Toronto Zoo Future Developments (2008 and on) » Toronto Zoo

30-11-2008

The tomistomas are at the St Augustine Alligator Farm, and are kept in holding. Their future home will be at the Virginia Aquarium (Virginia Beach, VA) next year.

30-11-2008

Hopefully Toronto's tomistoma "Gloria" will have a better home (and a possible breeding situation?) in Virginia. Do you know how many are planned for exhibit in Virginia?

An interesting piece of Toronto Zoo tomistoma history: from 1988 to 1993, Toronto had a pair of tomistomas - the two individuals were both captive born, from two of the three successful hatchings of this species in North America. Too bad they never reproduced

Re polar bears: I think the plan is to (eventually) breed polar bears at the Zoo. "New genes" is an odd phrase, as Aurora and Nikita's only relatives in captivity are each other (since they were born in the wild) ... any suitable suitor would suffice!

30-11-2008

Right now the alligator farm is holding 4 tomistomas for breeding situtations at the Virginia Aquarium.

30-11-2008

Fingers crossed that all goes well with our Gloria! It'd be great if they were able to breed her, considering how rare they are.

30-11-2008

I talked to a keeper who told me, that they don't want to breed polar-bears, but they would, if needed, send their bears on 'honeymoon' to other zoos.

30-11-2008

Interesting, Animal. When did you speak to a keeper about this?

The new exhibit is designed with several 'breeding-friendly' features, including a large olding capacity (I think at least 5 or 6 bears) and a designated 'maternity' yard. With the population of captive polar bears in North America dropping by ~50% over the past 10 years and increasingly stringent regulations about taking in "orphan" bears, there is a need for breeding.

01-12-2008

What I meant by new genes was that there never seems to be any polar bears imported to Canada fromt he USA,they just seem to shuffle them around in Canada to ther Candaian Zoos.So by bringing in more bears from the US,mayhbe they could create a bit more gennetic diversity.Maybe they could even get Aurora and Nikita and then some more bears from the US.I do know what you mean though about them being wild born,there very valuable animals

01-12-2008

Hmmm ... I suspect that their being classed as "Marine Mammals" (and subject to the resulting regulations) adds to the tremendous pile of paperwork needed to move these bears around. Having the option of receiving a bear from within Canada vs. from the States, a Canadian zoo would probably choose the Canadian option for the sake of speed, ease, and cost. (Also, many of the polar bears in the US are of Canadian descent! )

01-12-2008

Lol,that could cause a problem

01-12-2008

In october. If you want, I'll look for the exact date

01-12-2008

I was at the zoo again today. ( I go an awful lot I know) Everything is moving along geatly. I can see the Tundra opening for March Break. I am almost 99.9% sure that that will happen. There is a roof on the polar bear and arctic wolf holding, the leveling looks to be complete in the arctic wolf exhibit. There is a fence running along the outside of the exhibit. ITS HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is more rockwork added to the polar bear exhibit and I think a possible den was made, I am not sure. Overall absolutly amazing and for sure open by March!

01-12-2008

thats awesome.In all I think this exhibit sound like it will be amazing

02-12-2008

OOO one more question, what happened to the lynx's?

04-12-2008

and another idea... I really hope the zoo gets moving on finding polar bears, because Knut is for adoption and he would make an amazing addition to the zoo. Just imagine having little polar bears running around that are from his and another descent...

04-12-2008

One of the lynx's died this summer. She was really old though...so the decision was made to euthanize her (sorry- I can't remember her name).

I wonder if it's a good idea to take on Knut. From what I read this summer he seems to have gained quite the reputation as the "crazy/psycho" bear...and some seem to think he wouldn't be a good candidate for reproduction.