Feline Frenzy At Toronto Zoo

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  2000 Meadowvale Road
Date: Sept 2017
Website: www.torontozoo.com

  The Toronto Zoo has seen another baby boom.  This time it is of the furry, feline variety.   There are 9 little cubs from 3 different species.  After a few months of being off display, the cubs now have daily viewing times.  

  The first to arrive were a handful of African cheetah cubs born at the end of April, 2017.  These 5 cubs consist of 3 boys and 2 girls.  Through the years there have been 53 cheetahs born at the Toronto Zoo.
 

  The cubs are always under mother's watchful eye.  Whether they are lazing around together under a tree (top photo of blog) or heading out during feeding time, she is on the alert.

  During feeding time the cubs cautiously headed towards the front of their enclosure.

  A few moments later they became more comfortable and lounged around on the rocks.

 

  A goose flew overhead and almost made the fatal mistake of landing into the enclosure.  Usually the Canada Geese at the zoo walk around like they own the place, but they wouldn't last very long against the fastest land animal on earth.  Especially if outnumbered six to one.

  The next babies to arrive at the zoo were two clouded leopard sisters born in May, 2017.  Their mother was a first time mother and was not caring for the cubs properly so zoo staff had to take over.

 

  The clouded leopards are only on display for a brief playtime each day.  As soon as they get outside they are ready to jump or climb on anything they can.

  Their parents are inside the Malayan Woods Pavilion while the zoo keepers have the task of raising and feeding the babies.  The babies are in the lion-tailed macaque exhibit and the macaques have been temporarily displaced.  We noticed the macaques on a pole while riding the zoomobile through Eurasia.

  Another pair of babies is also located in Eurasia.  A few days after the clouded leopards were born, a trio of snow leopards were also born.  Sadly, one of the cubs did not survive.  

  The remaining brother and sister are on display with their mother.

  They are still a little shy and the brother likes to climb as high as he can and then hide behind the rocks.  In the wild, snow leopards are found at high altitudes on mountain ranges such as the Himalayas.  That shyness will soon disappear as they continue to grow.  Like all wild animals, it won't be long until they are just as big and strong as their parents. Visit them soon if you can.

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Click here to take a virtual tour and see our collection of Toronto Zoo animal photos.

Map of Our World
Toronto Zoo (Cheetahs) , Toronto Zoo (Malayan Woods Pavilion) , Toronto Zoo (Eurasia)

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Post # 194

The Toronto Zoo

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  2000 Meadowvale Road
Date: July 2017
Website: www.torontozoo.com

Click here to take a virtual tour and see our collection of Toronto Zoo animal photos.

   The Toronto Zoo opened in August 1974 and we have been frequent visitors through the years.  The zoo is divided into geographic regions and each area contains birds, animals, fish, bugs and plants from that region.

This makes you feel like you are traveling the world during a visit.  In fact, Toronto Zoo is one of the biggest zoos in the world.

   The main areas of the zoo are Africa, Canada, Indomalaya, Americas, Australasia and Eurasia.  Some of the areas have indoor pavilions with huge glass roofs such as the African Pavilion below.

  For those who don't wish to walk the zoo, there is a zoomobile that will take you to each of the different areas.

We have written blogs about the zoo many times.  We could go on and on about how much we love the zoo, but we feel that pictures say it best.

Click here to take a virtual tour and see our collection of Toronto Zoo animal photos.

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Map of Our World
Toronto Zoo

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Post # 183

Bunny Rabbit Hare

1. Lop-Eared Rabbit
2. Bugs Bunny
3. Flemish Giant Rabbit
4. Arctic Hare
5. Lionhead Rabbit
6. Rabbit Balloon
7. Tortoise & Hare
8. Cute Bunnies
9. Chocolate Bunnies
10. Eastern Cottontail

  This Easter weekend we thought it would be a good time to take a look at our top 10 bunny encounters.  Here they are in no particular order.

1 ) Lop-Eared Rabbit

A friend of ours used to care for a very cute lop-eared bunny.  A lop-eared bunny is a bunny whose long ears hang (we guess you could say lop) down.  You will notice all of the other bunnies in this blog post have ears that stand straight up or sit back on top of their heads. 

2)  Bugs Bunny

One of the all-time favourite bunnies is Bugs Bunny from the Looney Tunes cartoons.  He is among a short list of animated characters to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The outline drawing of Bugs Bunny (above) was in the Warner Brothers Studio's Museum.

3)  Flemish Giant Rabbit

From Bugs Bunny we go to Big Bunny.  A Flemish giant rabbit can weigh up to 10 kg and grow to about 30 inches long.  It is one of the largest domesticated rabbits.  The bunny above was at the Toronto Zoo for a short time and shared an enclosure with the wombats and wallabies.  Perhaps it had outgrown its previous living space.

4)  Arctic Hare

While we were in Churchill, Manitoba we spotted this hare just across the road from our lodge.  While it may not be the smartest thing to do in polar bear territory at night, we headed outside to try and get a closer look.  Luckily, he stood still long enough for us to get the picture above.  It took us some time to determine if this was an arctic hare or a snowshoe hare as both inhabit Churchill. We read about one having bigger feet or ears than the other.  Some reports said that one has bigger eyes or fluffier fur.  We made our determination by the black on the ears.  As far as we can tell arctic hares (like this one) have black just on the top tip of their ears while snowshoe hares have a black edge that may cover the tip, but runs further along the ear as well.

5)  Lionhead Rabbit

A lionhead rabbit is bred to have a mane around its face like a lion.  They end up looking like little balls of fur with ears. We wondered how they can even see where they are hopping.  When taking pictures, the bunny below did flash us a look from beneath all that fur just to let us know he was in there. The lionhead above is from Prickly Ball Farm and the lionhead below is from Far Enough Farm.

6)  Rabbit Balloon

Artist Jeff Koons had a piece of his art appear in Toronto's Nuit Blanche 2009.  It was simply named Rabbit Balloon.  It featured a giant shiny silver bunny that was floating inside the Eaton Centre.  This bunny also once floated in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2007.

7)  Tortoise & Hare

In Boston's Copley Square is a sculpture of a tortoise and a hare.  It was installed as a tribute to runner's of the famous Boston Marathon. It is based on the popular fable of The Tortoise & the Hare. The fable tells the story of a rabbit who was so confident in his ability to outrun the tortoise that during a race he ran ahead and took a nap.  While he napped the tortoise passed by heading for the finish line.  The hare finally awoke and tried to catch up, but it was too late.

8)  Cute Bunnies

We think that all rabbits are cute.  There is something special about a tiny bunny that you can pick up and hold in your hands while it sits quietly twitching its little nose.  These cuties are from the Toronto Zoo kid's section and from Jungle Cat World.

9)  Chocolate Bunnies

Chocolate shaped like eggs is good.  Chocolate shaped like bunnies is good.  This bunny above is a box from Teuscher Chocolates and hides a chocolate truffle in its belly.  We like chocolate.

10) Eastern Cottontail

The one rabbit that we have encountered the most is the eastern cottontail.  Actually we have eaten more chocolate bunnies and watched more Bugs Bunny cartoons than we have had encounters with eastern cottontails.  Let's try that again.  The eastern cottontail is the wild rabbit that we have encountered the most.  Sometimes when you least expect it you look out into the yard and there is one munching away on something.  Here comes Peter Cottontail hopping down the bunny trail!

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Map of Our World
Toronto Zoo (Australasia Pavilion) , Toronto Zoo (Kids Zoo) , Jungle Cat World Wildlife Park , Prickly Ball Farm , Lazy Bear Lodge , Far Enough Farm
Teuscher Toronto
Tortoise & Hare , Eaton Centre
Hollywood Walk of Fame

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Post # 171

Polar Bear Enrichment & Training

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: 2000 Meadowvale Rd.
Date: March 2017
Website: www.torontozoo.com

  February 25th 2017 was International Polar Bear Day.  We attended the Toronto Zoo that day.  Specifically we attended a talk by the Torono Zoo's polar bear keepers and Dr. Martyn Obbard, a polar bear researcher.  Dr. Martyn Obbard talked about how the increasingly shorter season of sea ice is making life harder for the bears.  The bears rely on the sea ice to go out and hunt for seals.  Without the sea ice, the bears do not get enough to eat. Dr. Obbard worked for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and his research has helped us understand what we can do to help the bears.  Conservation of polar bears requires not only several Canadian provincial and territorial governments working together, but several countries as well.  Polar Bears can be found in Canada, Greenland, Norway, USA and Russia.

  The zoo keepers also talked about their experience working with the polar bears.  The three most recent polar bear babies were all offspring of Inukshuk and Aurora.  Hudson and Humphrey just recently returned to the Toronto Zoo and Juno was leaving the week after International Polar Bear Day.  The keepers talked about enrichment and training of the bears.  One lucky person at the talk would win a chance to see a polar bear training session.  Guess who won?

  We attended the training session a few weeks later.  The training sessions make it easier for the keepers to administer medication, to give the bears a checkup and to move the bears around the exhibit.  Our training session was with Nikita.  The keeper used different hand signals and a whistle to ask the bear to perform a task.  Each success was rewarded with either a handful of meat or fish.  When the keeper made an open hand motion Nikita opened her mouth.  When the keeper tapped a wooden stick against the fence, Nikita would touch it with her closest hand.  When the keeper pointed to a target, Nikita would go over and touch her nose to the target.  The children that attended the training with us were very impressed with how well Nikita performed.  Finally, one big fish and the training was completed for the day.  Good work Nikita and good work to all of the people helping polar bears in the wild.

Click here to take a virtual tour and see our (almost complete) collection of Toronto Zoo animal photos.

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Map of Our World
Toronto Zoo (Tundra Trek)

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Post # 168