Wild encounters have changed again with their winter line up. Choices are now giraffe, polar bear, kangaroo, clouded leopards, goats, and newcomers a snake encounter and the hidden zoo. The snakes takes you behind the scenes at the outreach are of the zoo. Its a cheaper tour at $45 for a non member and $23 for a member. The hidden zoo sounds like a very interesting one for zoo nerds like us. During the tour you visit the Wildlife Nutrition Centre, Reproduction Science Labs, Exhibit Design, Greenhouse, and Transit Center. None of these are spaces they have let us in before other than the greenhouse so could be really cool. If one of you goes on this one I would love to hear about it and see tons of photos. This tour is one of the mid range costs at $68 for a non member and $40 for a member. Nice winter additions. Little surprised they havent decided to do the caribou again with Christmas coming up. They could add it in November.
The zoo was awarded to CAZA awards this year. First is the Eleanore Oakes Award for their Climate Action Learning & Leadership (CALL) program. The second is the Volunteer of the Year Award going to Pam Paterson, congratulations to her on that achievement!
Fun facts from Dolf's Instagram. The rainforest bathroom looks like it will be snake themed. The penguin indoor exhibit looks like its had a refurb. Im not sure if the murals are new but the pool looks like its deeper (could be wrong haven't had a ton of reason to look at it, and they are bring in a new substrate for the floors. And they seem to be testing a new winter zoomo route.
The indoor penguin murals aren't new but the pool definitely looks deeper, which is great for the penguins. I just wish they improved the indoor exhibit viewing because it's a pain crowding around that one window. Like the look of the new washrooms, they've been working on that since reopening so I figured they must be almost done.
Yeah the murals didnt look crisp and new so I had doubts. If I remember right the pool before was just deep enough for the penguins to barely swim in, definitely not dive underwater much. Was never enough for penguins, forget the fur seals before them!!! If the pool and new substrate is all thats changing (plus obviously plumbing for a new pool, thats cool. You are right the viewing is terrible. I wish they had actually ripped down the barn before getting the penguins and just started again. Build a proper indoor habitat so people can come inside and see them in the winter and when they just dont want out. I will take what I can get though. Since they are clearly replacing the substrate inside it makes me wonder if they will do something similar outside. A good portion of their exhibit outside has concrete paths for them. Maybe they will switch to pebble outside or mulch to be easier on their little feet. The bathroom was being worked on prior to reopening. They had that sucker being gutted sometime last winter. I do think there was a delay for awhile though. Not sure what but you stopped hearing about it for a long time. Looks like it's just about ready to reopen. I still think its weird the next time I go I have this odd desire to just go into these renovated bathrooms to just take a look. I really love Dolf's insider sneak peaks.
Some bad news concerning snow leopard Ena. The zoo just posted that they discovered she had a bacterial kidney infection, and while the infection has been resolved thanks to antibiotics and Ena's condition is improving some damage persists and this is unfortunately a severe enough issue that she is no longer a candidate for breeding. Guess we have our answer as to why Pemba never made the trip here from Calgary.
No Pemba never arrived from Calgary for a multitude of other reasons. First it was she was still raising Mylo and Kita. Then Calgary dragged its heels trying to get him to breed their female. Then covid stopped the shipment of Kita and Mylo to their new homes and the zoo felt they couldn't house 4 leopards, which they can but they are tight on space. Then more heel dragging. Now there is no point. She was good to go for breeding until this happened. Its a tragic loss of genetic diversity for the population in North America. Just two cubs out of a founder female its a big loss and at 4 years old the cubs are already almost middle aged for a snow leopard reproductively speaking and neither of them have a breeding recommendation. They are just at new zoos as exhibit animals. There isnt even a female at John Ball for Mylo to potentially breed. And with Kota's genetics they aren't even the stellar breeding candidates Ena is. The cubs she and Pemba would have produced as top ranking animals would have been a phenomenal boost to the population.
Really sad news about Ena. For anyone who was wondering, here are some recent screenshot updates from Dolf's stories.
Nice work being done. They were clever in trying to hid the duct work in the bathroom with the leaves. If you cant drywall it in then this is a good options. And the beach is looking good.
The zoo is ready and waiting for the government to approve animal vaccines for covid to jab 140 animals at the zoo. The Toronto Zoo is planning to vaccinate its animals against COVID-19
The zoo just announced that the Winter Zoomobile is finally making its debut and will run through November. It'll make stops at the Zootique gift shop, the Americas Pavilion, the Africa Restaurant, the Wildlife Health Centre, and the Australasia Pavilion. The full route should take approximately half an hour to go through. Obviously this is subject to change due to covid but with the zoo now under a vaccine mandate they're gonna operate it at full capacity at least to start.
Nice to see that the Winter Zoomobiles are going into operation. It seems more gears to transporting people around the zoo rather than animal viewing, as I don't think this will be going through the drive-tru area. It also does mention that the Zoomobile will pass limited number of animal exhibits.
I really wonder what animals you'll be able to see, I mapped out roughly what I think the route is with those stops and if this is right the only ones you pass by are the jaguars, the back end of the caribou, the mouflon and the Amurs. Definitely agree it's more of a way to get you from place to place quicker and avoid walking in the cold than an alternate way to see animals
You layout seems to make sense, but I have a suspicion that they will be avoiding the hill from the Americas to the Savanna.
Yeah you're probably right, that's the fast route to the restaurant but I can't really see a zoomo making its way up that hill lol. Alternatively they could take the route behind the Americas and then snake around the watusi like this to get there, it's a longer route but you get to avoid the hill and show off a few more animals like the hyenas and the great horned owl. They'd probably drop off the guests closer to the penguins than the restaurant in that case tho
It's be interesting if someone can let us know what the Winter route is for the zoomobile. There was an old planned route in the past, but that was scrapped years ago.
At first I thought it was weird they didnt go to the rainforest and indo but of course they wouldnt. How do you turn around the zoomo at the the rainforest pavilion? Can't. Duh me. I doubt the boardwalk can take the zoomo or should even. Which poses the same problem for indo. The only way would be to do the same route as usual and make a stop at the back of indo and let people go past the construction and come in behind the giraffe barn. Neither good options for obvious reasons. Makes total sense why the drive thru is out. No way they want to deal with snow and ice removal for all the drive thru gates. As long as a staff gate can open they are good. If the gate got stuck while the zoomo is going through or is in it that poses risks to guests and animals. Ill be interested to hear what its like. Is it only for November? If its just an extra month and a half it could work what was the point? Maybe I misunderstood.
The zoo just announced some progress on the app they've been developing, it'll be launching soon and focused on Tundra Trek and you can check out a preview here Personally I think there's way more potential for a zoo app beyond a few AR filters but I'm sure kids will get a kick out of this, it looks cute
