Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone here been to the toronto zoo recently?
I was there today while on my vacation here in Toronto, and was pleased to see a few very beautiful specimens of veiled chameleon. Their cage setup was fantasticm no substrate, good size, plants and sticks. It was all solid, though... No screen on the whole thing.

I don't know if I can do anything about this...if anyone thinks I can then please tell me.

There were three adult veileds in the enclosure, which was about 4' tall, 5' wide and 1 1/2" deep. One of the females was being approached repeatedly by the male, and was VERY STRESSED. She was hissing, all black with bright yellow spots etc. I don't know if she was gravid or not, but she was very uncomfortable. The other female was also a good size and appeared healthy but was quite a dull brown colour.

For three adults, I don't believe that size of an anclosure would suffice for the animals, and with the colours that female was displaying, it didn't appear she was having a good time.

Should I complain? They were in a "biodome" kind of thing, close to a pygmy hippo envoronment, in their own little enclosure. They had a 3' nile monitor in a GIGANTIC enclosure, so I don't see why they can't supply a proer enclosure for the veileds. There was lots of unused space around their enclosure.

I was, howeverm happy to see that the enclosure was far away from the viewing area/pathway, so people can't tap the glass. I didn't notice any stress on the male from being there...I suppose they would all be very dead at this point from stress if they didn't like people.

I think you should definitely contact the keeper/manager of the "herp house". Bring him/her some care sheets, be polite and point out some of the issues and why they are detrimental to the chams, not just saying this is how it is supposed to be done. Also point out that if visitors see these chams in the improper setups it is only perpetuating the problems that arise from individual owners..."well, that's how they had it at the zoo"

There are several Canadian keepers on this forum and you may want to post to see if any live near that zoo who could help with this mission. We would like to think that zoos understand the habitat needs of their animals but all too often this is not the case. I looked at their website and conservation seems to be of great concern to them so my guess is they would be very recpetive to input.

Good luck and keep us posted.

lele
Link

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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

I will certainly make my best effort to contact the right department on the subject, and as soon as possible.

What should I suggest they do about their current setup? Construct a completely new one? (this zoo is gigantic, i'm sure they can afford a ~10' wide enclosure...it took me a whole day to see 40% of the place!)

Should I reccommend a certain size to them? I will certainly reccommend making it out of mesh. They could also make a little island for the chams...with a wall around the outside a few feet from the neearest tree limb or something...

I'll go write a post asking if some people live around here...

thanks for reading!

Also ask them how long the individual chams spend in the display. A lot of zoos cycle animals from setups behind the scenes and the ones on display are not out very long. Still, having the 2 in that small a space at once is not a good thing. I can understand the solid sided cage if they have a good air circulation system in place. Many European cham keepers use solid sided terrariums successfully but they also tend to use fans and air exchangers more than we do here.

Correction:
there were three animals in the enclosure...:|

I will ask that if/when they reply to my initial complaint letter.

thanks