From a private proposal in 1963 to 287 hectares in Scarborough
The Toronto Zoo
A private citizen pitched Metro Toronto's council on a new zoo in 1963. Eleven years later, it opened on Rouge Park land in Scarborough — replacing the century-old Riverdale Zoo downtown.
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In 1963, Hugh Crothers introduced a private citizen's brief proposing a new zoo to the Chairman of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, William Allen. Crothers and business partner John Cameron Egan became founding figures of the Metro Toronto Zoological Society, with Crothers serving as its first chairman starting in 1966. Metro Toronto approved a Rouge Park site in Scarborough for the new zoo in 1967.
Replacing the Riverdale Zoo
The Metropolitan Toronto Zoo opened on August 15, 1974, replacing the much smaller Riverdale Zoo, which had operated downtown since 1894 and closed the same year as its animals relocated to the new site. "Metropolitan" was dropped from the name when Toronto's municipalities amalgamated in 1998. Encompassing 287 hectares along the Rouge River, the Toronto Zoo is the largest zoo in Canada.
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