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Author: Alan (page 1 of 2)

What a long hard winter…. We are now open!

Well that was a long hard winter!

It seems that spring, more or less, is finally upon us! The mucky sodden mess that has been the zoo grounds, is finally firming up and the grass is green, giving us the opportunity to begin our spring cleaning and beginning to get started on a new years adventure.

We are now open daily, weather permitting, until Thanks Giving. Most of the animals are out in the zoo with the lemurs and kangaroos still waiting until the nighttime temperature is about 10 C.

We have lots of Spring babies born and being born. The last few weeks has been full of lambing and what a cute bunch they are. We have plenty of baby goats too, some on the bottle. Our bottle feeding times are 11 and 3. Your kids are welcome to help feed ours! (pun intended). Just be in the feeding area at those times. We have a little lamb and 3 little Maras on the bottle. Maras are the little South American jack rabbits. Other babies include 2 lemurs and 2 baby kangaroos, which  will be on display when it gets warm enough.

Speaking of the kangaroos … we have teamed up with the Maxwell Heights Specialist High Skills Major Team to build the Kangaroos a new shelter. These talented kids under the direction of Mr. Gordon and Mr. Dimoglou have designed and built an outback style shelter. It is scheduled to be installed on Monday May 6th. Drop by and watch it going up!

We have a few new horses this year. Two are rescues from U of Guelph Ridgetown. Kendal is and old swaybacked standard bred, Kendal, who needed a place to grow old and never have to work for vet students again. Just lay back and gobble grass and popcorn for what we hope will be a long healthy retirement. She comes with her last son Baron. Who was bred to be a race horse, but  didn’t quit have what it takes. What he lacked in speed he makes up for in personality! Our third horse is a Percheron. Jessie is a huge horse who dwarfs our Belgian Wilma.

Blaze and Yukon are leaving this year because Animals on the Go are moving to Picton and taking their animals along to there new farm. We wish them luck in their new endeavor. This also mean that we will no longer be doing any off site events.

On our hopeful list this summer are capybara babies. The largest of all rodents. There are some coming into the country that we have been tentatively promised… so fingers crossed.

As ever, season passes are the way to go. For less than 2 regular zoo admissions, you can come for the whole season. The earlier that you buy, the more use you’ll have of them. Since we sell a lot of passes in May and June, there tend to be line ups  filling out forms. We will have a forms available online for you to print ans fill out in advance.

REMEMBER to NEATLY put everybody’s names and birth dates, even if they are too young to pay, and a phone number and signature. This will save you between 5 and 30 minutes in line, depending on how busy we are. We will be expressing people with completed forms.

Birthday party season is here. For 8$ pp, including a free small popcorn for each child. You are welcome to use the picnic are, bring a lunch, order one from us or order in pizza. Just call for bookings, 905 655 5236. If possible pick a rain date to fall back on.

The pony rides will be operating weekends until school gets out and the daily until Labour Day. Hours of operation 10-3, weather dependent. Remember heat is tiring for ponies, so on hot days their schedules will be shortened.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all this season. I’m also looking forward to getting out and getting everything ship shape.

It has been a long winter….but the longer the winter , the sweeter the summer feels!

See you soon!

Alan

We are open!

After a tough winter, we are officially open for the season!  Come visit us on weekends between 10am and 4pm and on weekdays 10-2:30pm!

First of all, I’d like to thank all of you for helping to make last year the best ever. We had a whole bunch of new species – zebra, ruffed and black lemurs, capybara, a troop of kangaroos with joeys in their pouches and coatimundi to name a few. I’d like to thank Ayaz for placing so many of his animals at our facility. Our staff and dedicated group of volunteers were able to let many of these animals out of their enclosures to interact with your children (and let’s face it, the children in all of us).

The fundraising effort to send our Jordan to vet school in St. Kitts was a huge success! She is in school with marks in the 90’s making us all proud. Thanks to you all for helping make her dreams come true. We sure miss her.

When the zoo closed last autumn we got a good start on preparing things for the opening. We replaced hundreds of feet of old fencing to make things safer for the animals and for you, and it looks awesome! We’d planned on getting started on shelter replacement, but when winter started in November it didn’t happen – fall plans became spring. This year we’re going to replace our 1993 shelters with new ones designed for better protection against the weather and a heck of a lot better look. With a little modification to the camel pen, we should have both Nemo and Dorie, (the fence wrecker), on display. We are going to build a whole new fox display with stimulating things for them to keep amused. The old fox pen will be modified for even more lemurs!

We are waiting to see what Ayaz comes up with this year to add to our collection. Rumour has it that we may see a trio of zebra, marmoset monkey, and several unique bird species. We’ll have to wait and see.

Our offsite people, Animals on the Go, will be offering pony rides again this season. Brad, Courtney and their friendly ponies, will be starting weekends as soon as things dry up.

We’ve added more seating to the picnic area and enlarged the parking lot. People have already begun booking birthday parties for the season. When considering a party we always suggest booking a rain date, that you put right on the invitation. This may save you from having rainy day folks descending on your house.

Our rate has remained unchanged at 6$ per person. Our seasonal passes have remained the same price and are definitely the way to go.  All that you need to do is come twice to pay for a pass that’s good through Thanks Giving. Remember you can get a FREE admit one child coupon!

Just a gentle reminder that seasonal passes are only good for the people who signed up for them and cannot be loaned or shared for any reason.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all again,

Alan

Regarding the proposed Trans Canada gas pipeline

http://rogerstv.com/page.aspx?lid=237&rid=2&sid=6458&gid=216685

Happy Labour Day!

Just Wendy saying…………Wendy

GREAT DAY!

Thank you Worden Insurance, Animals on the Go & the Shriner’s of Oshawa for a great Saturday!

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