Toronto 2018: Toronto Zoo

On the first day in town, we actually didn’t go to EGLX yet but rather went for a day at the zoo. Normally, whenever we go to zoos, its pretty much a quick max 4 hour experience but Drew had mentioned that he was set for a full day there and other than a short lunch break, Toronto Zoo did have a lot to see and we stayed for about 7 hours. The highlight for Toronto Zoo which ends this weekend is saying goodbye to the Giant Pandas, who happen to be the first pandas born in Canada.

Toronto Zoo is pretty huge. It covers a lot of different continents. Due it still being in the winter schedule, it had a lot of empty spots so some areas like Africa was just a walk through the place and then checking out the pavilion. I think that is what sets it apart is that there are a few pavilions to go through for the more exotic animals and it gives it a lot more space to check out some cool birds and more.

Since this was a huge day and I have like 800 pictures or something, I’m going to trim it down to pictures that turned out well or animals that I found were pretty unique to this location.

Giant Panda Cubs

Red Panda

Tree Kangaroos

MacLeay’s Spectres

Polar Bears

Otters

Gorilla

Pygmy Hippopotamus

Red River Hog

Jaguar

African Lions

Komodo Dragon

Greater One Horned Rhinoceros

And here you go! Not all of them are really that rare but its always a challenge to get pictures of animals because of how far away they are. A lot of really cool ones here in all the different areas plus a lot of them are various levels of endangered which really makes it worth it to see them protected. There was a ton more than what I have here from meerkats to sloths and all kinds of monkeys and a lot of fishes and frogs and snakes and other reptiles and insects. I could go on and on.

Toronto Zoo is really worth it to just see what they have. Not a lot of zoos have such a huge terrain with indoor pavilions and outside areas. It would be nice one year to visit when its the summer to see how its set up when a lot of the warm climate animals are back.

Plus, luck was really on our side for the zoo. A lot of times we would be right on time for feeding times or speaking by the carers of a certain animal. Sometimes, we’d double back and the animal would have woken up from their nap and started moving around. It was a really great time!

Granby Zoo and Baby Invasions!

Granby Zoo has been around forever.  My first visit was when I was in Grade 2, 8 years old and thats 20 years ago (almost).  It was open before that.  Over the 20 years, I went a few years back as well with my boyfriend and till now, there have been a lot of changes. They’ve been getting a lot of new animals and setting up nice events.  Last summer’s highlights was their acquisition of red pandas. Now, if you’ve been following me since 2012, you might have read about my Hong Kong trip and my love for pandas, giant and red ones.  They both are mega adorable!

Granby Zoo entrance

Back in February, Tuango had this deal on Granby Zoo and my boyfriend and I bought it.  This winter’s theme was Baby Invasions.  During certain times in the afternoons, the visitors would get to watch the feeding of these babies and learn a little bit.  There were obviously 3 very cute red panda babies, baby yaks, baby Amur Tigers and baby snow leopards.

Before we get to that, there were lots of animals to see. First up was the elephant and giraffe pens.

Elephant pen

And then as we walked around, we saw the Snowy Owl perched on the arm of one of the animators.

Snowy Owl

And we had Africa which was pretty much indoors and heated viewing huts.

Baboons

Python

Hippo

This hippo was really hard to capture due my height so I had to stand on the kiddie steps and had my boyfriend keep me from falling.  I’m pretty happy to get a decent shot of it 🙂

Back outside, we saw little llamas walking around.

Black and White Llamas

This is only a fraction of what I saw.  Some of those huts had pretty bad reflection and the pictures weren’t too good. Moving along to our highlight: Asia.  Why? Because thats where all the baby invasion animals were. Honestly, I only managed to catch the red pands really well. The others were all enjoying their naps.

Baby Snow Leopards sleeping in their hut

Adult Snow Leopard getting taunted by a visitor

 

Baby Amur Tigers and parent napping

As for the yaks, I didn’t get a good shot as they were behind high fences.  But, I do have a whole lot of red pandas to offer 🙂

Red Pandas from ground level

Playing in Trees

Baby Red Pandas trying to get to the lower branch

Twisting to find balance

Finally getting there!

Playing on the branches

Still playing

And then during feeding time, we realized that there was supposed to be four but mom was not there. Dad was though and he ate with the kids.

Dad Coco and his kids eating

Can you tell which is dad, called Coco?

Yup! He’s the one with the nice fur.  Coco is 10 years old, which is actually approaching the last few years of a normal red panda’s life cycle which is usually 14 years in habitats, but he is in great health.  Plus, you also have to be very proud of him because apparently female red pandas are fertile one day in a year and he caught that day and had these little three panda cubs 😉

I took a million pictures of them.  Its a different feeling to be watching them in an actual outdoors habitat unlike in Hong Kong where its set indoors. I never knew they loved snow so much.  The cubs especially were running around in the snow and everything.  It was SO CUTE!!!

That was the only feeding we managed to catch because it was really cold and with my constant pulling my hands out to take pictures, it got even more chilly.  I am quite happy that I managed to end the day with some awesome maple taffy.

Maple Taffy

I’m guessing its a pretty Canadian thing so I don’t know how many people actually have tried it.  I totally love it! I usually try to have it once every year. This time was slightly messy, which was actually a somewhat funny story but things worked out and I did manage to eat it without getting frostbite on my hands 😉

That was my day! We couldn’t get to all the feedings sadly because we had to take care of a few things in the afternoon before the stores closed but it was really fun!

Do you like zoos? Which zoos are near where you live?