Hello everyone, As you may have seen in another post, I made a visit to Toronto Zoo yesterday and I just thought i'd post my opinions on some changes since my last visit (2007) Indian Rhino Pavilion - Although not "renovated" really, the addition of nice substrate and some over hanging foliage within the building made it feel much less cavernous and sterile. Also, the addition of babirusa was excellent to see, although it does make me wonder what will happen with the future of maintaining tapirs African Rainforest Pavilion Renovations - Not terribly different from before, but I do like what has been changed. The re-configuration/face-lift of the pygmy hippo/red river hog/warthog(?) exhibits are nice, although I wish they would've kept that large moat in the "new red river hog exhibit" as it worked very nicely for the hippo. The new ring-tailed lemur exhibit is well-done, and I was glad to see that the zoo had removed that hot-wired, "centre island" type area in the outdoor rr hog enclosure. This adds much more room for the animals to use. Now if only they'd add atleast a small outdoor pool so that the pygmy hippo's could have outdoor access ! I noticed we no longer have a nile monitor either, which is a shame as they were quite a cool species. And finally, the addition of gravel over the old dirt in the meerkat exhibit is also a shame, as now they cannot dig their own burrows really. Penguin Exhibit - The only thing that I can say really bothered me about this renovation was the addition of the big, ugly, almost cardboard looking rock background decal that "hides" the cement building behind it (which imo, I would much prefer to this !). Other than this absolute fail, The view into the penguin house is neat, and the exhibit is still fairly the same (which is good, as I always liked this exhibit). I was glad to see that the fake kelp in the pool was removed before my visit, as I find this quite tacky as well. Tundra Trek - This is probably my favourite of the new renovations, as it really is quite a turn around from what this area contained before. The new polar bear is a 360 degree turn around from the old exhibit, and there is not one thing I can really say bad about it. Sure the rock work may look a tad fake, you can see some hotwire, etc. but this is much much nicer from their old habitat. The new wolf exhibit is much nicer than their old exhibit in Canadian Domain, and I really liked the bridge idea (although glass may have been a less obstructive choice than mesh). The weakest exhibit IMO is the arctic fox exhibit, as it looks a tad rushed, but even then it is still adequate and provides them with a nice home. The reindeer exhibit is nice and large, and finally the snowy owl aviary is very well done with lots of nice exhibit furniture and foliage. Overall a well executed area, and I hope many other renovations turn out this nice ! Australasia - Great Barrier Reef Renovations - These are the most disappointing of the renovations that have happened. The new indoor wallaby/wombat/echidna/bettong exhibits are basically just pens with a cool backdrop IMO, and the outdoor exhibit is just a grassy yard (although the termite mound is a nice touch). Following into the Great Barrier Reef area, I was disappointed to see that one of my old favourites "Edge of Night" has just been replaced with a simple hallway and some (although cool) tanks. Walking in, it felt as though I was simply walking down the aisle way of a fish store, and it was sad to see that we lost a fairly cool area to something like this. Although some of the tanks are pretty cool (Lion Fish, Community Tank, Moon Jellies), the overall execution of the exhibit just wasn't as good as I thought it would be. Going back to the way things used to be, I much preferred the rustic looking ex-tasmanian devil enclosure and lorikeet aviaries over the new, fairly fake looking exhibits... and the old Edge of Night was IMO a much better setup. Also on a side note, the other side of the pavilion had some very pleasant surprises. The lush grass on the ground of the tree kangaroo exhibit looked much better than mulch, and the pied cormorants in the fly-river turtle billabong were a great addition
I thought that the underwater penguin exhibit was kind of boring because it was all painted blue and just has a few rocks. I was really impressed with all the indoor buildings and I thought that the indoor gorilla exhibit was the best that I have seen. I saw some tortoises in the nile monitor exhibit. I think the one thing this zoo really needs is a nice aquarium.
