Orchid Oasis

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  2000 Meadowvale Road
Date:  Feb 2020
Website:  www.torontozoo.com

  Once a year the Toronto Zoo hosts Orchid Oasis in their greenhouse.  It usually happens during the coldest part of the winter and is a nice change of warmth and colour.

  Once our camera adjusted and defogged from the warmth of the greenhouse we took a closer look at what was in bloom.

 

  There was an endless variety of patterns and colours.

  One of our favourite flowers is known as the lady slipper orchid.  They usually have petals that stick way out of each side and a pouch (or lady slipper) in front.

  While orchids are beautiful they can also be deadly.  Look closely as the orchid mantis hunts its prey by disguising itelf as an orchid.  When unsuspecting insects come too close they get snatched in its outstretched arms and quickly devoured. 

Another greenhouse resident was this green frog who had found a better way to spend the winter.  Instead of hibernating in the pond nearby it had snuck into the greenhouse to spend the winter.

  In the cold of February it is always enjoyable to go into a greenhouse or pavilion to warm up while visiting the zoo.  It's even better to do it while the orchids are in bloom.

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Map of Our World
Toronto Zoo Greenhouse

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Post # 286

Leaping Cats

Location: San Diego, California, USA
Address: 2920 Zoo Dr.
Date: Feb 2014
Website: www.sandiegozoo.org

    The year 2020 is a leap year.  This February 29th we celebrate one of the animal world's greatest leapers.  The serval is a cat that can jump over 9 feet into the air and over 11 feet distance horizontally.  This allows it to snatch a passing bird right out of the sly.

  We witnessed the serval's jumping skills first hand at the San Diego Zoo.  At the San Diego Zoo Safari Park another cat showed off its skills.  In the photo above a caracal launched itself and twisted upside down so it was parallel to the ground.  It did this to catch a little fuzzy toy that was spun around by a string.

  A caracal (above) can also leap over 9 feet into the air. The caracal wins the beauty pageant and ties in the high jump but the serval is the better hunter.  Both cats are relatively small and weigh up to 18kg.

  The serval has the biggest ears of any cat and the best hearing.  It also has the longest legs in proportion to its body.  Not to mention that it has black stripes that resemble those of a tiger.  Its long legs let it snatch rodents down tunnels and its curved claws let it hook fish right out of the water.

   It is said that when a serval pounces at prey it makes a successful kill 50 percent of the time.  In the video above it looks like it grabbed the toy 2 out of 3 times.  A leap year success rate is 1 out of every 4.

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Map of Our World
San Diego Zoo (Backstage Pass) , San Diego Zoo Safari Park (Cheetah Run)

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Post # 279

Australia Day

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  2000 Meadowvale Road
Date:  Jan 2020
Website:  www.torontozoo.com

  Australian wildlife is being affected by wildfires.  The Toronto Zoo pledged to donate all the income from their Australia Day tours to help support the animal rescue efforts.  We took advantage and felt this was a great time to take an Australasia Pavilion behind the scenes tour.

  Our tour started with the Matschie's Tree Kangaroo.  These kangaroos spend the majority of their time up in the trees and are more agile moving through the branches than down on the ground.  The kangaroo pictured above is a female called Puzzle.

    The next section of the pavilion features free flying birds.  One of our favourites is the Victoria Crowned Pigeons.  They have white tips on the feathers that stick up from the top of their head like a crown.  If you are lucky you might hear the drumming whooping sound they make when they wish to attract attention.

  Next we went through a Staff Only door for a behind the scenes visit.  The tour guide opened a wooden door and we found ourselves at the back of the Macleay's Spectre exhibit.  We half expected insects to come flying out to make their escape.  Nothing happened as the usual defense mechanism for this stick insect is to cling to a branch and gently sway in order to make us think it is a leaf.

  We travelled down a small hall and were taken into the kangaroo winter home.  There were a few holding areas where the kangaroos were all lying around just relaxing.  Once we arrived and lettuce was offered things picked up.

   The Toronto Zoo has a mob of Western Grey Kangaroos.  A mob is what you call a group of kangaroos.

 

    The kangaroos have big teeth for munching.  The kangaroo above on the left was a new mother about three months ago.  The baby joey will not leave the pouch for almost six more months.

  One enclosure contained what the keepers called the old timers.  This is where the senior kangaroos were kept.  They often get annoyed by the constant hopping about of their more youthful family members.

  There was a Bennett's Wallaby in with the older kangaroos.  Wallabies are much smaller than kangaroos so despite being thirteen years old this wallaby appeared very young.  Thirteen is an upper age for a wallaby but hanging around kangaroos keeps it looking youthful.

  Another wallaby was in an enclosure by itself.  It was called a Swamp Wallaby.  The keepers ensured us that it was not alone and behind a piece of wood a bettong was sleeping waiting for dark.  A bettong is still a marsupial but more of a kangaroo rat than a kangaroo.

 

  After leaving the kangaroo area we travelled through the pavilion to the Great Barrier Reef tank.  This tank is filled with various Australian fishes.  We went through another Staff Only door and up some steps to the top of the tank.

   We enjoyed feeding the fish in this tank.  Two of our favourites were the Clown Triggerfish and the Scribbled Angelfish who make a snapping sound when they bite down on the seaweed we dropped into the water.

    If you wish to identify the other fish in these videos above you can check out our Toronto Zoo page and scroll down to the Australasia Pavilion (Great Barrier Reef) section.  We enjoyed our tour and hope the money donated helps Australian wildlife. You can always go "down under" anytime if you visit the Toronto Zoo.

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Map of Our World
Toronto Zoo (Australasia Pavilion)

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Post # 276

Washed Ashore

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  2000 Meadowvale Road
Date: May 2019
Website: washedashore.org

  Each year thousands of pounds of plastic wash ashore on one Oregon beach.  A group of volunteers have been cleaning this debris from the beach.  This plastic has been made into artwork that reminds us that we need to stop our plastic consumption.  We visited the Toronto Zoo to see the giant animal ambassadors created by Washed Ashore.  The exhibit runs until November 2019.

  On the day we visited, Angela Haseltine Pozzi was there to talk about the organization.  She founded Washed Ashore in 2010 and is one of the main artists.  Since 2010 she has worked with volunteers to put in countless hours, collected over 40,000 pounds of plastic from the ocean and turned it into over 70 works of art.  There are eleven sculptures on display at the zoo.  Angela is standing beside Sebastian James the puffin.

  This sculpture by the zoo entrance is Flash the marlin.  Marlin are one of the fastest swimming fish in the ocean and travel many miles through the water.  They need the water to be clean and free of plastic that gets in their way.

  Sebastian James the puffin stands outside of the zoo's main gift shop.  Just inside the doors to the gift shops hangs a jellyfish made out of water bottles.

  Outside of the Australasia pavilion is another jellyfish.  This jellyfish is also made from plastic water bottles.  We should try to drink from reusable containers and at home drink Brita filtered water from glasses.  The large packs of bottled water are a huge plastic waste, not to mention breaking your back by lugging them home.  Sea turtles like to eat jellyfish and sadly cannot tell the difference between floating plastic and a swimming jelly.  They end up filling their bellies with plastic instead of food.

  Just around the bend from the Australasia jellyfish is Grace the humpback whale.  Humans almost hunted humpback whales to extinction but today they can be found in all of the world's oceans.

  A closer look at Grace shows some of the plastic from toys, umbrellas and other items.  Sadly, the real humpbacks are forced to swim through this garbage every day.

  Poly the polar bear was made with the help of staff from the Toronto Zoo.  Poly's name comes from polyethylene, polystyrene and other names for plastic.  Poly is supporting the idea that we all try to reduce, reuse, recycle and refuse when dealing with plastics.  The best option is to refuse single use plastics.

  Poly is also made from plastic trays, containers and more garbage which came from the Rouge Valley surrounding the zoo.

    Nora the salmon is found near the Kid's Zoo.  Salmon travel up streams to mate and spawn.  The new salmon swim back to the ocean.  Unfortunately, millions of pounds of plastic polution also head downstream into the ocean each year.

  Octavia the octopus was sitting outside the Americas pavilion.  One of her arms was around the neck of a plastic Canada goose, but it should be trying to shake some sense into people who don't realize the consequences of their actions.

  In the African savannah you can find Sylvia the silvertip shark.  Sharks eat other small fish who eat plastic and this means the sharks end up eating the plastic too.

  Rufus the triggerfish is near the Indian rhino house.  He is made up of children's beach toys, flip flops and even parts of chairs.

  Triggerfish have sharp teeth and strong jaws that let them eat urchins and mollusks.  Plastic has been found with their bite marks, which means they are also eating this harmful human product.

   Oil pollution is the main threat to penguin populations.  Next to the black-footed penguin exhibit is Gertrude the penguin.

  Gertrude looked down on us as if to say "You can do better!".  We all need to think about how we can help the animals.  Washed Ashore vows to keep on spreading their message as long as there is debris floating up on their beach.  They dream that they will one day run out of supplies for their art.
 

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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

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Post # 256

Capybara (The World's Biggest Rodent)

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  2000 Meadowvale Road
Date: May 2019
Website: www.torontozoo.com

  Some people may be surprised to learn that the world's biggest rodent is not a rat found in the New York subway system.  The title belongs to South America's capybara which weighs up to 65 kg, stands almost 2 feet tall and can grow up to 4 feet long.  We have come across capybara at several zoos, but had a real close encounter at the Toronto Zoo.

  Diego the capybara lives at the Toronto Zoo.  The zoo just recently started some Wild Encounter programs.  We were able to learn more about him as well as feed him a treat of some fresh lettuce.  Capybara are herbivores and eat only plants.  In fact the name capybara translates roughly to "master of the grasses".  All rodents have teeth that constantly grow and must gnaw on things to wear the teeth down.  As we fed the lettuce we had to make sure not to get near those teeth.

  Capybara are semi-aquatic and spend most of their time in the water.  They have webbed feet which helps make them great swimmers.  Their nostrils and eyes are high on their face so they can breathe and see above the water, but if they have to, a capybara can stay under water for up to 5 minutes.

  Capybara have a high rounded back.  Diego looks kind of like a coconut with legs in the photo above.

  The other capybara at the Toronto Zoo can be found near the waterfall in the Americas section.  Diego prefers to keep by himself and lives in the Kid's Zoo not that far from his relative the guinea pig.

  The keepers said that Diego was about 6 years old.   We think that the photo above may have been taken while Diego, his brother and parents enjoyed a family dinner together.

  In Toronto there are also capybara at the High Park Zoo.  Two of the High Park capybara are famous for escaping.  One of them wasn't found for almost a month before being returned to the zoo.  In the photos and video above you can see the runaways with their babies.  Baby capybara are called pups.

  Feeding the capybara was fun and Diego was friends with whoever had a piece of lettuce.  Once all the lettuce was gone he went off to the other side of his enclosure to be by himself again.  It was great to see and learn about this amazing rodent up close.   Next time we are in New York City though, we would still like the rats to keep to themselves.

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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 (Kids Zoo) , High Park Zoo

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Post # 251