He is only out early with his mom and aunt and may not have been shifted in when the zoo opens. But that is only for a few more days and then he will be spending a few hours out there every day, weather permitting. Yesterday Sabi and Tom were out for the day and it looks like Sabi's horns are growing closer together (gallery). Keeper said it is not a problem so far and she is not showing any signs of irritation.
There is still one left. It is in the penguin behind-the-scenes and may or may not be moved to the Rainforest .
To follow up on the wolf pups, the zoo officially announced on facebook that pups were born, writing: "We are excited to announce that wolf pups have been spotted in the Arctic wolf habitat! Pups recently were born to Dora and sired by Imiq. While we can confirm that wolf pups have been spotted, given they do not usually emerge from the den until approximately 8-12 weeks other than for short periods of time, we cannot confirm how many pups were born or exactly how old they are at this time. The curious wolf pups will likely be eager to explore soon, but Zoo visitors will need some patience if they want to catch a glimpse of the juveniles as they are still quite shy."
Yesterday Zohari and Theo were out for three hours in the morning. One friend saw them quite early and she was keeping him to the back behind bushes and rocks. Later, though another friend was there . . . . . White Rhino | ZooChat
Keepers and visitors have been having glimpses of the wolf cubs for over a week. This morning they were more easily seen although no one yet is positive how many. There are 5 for sure and many think 6.
They now believe there is at least 6 wolf pups. There is a video of them in the link. Watch a litter of Arctic wolf pups stumble out of their den at the Toronto Zoo | CBC News
Sad news saki, Tia, has died. She wasn't with us long and Madeira is back to being a bachelor for who knows how long. Tur births this year stand at 5 with only 3 survivors. As mentioned earlier Etana's baby died but so did Turquoise. For the first time in his life red river hog Philip has decided to be more than friends with a mate. He and Tisa have finally began breeding. A four month count down to hoglets could be on. They would be the first in 11 years. Babirusas, Bucky and Olive, are being introduced for breeding again. Let's see how that goes.
Amur tigers, Vasili and Kira, have arrived from Winnipeg and Calgary respectively. They are litter mates. Their great grandfather was Tonghua and great grandmother was Pam. Grandmother Kita was born at the zoo along with uncle Baikal who Vasili had an unfortunate run in with in Winnipeg which resulted in Baikal's death. Uncle/half brother Vitali was the zoo's last Amur male. Clearly as siblings breeding is a definite no go.
From TZ Facebook one hour ago: We are excited to announce that Ngozi, our 20-year-old Western lowland gorilla, gave birth early this morning. Both mom and baby are both healthy and doing well, and Wildlife Care Staff will continue to monitor their development. At this time, we cannot determine the sex of the baby as it remains close to mom. This is Ngozi’s third birth, all sired by Charles, the Zoo’s 46-year-old silverback male. This newborn is the 11th of this critically endangered species to be sired by Charles and born here at the Toronto Zoo. The Zoo is part of the Western lowland gorilla Species Survival Plan (SSP), which aims to establish and maintain healthy, genetically diverse populations, and overall conservation efforts to save this incredible species. This newest addition to the Zoo’s troop is genetically significant for the North American Western lowland gorilla population.
Woo hoo! Time to go to the zoo again! Now that I can see both rhino calves, the wolf pups and the gorilla baby I am good to go! I'm not heading even part way down that hill for the lynx who probably isn't on exhibit. I sincerely hope they keep with the tradition of naming the baby using the first initial of mom's name... in this case N. And then letting Charles choose from the list of names to name his newest and most likely last baby. I would highly suspect they will hold a naming contest to narrow Charles choices. I do love the naming traditions they have for the gorillas. It's my favorite naming tradition at the zoo. Though I really did like the thought put into giraffe, Mstari's, name meaning stripes in tribute to her dad but that's hardly a tradition. Sign me up for a summer with some of my most favorite species having babies... Pandas? What pandas? Bring on the gorillas, rhinos and wolves. Only way it gets any better is my beloved pygmy hippo calf arrives and survives! At this point we can safely rule out otter pups or an orang infant arriving before the end of the year. Those are the only two other births that would have put me from thrilled to overjoyed with 2018. The pygmy hippo could easily clinch it for me and because the last baby died in what late October or November... I think given the speed at which Harvey and Kindia conceived the last time a 2018 baby is a real possibility. It would be a late in the year baby but very possible. With the big ticket births we have had this year I can certainly be patient and wait until next year for other big babies.
The zoo announced the newest addition to the gorilla troop is a girl which is fantastic given Charles age. A girl is better than a boy who may have to wait on later births. I'm slightly upset they broke with naming tradition. She's not baby N as expected. In honor of her likely being Charles last she has been named after him. We now have Charles and his little girl Charlie! Toronto Zoo reveals newest addition to gorilla family is a girl And in other news I have heard there is a golden lion tamarin infant too.
Ya know what, I'm not upset at all. I really like the name tribute to Charles, and Charlie is a cute name regardless. Honestly this sets Toronto up for one hell of a breeding group in the future too, 4 females that will likely all be giving breeding recs once a new male is brought in and they are of age, that's a lot of potential babies, yo.
I doubt strongly they would keep Ngozi, Johari, Nneka and Charlie for breeding. Three adult females is with a male is the preferred grouping. More are possible. In Toronto with those 4, it would be far too little genetic variation. Ngozi can represent her parents Amanda and Vip on her own Nneka and Charlie wouldn't need to represent those lines. With Johari there Charles is represented as well in half of her genetic make up. Possibly keeping Nneka or Charlie might make sense from certain stand points. They are already here that's number 1. No imports necessary. If we are talking keeping one Nneka is the stronger contender in that she will be just shy of breeding age. Charles wont likely see another breeding cycle which for Ngozi seems to be 4 years. That would put him at nearly 51. The math doesn't support him. If Charles dies at a more ideal time say 3 years from now Charlie will be old enough to bring in a new silverback. It will take time to select the new silverback if the SSP doesn't do exactly what I think is the most sensible thing and bring in Granby's Jawara (Toronto owned, in Canada already, no well represented with a wild born mom and imported dad, and genetically compatible with Ngozi and Johari). Then he needs to be trained, proven medically fit, and shipped. Probably a year before he arrives from Charles death if Jawara but possibly longer if he's coming from the US. Next quarantine and slow introductions and group stabilization before one of the girls is brought off birth control. Probably 6 months to a year. Ngozi will probably go first depending on Charlie's age so proper mom skills are shown to Johari one more time before she is cycled in. But it could be Johari first so Ngozi could serve as surrogate if necessary. All of that will probably span a year or two while both adult females have infants. That would then put Nneka at 9-11 years old. Ready to breed. Charlie would be several years off. Though Charlie might have power if the zoo feels it will be better to keep Charles namesake. Toronto does own a few other contenders for the slot of third female... Owning the female would be enticing for the zoo as they have never not owned a baby born at the zoo. If Jawara arrived they would own any baby born to him, Ngozi and Johari so why not own the third females too. Contenders are.. Zuri - Daughter of the late great Barney. She already has been in Toronto though it went very badly for her. She has special medical considerations so breeding her might not be preferred and it takes special gorillas to like her. She would provide great genetics not represented in our troop. She's close by in Calgary. While she is breeding age she is also older and Toronto might want to look for younger females with more breeding potential. She is also about to get a new silverback in Calgary who she could breed with so why move her. Likelihood with her is lower but not unreasonable. Sekani - Daughter of Charles and Samantha. She could return home. The odds of that though are low. Firstly she has a brand new silverback and a breeding recommendation with Kivu. Why send her north when she will likely have a new infant by Kivu? She also shares have her genetics with Johari so its a little redundant when there are better choices. She would have to move up to Canada from Little Rock as well and with her daughter Adelina most likely if she were to be chosen right now. Not much sense though in breaking up a stabilized family group gearing up for breeding. Likelihood near no existent. Catherine - Daughter of Caroline and Barney. While it would be nice to have Caroline's only daughter back home and bring back Barney's bloodline as well it would be a waste. Catherine is a non breeder. She has a condition that is preventing her from breeding and while they are hopeful with surgery her immensely important bloodline can be saved it has yet to be done. If successful she is in a breeding group already with Sekani and new silverback Kivu who himself is an only child of his mother who was an import. Genetically speaking she's probably in one of the best spots she can be in Little Rock. Breaking the group makes no sense especially if she can never breed. Likelihood just as abysmal as best bud Sekani. Shalia - Daughter of Charles and Samantha. She is newly single with the death of her silverback Cassius two months ago. She could come home with son Sulaiman but he would also be her biggest draw back. With Charlie being a girl 4 year old Sulaiman needs a brother not a pair of girl cousins. It would be best for him and Shalia to join a troop with similar aged boys. Plus they are both in Milwaukee which means shipping two gorillas north. The likelihood for her is slim. Yewande - Daughter of former Toronto gorilla Zuri who is the daughter of the late great Barney. She's in Calgary so shipment is easier and moving her from their new silverback is ok since her mother is there to represent part of her genetics. She could stay on there too though and become their fourth breeder. She's already just shy of maturity. She is unrelated to Johari or Ngozi so offers more genetic variation. However her downfall would be the impact of moving her here. Move her to Toronto and you lose Jawara as silverback because they are half siblings. The longer time to get a new male from the US would cost Johari valuable breeding time she's already losing by waiting for Charles... Johari is one of the most valuable females since she is only one of two of Josephine's two surviving children (Tabitha did have sons Zwalani and Mbundi but their grandfather is Barney not Charles). A decent choice with some pluses and minuses. Adelina - Daughter of Sekani, granddaughter of Charles and Samantha. She would make a good choice. She is related to half aunt Johari but she does bring back Samantha's bloodline and represents father Fossey who only has her and brother Mosi representing him. Not quite as good as an unrelated female but pretty close. There would only be a 25% overlap with Johari and none with Ngozi. At 6 she is also a good age like Nneka. By the time the zoo is ready to breed again she will be ready as well. Her biggest downfall is being in Little Rock. She's also in a troop without a third adult female. They could be eyeing her as the third for there since she is unrelated to new silverback Kivu. I would think she is a decent contender. Alika - Daughter of Barika, granddaughter of Julia. She is a very low likelihood. She is only a year old so waiting on her will be quite a bit. She is also at Sedgwick Country Zoo so would need to be shipped up. Also Jawara is her uncle so genetically he would be a poor choice for her. If an unrelated male was here she could be a good unrelated genetic choice. Likelihood slim. Naturally there are other choices of unrelated females. An ideal group in my opinion would be one that represents as many of the origial 7 as possible, Jawara (Julia), Ngozi (Amanda), Johari (Charlies and Josephine) and Adelina (Charles and Samantha). If in time it would be nice to get a female from Zuri and her new silverback to bring Barney back in or a female from Catherine to get the complete picture with Barney and Caroline. The flip side would be to bring in one of our silverbacks. Choices here are limited. Jawara - #1 chocie. Son of Julia. Genetically speaking he is prefect. Unrelated to Johari and Ngozi. His daughters could easily go to Calgary now that they are about to receive a new silverback. In time a son could go home to Calgary where he was born after their new silverback passes. He would be unrelated to any offspring born their to the three adult females. He is in Canada. Easy transport. Plus soon he will need a troop so Toronto is better than sending him south too. He is 20 so ready to be a leader and father. Moving him here means Granby has space for Sadiki and Nassir. Julia only has 3 offspring; boys Jawara, and Ntondo, and daughter, Barika (only one breeding at the moment). He and Ntondo are the most genetically valuable Toronto owned males. Ntondo - Son of Julia. Genetically speaking he is perfect like his younger brother but he is silverback of his own troop at the Bronx Zoo so unlikely to be sent north when his brother is already here. Mbundi - Son of Tabitha, grandson of Josephine and Barney. He would be a poor genetic match as Johari is his aunt. Not to mention his little brother Zwalani is already in Granby. If for some dumb reason they wanted him represented in Toronto Zwalani is the better choice. He is also silverback of his own group at Gladys Porter and should produce the first great great grandchild of one of the original 7 in the next few years. Zwalani - Son of Tabitha, grandson of Josephine and Barney. Basically see Mbundi for the reason he's not even a contender. Genetics. His only upside is location. He will go south when Jawara comes to Toronto (yes I'm that confident) or he could stay on as a mentor to Sadiki and Nassir but that seems unlikely as unrelated males seldom do well together once they mature. Jomo - Son of Charles and Josephine. Not even a choice. He is Johari's brother and the head of a very successful family group in Cincinnati. Subria - Son of Charles and Samantha. Not a choice either. Johari's half brother and he is head of his own troop in Dallas and should be breeding soon. Sadiki - Son of Charles and Samantha. Not a choice either. Even though he's too young now he would be approaching old enough when Charles goes. Never going to happen though. He's Johari's half brother. Furthermore Nassir will need him for another 8-10 years as he matures. That bigger age gap plays a role. Nassir - Son of Charles and Ngozi. Need I say more. Bakari - Son of Jomo, grandson of Charles and Josephine. Not a choice. Nephew of Johari and simply too young even if Charles dies in 5 years. Patrick - son of Barney. Not a choice. While genetically speaking he's great he is unable to socialize with other gorillas properly. They have tried with two different groupings of females to make a proper silverback of him but it only resulted in injuries. Poor guy's had such a hard life. He is now doomed to live life alone and only able to see other gorillas not be with them. Such a tortured soul. @YiQi there is no way that Granby will set up a breeding group. They don't have a ton of space and have focused on the most logical thing they could... bachelors. Right now they are housing Jawara and Zwalani who were born in Calgary. They also housed brother Nsabi until his death last year. They had also tried to integrate Toronto's Subira into the fold but its harder to mix in a male who didn't grow up with the other bachelors. Unfortunately for Subira even though he is just 4 years younger than Jomo who would have been his prefect bachelor brother Jomo was made a silverback at just 14 his genetics were so important. With Nsabi's death there is room there to bring in Sadiki and Nassir who will be there the next 8 to 10 years minimum. Jawara and Zwalani wont be there much longer. Both are mature enough that they could head their own groups. Calgary is welcoming a new silverback from Atlanta once they can get all the paperwork done. Within a year or two they could be back in the baby business. Zuri and Dossi don't have infants and Kioja will be finishing up nursing Kimani. They could have little boys soon needing a home in 8-12 years when Sadiki and Nassir are ready to go. Not to mention Toronto could have some boys of its own ready to join any of Calgary's in another 12-20 years. Granby serves an important function as a place for Toronto and Calgary's boys to mature from blackbacks ready to leave their family to silverbacks ready to lead a family. Without Granby both Toronto and Calgary would have to invest millions to expand their facilities to house maturing males for at least 6-15 years. Granby too would have to invest millions to upgrade its facilities too house a separate family group and its bachelors if no other zoo said yeah I'll house the bachelors. Zoos that will house only bachelor boys serve a very important role in the SSP breeding program by giving a home for males to grow while other zoos instead focus on 1-3 breeding groups. Also by providing a home to surplus males not needed for breeding or unable to breed.
Indeed, like TZfan says the Gorilla holder situation is not likely to change any time soon. However I will add my two cents about possible transfers. I don't see Toronto bringing on any new females. Period. They have Johari and Ngozi, and quite honestly that's more than enough for a breeding troop. I'd be willing to put a very sizable amount of money on them keeping three of their current four females for the extents of their lives, sending either Nneka or Charlie down to the states later, and simply calling it a day at that. Also for what its worth, Zuri is 100% not at all a consideration for transfer, and I highly doubt Calgary will want to transfer Yewande either. It has taken YEARS for Zuri to finally settle into a *somewhat* stable social situation, and even then she still hair plucks like nobodies business. Her only real social support is her daughter, socially savvy Yewande, as half sisters Kioja and Dossi form a rather tight group that doesn't tend to include Zuri. But that is neither here nor there. My main hope is just that a new silver back will help moderate the group, and the girls can all finally grow some hair back.
Just in case I wasn't clear and I don't believe I was... I don't see any changes coming to the gorilla troop other than Sadiki and Nassir leaving for Granby coming any time soon. Absolutely nothing will happen until Charles is dead or is in a state where he can no longer deal with the riggers of being silverback and they retire him and Josephine to a quieter life. The first thing that will bring on a change in the group is most likely Charles death. The only thing I can see changing that would be Josephine's death but she is extremely healthy and as a female likely to live longer than Charles. That might spark the decision to bring in a female to integrate with Johari and Ngozi prior to Charles death but that seems unlikely. They would have to have be pretty sure which silverback will be Charles replacement to pick wisely and the genetic needs of the gorilla SSP is reassessed much more often than a lot of the others... Lately it seems every 6 months or so. As to bringing in another female it is actually fairly likely. The SSP recommends creating a group consistent of a male and three adult females. The thought process behind it is to give more social interaction, space births better and provide other potential surrogate mothers within the group. If they can they do like an older female with some younger ones so she can serve as their role model for motherhood. In this case Ngozi is the perfect fit since she is an experienced mother. Also with the ever present potential of death it is better to have three females so should one pass the other two have each other for support and either one could take over rearing an orphan. Right now the problem of only having two adult females is very much evident in Milwaukee with Shalia. For now Josephine is filling that third slot and the zoo is meeting the recommendation. Upon Josephine's death there will be a push to get another female just like there was when Samantha died leaving us with an adult female and two sub adult females. If the SSP can find the right genetic match for the new silverback there will be a third female. Very few zoos's have less than three adult females. Milwaukee was more of an exception to the rule. I highly doubt Zuri would ever be consideration. She's a special gorilla. Aside from her medical condition which might make them leery of breeding her again, she is also a poor mother. Makes sense when you know her history. I also think if they can Calgary would prefer to keep Ywande and use her as their third breeding female. Genetically speaking she will make a lot of sense. She's young and can breed with the incoming silverback for a long time and potentially the one after him as well. She is totally unrelated to Dossi and Kojia, who are sisters themselves. Plus she has the allure of being a legacy animal. She would be people's tie to their beloved Kakinga. Calgary will likely keep 4 adult females and little Kimani will be the one to leave when she reaches maturity. Kimani could be a long term option for Toronto but only if brother Jawara isn't the silverback. Depending on incoming male Jasiri's health (silverbacks can die young) I could see possibly Sadiki or Nassir heading up the Calgary group. But that's a long time away. Sadiki and Nassir wouldn't be split up until Nassir is at least 16 but more likely 18-20.
The debut of the amur tigers appears to have been delayed. An email to members last week noted that there was a planned members only preview of the exhibit for June 28 but that has to be rescheduled due to "unforeseen circumstances around the refurbishment of the exhibit." No new date is given; and if you head to the zoo's website, the graphic on the main page announcing the return of the tigers for this summer has disappeared as has the listing in the event calendar for July 1.
The last Egyptian Goose, Annoying, died recently. Better news: M Cheetah Bakari, 5 yrs old, arrived from Washington a few weeks ago. Currently, for breeding, there are 2.1: Patonga, Bakari, and Laini,. There is supposed to be another F coming and Laini's 3.2 cubs will be on the move in the fall, except for 0.1 who will remain.
Within the next few years some space should free up for even more cheetahs as Emma, Mahala and Bomani are all approaching the end of their lives. Personally I would like to see the zoo get a real infusion of new blood by importing a few from Africa. It would not only be good for our bloodlines but for the whole of the cheetah SSP. Right now we have one import in Laini and Patonga's mother is an import with only three cubs to her (Patonga, Cleo who is now at Parc Safari and an unnamed male twin of Patonga). Patonga's biggest problem is that he's Rafiki's son and Rafiki is pretty well represented. His half sisters have produced around 20 cubs between them and now he has 5 of his own. Bakari is a nice addition but he's fairly well represented himself if I recall correctly. We could get saddled with his cubs awhile. Imports would bring in new bloodlines and put the cubs in high demand in the states. But I don't think the zoo is able to do anything about that until we have less cheetahs if they are even inclined to try.
