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
