Join our zoo community

Name the Zoos Map Challenge: UK Version

Discussion in 'United Kingdom' started by Coelacanth18, 18 May 2020.

  1. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Feb 2015
    Posts:
    3,707
    Location:
    California
    In an attempt to better familiarize myself with the location of frequently mentioned zoos in the UK, I inadvertently created what I think could be a fun challenge. Embedded in this thread (and viewable in the gallery) is a road map of the UK, with white bubbles containing the numbers 1 through 80. These 80 numbers correspond to zoological facilities; some well-known, some more off the beaten path (though as an American, I only have a faint idea of where many fall on that spectrum ;)). I would like to see how many of these places British (or non-British!) ZooChat members can name given just their location on a map!

    As you can see, the map is somewhat detailed, with road and city/town labels; however, some of them have been obscured by the bubbles (the map source is posted at the bottom for unhindered reference). I will not be providing a list of the facilities themselves to match with the numbers; besides a few fun hints I will provide at the bottom, you will either have to work them out yourself or leave blank any you don't know. The reason for this is twofold; one is that it will allow us to see how well British (and non-British) ZooChatters know the zoos of the UK, which is one of the fun results I hope this challenge will provide. The second reason is that I want to avoid people treating this like a matching quiz, as I suspect it would be easier to guess some of the zoos if process of elimination was a viable option.

    That being said, what is on the list is fairly straightforward: it is a list of what I have figured to be all of the UK's major zoos, with a decent number of smaller and medium-sized facilities that I have either seen multiple references to on ZooChat over the years, or facilities that seem to show up frequently on ZTL. It only includes zoos located in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland; none of them are permanently closed, and all of them (as far as I know) are accessible to the general public. Given my piecemeal knowledge, don't be surprised if there are a couple or few surprises lurking about ;)

    Rules

    Please read the rules carefully before starting the challenge; they are straightforward, but I want everyone to be familiar with them so the game can run smoothly.

    - Fill out a list in any format you like and send it to me via PM. Please don't post your list (or any of the places on your list) on this thread; the reason for this is that I want to avoid members using previously posted lists as a template. This way, everyone has to do their own list independently from scratch.

    - Don’t do any research, Google Maps searches, ZooChat or Wikipedia perusing, collaborating with others, etc. This challenge is meant to test your existing knowledge, not your ability to study. The enforcement for this will be the honor system; I reserve the right to dispute scores if I have reason to believe they were supplemented by external sources.

    - Please avoid naming any UK facilities or trying to publicly guess what is on the list, as I will not confirm or deny any of them and it will potentially compromise the results by giving out additional clues.

    - For bubbles that contain multiple numbers, like 1-3, the order you put them in does not matter; as long as they are the right 3 for that bubble, you will receive full credit for all of them.

    - Make sure that you provide enough of the zoo’s name for me to know which one you are referring to (in case, perhaps, there is a city with two of them – free hint! ;)).

    Keep in mind that cheating not only ruins the game (and makes you a cheater :p), but also affects the overall picture about what zoos are most well-known or easiest for ZooChatters to place, as well as how familiar ZooChatters are with UK zoos in general. Therefore, please don't cheat :)

    Timeline

    This challenge will be open for one week; as I am opening it this Monday evening, it will close Monday evening next week. I will then announce the top 3 finishers and show some basic stats about how people performed, hopefully with some interesting and useful graphs and comparisons. Only the top 3 finishers' results will have their name attached to their scores on this thread; all other individual results will be PM'ed to the relevant user, and only shown here or among the aggregate data anonymously. If you don’t want your name listed by your score if you end up in the top 3, just note that on the list you send me :)

    Until then, feel free to use this thread to ask questions, request clarifications, or provide feedback. In particular, let me know if the map and numbers are not readable - I experimented with multiple versions to make it easy to read and can post them if necessary. Until then... game on!
     
  2. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Feb 2015
    Posts:
    3,707
    Location:
    California
    And here is the map:


    The original map source: Maps of the United Kingdom | Detailed map of Great Britain in English | Tourist map of Great Britain | Road map of the United Kingdom | Political, Administrative, Physical map of the UK

    And your hints :):

    - The Aspinall parks are pretty close to each other, but they are not each other's closest
    - Forty days and forty nights, and the place he settled on was Southwest England?
    - There are no aquaria on this list of 80, but the closest to that definition is in Devon
    - Supposedly there are two Paradises in England; personally, I'm more inclined to believe that's the case for the sunny southern seaside town than the outskirts of London
    - If you're looking for a forest to monkey about in, a large town east of Wales is a good place to start
    - I know that you all know where Liverpool is (it's labeled on the map), but do you know if this zoo knows that it's next to it?
    - It would make sense to name one facility for the numerous lakes around it, but three? C'mon Cumbria, show some creativity!
    - You wouldn't expect these two tropical-sounding zoos to be in North and West Yorkshire, but lots of things are weird
    - Is it false advertising if a zoo named for the shore isn't actually on the shore?
    - You could say it's pure folly to have two zoos so close to each other, but one is on a manor so I guess it's kosher for the Welsh
    - If you ever went camping, or took a few of your siblings to a park, it might have been in Scotland
    - Jersey isn't technically part of the UK, so it would be foolish to guess it… right?
     
  3. Jungle Man

    Jungle Man Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    24 Jan 2020
    Posts:
    1,583
    Location:
    Panama
    Have you done this in a North American version?
     
  4. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Feb 2015
    Posts:
    3,707
    Location:
    California
    Depending on how this challenge goes, I am planning on making a US version as well, and perhaps other countries/regions :)
     
  5. Jungle Man

    Jungle Man Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    24 Jan 2020
    Posts:
    1,583
    Location:
    Panama
    If you do the American version, I would be glad to participate.:):)
     
    Coelacanth18 likes this.
  6. amur leopard

    amur leopard Well-Known Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Feb 2019
    Posts:
    4,145
    Location:
    London
    Ironically I would likely be much better at the US version than the UK because I have looked pretty deeply into US trips but most of my UK travelling took place when my parents organised it all and I had no clue where I was going :D
     
  7. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Feb 2015
    Posts:
    3,707
    Location:
    California
    At least the UK map here has place names labeled on it for reference ;) Were I to do a US version, I would probably use one without city names, as most major zoos in the States are based in major cities and usually share the name of that respective city.
     
    jayjds2 likes this.
  8. amur leopard

    amur leopard Well-Known Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Feb 2019
    Posts:
    4,145
    Location:
    London
    I didn't think of that. Are you going to put in state outlines or make it a demonic puzzle that only those with photographic memory can hope to complete? :D
     
  9. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Feb 2015
    Posts:
    3,707
    Location:
    California
    Oh, there would be state outlines - probably state labels, as well. I'm not a monster, after all :p
     
    TheGerenuk likes this.
  10. TheGerenuk

    TheGerenuk Well-Known Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    8 Sep 2017
    Posts:
    2,870
    Location:
    Brampton, Ontario, Canada
    I'd be down for a U.S. version of this challenge. Maybe an extra addition could be some Canadian zoos as well (to add a little bit more challenge to it).
     
    amur leopard likes this.
  11. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Feb 2015
    Posts:
    3,707
    Location:
    California
    Submissions have started coming in, looking forward to seeing more :) A couple of notes that have come up that I wanted to add, regarding flexibility in submission answers:

    - Some of the separate bubbles are still quite close to each other, so in general I will try to be lenient in cases where it is understandable to reverse the order. This will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but a few examples are 35-36, 56-57, 61-62, and 65-66.

    - As I did not provide a list to work from, I will also be flexible in what facilities are submitted. Therefore, on a case-by-case basis I will accept incorrect submissions *if* the facility substituted is in that area and fits the described qualities - but it will have to be fairly close. For example, if the facility named is only a few miles away from the actual one it should be counted, but if you substitute a facility in South Wales for one in North Wales that would not be.
     
    Mo Hassan likes this.
  12. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Feb 2015
    Posts:
    3,707
    Location:
    California
    Canada is one of the other countries I meant when I said "and perhaps other countries". I could possibly combine them, but doing Canada and the US together would enlarge an already quite large map.
     
    TheGerenuk likes this.
  13. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Feb 2015
    Posts:
    3,707
    Location:
    California
    Friendly reminder that submissions are due in about 3 days :) Participation has been low so far, so hoping that this thread bump will encourage more responses.
     
    Mo Hassan likes this.
  14. pipaluk

    pipaluk Well-Known Member 10+ year member

    Joined:
    10 Feb 2012
    Posts:
    4,585
    Location:
    England
    Have you closed this yet? I've done a list but obviously it will take a while, so didn't want to do it for nothing
     
  15. Brum

    Brum Well-Known Member 10+ year member

    Joined:
    27 May 2011
    Posts:
    3,704
    Location:
    Birmingham, UK
    I've only just noticed this challenge, if it's still active then I'll sit down and give it a go this evening. Not like I've got much else going on in the evenings at the minute...
     
  16. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Feb 2015
    Posts:
    3,707
    Location:
    California
    I was going to close it today, but seeing as participation has still been quite low I would be willing to extend the deadline in order for the two of you (and any others who have only just now noticed) to complete it.

    @pipaluk How much time do you think you would need? Would 2 or 3 days be sufficient?
     
  17. pipaluk

    pipaluk Well-Known Member 10+ year member

    Joined:
    10 Feb 2012
    Posts:
    4,585
    Location:
    England
    Thanks that would be fine, I'm not sure I will be able to do it tonight, but 2 days is enough
     
    Coelacanth18 likes this.
  18. amur leopard

    amur leopard Well-Known Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Feb 2019
    Posts:
    4,145
    Location:
    London
    If there is an extension I will have a go, although I don't think I would get very many...
    If I'm honest I'm awaiting the American instalment. :D
     
  19. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Feb 2015
    Posts:
    3,707
    Location:
    California
    Sounds good. To accommodate renewed interest in the game, I will extend the game's deadline to 3 AM (GMT) on Thursday May 28. That should give you Brits the rest of the afternoon and all of tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night to turn in your lists :)

    Feel free to go ahead and have a go at it if you're interested :) As I stated earlier, my scoring is very lenient as I feel is appropriate for this open-ended challenge. In addition to the flexibility notes I added above on the 19th, I also made the decision yesterday to award half credit to those who get the right area, even if the bubble is not exactly correct.

    We shall see... The original point of this exercise was to improve my knowledge of British geography; as I don't need to do that for the US, I would solely be creating it for the sake of others playing the game. Given the overall lack of participation until now, I may need to change the format before putting any work into additional installments.
     
    amur leopard likes this.
  20. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,400
    Location:
    New Zealand
    I think the problem is not the format but rather more just the forum in which it is located. The Challenges forum is the correct place for it to be, but it seems like a good chunk of the UK forum members don't go much further than the UK forum so they won't even know this thread exists. What I could do is drop it in the UK forum temporarily, and after it is closed put it back in the Challenges forum.
     
    Brum likes this.