Toronto Zoo Subforum » Toronto Zoo

Toronto Zoo Subforum
09-07-2008

I decided to post a review of the Eurasian area, to give something back to all the people who have answered my question Ungulate and the people who have visited this forum. The will be doing construction on this part of the zoo in the next 2 - 3 years.

Siberian Tiger: I like this exhibit, some updates could be done to the maternity den and it seems like it is not a part of the Eurasian section. (The reason I forgot to do this exhibit.) Maybe try and include it more

Yak: I never did like the yak exhibit, but I would like to see a large field like the Wisent(European Bison) for them as well as a forested area, sort of like what they have now but larger. The zoo should move the yaks over by the Wisent's. The layout could be like this, the yaks in one yard, then a middle larger yard, then the Bison yard. The middle yard, the two animals could alternate in. I think the zoo has two and what are their names?

Bison: I also do not like this exhibit maybe more foliage. Even if possible get some more to establish a breeding program. Does the zoo have two as well and what are their names?

Butterfly Meadow: I never really have gotten a chance to visit this area, has anyone ever been? What is it like and what is its purpose?

Red Panda: One of the better old exhibits at the TZ. I wish the red pandas had access to the second yard. If they cleaned it up and weeded it, it would probably look nice. Why did they stop using this yard? What are the red pandas names? I have also herd that they plan on breeding them? And I think they have two? I haven’t seen a bamboo plant in a while, do you know where they are and if they are visible from the public?

Marco Polo Area: The exhibits in this area are ugly, sorry to say but they the only animals I know there are the Peregrine Falcon, a type of crane? And the crane exhibit is a winter house for the birds in the kid’s zoo. As well as the camels. I do think that this area will be demolished and converted into the Dr. Schofeild Memorial. Ungulate said there might be pheasants included with it.

The Eurasian Station is the best kept zoo mobile station at the zoo. The gardens around it are always nice.

Camel, Reindeer, Wild Horse and the Scimitar Horned Oryx: All these exhibits are plan maybe add some more foliage. Hopefully when the Eurasia Re-vamp is complete they will all have new exhibits! I’m not going to ask you the names are I just want to know the names of the Scimitar Horned Oryx?

Dhole: This exhibit is nice but it needs to be re-done you can tell it is an ageing exhibit and it should be almost the same just with lower foliage like bushes and shrubs

Snow Leopard: I don’t want to say it but in my opinion this is one of the worst exhibits at the zoo. I can’t explain why but I think it can be much larger. The best things about this exhibit is the use of the vertical space and maybe even have some higher platforms if they choose to re do this exhibit as well. What are there names?

Japanese Macaque/ Barbary Ape: I like the layout of these exhibits. I would add more foliage. Which animal is no longer there? Why did they leave? And is the Japanese Macaque also known as the snow monkey?

The animals with the mountains are really good exhibits as well, again I would only add foliage to them and maybe some improved seating. What are these animals?

I would love to see an Eurasian highland exhibits with maybe three new species added to the Eurasian section and I would love to see Giant Pandas this will improve the TZ greatly in numerous ways.

Overall: In honest words the Eurasian section is not up to par with the rest of the zoo, some of it is old and outdated, but when they do the re-vamp it can only be better! I honestly do love this area of the zoo because it is the least crowded and it gives you a break from everything else, so in some cases it is an old and outdated place but is also the best place in the zoo.

09-07-2008

Hi Quartz,yes im still doing reviews.I have the awnsers to some of your questions.

Butterfly Meadow:The butterfly meadow is a sort of garden that has a few hilly trails in the back,butterfly feeders and houses plus lots of flowers.It also tells you about butterfly conservation and how you can attract butterflys to your backyard.

red pandas:My guess is that they stopped using the second yard because in 2006 the older dhole pups lived here for a short time before shipping out.This may not be the reason but maybe?I also heard from someone that they thought of adding binturong but i find this very unlikely.The names are Ferrous and Sweet Pea and i don't know if there planning on breeding or not.They are visible to the public but i think they always have access to the house and the two are usually in the yard closest to Marco Polo and the dhole.

scimitar horned oryx:there are currently only two.A male and female and the species is being phased out.I don't know the names either

snow loepards.Yes, there exhibit is somewhat strange and they need more rockwork.The breeding pair are Koda and Tiga and the 2007 cubs are Maya and Kazi.

barbary ape/snow monkey:the japanese macaques are the ones who left for St Felicien in Quebec during February 2007.I think they actually belonged to St Felicien but Toronto Zoo had them for atleast a decade before St Felicien finally opened there new habitat for them.The barbary apes now live in both sides but i think they should get more since there is also this space or get more japanese macaques.Yes,japanese macaques are also called snow monkeys.

"the mountain animals":These goats do have quite good habitats.The ones were you can go on top of the mountain to view them are barbary sheep and the ones next to the bathrooms are chamois which are due to be phased out.

I agree there are many aspects that make eurasia seem very old.When i walk here i wonder about the zoos past and what it used to have like past species.The signage and paving needs to be redone and it needs a more asian feel to it.Maybe they could have a steppe,forest,river and highlands area.

09-07-2008

I couldn't have said it any better! Your idea for th steppe,forest,river and highlands area is a very good one. I wonder what the zoo will look like in the next 10 years. I also wonder the past, I wish i remember what the savanna looked like before construction and the African pavillon. I also have a slim memorey of the Edge of Night. Can't wait to read the rest of your Candian Domain!

09-07-2008

Ok.Canadian Domain.

Grizzly Bear Habitat:The girzzlies have a some what small area.Heres my vision.The walls should be rockwork with a waterfall coming out leading into a deep stream with underwater viewing and it would PACKED with salmon and trout.Then.There could be a huge cave underground with a window looking in so that you could see what a bear cave looks like.There would also be signs about how hibernation works and a video monitor so you could watch the bears hibernating in the holding building which would be hidden from public view.The rest of the yard would have tons of trees and it would be about an acre in size.There would also be an overlook and a viewing window so you can get a close experience on dryland.The viweing could also have tons of totem poles and a geyser.What does the holding look like here

Bald Eagle Habitat:The bld eagles could also have a fairly large area with rock work instead or netting except a bit on top.They would aslo have a smaller pool stocked with fish and the would be viweing in three places.The first would be an underwater viewing window so you could see them catch fish.The next would be a tall overlook tower so you could get a high view through glass in the rockwork.The last would be a another tower on the oppsite side but this one would have a mesh window in the rock instead of glass.

Moose Paddock:The moose should have a new paddock that allows them access to a fenced of part or Weston Pond.When i say fence i mean a log fence,not mesh or chain link fence.They could have a nice wooded area a log fence view and then an observation tower overlooking the enclosure plus you could see them from the weston pond overlook.What does the holding look like and what happened to the days of having calves every spring?

Wolf Wood:The wolf woods should happen like this.They should move the entire poack to Tundra Trek and turn it into a black bear habitat.They could have rockwork innstead of mesh plus they should make a rolliing waterfall going down the hill to a pool with underwater viewing that would also have salmon.The holding would be hidden and and there would also be more glass viewing plus another observation tower.

Bison&Elk Field:The bison and elk should have real prairie grass and should also have a few rocks.The cable fence should be turned to a log fence.Not alot hopuld be done either then that except maybe they would add an observation tower (sorry about my towers,i just really like them at zoos.)
How large is the bison slash elk area as on zoo diaries it seems to have tons more yards and they make it seem liek it goes on forever.Plus,how many bison and elk are there right now,are they even breeding anymore?

Weston Pond area:The Weston pond area is very good.I'd love if they added more exhibits around the aboriginal trail like beaver and otter though and then they could turn the Americas Pavilion area where they are housed now into a new jaguar,ocelot or giant otter exhibit

09-07-2008

It would be a great idea for the grizzly bear and bald eagle (the tower idea could be cool and they could have something like a treehouse) It would be cool if the moose had acesses to the pond, Adding of a black bear would almost be a replica of the grizzly bear but interesting and the beaver and otters around weston pond would be cool to!

The bisons are breeding they just had a baby this spring! i do not know about the elks.

09-07-2008

don't forget,the first half is on the other toronto zoo thread still

10-07-2008

Ok,like ungulate once said...most of the are pipe dreams,lol.But still i just wanted to throw them out there.This is my plan for Eurasia and as i said earlier about the zones im going to mention them.Get ready for many pipe dreams

Highlands Area
amur leopard
pallas cats
siberian tiger
red panda
markhor
pheasant aviary
asian black bear
eurasian yak
francois langur
giant panda

Eurasian Forest Pavilion
sun bear
tufted deer
chinese goral
japanese serow
pere david deer
forest aviaries
sloth bear
wild boar
rhesus macaque

River Pavilion
asian small clawed otter
japanese giant salamander
fishing cats
waterbird aviaries
muntjac
various river fish

Steppe&Plains Paddock Area
blackbuck
elds deer
bactrian camel
onager
bateng
mongolian wild horse
more muntjac!!!!
addax
barbary sheep

again,these are probably really dumb ideas but i'd love if they magically came true.pipe dreams my friends,pipe dreams

11-07-2008

Cool species, surprised you didn't say Giant Pandas lol

11-07-2008

Cool species, surprised you didn't say Girant pandas lol. Maybe some of them might come true, lol I would love to see amur leopards

11-07-2008

ok i've added the pandas

11-07-2008

Nice species list! It'd be good to have the species in order the country; little funny seeing Scimatar Horned Oryx right next to the Reindeer. I also think that the Giant Panda; the amount of people who come into the zoo to see them, could give a lot of money to the zoo and might help the zoo pay back the money it would cost to take care of them.

I have a personal vision of redoing the orangutan exhibit, something like the gorilla habitat. Aesthetically it's probably my least favorite exhibit. I'd like to see a sculpted tree of sorts, with platforms of sorts, like the one in the orangutan show on Animal Planet. I do like the enrichment these guys and girls get, though and always enjoy seeing them.

A bigger tapir yard would be nice, too. If I had the money, I would hand it over to the zoo

Does anyone know what next year's special temporary exhibit will be? I heard sharks on Wikipedia, but we all know how how reliable Wiki is

12-07-2008

On wiki,it said that there is goign to be STINGRAY BAY again but there will be SHARKS! with them.Sound pretty cool,now all they need are horseshoe crabs

12-07-2008

lol yea I saw that two it says in the 2008 operating budget

O I almost forgot, did we miss any reviews of the zoo?

12-07-2008

I still have to do Americas,Australasia and Eurasia.

Response to snowleopard's review
13-07-2008

Snowleopard, on his epic road trip, gave a very thorough review of the Toronto Zoo, which provoked a significant amount of debate.

Putting (some of) my inherent defensiveness behind, I do agree with snowleopard on the basic premise of his review. There are few stand-out exhibits, but as a whole, I think Toronto is more cohesive than most. Unlike many "great zoos", Toronto has relatively little history; the site was constructed 35 years ago. When the zoo opened, it was very revolutionary for several reasons:

1) Its size - at 710 acres, the zoo is massive (although only about half of the land is actually developed), and it was all built at once

2) An entirely zoogeographic concept - the zoo was one of the first (if not THE first) to group all of the animals by region ... with only a few exceptions (e.g., emerald tree boas in Australasia, used as a counterpoint to the green tree python display). Most of the indoor plant collection is geographically arranged as well.

3) The "Indoor Zoo". As Zooplantman mentioned, the indoor pavilions are definitely the star exhibits during the winter for most visitors. In 1974, I believe the idea was pretty unique - the designers probably scratched their heads for some time to figure out how to provide indoor viewing, when the only models they had to go with were cat houses and monkey buildings.

Because the zoo was built all at once, for the first 20 years the infrastructure was all "new" ... but as things started to decay/need replacement, it all needed to be done at the same time. This obviously is not conducive to financial planning! (Older zoos, which have had a constant cycle of replacement are much better off in this regard, I think, especially in terms of the mindset of doing so). In the meantime, the zoo has been trying to play "catch up" with the new, amazing exhibits built elsewhere, but without the innovativeness needed to really succeed.

The pavilions themselves are an early example of immersion exhibitry, although by today's standards they probably wouldn't be called 'immersion'. (FYI, the pathways were initially bare earth, but the dust caused on crowded days was so severe that they laid interlocking brick after the first summer). The exhibits within are generally simple, but are effective in compromising the needs of the visitors with those of the animals. There is no elaborate mural work in the original parts, no cleverly disguised barriers ... basically, no illusion. What you see is what you get, which is rather at odds with the current exhibit philosophy.

Even with the gorilla rainforest renovation in the Africa pavilion, the only indoor exhibit which comes even close to being fully immersion (by today's standards) is the tiny Malayan Woods Pavilion by the Indian rhinos. The design is not complex, but I think it is effective for the public, being lushly planted, with free flight birds and butterflies, as well as fish in an open tank, two separate aviaries (my least favourite part of the pavilion), and the clouded leopards. (To get defensive for JUST a bit ... snowleopard's comment about the leopard exhibit being appropriate size-wise for squirrels is, in my view, an unfair exaggeration. It is not huge, but it is larger than many that I have seen ... they have natural substrate and climbing opportunities (although they could/should have more) ... my main complaint would be the poor use of space by the 'stream' that runs through the exhibit. If you are disappointed with this exhibit, definitely steel yourself before going into Cincinnati's cat house!).

Several of the exhibits which snowleopard condemns I don't have much of a problem with (Kota the snow leopard was able to completely avoid detection by visitors for the first few months he lived in the exhibit, and unlike some other snow leopard exhibits, at least they have natural substrate), and likewise I am surprised that some other exhibits that I think are the pits (including the African free-flight + otter exhibit) didn't make the list. I guess that's the fun of making and comparing lists!