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snowleopard

snowleopard

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Has anyone visited this zoo?

Zoo de Granby -- WELCOME

Zoo Map:

http://www.zoodegranby.com/zoo/images/documents/plan_de_site_2011.pdf

Granby Zoo is generally regarded as the 3rd largest zoo in Canada (after Toronto and Calgary) and it is located in the French-speaking Province of Quebec. Does anyone want to type up a short review?

Some highlights:

- over 500,000 annual visitors
- over 1,000 animals
- elephants, rhinos and hippos (with underwater viewing)
- Amur tigers, lions, jaguars, Amur leopards, snow leopards, fishing cats, ocelots
- gorillas, mandrills, patas monkeys, Japanese macaques, ring-tailed lemurs and at least 3 other primate species
- spectacled bears, Asian black bears
- monorail, pony rides, camel rides, petting zoo
- an attached waterpark
- an attached amusement park
 
I visited it once when I was a kid, so some of the information might be a bit dated, there seems to have been a few changes since the late 90s.

The zoo had it's own radio station, wich talked about different exhibits throughout the day, news and other events. First thing you would see after entering would be the two female african elephants.The elephants seemed active and well cared for, when I went there there was some sort of talk or show going on with them, so they where definitely kept buisy.

The gorilla exhibit was indoors at the time, appearently now there's an outdoor area open in the summer. Winters in Quebec are pretty cold, so I hope they did'nt take much from the indoor area.

The waterpark is really popular, as summers in Quebec can get pretty hot.It's in an amazon theme and has a very large wavepool.

Near a small museum type building was a cave exhibit that had bats and other small cave dwelling animals, attached to the cave was a raccoon exhibit and one for black bears. There was also a very old style cage near the museum type building wich appearently used to contain bears.

There was some sort of a small cat house that included sand cats, other small mammals along with an area where you could watch food be prepared for the zoo animals. outside of that building where tigers, one of with quite enjoyed rubbing against the bars.

There where also some grey seals living with or near penguins somewhere. Maybe they are'nt there anymore.

Overall I'd recommend it if you where to go visit Quebec.
 
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I remember a documentary from many years ago, featuring the apes, it showed their islands being transformed overnight with large wooden climbing structures, can anyone expand on this vague memory from perhaps 20 years ago?
 
Kiang- you watched the natural world on BBC2 it showed the attempts to modify aggresive male chimp behavior, all those bare islands are now for the gorillas outside.
Granby is imho Canadas most beautiful ZOO.IT HAS A MOSTLY BILINGUAL WEBSITE ! and it shows their really nice pictomap which really gives you a feel for the place. Its almost entirely rebuilt recently, has many really nice enclosures like the Russian goldmine for the Amur tigers- very clever!, the wonderful african panorama , snow leopards yurt and the cave is the best cave Ive seen.The discovery hut with its collection of mostly touchable skins etc is excellent.The older enclosures still in use have been adapted well- a very impresive town zoo with an incredible waterpark.
Well worth a visit.
And Parc Safari is close if you are at Granby- 1 3/4 hours away a really nice[ small scale- species and numbers wise- from someone coming from Britain]- park, themed to continents with gaur, nice african exhibit viewable from a raised terrace, elevated walkway over primates and carnivores -nice waterpark also absolutely worth a visit
 
Hi everybody ! My name is Charles, I'm 12 years old, I live in Quebec province in Canada. I'm sorry for my English, I'm french. This summer, I visited the Granby Zoo. I did a report on two French forum and I'll try to explain it in English. I had to separe the report because of the number of pictures.

Open in 1953, the zoo hosts more than 1000 animals of 200 species. The zoo is divide in three parts : Afrika, South America and Asia/Oceania.

First enclausure, the meerkats (Suricata suricatta) and the crested porcupine (Hystrix cristata).
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Second one, the white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) and zebra exhibit. The rhino are two brothers named Tony and KC.
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The zoo is the house of two African elephant (Loxodonta africana) : Toutoune and Sarah. The space isn't enormous but it's adapt for the animals. The winter house is only accessible during the winter.
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Here come the African plain.One male and two female girafes (Giraffa camelopardalis), a group of common eland (Taurotragus oryx), Grevy's zebra (Equus quagga bohemi) four females ostrich (Struthio camelus) and one male Thompson's gazelle live here.
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The pink flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) lake :
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The next exhibit is the African lion (Panthera leo leo) one.
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The Afrika pavillon is host of spot-necked otters (Hydrictis maculicollis), a group of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx), Ruwnzori mounts bats and guereza colobus (Colobus guereza).
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Next exhitbit, the gorilla's island. Three brothers, N'sabi, Jawara and Zwalani from Calgary live on the territorry. One other gorilla, Subira, arrive from Toronto in 2009. He lives separate from others gorillas. Mumba, the first gorilla that arrive in Canada and the second oldest gorilla in the world lived here untill his death in 2008.
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Six ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) live on an island near the gorilla. In front, three Seychelle's turtle live on a big enclosure with a little pond.
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A very calm exhibit is house of a couple of red monkeys (Erythrocebus patas). Boomer, a lion, lived here during two years.
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The last exhibit of the Afrika is the Hippo's River. A male,Kibocco, and a female, Polita, lives here with Ghost, their last baby. Due to a glass,we can see hippos underwater.
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The next zone is the South America.

The first enlosure is for maras (Dolichotis patagonum).
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The second one is for the capybara (Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris).
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The third is for the male spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus).
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The fourth is for the two ocelots (Leopardus pardalis).
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A meadow is house of a group of alpacas (Lama paco).
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The lamas enclosure is almost indentical but it's a little bit bigger.
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The next one is for the two jaguars (Panthera onca). The female is melanic and the male is yellow.
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Then we enter in the temple...

Red monkeys:
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Snow Leopard...yes ive been to Granby,10 years ago,and the fact that i cant remember too much about it speaks for itself.I do remember it being overwhelmingly AVERAGE and thinking that the indoors-only Gorilla accomodation was poor.I had tracked down the 94-year old ex-director of the now-defunct Manchester Zoo[UK of course, better known as Belle Vue Zoo] in Montreal[Gerald Iles] and went to visit Granby on the way back to Toronto.Iles told me that in the fifties he wrote a damning report for International Zoo News on Granby-so it must have been very poor then obviously.Even since my visit the photos on the thread would indicate a huge improvement.
 
The Granby Zoo has bettered its life in recent history.
The zoo now looks more modern than many I can remember.
Also well laid out exhibits and some thought has been put into theming and information labels. Good work!

Happy our Canadien poster has brought us all up to scratch on Granby now!

I hope for more on this little known gem of a zoo in Canada (amongst the big ones in Winnipeg or Toronto).
 
Granby's 6 year old male hippo was transfered to Calgary Zoo to be a companion for their 25 year old female Sparky who lost her mate Foggy last month. Zoogoer mentioned that he might be Sparky's grandson and/or the young hippo named Splash who was there during your hippo exhibits renovations. Does anyone farmilar with the hippos at Granby know anything to clear this up?
 
Well at Granby we have two hippos Polita the female, Kibocco the male. Kibocco is the son of the two Calgary's hippos. If I remember well, yes Splash (or Alcide) is the one who went at Calgary during the renovations !
 
Toutoune the elephant died Sunday of pneumonia leaving Sarah all alone. The article goes on to mention the zoo could be recieving new elephants soon to give Sarah companionship. I bet they are hoping for Torontos trio but considering Toronto is moving them in part because of the cold in Canada Im not too sure Granby would be their first choice. Maybe Sarah should be joining Toronto's three for a move to another AZA zoo down south.
Toutoune the elephant dies at Granby Zoo - Montreal - CBC News

On a brighter note for the zoo Hima a female snow leopard born at the zoo, and since transfered to the Bronx Zoo has been moved again to Miller Park Zoo in Illinois to breed with their resident male Rilu. Here's hoping Hima and Rilu will be successful!

Miller Park Zoo gets new female snow leopard in Bloomington - chicagotribune.com
 
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