside for training. I’m pretty sure she’s denning, as she’s been a no show for a couple weeks now. Doubt training takes that long. I find the Keepers remain tight-lipped on Aurora’s condition and often try to change the subject to Nikita and Humphrey. I’m guessing they don’t want to give false hope in the possibility of cubs, so they try not talking about it.

Found out some bad news for the Hyenas. Don’t expect cubs anytime soon. Pinduli has been spayed, due to an infection.

All 5 Cheetahs are on exhibit and seem to be doing well. Keeper said Akeelah has calmed down with Emma being around. It was also fun to watch Cleo (the fastest) stealing everyone else’s food when it was thrown out to them.
 
I know the zoo got a pair of lionfish a while back but one died shortly after arrival... not all that uncommon with fish. Maybe the other didn't make it either because that was awhile back.

I can see the keepers not talking about Aurora. Her track record is not good. They shouldn't raise hopes because cubs might not come or come and die off.

Im surprised you didnt know Pinduli had been spayed. That happened months ago. Before she was introduced to Echo but after his arrival. I thought I mentioned it but maybe I forgot to. Hopefully we can swap hyenas because Echo is an African import to a very related hyena population. Most hyenas in North America are related to the clans held at Berkeley (Pinduli and Moja included). Echo's genetics are very much needed. I think the species genetic diversity is something around 50% (most other species are 90% or more or trying to get there). If that means Echo needs to go fine. He needs to be breeding. If that means Pinduli and Moja go thats fine too. Keeping Echo in a non breeding situation is ridiculous.
 
TZFan said:
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.
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I agree, there isn't much in this meeting in terms of construction projects, but that is likely because it is the end of the year. When I read carefully through the documents, I picked out some things that I think are worth mentioning:
Strategic Plan:
- Goal 1 discusses a focus on threatened Canadian species and interactive wildlife exhibits for those species. I'm hoping this means that the Canadian Wilderness redevelopment is still on track to happen within the 5 year timeframe of this strategic plan. *the Canadian focus carries through the whole plan
- Goal 2 talks about increased animal encounters and improved wayfinding (aka maps and directional signage)
- Goal 3 refers to things already in progress - establishing a separate fundraising entity, defining the governance structure and relationship with the city (needed for AZA reaccreditation), updating the land agreement with the city and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (responsible for most of the land the Zoo is on)
- Goal 4- according to the plan, the Zoo outperforms most peer zoos in terms of earned revenue. Not sure if peer zoos refers to Canadian Zoos only or zoos of comparable size in North America.
- Goal 5 looks to build a partnership with the eventual Rouge National Urban Park.
- Goal 7 discusses sharing more stories about work done behind the scenes.


Wildlife Health Centre:
- The tenders all came back over-budget and rather than re-designing parts of the building and delaying construction, the Zoo decided to reduce the scope of the project slightly and use the $1 million donation they received earlier this year.
- None of the changes seem to be major, other than necrospy wing being scraped. The existing space will continue to be used. Since the new necrospy room was going to be built where the existing Invertebrate House is, that space no longer needs to be demolished and re-built elsewhere.


Food Services:
- The zoo is sticking with their current food services provider- Compass for the next 10 years with an option for an additional 5 year renewal.
- Part of the deal involves $3 million for renovations (appears to be Africa Restaurant next fall) and $500,000 for a refresh of buildings in Year 6 (2020?).
- Potential new brands to be investigated include Tim Horton's, Booster Juice, Extreme Pita, Subway, and Dairy Queen


Endangered Species Reserve Fund:
- The project summary for the Beaded Lizard community based conservation states that the Zoo is going to be receiving Guatemalan beaded lizard
- 6 species of fish from Madagascar were transported to the zoo for a North American breeding program. More details from this project can be found here: Toronto Zoo | Weekly Media Send Outs
- The Zoo would like to establish a captive breeding colony of little brown bats, which are threatened by white-nose syndrome
 
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I haven't had a chance to read this document yet, so thanks for summarizing some of the important information adams7.

I like that the zoo wants to focus on endangered native species, because as of right now, the zoo is doing lots of conservation work for Canadian animals, but very few of them are actually on exhibit.

It's too bad that the health centre was over budget, but at least the zoo is only taking away the necropsy wing and not anything that is important for caring for the animals.

Some of the food options seem good and I would definitely love to have a Tim Hortons on zoo grounds.

All of the endangered species that the zoo is/might be getting are really interesting, even though I'm guessing most (if not all) of them won't be on exhibit.
 
So I went to the zoo today specifically to check out the Eurasia Wilds.

I can safely say that it is complete and ready for visitors. Both the Stellar's Sea Eagle and a single Eurasian Eagle Owl were on exhibit, as well as the Snow Leopard, which I'm led to believe was Tiga.

Red Pandas Cassie and Ralphie were out and about, as was the Bactrian Camel group. West Caucasian tur were also out as were 2 Chamois. Reindeer are also still in their exhibit.

There's no access to the Dhole or Barbary Apes.

You can view the New layout on the update map in the link below.

Toronto Zoo | Toronto Zoo Map
 
Oh I like the new map a lot. Its pretty clear and easy to read. Only improvement I would have added was the Wilds drive thru. It's a big draw for the zoomobile so adding it would have been smart to hopefully increase sales.
 
TZFan said:
Oh I like the new map a lot. Its pretty clear and easy to read. Only improvement I would have added was the Wilds drive thru. It's a big draw for the zoomobile so adding it would have been smart to hopefully increase sales.
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The Eurasia Drive Thru was on the map in the summer, so I'm guessing they have taken it off for the winter season since it's not accessible.
 
Oh that makes sense. Good thinking Adams7. I still like the map either way.
 
When i went to the first preview with no animals in it there was an exhibit that looked nice and was mostly glass a the beginning, any idea whats going there?
 
I went to the zoo today to volunteer at the staff children's holiday party. It was pretty good and I worked at a couple of the games there. My favourite part of it was when keepers brought out some education animals like a skunk, ferrets and a bearded dragon.

After volunteering, I walked around the zoo for a couple hours. I don't have many updates, but one thing that I did notice was that at least one of the bettongs was back on exhibit with the wombats and wallabies.

I will probably going back to the zoo again in the next couple weeks to see Eurasia, since it was only open for members today.
 
That's cool that you volunteered at the party. To bad you couldn't check out Eurasia. I'm hoping of going again tomorrow.

In the last issue of collections I got, it mentions a baby Bettong coming out of the pouch in September. They estimated it to be between 90-100 days old at the time.
 
The bettong joey was a bit of a surprise since they didnt think anything had happened between the parents yet. Now if only the tree kangaroos would surprise us.
 
Took a trip to the zoo today, figured I’d try seeing the snow leopard in a better visible spot. No such luck. She was hiding in the very corner of the exhibit, in some bushes. Took me a while just to find her. Even the Keepers were having trouble finding her. Someone told me she was in the exact same position as yesterday.

In other news I noticed a rose-breasted cockatoo in the Australasian Pavilion. It was in a cage in the free flight section of the Pavilion. I never noticed it before. Anyone know anything about it?
 
When I visited the zoo yesterday I didn't see anything in the cage in Australasia and I specifically remember looking at it. Rose breasted cockatoos are a great species and I'm happy that the zoo brought them in. Yesterday I was actually thinking that the Australasia free flight section could use another species or two to add more activity to it.

I'm also surprised about the bettong joey but it's amazing news! It's always great when a zoo breeds an animal not common in captivity. I'm guessing that the bettong I saw yesterday with the wombats was the male and the female and joey are off exhibit.
 
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