New year... New thread. What developments will 2015 bring the zoo? I hope the biggest developments will be the city agreeing to back off and the return of the AZA. Fingers crossed.
An article about Nneka's first birthday and gorilla conservation. Toronto Zoo stresses need for conservation efforts as youngest gorilla turns one
So went to the zoo today with a co-worker who hadn't been in 15 years which was cool to have a new kind of excitement to travel around with. -Nneka's First Birthday was pretty cool. They let out Charles, Nagozi with Nneka and Nassir out first, Nneka stayed on mom for the whole thing as the crowd had her pretty nervous, but the group enjoyed the boxes. I'll put up some pictures soon -Was able to catch the Enrichment Extravaganza for Jonah (Concave Casqued Hornbill). Apparently he can get aggressive with keepers when they enter his enclosure, so they crate him up before they go in. Got to see him up close and got some great pictures of him with his enrichment, definitely recommend going to these as they are great photo opportunities as well as great education opportunities -The Green Acari have moved to the small bird cage where the smaller Birds lived, and all the small birds appear to have moved to the Free Flight of the Insect Wing, and the Sunbittern to the Common Marmosets -There is now a Jamaican Boa in the former Tiger Ratsnake enclosure
Wombat, Hamlet, is celebrating his 33rd birthday. He is the worlds oldest living wombat and a year and 7 months off becoming the oldest on record. Fun facts about Hamlet... of the 9 wombats on exhibit just Arthur and another one arent related to him He is the great grandfather of Matilba (our female) He has 3 living grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. He had an eye removed in 2012. World's oldest wombat turns 33 at Toronto Zoo
When I visited the zoo today, I got to see Hamlet being very active, and I made sure to wish him happy birthday. He has always been one of my favourite animals at the zoo and I'm happy that he is still healthy and living a very long life.
Google now has newer satellite images of the zoo. Looks like the photos were taken in late summer. The giraffes are in their yard and the grass looks like its dying out, all three ostriches are together, people are using the splash pad and the zipline is up and running. You can see Nikita and Aurora swimming in their pool, all three white lions sleeping, one of the white rhinos is visible in the yard while another is in an outdoor pen outside of the barn, you can see both Indian Rhinos out but one is on display while the other is in the rear yard. I look forward to the next time google goes into the zoo to map the street view. I really hope when they do they will go into the pavilions too.
The agenda for the first board meeting of the year is up. There will be 7 board meetings this year. That's item one on the agenda. I didnt find anything particularily exciting in this batch. There was the visitor survey report, Dec and Jan attendance reports, volunteer and educational department info, visitor and staff accident reports and a report on the zoo's progress on establishing more financial security. I was really hoping to see something on reapplying to the AZA or at least info on construction projects for 2015 but there was nothing on both of those fronts. Maybe next time.
The zoo is looking to build an augmented reality experience by the panda interpretative center for 2016-2017. Based on what I think I understand from the description people will get to interact with virtual animals. It will be interesting to see what this all turns out to be. http://www.torontozoo.com/pdfs/rfp/RFP 13 (2015-03) AUGMENTED REALITY EXPERIENCE.pdf
After reading through the document, this seems interesting, although I don't fully understand what it is. I like that it mentions possibly including extinct species because I think it's great when zoos have some sort of information on animals from the past. Also, it would be nice if elephants are part of it, so they will still be at the zoo in virtual form.
It could be integration with Oculus Rift, or it could use some sort of tracking software (ie. you raise your right hand and the generated character raises their right hand), or it could be a bunch of screens with images and messages on them. Hopeful though, if they do have elephants in this, they look like our three.
Never got a chance to go to the zoo recently (hoping to go this weekend) but my brother has been going. He noticed the the Boelen's Python is now in the exhibit the housed the Green Water Dragon in Indomalaya. the old Boelen's Python exhibit in the Malayan Woods is now empty again. Also the Jaguars are back on display. They'll most likely stay on display as long as it continues to get warmer.
Also here's a pretty neat story about a company named ZooShare that wishes to use the manure and food waste to produce power for the zoo. Not only will this be beneficial for the environment, but it opens another revenue stream for the zoo. Not much, but at least it's something. Harnessing the power of zoo poo | Sarnia Observer
There's a bigger connection between ZooShare and the Zoo other than just using the manure from zoo animals. The facility is being built on Zoo land (currently used for compost I believe), which is why the zoo will receive revenue from the sale of power produced. If you go back through board of management meetings, there are several updates about the progress. If I recall, the facility was supposed to be up and running by now (or at least this year), but there have been many delays with obtaining regulatory approvals. When I visited recently, I noticed the addition of several ZooShare signs at certain exhibits that discuss using zoo poo to create power. There is a press release on the zoo's website: Toronto Zoo | Press Releases
I like this attraction idea better than the augmented reality, the zoo is looking at operating segway tours of the zoo starting this spring. No details on where they would run but if they work it right it could be very interesting. I personally am far more interested in this than the any of the other rides or experiences the zoo has offered thus far. http://www.torontozoo.com/pdfs/rfp/RFP 12 (2015-03) SEGWAY TOURS OPPORTUNITY.pdf
The board agenda is up again. Attendance was down again in Feb but the report notes it was extremely cold all Feb and that had a significant impact. http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2015/zb/bgrd/backgroundfile-78556.pdf There is a report on media spending. http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2015/zb/bgrd/backgroundfile-78554.pdf They will be talking about the master plan. No doc is up but the zoo does have feelers out for a team to draw up the plans. http://www.torontozoo.com/pdfs/rfp/RFP 02.2015.03 issued.pdf
The segway tours sound like a really good idea. Visiting the zoo involves a lot of walking so giving people the option to ride a segway around it is very smart. It makes sense that attendance was not high in February since it was freezing outside. I went to the zoo to volunteer once last month, but it was too cold for me to walk around after working. I'm really excited to see what will be in the zoo's master plan. There are so many great things the zoo can do and I'm hoping they come up with some awesome ideas.
The zoo has opened up its Teacher's day to everyone employed by a school board after huge protest that EA's weren't allowed to register because they were not teachers. I think it's a good move by the zoo to recognize their mistake and correct it. Hopefully they continue this on all future Teacher's days. Toronto Zoo opens teacher appreciation event to EAs after backlash | CTV Toronto News
