Let me just start this off by saying I am a fiercely stubborn person. Which can sometimes lead me to not being the smartest person. Pair this with my need to constantly plan everything and you have the combination that led to me wearing five layers in the pouring rain/snow on a Friday afternoon.
Sometimes I forget about cool things in and around Toronto. I’ve grown up near here my whole life so many things I take for granted or just kind of sit at the back of my mind when it comes to thinking of things to do. One of these things in the Toronto Zoo. One of my roommates is an exchange student from Copenhagen – studying Biology none the less, and had been talking about wanting to go to the zoo since she got here. So when our reading week came up we decided it would be the perfect time to go. Thinking we could avoid at least some of the crowds by going during the week we scheduled it in for Friday. And avoid the crowds we certainly did. As we got closer and closer to Friday more warning signs came up that were ignored. The weather forecast got so bad I even got a call from my mother asking if we were sure we wanted to go on Friday. We continued to state that we did. As we drove to the zoo in the morning I think it dawned on us just what kind of day we were in for. Not only was it raining and windy but it was also Toronto’s first day of snow. Perfect zoo weather. Right?
Upon arrival we parked in the A for Alligator section with about a dozen other cars which was indication enough of just how many of the crowds we had avoided. Determined to make the most of it we put our jackets on and umbrellas up and began to walk around the zoo. Opened in August of 1974, the Toronto Zoo is the largest zoo in Canada. It features more than 5000 animals divided into 7 regions of it’s 287 hectares. The Toronto Zoo has worked on many different conservation initiatives including one to breed and release black-footed ferrets back into the wild, helping the Malagasy fish, and being a centre for the Species Survival Plans of many animals.
Our plan to maximize animal viewing while minimizing outdoor exposure had us start by visiting most of the pavilions before lunch with plans to do the outdoor exhibits afterwards. As soon as lunch was over the zoo started to feel like a ghost town as the couple schools that had been doing field trips had left. Still having a pretty good time we headed over to the Tundra Trek where we met our new best friend – Humphrey. Humphrey was being super playful and kept doing underwater flips and dives, we later discovered that it was also his birthday! After making friends with the polar bear we went into the relatively new great barrier reef exhibit to both see the animals and layer up for our next outdoor trek.
After adding a second sweater to my existing layers of ski shirt, sweater, jacket, and scarf we went to explore the African Savannah and Canadian Domain. Spoiler alert – we failed miserably. We had already seen the giraffes inside early in the day so when their outdoor paddock was empty we didn’t think anything of it. But then the same thing happened at the Zebras, and the Gibbons, and the Rhinos. All the African animals had been taken off display because of the weather – which meant we just walked around the loop of the African Savannah in the pouring rain just for fun. As the rain made no sign of stopping and our boots were audibly sloshing we made the executive decision to do the hike up and down the Canadian domain next time. Besides we live in Toronto – we can very easily find some racoons and hang with them.
Despite it being the first day of snow and of real cold weather it was still a total blast. We were running around laughing the entire day. I guess when you get to see animals and hang out with friends a little rain doesn’t hurt.
