ZooChat Challenge (Global) 2017

Does anyone have a photo of these green magpies? Not that I'm doubting anyone, I'd just like to see how they're kept.

 

I have a silhouetted photo of one through the protective cover its aviary is shrouded in as a precaution to bird flu, if you want that?

 

Better than nothing

 

From the first three weeks away:

Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo
13. Diamond firetail (Stagonopleura guttata)

Al-Ain Zoo
14. Purple glossy starling (Lamprotornis purpureus)
15. Long-tailed glossy starling (Lamprotornis caudatus)
16. Yellow-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier)

Lisbon Zoo
17. Superb starling (Lamprotornis superbus)
18. Yellow-crowned bishop (Euplectes afer)
19. Village weaver (Placeus cucullatus)

Zoo Barcelona
20. Common hill myna - Gracula religiosa
21. Green jay - Cyanocorax yncas
22. Lesser grey shrike - Lanius minor
23. Spangled cotinga - Cotinga Cayman
24. Bali mynah - Leucopsar rothschildi
25. Grosbeak starling - Scissirostrom dubiam
26. Snowy-crowned robin chat - Cossypha niveicapilla
27. Brazilian tanager - Ramphocelus bresilus
28. White-rumped shama - Copsychus malabaricus
29. Red-tailed laughingthrush - Trochalopteron milnei
30. Chestnut-backed thrush - Zoothera dohertyi
31. Pied crow - Corvus albus

 

I only saw all of these now. I don't think I'm completely out of contention, but Vision is a strong favourite at this stage. Not least because, apart from possible trips to Healesville and maybe Adelaide again (compensating for my failure to take notes there in January), I will have completely run my race come the end of September.

Even if I do manage to get to the collections mentioned above - which the Minister is not available for commenting on at this point in time - they would do no more than cancel out Vision's current advantage. Would that I had scheduled a stop over in Singapore on the way home!

I like my chances in the European challenge better. I expect to take the lead at some point in the relatively near future, but again there's a three month window for anybody who is adequately motivated to knock me down to second.

 

I think you are either wrong, or you know something we don't about your travel plans

Vision's current score is based on Plzen, Prague, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Burgers. He is going to get another huge bump from Walsrode, and we can assume he will continue to visit collections near to him at a steady rate.

You on the other hand, hypothetically speaking of course, may well visit all of the above zoos, plus loads more of the big hitters, which I will again reiterate hypothetically includes Berlin Zoo and its two extremely well populated bird houses. I would be astonished if at the end of this challenge Vision had seen more species in Europe than you.

The question really becomes can you build up enough of a lead to protect against whatever Vision sees in the Bronx et al? I think you can and will.

But this is all idle speculation of course. You should never count your chickens before they're hatched.

 

I know quite a lot about my travel plans that you don't.

We shall see. A big chunk of my skepticism comes from the fact that even if I manage to build up a lead, there will be three full months in which anybody of a suitable mind will be able to chase it down. I'll be like a diver in the Olympics who dives first, and then has to sit there in the gold medal position hoping everybody else belly flops, because there's nothing more I can do. It's a little less the case for passerines - I could probably rustle up 20 or 30 more when I return to Australia - but it's very much the case for the primates one.

 

Pairi Daiza:
125) Bali myna, Leucopsar rothschildi
126) Speke's weaver, Ploceus spekei

Incredible how such a big collection, with background as a bird park, can manage to offer me only two new species; one truly unique, but the other only being new because I missed it at most other collections I've visited.

Besides that, an absolutely wonderful collection with beautiful scenery! Honestly I feel that if they buff their passerine collection a little bit (with perhaps free-ranging passerines in the "Oasis" hall), they'd only have to put in minimal effort to reach out to even more visitors!

 

I'm pretty sure the only potential zoo visitors for whom passerines are a principal drawcard are the people currently chasing your coat-tails, @Vision.

 

I'm not sure any passerine is going to be an inherent draw. Giant Pandas, for example, practically market themselves. Non-Zoo nerds know they are in Edinburgh and will actually visit the Zoo because of them. I agree with TLD though that there are plenty of birds you could build a campaign around, and I'm sure people would respond to that, I just don't think it would generate word-of-mouth like a large charismatic mammal would.

How many passerines does Pairi Daiza have in total Vision?

 

I've seen Superb Bird-of-Paradise costumes online. Perhaps more zoos should acquire this species and sell the costume as merchandise

~Thylo

 

I think this is right. BoPs could, with sufficient name recognition, become supporting cast at the same level as, say, pelicans and parrots and so on. But being the most popular passerine and being an animal that draws people to a specific zoo are different things.

 

Cincinnati Zoo 4/8/17
36. Spangled cotinga Cotinga cayana
37. Capuchinbird Perissocephalus tricolor
38. Asian fairy bluebird Irena puella
39. White-rumped shama Copsychus malabaricus
40. Blue-crowned laughingthrush Garrulax courtoisi
41. White-breasted woodswallow Artamus leucorhynchus
42. Raggiana bird of paradise Paradisaea raggiana
43. Southern red bishop Euplectes orix
44. Yellow-fronted canary Serinus mozambicus