Toronto Zoo Toronto Zoo Present Happenings 2011

does anyone know what the new Penguin Exhibit looks like, or is going to look like?

 

talking to a volunteer last week. According to her, the Male Siberian Tiger is now at the the zoo from Calgary and is on display already. The volunteer said that she had already seen him on exhibit as he is much larger than Tatiana.

 

Cant' wait to see him! I thought Tonghua was big - this new fellow must be huge!

 

The male wasn't on display when I was there, it was only Tatiana. I guess they're seperating them for now. According to the volunteer, the new tiger isn't very old, I think she said 3, don't quote me though.

 

Was at the zoo yesterday and got to visit the newly renovated Africa pavilion. They had a lot of stuff off display but still got to see the Pygmy hippos, Warthogs and Ibis. The Lemur cage was filled with stuffed animal lemurs with sign that said coming in Spring 2011.

 

I went to the zoo yesterday and also say the pavilion. It is a HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE.... IMPROVEMENT! I am still in awe of how great it looks! The people who designed this clearly have talent. The pygmys, red river hogs, sacred ibis, egyptian geese, all the other birds and also superb starlings were on exhibit, and of course the best addition the Nile Softshell Turtle! As I mentioned in the other thread the lemurs are at the zoo and in quarantine and will be on exhibit I assume whenever they get out... They will replace the mandrills in the pavilion.

Tatianas new mate from Calgary who I think is around that age, was on exhibit they are still introducing them through the main and den exhibits.

 

Ooops, didn't catch the Mandrill update.

 

Are remaining mandrills will be shipped out to another facility soon.

 

Just caught that update, thanks for the head's up! Are the Duiker in yet?

 

Did not notice any area for the Duiker. Also didn't see the turtle when I was there around 11am.

 

Yes I believe the duikers are going in with the turtle exhibit, and the turtle will usually hide and he blends very well with the pool of the exhibit.

 

Very neat mixed species exhibit! I don't think I heard of that one before.

Was there any reason why the mandrills are being rehomed?

 

I do not know that for sure, but I assume thats where they would go...

 

Most likely one of the biggest factors behind re-homing our mandrill's is that we actually unexpectedly lost our dominant male Jabba about 2-3 months ago. Since we were without a male and there was the prospect of having lemurs instead, It would most likely be easier just to move out the troop and gain a species we haven't worked with in a long time

 

Though I'll miss them, this decision makes perfect sense to me. I didn't know we lost Jabba

 

Two questions:

Is the Gaboon Viper on display as well?

What about the other male Mandrill we have in the Hyena House? Will he be moved as well?

 

At the Zoo the other day, a few updates:

- A few new fish were in the Indomalayan Community Tank. Look like a catfish of some sort. Others of the same species (looked like) were in with the Mekong Barb as well
- Lemur Leaf Frog in America's pavillion is now in with the Harlequin Frogs
- Red Side Dace Exhibit was having some work done to it. I haven't seen the single Dace in a while.
- South Side African Pavillion was fantastic. Huge improvement to all exhibits. I really liked the new Sacred Ibis and Meerkat exhibits. The Ibis exhibit is much larger than it was before and the Meerkat exhibit is much more natural than its predecessor
- Aba Aba, Royal Python and Gaboon Viper are not on display just yet. Their exhibits were still being worked on
- Both Pygmy Hippos were on display and seemed to be getting along. I watched them for a bit and at one point were lieing down against each other
-Nile Soft Shell Turtle was swimming around. They've put piles colored balls in the bottom of his pool. I guess its so he can bury himself and the public can still see him.

 

Sounds terrific! Did the Pygmy Hippos have their exhibit renovated? I'm really looking forward to checking it all out. I can just imagine the new Meerkat exhibit being leaps and bounds better than their first one. I didn't think it was too bad, but very small from what I remember.

 

Sorry if I have asked this before, but does the zoo still have Musk Ox? Going up there in April and I was really looking forward to them but I don't see them listed on the web anymore.

 

The Pigmy Hippos Exhibit has the same pool it did with the bridge, but it looks as if it is extended at the back of the exhibit a little bit. I definitely looks a little bigger because they had both hippos in there with room to spare.

The meerkat exhibit is located in the same spot, but the tubes of plastic that used to be above the ground now run underneath the sand. Lots of Cacti and trees as well. It looks more like a desert then just rocks and tubes like it did before.

The Last Musk-ox we had died last April (I think, help me out if I'm wrong). There were original plans to put him in the Tundra Trek exhibit but the price to build an enclosure for a single musk-ox was way to expensive. He was down in the Canadian Domain in the large field exhibit on the right side, but now his exhibit is empty I think.