Our CALL intern Tanisha is getting to know the many #amphibians of the Americas Pavilion as she completes her Wildlife Care placement! Among these is this Puerto Rican crested toad 🐸, a highly #endangeredspecies that your #TorontoZoo is working hard to save through breeding and reintroduction.
To learn more about the threats to toads and how you can help, hop over to the Spring Toad Festival happening this Saturday, May 4th from 10am–3pm at the Canadian Wetlands, Canopy Classrom, and Americas Pavilion!
#toad #wetlands #wildlife #zoointern #calltoaction #climateaction #conservation
They like the sun☀️… So do we
They like the snow❄️… So do we
We may not need the ice as much🧊… But they do!
Learn more about how you can help these endangered species by following @thetorontozoo @polarbearsinternational
#torontozoo #thecall #animals #conservation #internstionalpolarbearday #polarbear
Your Toronto Zoo has partnered with CAGIS to talk about the importance of Black Footed Ferrets.
Making the best of this opportunity, we are inviting girls between the ages of 7- 17 to participate in a STEM challenge. Please visit their page for details on how to register.
Entry window : December 12 to January 12
Here is our CALL intern, Venkat, once again helping our Horticulture team control the growth of invasive species at your Toronto Zoo. This time he’s uprooting a big buckthorn tree. Buckthorn can sprout a new tree from its roots so it’s important to uproot them rather than chop them down when trying to control their growth.
#buckthorn #horticulture #invasivespecies #thecallproject #torontozoo #conservation #plants
Here is our CALL intern, Venkat, working with our horticulture team to control the spread of dog strangling vine at your Toronto Zoo.
Dog strangling vine is an invasive species of milkweed in Ontario with extensive roots that are difficult to pull out without breaking. It poses such a big problem because it can grow new shoots from broken-off roots, and it prevents native species from growing in the same area.
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#dogstranglingvine #invasivespecies #horticulture #torontozoo #climatechange #conservation #plants # the call program #thecallproject #invasiveplants
It’s finally Friday!! Here are some tips to get you ready to show the polar bears that we care this weekend!
13. 2 UP 2 DOWN
Do you think you can manage a house that’s two degrees warmer in the summer and two degrees colder in the winter? Well, it turns out that bumping your thermostat up or down by just two degrees can make a huge difference and reduce your household’s carbon footprint by 2000 pounds a year! So, stay hydrated in the summer, and wear an extra layer in the winter to help your environment year-round!
14. DRIVE LESS
There are approximately 18 million vehicles driving on Canadian roads each day, and each vehicle emits
pollutants into the air that harms both us and the wildlife around us. By choosing to bike or walk instead of getting into a car, you can help keep our air clean by reducing the amount of pollutants being released into the air. Alternatively, you can choose to carpool with your friends or take public transit so that only one vehicle is being used instead of multiple.
Yeah it’s almost the end of the Polar Bear Week, but we have one final message for you tomorrow!
Let’s show the polar bears that WE CARE about them! Here are some simple tips that you can follow to make a difference.
1. SAVE WATER
Did you know that 99% of the water on Earth is unsuitable for us to use? The remaining 1% is fresh water that must be filtered to render it safe for daily use. The filtration process takes up a massive amount of energy, consuming non-renewable fossil fuels which release dangerous greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. By wasting water, you’re wasting these valuable resources and contributing to Climate Change!
2. DON’T IDLE YOUR CAR
There’s a common misconception that restarting your car’s engine takes up more fuel than idling your car. The truth is that restarting your car’s engine takes up the same amount of fuel as a car idling for 10 seconds. So, instead of idling, turn off the engine to prevent greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere and keep our air clean!
3. DON’T BE A LITTERBUG
Littering is when you dispose of your waste in the wrong place. In Ontario alone, nearly one tonne of waste is produced per person per year, and an estimated 10,000 tonnes of plastic
debris enters our lakes and rivers each year. This is harmful for the animals in the water that often mistake plastic litter for food and end up choking on the plastic as a result. By making
sure you properly dispose of your waste, you can prevent harmful products from entering our environments and keep our ecosystems safe!
4. MEATLESS MONDAYS
Or... meatless any day. Raising livestock takes up vast amounts of agricultural space and contributes to the production of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere. By reducing your meat intake, you can contribute to reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses being released in our atmosphere!
We’ll be back tomorrow for some more tips that will help you help the Polar Bears. Stay tuned and don’t forget to SPREAD THE WORD.
To know about the CALL program, visit the link in Bio. #TheCallProgram
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Douale, the Abyssinian Ground Hornbill at your Toronto Zoo teaches us how to recycle. Recycling is important! Do you want to know why? Well, here are the 5 benefits of recycling:
* It reduces the amount of waste that is sent to landfills and incinerators
* It prevents pollution
* It conserves natural resources
* It conserves energy
* It protects ecosystems and wildlife
#calltoaction #conservation #invasivespecies #climatechange #climateaction #callprogram #zoo #torontozoo #horticulture #nature #education
The interns learned about the invasive plant species that are colonizing natural areas in our Zoo and across Ontario. They covered areas within our Zoo along with the horticulture department to identify and map the invasive plants.
Let us know if you can identify any of these invasive plants in your neighbourhood.
#calltoaction #conservation #invasivespecies #climatechange #climateaction #callprogram #zoo #torontozoo #horticulture #nature #education
Getting to see our baby and mommy orangutans 🦧 out and about had to be captured! CALL interns exploring the orangutan habitat to learn about our #gaurdians of the #forest 🌳. #calltoaction #orangutans #toronto #conservation
Youths: building blocks for a sustainable future 🌱💚 Recap Cohort 2!
Empowering the youth of tomorrow 💚🌳 Recap of Cohort 1 summer 2023 @storefrontkgo
Be sure to join us on Toronto Zoo’s Facebook Live on August 25 at 10:00 AM to see cohort 4’s culmination project, an enrichment item made from recycled materials for the Zoo’s Amur tigers! 🐅♻️
Ever wonder what it’s done with the fecal samples from the polar bears? Well, there’s your chance to know! Our intern Kandy is doing her assessment with the Reproduction lab this week and she’s sharing with us how to weigh the fecal samples 💩🐻❄️ Follow through to know other ways in which your Toronto Zoo ensures the healthy and happiness of the animals .
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#torontozoo #callintern #conservation #intern #climatechange #wildlife #sampling #wildlifepreservationcanada #CALLingOnClimateAction #polarbear
Shintay getting her snaccs #tzcall #wildlife #conservation #nature #climatechange #toronto #
An update from the Nutrition Center with CALL Intern Sampras 🌽🥕
“These animals eat better than me!
My day with nutrition began with an early 6:00 am start time. As the Toronto Zoo houses over 5,000 animals representing 500 species, you can’t even begin to imagine how much work and preparation goes into catering to the specific diets of these amazing animals. Their diets are chosen based on the foods they’d find in their natural environment and supplemented with foods that provide additional nutrients.
The nutrition department runs a tight ship and all food is prepared one day in advance to ensure that there are no hiccups and that animals are able to get the necessary nutrients and minerals. Shown here is me preparing the weekly psittacine feed. It is assembled in one big batch, composed of cooked rice, corn, peas, carrots, small/large pellet bird feed and then packaged to be distributed across the multiple aviaries we have on site.
Did you know? The polar bears here at the Toronto Zoo love lettuce, food they wouldn’t regularly find in the Arctic. Cool!”
#CALLingOnClimateAction @tzwconservancy
Another update from the Wildlife Health Center with CALL Intern Sampras! 🦜
“Look who it is! Robert, former CALL Coordinator and expert bird trainer. Here he is, training the Blue and Yellow Macaws, Smartie and Blue. This is one of the many types of enrichment the animals receive here at the Toronto Zoo, which is not only important for the animal’s welfare but can also help to improve the relationship between keeper and animal.
The behavior Robert is trying to achieve here is Smartie stepping up onto the T-shaped perch. Blue and yellow macaws are generally food motivated, making training like this easy and rewarding for both parties. The training happens sequentially, beginning with rewarding the bird for simply touching the perch. Once the bird begins to associate touching the perch with food, the behavior can be further developed and that is what you see here. Robert rewards him for stepping onto the perch and continues the positive reinforcement by repeating “go” and providing food to Smartie for staying on the perch.
Did you know a lot of the behaviors taught here are used for routine medical checkups? For example, the gorillas are trained to bring their chests up to the edge of their habitat enclosures so that they can have ultrasounds done with ease.”
#CALLingOnClimateAction @tzwconservancy
Another update from Australasia with CALL Intern Sampras! 🌊
“These are the male Seahorses, housed in the Australasia Pavilion. As a member of the syngnathidae family, they share the common characteristic of having male individuals give birth. As hypothesized by researchers, a possible explanation for this divergence in evolution is that it allows for the greatest chance of survival for their offspring. Females are able to put their resources into producing an egg and males focus on the fertilization of that egg. A sad fact about these guys is that only 0.5% of baby seahorses make it to adulthood due to predation and possibility of being swept into ocean currents. This is also why the litters coming from male seahorses are so large, reaching up to 2500 individuals.”
#CALLingOnClimateAction @tzwconservancy
An update from CALL Intern Sampras’ placement in the Australasia Pavilion! 🌿
“Look at this little bundle of joy! This is the Brush-tailed Bettong, or Woylie, a resident at the zoo’s Australasia pavilion. Appearance wise, they are such cool creatures, bouncing around with their big beady eyes and round ears. One interesting thing about these guys is that they never drink water or eat green plant material. Their diet is composed of fungi, and is supplemented by seeds and insects which provide them with all of the nutrients they need.
They are one of the smallest marsupials and are currently considered critically endangered by the IUCN. The decline in their population is largely due to habitat loss as a result of urban development in Australia. With less habitat available, fox and cat predation have posed serious threats to Bettong numbers along with an unexplained population decline in 2001.”
#CALLingOnClimateAction @tzwconservancy
