@Zooer The Kudus in the Zoo only come outside for a few hours, usually between 11am to 12pm, then go back indoors.
@kav2001c filling the Tundra Trek is a headache problem, the Zoo has failed to keep Arctic foxes since many times they may not want to bring back foxes anymore. If new foxes die at young age again, that really hurts Zoo's reputation. Crystal the Snowy owl was phased out b/c she couldn't tolerate the light and flash of Terra Lumina, that means we can't have Snowy owl in that aviary until Terra Lumina is ended. But the options of Tundra species are very limited, they are either hard to be obtained (Wolverine, Gyrfalcon) or expensive to be kept (Walrus, Seals). The Tundra Trek may not have enough space to build an exhibit for Pinnipeds b/c you need a decent area of swimming pool for them.
@amur leopard I also don't like the decrease in number of species, but the thing is, most people, include certain Zoo-chatters, don't really care about the loss of many species like Electric eels, Mata mata, Secretary bird, Fairy-bluebirds, etc. But if losing the top-star species like Giant panda, tiger, Grizzly/Polar bear, that would be another story. If the Zoo really phases out Grizzly bears in the future, it won't impact the overall number of visitors coming to the Zoo but will decrease visitors' interest to travel the Wilderness North. For example, most visitors come to Eurasia just for watching Amur tiger, especially Mila, very few of them would like to continue walking further to see Camels, Steller sea eagles. I agree with you that Trt Zoo doesn't have enough birds collections, in fact not only birds, the Canids, the Rodents even Primates collections are also insufficient in Trt Zoo, but the Zoo seems don't have enthusiasm to make big collections anymore. Duke Lemur Centre already sent Coquerel's sifakas several times across Atlantic Ocean to Europe rather than giving to much closer zoos in Canada, the AZA asks for pausing the breeding of Aye aye due to no enough space in captivity for newborns, why Trt Zoo doesn't acquire Coquerel's sifaka and Aye aye, b/c the Zoo doesn't want to do so. It is understandable, introducing more species means you need to spend more labor costs, food costs, exhibit and enrichment costs, etc, while they may not help the Zoo to bring in more visitors. For example, if Trt Zoo introduces Montserrat oriole, I as a zoo-nerd would be highly excited, but for most visitors, who care. For Canids, most visitors only care about wolves; for Lemurs, most visitors only care about Ring-tailed. Another problem is, Toronto is a cold city, I just watch the video about travelling a zoo in Paris, the February temperature in Paris already allows Giraffe, Rhino to go outdoor, but the temperature in Toronto doesn't. That brings many restrictions to species collection, many tropical species have to be off-display for about half of year. Showing indoor? The space of Pavilions are fixed, unless some species are gone then you can have some free space. What about having more Palearctic birds? That is a good idea, but may not easy to implement, b/c many Palearctic species are pretty rare in N. American zoos. For example, Great Bustards, they have amazing looking and cold tolerance, but if I don't remember wrong, currently none of N. American zoo has them.
How large the Savanna Pavilion should be? Since the Savanna will get expansion on its enclosures, for sure we will get more animals, either new species, or more number of existing species (for example, the breeding herd of Wildebeest). Both situations require larger area of winter house. We also can't mix White rhinos with other animals in the limited barn, otherwise White rhinos may hurt other animals. If the Savanna Pavilion is about the same size as Zurich Zoo's elephant house, which has an area of 6800 square meters, that should be sufficient for Rhinos, Zebras, Kudus, Elands, Wildebeests and Ostriches in winter times. But that elephant house costs about 60 million dollars, will the Toronto Zoo have enough budget?
@kav2001c filling the Tundra Trek is a headache problem, the Zoo has failed to keep Arctic foxes since many times they may not want to bring back foxes anymore. If new foxes die at young age again, that really hurts Zoo's reputation. Crystal the Snowy owl was phased out b/c she couldn't tolerate the light and flash of Terra Lumina, that means we can't have Snowy owl in that aviary until Terra Lumina is ended. But the options of Tundra species are very limited, they are either hard to be obtained (Wolverine, Gyrfalcon) or expensive to be kept (Walrus, Seals). The Tundra Trek may not have enough space to build an exhibit for Pinnipeds b/c you need a decent area of swimming pool for them.
@amur leopard I also don't like the decrease in number of species, but the thing is, most people, include certain Zoo-chatters, don't really care about the loss of many species like Electric eels, Mata mata, Secretary bird, Fairy-bluebirds, etc. But if losing the top-star species like Giant panda, tiger, Grizzly/Polar bear, that would be another story. If the Zoo really phases out Grizzly bears in the future, it won't impact the overall number of visitors coming to the Zoo but will decrease visitors' interest to travel the Wilderness North. For example, most visitors come to Eurasia just for watching Amur tiger, especially Mila, very few of them would like to continue walking further to see Camels, Steller sea eagles. I agree with you that Trt Zoo doesn't have enough birds collections, in fact not only birds, the Canids, the Rodents even Primates collections are also insufficient in Trt Zoo, but the Zoo seems don't have enthusiasm to make big collections anymore. Duke Lemur Centre already sent Coquerel's sifakas several times across Atlantic Ocean to Europe rather than giving to much closer zoos in Canada, the AZA asks for pausing the breeding of Aye aye due to no enough space in captivity for newborns, why Trt Zoo doesn't acquire Coquerel's sifaka and Aye aye, b/c the Zoo doesn't want to do so. It is understandable, introducing more species means you need to spend more labor costs, food costs, exhibit and enrichment costs, etc, while they may not help the Zoo to bring in more visitors. For example, if Trt Zoo introduces Montserrat oriole, I as a zoo-nerd would be highly excited, but for most visitors, who care. For Canids, most visitors only care about wolves; for Lemurs, most visitors only care about Ring-tailed. Another problem is, Toronto is a cold city, I just watch the video about travelling a zoo in Paris, the February temperature in Paris already allows Giraffe, Rhino to go outdoor, but the temperature in Toronto doesn't. That brings many restrictions to species collection, many tropical species have to be off-display for about half of year. Showing indoor? The space of Pavilions are fixed, unless some species are gone then you can have some free space. What about having more Palearctic birds? That is a good idea, but may not easy to implement, b/c many Palearctic species are pretty rare in N. American zoos. For example, Great Bustards, they have amazing looking and cold tolerance, but if I don't remember wrong, currently none of N. American zoo has them.
Depends how you gonna make the bird aviary, for example, if we build a giant aviary in Eurasia, and have Mandarin ducks, Smews, Chinese mergansers,Red-crested pochards, Baikal teals, Common shelducks, Red-crowned cranes, Demoiselle cranes, Black Storks, Red-breasted geese, Bar-headed geese on display, that still fit with zoo's geographical theme.
How large the Savanna Pavilion should be? Since the Savanna will get expansion on its enclosures, for sure we will get more animals, either new species, or more number of existing species (for example, the breeding herd of Wildebeest). Both situations require larger area of winter house. We also can't mix White rhinos with other animals in the limited barn, otherwise White rhinos may hurt other animals. If the Savanna Pavilion is about the same size as Zurich Zoo's elephant house, which has an area of 6800 square meters, that should be sufficient for Rhinos, Zebras, Kudus, Elands, Wildebeests and Ostriches in winter times. But that elephant house costs about 60 million dollars, will the Toronto Zoo have enough budget?
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