Toronto Zoo Southside African Rainforest Pavilion Renovation now underway!

Toronto Zoo > Contact Us

Just found this info that the South end of the African Rainforest Pavilion is finally due to close for its renovation

Looks like it should be ready sometime in 2010 (Then again, it could be like the Australasia project and be closed for two year!)

I was beginning to wonder if this whole plan was ever going to get underway, but i guess they were really serious about it

 

Thanks for posting this! I'm glad they're finally going to work on it. I didn't think the Mandrill exhibit looked all that old but better to do it now than wait 20 years or so down the road.

 

The mandrill exhibit as it is today was actually new in 2001 with Gorilla Renovation

Ungulate said in an earlier post that there old exhibit was closer to the gorillas and that the current exhibit was split into two islands

One housed patas monkeys while the other had debrazza's monkeys

Prior to the renovation (1999), the patas & debrazza's monkey's were moved to other zoo's

The two islands were melded together forming one exhibit but the water feature stayed (thus, taking away from useful exhibit space) and a section of the water was just taken out. This became the mandrills new home and there old exhibit was space taken over by Gorilla Rainforest

The main goal of the whole 2009 renovation is to make better use of the exhibit space by taking out un-needed paths, scenery, exhibits, etc and making more use of the space

Im a bit disapointed that the spot-necked otter exhibit will not be included as it is artociously small but maybe in good time

FYI, I think the only other new exhibits with the 1999 renovation on the southside of the pavilion was the meerkats, the addition of the indoor/outdoor forest edge area for warthogs (now red river hogs) and the west african dwarf crocodile exhibit

 

Yeah I thought the Mandrill exhibit was newer. I never liked how they redid that pathway by the meerkats, etc either. Never made sense to me.

 

The south end of the pavilion was closed to the public today. I am not sure if the full construction is starting yet, though - none of the animals have been moved yet.

It has also been circulating that the renovation will be a very scaled-back version of the original plans. The latest I heard was that only the fish carousel (just up from the nile monitor) and mandrill exhibits will be renovated, but who knows what will actually happen.

 

Thats boring if only 2 exhibits are done, it makes no sense to publish something then scale back! I hate that so much! I hope it can all happen, I might be able to find out some other tid bits of info, as I start my co-op there in about a week.

 

And where are the animals going during construction? I am guessing the health centre? I can't see them being shiped to another facility.

 

If an animal is around the construction but its not getting a renovated exhibit (The pygmy hippos and red river hogs may not). They would probably just stay put and be kep in holding durring loud noise times

The mandrills are for sure getting a new exhibit as far as we know so im thginking they will most likely be at the health centre or maybe the outdoor mandrill exhibit

Here is an example of this

When the Great Barrier Reef/Australasia Pavilion was being renovated from 2006-2008, the komodo dragons did not recieve a renovation (although if money would have been in higher supply, an outdoor exhibit for them would have been nice)

Although it was probably loud at times and they could not be viewed, I believe they stayed in there exhibit/holding the entire time (For all i know though, they could have been at the health centre?)

 

Good question!
Most of the reptiles are being moved to the Health Centre (Reptile Research Wing) - the crocodiles and pythons have already moved. The red river hogs and pygmy hippos are moving into the lower elephant/hippo house for the construction, and the mandrills are going to the health unit. As for the birds, I'm really not sure.

FYI, the old Hamadryas baboon exhibit (recently housing mandrills) was torn down at the end of the summer, so that is certainly not an option!

 

Thanks for the info! I guess I will see those crocs and snakes when I start my co-op! Do you know why the zoo chose to tear down the old mandrill exhibit? Cause we still have one surplus male (Rafiki?), is he still in the Hyena house? I really hope we can find out which animals exhibits are going to be renovated. I really hope they all do!

 

Thanks for that info Ungulate

@Quartz: I think Ungulate mentioned once that the old hamadryas baboon habitat was in a state of disrepair (Thus, thats why viewing was not allowed)

Rafiki is probably in the Health Centre or one of the zoo's many holding spaces (I saw the holding area in the valley part of the zoo near the Americas on GoogleEarth, what is housed here? Looks like hoofstock primarily)

 

Which area by the americas? Is it more or less by the Animal Health Centre?

 

Its in a valley kidn off beetween the Americas and Africa (behind the Mayan Temple Ruins)

 

Is it left of the animal health centre though? Is there 3 blue roofed buildings and 3-4 brown roofed buildings?

 

The baboon holding was quite awful and should have been torn down ten years ago ... I think everyone is breathing a big sigh of relief now!

Rafiki is still living in the hyena house.

The holding that ZooGoer is talking about is called "Outdoor Holding". It has several hoofstock paddocks and also houses the off-exhibit cheetah breeding areas. This holding area is quite a ways from the health unit/administrative complex (I think you're thinking of the garage?, Quartz). On the zoomobile, as you pass the temple and come around the corner past the old mara exhibit/new reindeer paddock there is a road which goes off to the left beneath the old monorail track - this leads down to the holding area.

 

Yep!

That is the exact one, just to confirm, does it have 9 paddocks from where you see it?

 

No I wasn't thinking of the garage, its not right beside but close enough to say next to the Animal Health Centre. And yes the one with 9 paddocks Zoogoer. I thaught that was were the other cheetahs were kept.

 

I think (but don't take this officially) that the off exhibit cheetah breedign center is much closer to the cheetah exhibi (But I could be wrong)

 

Hmmm ... methinks ZooGoer missed my message from yesterday
The cheetahs are housed in the two paddocks and associated yards and two houses at the far west of the complex (on the left when looking at the map, farthest from the Health Unit).

The south half of the pavilion is now closed (after Lake Malawi). From what I heard today, the mandrills are getting a new exhibit and the visitor pathway is being slightly rerouted. From what I gathered, after the red river hogs it will cross over to the other side of the pavilion and then curve around to the existing exit door.

 

What about the rest of the animals still no word on renos?