Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo History and Past (2008 and before)

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I guess this is history! The Toronto Zoos elephant herd is now no longer the largest in North America. Tequila has sadly past away. She had not exhibited any signs of ill health and her death comes as a shock. She was 38. Ungulate I am deeply sorry for your loss.
 
No, Toronto has always been the largest well like 2 years back, because they have had 2 elephant deaths now.
 
Well then maybe you can help me out...my records show that ALS has a herd of 13. Do you know of which ones have died or transferred out?
 
I don't know, but the Toronto Zoo had the largest herd of African Elephant is where my mistake was sorry.
 
Zebra history ...

Quartz92 said:
They havn't named the baby zebra yet. I put in a name to but I can't remember now lol. Shaka is the only male zebra, the toronto zoo has 8 zebras not including the new baby, I think. The last time I was there, only 5 on exhibit (the new baby and mother were off exhibit) and Shaka.
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We currently have one male and six female zebras:
Shaka (male)
Blue Jay
Sudi
Keshia
Shani
Zebrina
(Ishara)

Blue Jay was the first Grevy's zebra born at the zoo, and she is one of the oldest zebras alive today. (She was born on the day the baseball team played their first game - April 7, 1977).
Punda was a male - he is now living in Phoenix, I believe.
As to why there is a naming contest, I think the PR department decided it would be good publicity ...

Meaghan is correct - the original exhibit has a plexiglass wall. It was actually originally intended to house gelada baboon as well ... but the monkeys kept jumping out and were removed soon after the zoo opened.
 
Hi everyone,

I'm Colin and I'm new to ZooBeat. I found the forum recently after a visit to the Toronto Zoo.

It has been several years since I had last been to the zoo and was surprised at how much it had changed (and what is to come) What I was looking for I haven't yet found. I was wondering if anyone had old maps of the zoo from the 80's early 90's I can't for the life of me figure out how the zoo used to flow and what was where. If any one has them they could scan and post that would be great.

What part is messing me up the most is the area to the left of the giraffes or the path to the right going away from the Canadian Domain. The only way I could possibly figure it out would be to find my 'Sharon, Lois and Bram' video from when I was a child (I have a feeling it's on Beta not VHS)

Well I purchased a zoo membership and plan on several more visits to try to figure it all out. I thank you all for your help and would also like to thank everyone for asking and answering questions in the posts I have read so far. I have enjoyed learning and having some of my own questions answered.

Thanks again

Colin
 
Hello Colin,
Welcome to the forum!
I'm glad to hear that you're starting to visit the zoo more. I have uploaded a map of the zoo from 1995 (the year of the white lions), before the Africa Paddocks were renovated to the savannah (to everyone: you can see the official location of the Hamadryas baboon enclosure if you want to compare it to the satellite map).

http://www.zoobeat.com/gallery/data/539/1995.jpg
 
Thanks Ungulat

I think I'm more confused now. The service road from the (now) Africa zoomobile station to the (1995 map) Americas monorail station, was that all exhibits at one time? I seem to remember walking along there as a child. I can't remember for the life of me what was there I just remember going through that area.

Thanks
~C
 
The Zoo had so many different animals including my fav. springbok, which I wish they had again. I have a map from 1997 but its not very good and i will scan it tomorrow maybe.
 
Colin said:
I think I'm more confused now. The service road from the (now) Africa zoomobile station to the (1995 map) Americas monorail station, was that all exhibits at one time?
~C
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Nope - there were never any exhibits between the giraffes and the Mayan temple, but that road used to be open to the public, so it is quite likely that you did walk there.
 
Wow,the African Section was so different!I never knew that the cheetahs received a new habitat?
 
Im also pretty surprised that the elephants,giraffes and the fur seals did'nt receive new exhibits
 
From the map it looks like the hyenas were in the lion exhibit? The zoo also had wapitis and the moose were never seen from a path originaly. Ungulate was this your map, if so do you mind copying the other side im a bit interested to see it, no rush.
 
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Quartz, I have uploaded the other pages of the 1995 to the gallery ... not too exciting, but there it is! While I was going through my old maps, I thought that it might be fun to share the ORIGINAL zoo map ... one that only existed in the minds of planners. It too is in the gallery, and shows the planned layout of the zoo. Several things got changed before construction occurred, but it is remarkable how much is still the same.

Yep, in 1995 the hyenas lived in what is now the lion exhibit - as far as I can tell, the order of the inhabitants was:
Hamadryas baboons
Lions
Hyenas
Lions (now)

When the zoo first opened, there was a viewing window into the exhibit from the top of the kopje; you'll notice there is a set of double doors in the tunnel which lead up a stairwell to where the window originally was.
 
Its too bad they don't have that anymore.It would have been coool if they also would have constructed a sub area near the kopje called Pretador's Of East Africa that would house hyena,lion,african wild dog,leopard,nile crocodile,caracal lynx,batleur eagle and dwarf and banded mongoose plus a summer exhibit for meerkats.A new multi-acre savanna habitat for the elephants,giraffes,nyala and black rhino would also be awesome.Maybe it could be like 15 acres more of rolling grassland with overlooks plus indoor habitats for them.Sorry that i keep rambling on but I was just thinking they should have also built a Madagascar Pavilion housing malagasy animals.
 
Quartz92 said:
http://www.interq.or.jp/orange/hiroko-/c102zoomaplow.jpg and that is a 1998 map of the zoo.
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Zoogoer2000 said:
Cool!Just one thing that is somewhat odd is that they have white rhinos and indian rhinos listed in the same paddock at the indian rhino house?Did they live here during the reconstruction of African Savanna?
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Yes - all of the savannah animals got shuffled around while the savannah was under construction. Only Bull, the male white rhino, lived in the Indian rhino house. He was kept on the tapir side of the building, and always looked rather sad, slouched in a corner by himself. The two girls (Pistol and Shaboola) lived in the upper elephant house during construction.
 
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