Tembo Trail

You are now entering the Toledo Zoo’s Tembo Trail exhibit. To your left is a large exhibit filled halfway with water. This is our Hippoquarium, where guests can view hippos underwater. To your right is a smaller exhibit with underwater viewing of otters.

As you move up the hill past these exhibits, you will find yourself outside in front of our African elephant exhibit. This includes a pool and many areas for our elephants to search for food and spend time together. Continue up the ramp and back down again to arrive at our rhino exhibit. The path to the right leads to the indoor elephant area. The path to the left leads you to the hilly takin exhibit. All of these exhibits provide space for our animals to search for food, drink water and explore, with many areas for zookeepers to provide enrichment every day. Enrichment can be toys, special treats or another fun item for the animal to have in their exhibit.

The exhibit on the right is where the North American river otters will be. As you make your way in, there is a large area where you can stand or sit on a bench. This viewing area has a large glass window. As you walk up to the exhibit you may hear the sounds of running or splashing water. The noise comes from the sprinkler on the right side of the wall or from the otters swimming around. The otters often swim right up to the glass to play with visitors.

In the water, there are small, medium and large rocks. You can also spot large branches. This looks like the habitat where otters are found, rivers or lakes. Some leftover pieces of their diet can be found at the bottom of the tank, such as cracked-open clams.

In the back of the enclosure, there is a large area of land where the otters can run freely and go inside. In and out of the water are various types of enrichment for the otters. Enrichment acts as a way for the animals to exercise their brains and play. Our otters love to swim and play with each other. Between the land and the water is a slide the otters can go down, and depending on the day, there are objects floating in the water as well. This can be anything from a bright blue ball to a large plastic raft about the size of the top of a square kitchen table.

North American river otters are small mammals shaped like tubes and, when adults, are about three to four feet long, the length of a baseball bat. They can look like beavers, but they are skinnier and longer. Their tails are very long, and they use them to move through the water. Their bodies are covered in brown fur, with lighter brown on the belly and chest. Their fur is waterproof and very thick, which helps them stay warm on land and in the water.

You may find our otters doing many different things. Since they live near the water, they love to spend time in it. Can you hear them diving into their exhibit? When they are not swimming, you can hear them running around their enclosure or notice them taking a nap on land.

Across from the North American river otters you will find our Hippoquarium. It is located at the beginning of Tembo Trail. During the colder months, the indoor part of the enclosure might be open to the public, where the hippos could be in their heated pool or lying down on land. The outdoor portion of the exhibit is much larger and includes a land area for the hippos to lie down or eat food. There are three hundred sixty thousand gallons of water — about twenty-one swimming pools. In parts of the enclosure, the pool is eight feet deep. Can you hear the rushing water? There is a waterfall near the middle viewing window that delivers clean water back into the exhibit. There are four 8,000-gallon gravel filters that cycle all the water from the exhibit in only ninety minutes. From the exhibit the hippos can be seen underwater, a feature that was one of the first in the world when it was made.

Our exhibit is home to two adult African Nile hippopotamuses. Female hippos can weigh up to three thousand pounds, about the size of a large car. Male hippos can be much larger, reaching well over nine thousand pounds, about the size of an ambulance. Hippos are typically brown in color, although they often appear pink due to the protective slime they release from their bodies. This helps protect them from the sun, similar to how we use sunscreen. Hippos are built for the water. Their ears and eyes are on the tops of their heads so they can see and hear while they float. Although they don’t technically swim, they use their body mass to push off rocks, logs and the bottom. The hippos are fed mostly hay and vitamin-packed pellets, and they get vegetables and fruits as treats. Our hippos are often seen sleeping underwater close to one another. They may slowly float to the top to breathe — they can even do this while sleeping.

The elephant exhibit at the Toledo Zoo is one of the larger exhibits here at the Zoo, and for good reason. Elephants are the largest land mammals, about the size of a really big car. This exhibit offers a lot of viewing space and different areas for the elephants. At the start of Tembo Trail, there is a male, or bull, yard viewing area to the right. This large yard was built to hold adult male elephants that live alone. While it is not only used for males, our adult male elephant can be found there. Once in Tembo Trail there is a large outdoor viewing area for our other exhibit that holds our female and, when present, a baby, or calf. Beyond the outdoor exhibits, there is also indoor viewing used throughout the colder months so guests are able to see the elephants all year.

The exhibit has lots of space with a sandy bottom, similar to the ground found in Africa where elephants live in the wild. In the wild, elephants knock down real trees. In our outdoor exhibits, there are large metal structures that act as trees. On these metal trees the zookeepers can place food into nets and lower it with remote controls throughout the day. Also on each side of the outdoor exhibits are enrichment walls that give the elephants a chance to use their trunks to find food on the other side. This keeps them active throughout the day. Zookeepers can change the outdoor exhibits by creating large sand piles for the elephants to play, roll around and dig for food.

The Toledo Zoo is home to African elephants. Male African elephants can reach up to 14,000 pounds, with females slightly smaller at 10,000 pounds. They can be between ten and fourteen feet tall. Elephants have extremely large ears that can be about four feet tall. These help keep them cool in warm African temperatures or Toledo summers. Elephants also have a helpful trunk — a large, long “nose” that does almost everything. They use it to smell, pick things up, suck up over a gallon of water to spray in their mouths, throw dirt on their backs for sunscreen and to trumpet. Their trunks have around 40,000 muscles, allowing them to pick up something as small as a penny and as large as a tree trunk. African elephants have large tusks coming out of the mouth in both males and females. These tusks are made of ivory.

Elephants live in groups called herds with a female leader. In the wild these herds can be over one hundred elephants, but here at the Toledo Zoo we have a smaller herd. The elephants also enjoy spending time with keepers through training and getting treats like sweet potatoes or watermelon. Throughout the day they may eat hundreds of pounds of food, most of it hay.

The Toledo Zoo works hard to provide creative enrichment for these large, intelligent animals. The keepers work with them every day on different actions to train as well. This helps the elephants participate in their own care, such as wellness routines and voluntary veterinary exams. Often in the exhibit there will be puzzle feeders. The elephants must figure out how to get the food out of the puzzle feeder, which keeps their brains busy. Each visit to the Zoo you may notice the elephants playing with something different.

You are now approaching our Indian rhino exhibit. This is a large rocky exhibit with water surrounding it. The whole exhibit has a wooden railing with rope fencing on the outside. There are multiple spots for guests to stop and view the animals. The rhino exhibit has two levels. The first level features the water and a sandy beach area with various enrichment items for the rhino to interact with, such as a large ball or a tractor tire. The second level features a grassy area and large rocks and trees for shade to cool off in. There is also an indoor viewing area at the end of the exhibit near the elephants’ indoor exhibit. You may find the rhino here during the colder months.

Indian rhinos are found in grasslands and thick forests in Nepal and northeastern India. They are also known as the greater one-horned rhino. This name comes from the one horn on top of the nose, as opposed to the two horns that other species of rhino have. Rhino horns are made from keratin, the same material as our hair and fingernails. Touch your fingernail — it’s hard and tough like a rhino’s horn. Rhinos use their horns for protection and to dig in the ground looking for food. They are not born with horns but start to grow them around one year of age.

Indian rhinos have folded, thick, grey skin, giving them an armored look. They weigh between 4,000 to 6,000 pounds — that’s as much as a minivan. Although heavy, they can run up to 35 mph. That’s fast.

These rhinos spend a lot of their time in the water, and you can often find our rhino playing with a ball or sleeping in the pool. Sometimes you can only see the top of his nose. In the wild, they spend time in the mud to cool off and protect themselves from bugs.

Thank you for visiting our Indian rhino exhibit. We hope you enjoy the rest of your trip down Tembo Trail.

To the right is the Sichuan takin exhibit. The front of this exhibit has water. As you approach the railing, you may hear the sound of bubbling water. Past the water is a large open grassy area with small trees and logs for the takin to climb on. Takin are large mountain animals and are hard to find in North American zoos. Most closely related to sheep and goats, takin look more like cows with lots of pale yellow to rusty brown fur and pointy, crescent-shaped horns. Male takin can weigh up to 770 pounds — about as much as a jet ski. Their habitat in the wild is the Himalayan Mountains, which are cold, windy and rocky. One way takin stay warm is with their big noses. As air travels through the nose it warms up before getting to the lungs. You may also hear them talk to each other by snorting.

Takin have hooves that split to help them climb frozen ground and rocky areas. They eat throughout the day, munching on whatever greens they find in the mountains. At the Zoo, our takin like to climb rocks, stumps and logs in their exhibit. They eat a mix of grasses throughout the day.

We hope you liked learning about some of our largest animals on Tembo Trail. Enjoy the rest of your day at the Toledo Zoo.