Toronto Zoo
Canada'S Largest Zoo At About 287 Hectares In The Rouge Valley, Organised By Biogeographic Region Rather Than By Taxonomy, With Around 3,000 Animals And A Significant Conservation And Breeding Programme · Toronto, Ontario
Canada's largest zoo covers about two hundred and eighty-seven hectares on the edge of the Rouge Valley in Scarborough, which means it is genuinely large - people underestimate the walking and run out of afternoon halfway round. It opened in 1974 with an idea that was unusual then: ORGANISE THE ANIMALS BY REGION OF THE WORLD RATHER THAN BY SPECIES GROUP, so you walk through the Americas, then Africa, then Indo-Malaya, rather than through a house of cats followed by a house of birds. Around three thousand animals live here. The zoo runs a substantial conservation and breeding programme - it has worked on black-footed ferret reintroduction, Vancouver Island marmots, and the Wood Bison, and it holds one of the more serious amphibian conservation operations in Canada. It is a long way from downtown, at the far north-eastern edge of the city, and getting there is most of the planning.
2000 Meadowvale Road, Scarborough, Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
OPEN YEAR-ROUND, INCLUDING WINTER, WITH SEASONAL HOURS - typically longer days in summer and a much shorter afternoon from late autumn to early spring; CLOSING TIME IS THE THING PEOPLE GET WRONG, because the last entry is well before the gates close and the site takes hours to cross. ADULT ADMISSION HAS RUN ROUGHLY CAD 25-35 with children cheaper and under-3s free; PARKING IS CHARGED SEPARATELY, typically CAD 12-15 per vehicle. BOOK ONLINE - tickets have been cheaper in advance and busy summer days have used timed entry. SOME INDOOR PAVILIONS AND OUTDOOR HABITATS CLOSE IN WINTER and some animals are off display in cold weather, which is worth knowing before a January visit. The Zoomobile shuttle runs seasonally. It is at the far north-east edge of Toronto; allow 45-60 minutes' drive from downtown.