Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo New Animals, Departures and Deaths 2011

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I would have wrote more but I am still quite personally shocked from today's trip to the zoo. But yes, the two cubs died and I believe the rhino was a stillbirth. :(
 
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my god, whats with all the deaths at the Toronto zoo!
the 4 elephants, the male Orangutan, the female gorilla and know the cubs and baby rhino.
god help us..
 
Thanks Meaghan! I called Toronto today and a lady confirmed that they no longer have Wisent. No more Wisent? No more Musk Ox? Good thing I'm going in three weeks. Too bad they keep taking down their animal list on the website. Now I can't see what else I might miss.
 
I know there's been a lot of deaths at the Toronto Zoo in recent years. I also believe there are more to come as our animal population is getting relatively old on average. We have less and less animals that are still around that have been at the zoo since the early years around the time when the zoo first opened. I believe that many of our more well known animals and that many of the big animal species are getting on in age and that the negative publicity will continue. It's especially difficult for the zoo as there have been less births and good news to promote and when there is some, it often doesn't seem like it gets promoted as much (possibly because it often isn't the more well known species).

The zoo opened in the 70s and is about the same size it is today with many changes over the years but the vast majority of the major exhibits and areas have mostly stayed stable. There has been a lot of work in recent years and over the next 10 to change and upgrade the zoo and make it more modern. It's hard to do all at once and also really expensive but I'm really looking forward to seeing how all the planned construction turns out in the next 5 and 10 years.

Off the top of my head the big multi phase project that started with Tundra Trek and continues with the Eurasia and moving the Canadian domain animals to the main section of the zoo is a massive undertaking that will do wonders to improve things for the animals as well as for visitors. I know that the remaining elephants aren't going to last more then 10-15 years and that much work needs to be done soon to improve things for them and for future generations of elephants (I personally think that the money and public support as well as being able to acquire elephants without having to take them from their wild habitat might end up making it difficult or impossible to replace the elephant population) I know that Charles the gorilla is getting old and won't be around in 5 or 10 years from now. I believe that many of the larger cats are also getting fairly old and while we've had a lot of luck in breeding it means that there aren't going to be as many births for the next few years to offset the deaths. I know that our giraffes are old with Ginetta being the oldest of her species in North America. I really do believe and hope that the zoo will be able to promote the successes they've had and will continue to have in the next few years during the difficult years ahead during the time the zoo undergoes the transformation to become more modern and as the animal population changes and fluctuates.

I am really sad and shocked to hear about the polar bears and about the baby rhino as I was really hoping that those would be great success stories. I know that the Indian rhinos are relatively young and that they just entered full maturity and so it's still early and there will be many more chances for a baby. Asha I believe is on loan from a zoo in the states and hopefully will be sticking around for a while. I believe that the polar bears are also fairly young and will have better luck in the future. The polar bear exhibit is still pretty new and is bigger then the old one and still has the nursery on the side so it should have plenty of space. I really hope that we can get more details and try and understand more about what's going on at the zoo. I wish that the animals at the Toronto Zoo could know about the plans and the care that is going on and will happen over the next few years to make it an even better place for animals and visitors.
 
Bluebadger I agree with everything you said and I thank you for saying it!!

While I'm saddened by the death of the polar bear cubs and the rhino I am super confident in the animals and the keepers that this was an issue of the parents' youth and that the Zoo will have lots of successful breeding to share in the future.

I heard that the Zoo is scheduled to acquire elephants from San Diego's Wild Park - does anyone know if this is still the case? I understood this was likely to happen in 2014.
 
You've made great points, bluebadger. I too am looking forward to seeing the zoo transform.

Shame about the baby rhino and polar bear cubs. The keepers and crew behind the conservation have my utmost respect. I'm always standing up for them when people slam the zoo; I know for a fact that they look after the animals far better than many pet owners do.
 
Does anyone have a link to confirm the polar bear cub and rhino deaths. I was there last week and the zoo keepers stated that the polar bears are in heat and a pregnancy has not been confirmed in either yet. And the rhino was inside and the keepers didnt state that a baby was born premature.
 
Directed towards the baby deaths: we have to remember that both mothers (rhino for sure, as I am not sure which female bear) were first time moms, therefore it is sad but does tend to happen a lot for first time moms, not just in captivity but in the wild as well.

I did not know the polar bears were expecting a pregnancy that is news to me, however as dcamp023 stated they are in heat and still breeding.

As for info on the elephants, nothing is set in stone and the zoo still does not know if they are keeping their elephants or not.
kknudsen: where did you hear of this news?
 
I read it on the Zoo's wikipedia site and then when I was at the San Diego Wild Park at Christmas I asked the keepers. The SDWP keepers reported that they have too many elephants and have to rotate them on and off exhibit and they weren't sure how many more births they could have given how large their herd already was. They said they were looking for homes and TZ was on the list.
 
dcamp023 said:
Does anyone have a link to confirm the polar bear cub and rhino deaths. I was there last week and the zoo keepers stated that the polar bears are in heat and a pregnancy has not been confirmed in either yet. And the rhino was inside and the keepers didnt state that a baby was born premature.
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You likely wont see any official statements about this. This is the exact reason why they don't like to announce pregnancies in the first place. Only one of the two polar bears was pregnant at the time. My info came directly from a Level 4. These baby deaths are definitely not any fault of the zoo, just simply bad luck from mother nature. :(
 
I was at the Zoo yesterday and got a chance to enjoy the new exhibits.

The lemur exhibit is fantastic! The lemurs were quite active and very fun to watch. The fake tree right in front of one of the windows is very badly placed, but given that there are lots of other vantage points it's not too detrimental.

The meerkat exhibit was fantastic too! The tubing tunnels were a good idea and it will be fun to see them play in them. I was surprised to see only three meerkats - I hope they get more as the exhibit seemed pretty empty.

The rest of the renovated exhibits were well done as well!

There were two birth announcements that I noticed that don't appear on the website (boo!). One was for a marmoset born a couple of weeks ago and the other one escapes me at the moment.
 
I was at the zoo yesterday too! haha! I was just wondering though, the last two times I have went the White-Faced Saki Monkey was not on display. His mate was on display though, just wondering if anyone knew if hes ok?
 
Damian_07 said:
but the Toronto zoo might update its elephant exhibit if they spend 16.5 million.
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The zoo has 100% confirmed that the elephants are leaving and the only question now is whether they are sent to an AZA-accredited zoo or a sanctuary. The option of spending millions on a new exhibit/barn complex was voted down.
 
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