The category: primates. This might be one where a much better zoo is caught off-suit. ZooChat Cup In summary, the rules of the game are as follows: - You may choose whatever criteria you like to decide how to vote, as long as it only relates to the category above. - You can use whatever resources you like to inform your vote, including Zoolex, Zootierliste, the ZooChat gallery, trip reviews, zoo maps, books and wherever else. You don't have to have visited both zoos to vote. - Votes are public and can be changed at any time before the poll closes. - The aim of the game is to provoke debate. Post explaining why you voted the way you did, and why others should join you. - Voting closes in four days - The one thing you can't do is vote based on anything other than the relevant category. Tomorrow, we complete the first round and fill out the draw with two matches, not one, featuring Berlin Tierpark, Leipzig, Rhenen and Rotterdam. Who's playing who? You'll find out then.
Oh boy.... primates is most likely the last reason you want to visit Nuremberg for. I don't see Nuremberg getting any votes here. Not even arguing their gorillas makes sense given the sub par enclosure in- and outsides. Dang. Paignton is has to be.
It's a shame. Nuremberg is one of the best zoos I saw in Europe, but it'd need a run made up entirely of matches based on large carnivores, small mammals or ungulates to win a Cup. It could jag a win on primates against a weak opponent, I guess - but from what I know of Paignton it's not a weak opponent.
Yikes! I love Nuremberg, but... As far as apes go, their gorilla accommodation is dire, even allowing for the fact it houses an old and dysfunctional group. The mix with barbary macaques is interesting, but I haven't actually seen them together. Paignton's ape complex, on the other hand, is brilliant for a zoo of its stature, deserves praise for its long-term commitment to a bachelor group, and has orangutans to boot. Paignton's gibbon islands are also more satisfying than Nuremberg's small cages and they hold more species, although the housing could certainly be improved. Monkeys are Nuremberg's strongest area in this category. The squirrel monkey exhibit is brilliant and I'm a sucker for watching primates in actual trees. However, Paignton wins out on volume and consistency: Monkey Heights and the mandrills, howlers, spider monkeys, etc. are fine; the island for Allen's swamp monkeys is charming; and the various callitrichid enclosures only add to the asymmetry. Nuremberg's highlight is probably the free-roaming sakis and marmosets in the manatee house, but lots of other places do this, too, and they're very much an afterthought. Both zoos have the classic mock-rock baboon enclosures, but I think Paignton's is more impressive. Lastly, lemurs. Paignton's exhibit is large, built around a mature forest, and has a swinging bridge for the kids. Whilst it's difficult to get excited about a lemur walk-through, this is undoubtedly better than Nuremberg's tiny netted enclosures for brown lemurs. Also, Paignton has lorises. Overall, Paignton wins on both exhibits and collection. Now, if we were talking ungulates or small mammals...
Both: white-faced saki; western lowland gorilla Nuremberg Common brown lemur Western pygmy marmoset; Bolivian squirrel monkey Barbary macaque; western baboon Paignton Red ruffed, red-fronted and ring-tailed lemurs Pygmy slow loris Pygmy marmoset; Goeldi’s monkey; golden lion, bearded emperor and pied tamarins; common squirrel monkey; Colombian brown spider monkey Sulawesi crested macaque; collared mangabey; sacred baboon; Diana monkey; Allen’s swamp monkey*; king colobus Malayan white-handed*, Abbott’s* and pileated gibbons Bornean orang-utan An easy win for Paignton, which has a larger, more varied and more interesting collection of primates.
