British Isles Cup Redux - League A - ZSEA (Banham / Africa Alive) vs Whitley (Paignton / Newq / LC)

@TeaLovingDave Within the category "Carnivores" are we including all carnivorous taxa including reptiles and birds or is this just mammals ?

 

Ok, thanks @TeaLovingDave well I'll focus on carnivora / mammals in my decision.

 

If looked at purely in terms of carnivora and obligate carnivorous mammals kept then I think it is clear that ZSEA have the stronger hand and that Whitley are lacking.

Whitley

Carnivora and obligate carnivorous mammals:

Felids: Sumatran tiger, cheetah, Asiatic lion, Carpathian lynx, fishing cat.

Canids: 0 currently.

Mulestids: Asian short claw otter.

Herpestids: Meerkats.

Viverrids: 0

Pinnipeds (obligate carnivores): 0

Hyaenids: 0

Ursids: 0

Euplerids: 0

Ailurids: Red panda.

Procyonids: Ring tailed coati.

ZSEA

Carnivora and obligate carnivorous mammals:

Felids: Amur tiger, African lion, snow leopard, cheetah, Sri Lankan leopard, Pallas cat, ocelot, serval.

Canids : African hunting dog, maned wolf, bat eared fox, fennec fox.

Herpestids : Yellow mongoose, meerkat.

Euplerids: Fossa.

Mulestids: Asian short claw otter.

Vivverrid: Common genet.

Ursids: 0

Hyaenids: 0

Ailurids: Red panda.

Pinnipeds (obligate carnivores): Californian sealion.

Verdict:

ZSEA win in terms of carnivora kept and have quite an impressive collection in terms of species representing different families of carnivores.

 

Conservation ouput

Whitley

Ex-situ

Critically endangered: Sumatran tiger.

Endangered : Asiatic lion, red panda.

Vulnerable: Fishing cat, Asian short claw otter.

Near threatened: 0.

Total: 5 species and subspecies of conservation concern.

In-Situ:

The Whitley trust for nature funds and supports in-situ conservation efforts all over the world and is literally a lifeline for many of these. Current conservation projects involving carnivores involve Ethiopian wolves, Amur tiger, jaguar, puma, spectacled bear, Andean mountain cat, Eurasian brown bear, Eurasian wolf, Asiatic leopard, dhole, fossa.

ZSEA

Ex-situ:

Critically endangered: Amur tiger,

Endangered: African hunting dog, Sri Lankan leopard, red panda.

Vulnerable: African lion, cheetah, snow leopard, fossa, Asian short claw otter,

Near-threatened: Maned wolf

Total : 10 species and subspecies of conservation concern.

In-Situ:

ZSEA is involved with funding and supporting the snow leopard trust and the Wildcats conservation alliance which works primarily with the Amur and Sumatran tiger.

Verdict

ZSEA keeps more carnivora of conservation concern and has a greater involvement in ex-situ conservation of these than Whitley. However, the Whitley trust for nature has a truly incredible conservation output in terms of in-situ conservation which for me means that they win outright in terms of conservation.

 

I think that the fact that Whitley is involved in the ex-situ and in-situ programme for the Owston's civet and holds it as well as holding a small carnivore that is a firm favourite of mine the narrow striped mongoose just strengthens my vote for Whitley.

Also would agree with you on the Owston's palm civet being the taxon that is in most requirement of conservation attention that Whitley keeps. Although the narrow striped mongoose is not too far off it either really when you consider the threats stacked against it in Madagascar.

Didn't include Living coasts as when I checked the website it stated that it is now closed to the public permanently.

I do have to give a point to ZSEA though because they have quite a strong hand when it comes to the diversity of carnivora kept and if they were still keeping hyena as they apparently once did then it would be an even more impressive collection.

 

True, and I know if I was to in this particular cup it would be a really interesting one as Paignton is quite an old zoo if I remember rightly and they would have historically had far more carnivores.

 

Well that is an interesting consideration and I'll have to take a look at both collections and see how they fare in these terms.

 

There is not much in this really. On its own Paignton wouldn't stand much chance, but Newquay brings Whitley into contention. Whether Living Coasts counts or not makes little difference, as it only adds the fur seals which everyone seems to think were kept in a poor exhibit (not that I personally think it was that bad!).

 

If I'd been able to give a bonus point, this is a clear 2:2... However, as Paignton is a favourite of mine, and having seen some of the great Civet work at Newquay, they *just* get the win.

 

Same with me and Jersey then

 

I wouldn't have guessed

 

As I said before, I think this is very close and not really sure which way to go. I was surprised to find that narrow striped Mongoose is now as common as fossa in UK and Jersey zoos! The only unique to the UK carnivore as far as I can see is Sri Lankan leopard at Banham and they have a good breeding record. I didn't see Owston's Civet at Newquay, and the only place I have always been successful is Thrigby, Port Lympne and Shaldon only seen once each, so couldn't get too excited about their non appearance at Newquay. Newquay have fishing cat(a favourite of mine) but Banham have Pallas', I'm still undecided!

 

What zoos in the UK keep the narrow striped mongoose ?

I mean apart from ZSL, Jersey, Newquay of course.