I was looking at the map of the zoo only, and it mentions that the Cheetah run will be active by July 2015. And there is no definitive date for the National Geographic Augmented Reality, aside from starting Summer of 2015.
I called the zoo for more information regarding the Cheetah run (my co-workers really want to go so I tried to get some more information for them). It will open on Canada Day and run they believe (called Guest Services, they don't have a whole lot of info) that there will be two runs a day, everyday. The zoo will be setting up a track of sorts within the existing exhibit and then use a lure to run the cheetahs as they do in the States. As per all upcoming events and news, we have to take this with a small piece of salt, but it is still really exciting.
The cheetahs have been off-exhibit for about 10 days while the run is built. First a lot of tree trimming was done. As usual the zoo's scheduling is hard to understand. Next weekend is Cheetah Awareness with several related activities on both days - so perfect to have the run ready and the cheetahs prepared for their debut. As it is they will have to become accustomed to the changes in the exhibit, and to each other, reestablish their territories, and do the run in a different location than where they were trained. I don't know which ones have been trained for the run. Maybe they will only put one out at a time but that would mean more time-consuming work for the keepers switching them in and out. Personally I don't even want to see it - too much circus.
Mr Wrinkly, look at the circus it will create as an opportunity for you. While everyone else is crowded around the cheetahs (much like some of the talks) you can enjoy other exhibits nearby without as many people around. Glass half full approach.
What they might do is use the Cheetah Awareness weekend as test to take a look at how things run, make changes for July so it flows smoothly. But that makes sense, so who knows what will happen.
Pizza Pizza has donated $250 000 towards the Wildlife Health Centre. http://www.wireservice.ca/index.php?module=News&func=display&sid=15987
Da Mao is back up to his usual adorable attention grabbing behaviour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2veSRSY-kXg
Went to the Zoo yesterday. Haven't been in a while, so I figure I'll just list the things I noticed, despite them possibly being mentioned or being fairly old news to some. Da Moa is back in the outdoor exhibit. Last time I saw him, he was only indoors. He seemed pretty keen on getting back indoors, as he walking passed the door and even sat down in front of it waiting to go inside. It was the most active I've ever seen him. Er Shun is also back on exhibit, having access to both indoors and outdoors. It's been like this for a while now, but I figured I'd bring it up. Tiga has been sleeping right up against the glass of the Snow Leopard exhibit for the last couple of weeks. She's no longer in constant hiding in the exhibit, leaving everyone wondering if there's an animal in there. With her sleeping at the window, a lot more people are getting a chance to see her. Went to the Waterside Theater show, which has started back up. It was only my second time ever going to it, but I've I remembered the same old routine. They really need to try and mix things up with different animals. Polar Bear Inukshuk has been temporarily separated from the girls, as he was being overly aggressive with them. Girls are in the pool yard. Inukshuk is in the field yard. He has breed with both girls since arriving. At the Lion Keeper talk, they mentioned that Fintan and Makali have been seen mating last week. Also learned that Lemon actually likes Lindy. Keeper at the Giraffe talk spoke about Kiko a bit, mentioning that his diet was real different from Mistari and Twiga. Example being that he eats pumpkin, which they don't feed to either of the girls, although they may try it out around Thanksgiving and Halloween. They also don't think he was ever feed apples, carrots, and other fruits and vegetables that they commonly feed the girls. He also ate a different type of hay, and has to get use to the zoos brand of hay. At the Hippo talk someone asked whether the zoo had plans on having baby Hippos. Now as we all know the girls and Samson are related, so no babies for that reason, but the Keeper also explained that even if the relation wasn't a situation, they don't think the zoo has adequate amount of space to support a male and 2 females with potential offspring. Mainly the outdoor pool would be too small to contain the family as need be. All the more reason to revamp the indoor and outdoor sections for the hippos. Wonder how that will be addressed in the new Master plan. I also kept an eye out for any particular change in the bird population at the zoo. I noticed that most birds that had an outdoor exhibits are no longer outside. Emu, Ostrich, Flamingo, Macaws, Penguins, Marabou Stork and Wattled Crane are not outdoors. Flamingos and Macaws are most likely not out due to weather condition, not warm enough yet. Penguins can be seen indoors through the window viewing, and the Wattled Crane is in the indoor Red River Hog exhibit.
With regards to the hippos the last time the zoo did breed there was in fact a similar situation. The zoo had breeding male Flagstaff and females Rosie and Perky I. The females rotated breeding. And from opening there were births between the two about every two years. There were 9 births until Flagstaff passed away in 1988, Bertie, Cleopatra I, Ada, Daisy, Tulip, April, Homer Cleopatra II and Sparky. There were times in the old hippo exhibit that there were 5 hippos. Not long or often but it happened. Sparky, who now resides in Calgary, was the last birth of a river hippo at the zoo in 1987. Its been nearly 30 years since we had a birth at the zoo and it will likely be another ten or more before the hippos get a reno or new exhibit so we will just have to hope we get to see some pygmy hippo births while we wait. Only problem with that is waiting for a new pygmy hippo female. Might be awhile before we get to see any hippo breeding.
The past board meeting was a bust. Couldn't get enough board members to attend. In other news we were knocking the zoo for no summer adds for the Wilds or the new stuff in Africa or the augmented reality (which I still don't get but National Geographic is involved). Well reason is they are just now putting out a contract for an ad agency to run the summer ad campaign. Talk about procrastinating. http://www.torontozoo.com/pdfs/rfp/RFP 27.Advertising.Agency.Partner.2015.pdf
Talk about bad management. They really need to get their act together. Interesting. I'm guessing they'll bring him out at the end of the Waterside theater shows, or he'll be part of the outreach program.
Donald and the other chins are generally outreach and on cooler days they may be taken out around the zoo for meet and greets. Because they are so sensitive to heat they generally spend the summer in Waterside, but you can see them through the parrot window behind the parrot cages with the rats.
It's for reasons like that, that I wish I could be on the board. I was born in Scarborough, but I don't live in Toronto anymore. I have other board experience, though. Maybe one day I'll be back in Toronto, but my current job situation doesn't allow for a move.
Went to the zoo today. Here’s what I noticed. After leaving the Waterside theater show, some Keepers were waiting outside the Kids Zoo with Professor Owl-Bert, who is now 4 months old. I’ll post a picture of him. Some light maintenance happening in the Red Panda exhibit. Didn’t see either of them in either yard. Today was the first day the Watusi were let out on exhibit. They were let out into the yard around 1:00 pm. There were 4 Keepers that stood along the edges of the exhibit (the side where visitor’s watch from) to make sure the Watusi didn’t charge the hotwire fencing. They come out curious and explored the whole exhibit, even running around as a herd. Eventually they calmed down and returned to their normal behaviour. They also put up a new sign for them. It was only 4 Watusi, as a one of the adult males is in the health care unit. Keeper says he’ll join the rest of the group soon. I have pictures of them too, along with the sign. For anyone that’s been to the zoo recently and visited the Wildebeest probably noticed that only 2 have been on exhibit. That’s because Keepers are keeping the youngest Wildebeest (Chuck, I think) away from the older boys (Abe and Ben, I think) until his horns grow in more. The older boys have been dueling with each other and they can get quite aggressive. The younger Wildebeest would be tossed around and most likely greatly injured. So, he won’t be on exhibit with the older boys for quite some time. White Lions weren’t on exhibit today because they weren’t being all that cooperative this morning during the transfer with the Tawny Lions. Fintan has been in full breeding mode with Makali, and was behaving quite aggressive. So needless to say, the Tawny boys were out today. Let hope this brings cubs in the near future. The Cheetah runs is most likely being delayed from its planned July 1st opening. Today the contractors were painting the steal kennels and taking their sweet time doing it. Keepers are annoyed with the delays because they are being pressured to have this start the beginning of next month, but the Keepers have had no time to see how the Cheetahs interact with the equipment yet. They haven’t even tested with the Cheetahs getting in and out of the kennels much less chasing, catching and letting go of the lures that will be used. I also asked about the Eland, and of course, no update. All they know is that the Eland are coming from Parc Safari. The Eland are basically waiting to ship out, but there are unknown delays from the higher ups to get everything in order. There has even been a new Eland birth recently at Parc Safari. The Keeper I spoke to thinks that two of the reasons for the delays are that new Giraffe Kiko is in quarantine and that the second yard for the Giraffe is still technically under construction, despite the Giraffe having spent time there last year. The contractors are, again, taking their sweet time finishing up the final touches on the fencing. Lastly, I asked about the plan for the Giraffe feeding station over the second yard. The Keeper told me that the plan was to allow visitor feeding, but that may soon change as the Vets believe Twiga overeating throughout the day may do harm to her system due to her age. Neither Kiko nor Mstari are tall enough to reach the feeding station yet, so for the time being, visitors may not be able to feed a Giraffe. But there is still a chance for those looking forward to this in the future.
Cypher, are you able to shed some more light on the construction of these cheetah kennels and where exactly they are going?
It is wildebeest, Chuck, who is being kept from Abe and Ben. He is also more timid then his buddies so they are just taking things slow with him. Right now with the ostriches being kept indoors they have two yards they can use to keep the boys separate. There is a contract out to paint the giraffe fencing. No idea when they plan on getting that done. At least we get to see Twiga and Mstari in the one yard.
The kennels are visible in the background of this photo: http://www.zoochat.com/532/cheetah-run-412071/ They on the opposite side of the exhibit from the Olive Baboon exhibit. This is where they plan on holding the Cheetahs during the run.
