Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Zoos across the country are preparing for the return of visitors and are hard at work making sure the animals are well prepared, too.
With so few people visiting due to COVID-19 restrictions, some of the animals have had behavioural changes and zookeepers are bringing in volunteers to help get animals used to the company again.
“It's safe to say many of the species actually missed having guests around,” Dolf DeJong, CEO of the Toronto Zoo, told CTV’s Your Morning on Tuesday.
For weeks they’ve been working to prepare the animals for the zoo opening for visitors again, adopting a gradual approach to avoid overwhelming them.
“We've had to take a few weeks actually and start bringing volunteers and staff in slowly, so they could readjust to having those thousands of people on site,” he said.
During the pandemic, zookeepers noted some behavioural changes in animals who were used to being viewed crowds of people on a daily basis.
“A lot of the carnivores, the polar bears, the hyenas, they'd often be right up at the front of the habitat checking us out when we walked by, and really curious and inquisitive and sometimes even vocalizing, to kind of say ‘Hey, where are you folks?’” said DeJong.
The Calgary Zoo and Edmonton Valley Zoo are offering timed tickets to be purchased in advance, while Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg is asking visitors to buy tickets in advance and to wear masks when visiting indoor exhibits.
But a zoo visit will still be a bit different this year with some added safety precautions in place to keep visitors and animals protected from COVID-19. It starts with pre-booking a timeslot to visit, so that they can keep control of the number of people in the zoo at any given time. But they’ve taken extra measures to keep animals prone to COVID-19 safe, too.
“When you're on site you're going to see with the gorillas, with the Red River hogs, and with some of the other cats, you're going to see additional barriers and fences, pushing people back even further,” he said.
In addition, visitors will be asked to wear masks around certain species, for an extra layer of protection for both the visitors and the animals.
“You need to wear a mask because they can't,” DeJong added.
Only outdoor pavilions will be open, the Toronto Zoo is waiting for the next phase of reopening before allowing visitors into the indoor exhibits, but he said there’s still plenty to see.
“We’re talking ten plus kilometres of outdoor trails[…]so you can still see the bulk of your favourites.”
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.