British Isles Cup Redux - League B - Bristol/Wildplace vs Jersey

I think it is better to include Madagascar, Caribbean and even Philippines and Indonesia as islands personally as the biogeographic term misses a lot out.

 

I mean I know that Bristol does have in-situ programes as my boss was trained by the Bristol Zoological Society and I also know that they are a fairly old zoological society like London (though not as old obviously).

However, I just don't think they have the global presence, impact or even the conservation success rate of the Durrell Trust in either in-situ or ex-situ conservation.

I could just be biased in favour of the Durrell trust but I do struggle to see them as being on the same level in terms of conservation output.

 

Fair play to you for honesty!

 

Wish you would be equally honest about whatever the issue you have with Jersey is.

 

I don't have an 'issue' with Jersey, I just don't think the zoo is as good as some do

 

Ok, well I guess I respectfully disagree with that statement.

 

That's fair enough, I am not saying Jersey is a bad zoo and not denying its past conservation record, but don't think overall it is THAT great a collection. Certainly the effort and expense it would take to get me there would more likely send me to mainland Europe. Just my opinion

 

OK my take.

As I have said before i believe the number of species a zoo has to be irrelevant to how good it is. This is not only because this can detract from the zoos conservation, education and scientific missions, it really has no influence on the zoo's commercial success. 99% of zoo visitors really don't care how many species they see, they are more interested in the overall experience. At one extreme too many species can harm the zoo if it means animal care costs reduce the zoos ability to properly maintain the rest of the facility and provide visitors with a positive experience.

Having said that, according to @TeaLovingDave there is not much difference between actual number of species in this case, although Bristol is a little ahead.

Still, the species enthusiast should consider the role Jersey has played in introducing species to zoos, for instance the aye-aye and giant jumping rats. I believe Jersey was the first European zoo with kowaris, if not the first very early.

But as I have made clear before for me it all comes down to conservation. Bristol has a fine range of programs and would stand up well against most zoos. Jersey, though, has made a specialty of working with Island species. They pretty much wrote the book. Their work on Round Island is world-leading. It is impossible to go past them.

 

I think they are definitely ahead of Bristol when it comes to long-term conservation of island endemic species.

But again it is all subjective isn't it ?

I am more interested in the conservation output of a zoo in terms ex-situ and critically in-situ work so these are the metrics that I would consider to be more significant when it comes to rating a zoo.

Similarly, I'm not particularly interested in the number of species that a zoo has but what these animals are there for and the work involved ex-situ and in-situ with each species. Therefore, it is once again quality over quantity for me and this swings the vote in Jersey's favour.

Others like @pipaluk might base their vote on the number of island species held by an institution and that is fine, it is their choice afterall, but that isn't the way I view things and my vote for Jersey reflects that.

Incidentally, the blue eyed black / Sclatler's lemur I mentioned in an earlier thread as being a good candidate of a species that could be held at Jersey in the future.

What species would you like to see at Jersey Zoo ?

 

Well I agree and I don't think that Jersey should get a clean sweep automatically for being Jersey, If we are talking about something like pinnipeds or big cats how would Jersey ever compete with somewhere like Whipsnade or ZSL ?

However, I do think that in most categories in terms of ex-situ / in-situ conservation and particularly these kind of ecosystem related contests Jersey is just going to typically come out higher than other zoos because of their ethos and history of commitment to conservation.

 

It’s the thing I don’t like about soccer, you can control the field for the whole match then bam! the opposition gets a couple of quick fluky goals and it is all over. Live with it.

 

I guess like football we all have our preferred teams in terms of zoos and conservation organizations that we support and support us.

It seems that in the case of me and @MRJ Jersey / Durrell trust is just the team that we support whereas others are going to consider Chester, Aspinall parks, LA or San Diego zoo their team.

 

True.