ZooChat Challenge Global 2021

Just like that….we’re wrapping up 2020. I’ve hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, and a wonderful year (as wonderful as you could make it). We’re onto the ninth installment of the ZooChat Global Challenge! Last year, I know many of us quite possibly missed out on loads of zoo-visiting in 2020, and hopefully 2021 will be slightly better.

Oh and before we start let’s address the elephant in the room.

Spoiler: The Elephant in the Room

Spoiler: The Other Elephant in the Room

Anyways, you may notice that @ThylacineAlive is not running this year’s challenge, I am. He’s passed on the “illustrious” honor of running this show for now, so my thanks to you, Thylo.

In case 2020’s challenge was worse than Santa giving you a bag of coals, 2021 will bring you a challenge of miscellaneous mammals! The mammals covered under this category are as follows (in terms of orders):


Chiroptera (Bats)
Eulypotyphla (Hedgehogs, shrews, moles, and others)
Lagomorpha (Hares, rabbits, and pikas)
Diprodontia (Macropods, possums, koala, and others)
Didelphimorphia (Opossums)
Dasyuromorphia (Carnivorous marsupials)
Afrosoricida (Golden moles, otter shrews, and tenrecs)
Scandentia (Treeshrews)
Paramelemorphia (Bandicoots and bilbies)
Cingulata (Armadillos)
Macroscelidea (Elephant shrews)
Pilosa (Anteaters and sloths)
Pholidota (Pangolins)
Hyracoidea (Hyraxes)
Sirenia (Sea cows)
Monotremata (Monotremes)
Proboscidea (Elephants)
Tubulidentata (Aardvarks)


Rodents were to be included but I’ve decided to leave them out as they’ve had their own challenge in the past, and we could have more of a challenge could we ? I’ve included monotremes and marsupials to, in a sense “make up” for 2020. But other than that the challenge is fairly easy after a hard year, and hopefully Australasia won’t be too left out as they usually are (it does look like Europe has this in the bag, though). IUCN taxonomy (regardless of your taxonomic beliefs and how inaccurate it is) will be used for the purpose of a general reference .

Rules are as follows:


1. You have to actually see the animal, even if just for a second. You don't score if you visit a collection but don't see the animal (harsh, but fair);

2. Proof via photographs is not required, your word is your bond;

3. All entries must be presented in numbered list form, with scientific names included (simply to make it easier to keep track of and to avoid uncountable species being slipped in due to vagueness);

4. You have to see the animal via normal public access (zookeeper for the day or photography days behind the scenes do not count) during normal public opening hours (i.e. no scoring because you know the keeper and can get access before/after hours). Basically the species has to be seen as Joe Public would;

5. Any severely limited opening or private collections don't count for this challenge. Controversial yes, but see previous point and it isn't fair to include a handful of days these collections might be open to the public as this might logistically disadvantage a large number of people;

6. Only public zoological collections, museums, public park displays, etc. count, animals seen at farms or pet stores do not count;

7. Report/update your progress on this thread as you go along;

8. Only one subspecies per species can be counted;

9. Controversial entries due to splits will be discussed on a case-by-case basis;

10. Domestics do not count, the animals must be in a wild form. You can count a species that's been domesticated just as long as the animal you're looking at isn't;

11. Hybrid animals do not count;

12. Wild animals do not count, all species must be seen in captivity under all the conditions listed above;

13. Anyone caught severely violating any of the above rules and/or participating in extremely unsportsmanlike conduct on or even off the forum is subject to disqualification (these are made for fun, by all means take them seriously but please do not ruin the fun for anyone else. I do not expect to have any problems, but I've added this in just in case);

14. Any issues with any of the above rules is open to discussion but the rules are set and any decisions made are final;

15. Apart from the unlikely event that someone gets to see all the species potentially viewable by 12/31/21, the winner will be deemed to be the person who's seen the most at that date.


Thank you to @Shorts for the concept of the challenge and the general rules format.


Onto prizes now, whoever wins gets an ego boost and bragging rights! Might seem like a worthless prize but one man’s trash is another man’s treasure .


Well, let the hunger games begi...oh, wrong competition….anywho, have a great year and happy zoo-going!

 

Maybe rodents should have been included - most of these groups are fairly rare in zoos and I could easily someone visiting several zoos over the course of 2021 and not getting a single species for this challenge - especially if all the zoos keeping their indoor areas closed still do through to the end of the year.

 

While I see your point, the group of animals is still very broad, and has a surprisingly high number of species that are 'typically' found in zoos. Sloths and wallabies are not exactly few and far between in the modern zoo, with elephants, giant anteaters, armadillos, bats and the odd marsupial not unheard of in the larger zoos either.

On another note, for fellow Europeans, the collections to visit would probably be Plzen and Prague, with Pairi and Beauval not far behind. Hamerton would probably be the best in the UK.

 

Rodents are kept indoors mostly as well. One would be able to see an elephant outdoors, chances are. Nevertheless it's not gonna be too easy a challenge, so it'll be interesting how we all plan for it to turn out!

EDIT : I did want to include rodents, but seeing how they've had a challenge all on their own I decided to leave them out .

 

Got a quick visit in to Chester today, sadly bad weather and covid restrictions lead to a lot of no shows including even the elephants...

1. Goodfellow's tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus goodfellowi)
2. Rock hyrax (Procavia capensis)
3. Aardvark (Orycteropus afer)

 

1. Red-necked Wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus)

 

Whipsnade 1 January

1. Red necked Wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus)
2. Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus)

Hamerton 3 January

3. Ground Cuscus (Phalanger gymnotis)
4. Parma Wallaby (Macropus parma)
5. Swamp Wallaby ( Wallabia bicolor)
6. Giant Anteater (Myrmecophaya tridactyla)
7. Tiger Quoll (Dasyrus maculatus)
8. Yellow spotted Hyrax (Heterohyrax brucei)
9. Long nosed Potoroo (Potorus tridactylus)
10. Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus)

A few missing due to indoor areas being closed and a no show

 

A very wet visit to Wildlife HQ today. The zoo closed early due to the miserable weather but I managed to see most of the animals. The quoll seems to be off display now replaced by the possum. A quokka joey was also nice to see.

Wildlife HQ - 8/1/2020
1) Quokka Setonix brachyurus
2) Rufous Bettong Aepyprymnus rufescens
3) Koala Phascolarctos cinereus
4) Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby Petrogale penicillata
5) Common Wombat Vombatus ursinus
6) Short-beaked Echidna Tachyglossus aculeatus
7) Red Kangaroo Osphranter rufus
8) Tasmanian Devil Sarcophilus harrisii
9) Short-eared Brushtail Possum Trichosurus caninus
10) Swamp Wallaby Wallabia bicolor
11) Red-necked Wallaby Notamacropus rufogriseus
12) Long-nosed Potoroo Potorous tridactylus

 

Australia Zoo - 13/01/2020
13) Black-footed Rock Wallaby Petrogale lateralis
14) Eastern Grey Kangaroo Macropus giganteus
15) Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat Lasiorhinus latifrons

 

Sacramento Zoo - 1/18/21
1) Aardvark (Orycteropus afer)
2) Giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla)
3) Red kangaroo (Osphranter rufus)

 

2. Linnaeus's Two-toed Sloth (Choloepus didactylus)

 

Glad to see this is going as well as can be expected so far I want to thank @ZooBinh for agreeing to take care of the challenge for me while I was away. It'll be fun playing as just a participant this time around. Fingers crossed we all get to see a bit more as the year progressing

~Thylo

 

Staten Island Zoo
1. Rodrigues Fruit Bat, Pteropus rodricensis
2. Seba's Short-tailed Bat, Carollia perspicillata
3. Feathertail Glider, Acrobates pygmaeus
4. Red Kangaroo, Osphranter rufus
5. Hoffman's Sloth, Choloepus hoffmanni
6. Nine-banded Armadillo, Dasypus novemcinctus
7. Southern Tamandua, Tamandua tetradactyla

 

San Antonio Zoo:
1. Matschie's tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus matschiei)
2. Red kangaroo (Macropus rufus)
3. Seba's short-tailed bat (Carollia perspicillata)
4. Northern treeshrew (Tupaia belangeri)
5. Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)

Animal World & Snake Farm Zoo:
6. Rock Hyrax (Procavia capensis)

 

Bronx Zoo
1) Aardvark Orycteropus afer
2) Northern Treeshrew Tupaia belangeri
3) Rodrigues Flying Fox Pteropus rodricensis
4) Indian Flying Fox Pteropus medius

~Thylo

 

Ipswich Nature Centre - 30/01/2020
16) Tiger Quoll Dasyurus maculatus
17) Eastern Quoll Dasyurus viverrinus
18) Greater Bilby Macrotis lagotis
19) Red-legged Pademelon Thylogale stigmatica

 

Point Defiance Zoo
1. Southern Tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla)
2. Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana)
3. Parma Wallaby (Macropus parma)

 

Oakland Zoo - 2/16/21
4) African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana
5) Large flying fox (Pteropus vampyrus)
6) Small flying fox (Pteropus hypomelanus)

 

Turns out, Berlin zoo with houses closed (and one no-show) is.... not very producitve in this category:

1) Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)
2) Giant Anteater (Myrmecophage tridactyla)
3) Red Kangaroo (Osphranter rufus)