Zoochat Challenge North America 2022

Plenty of non-taxonomic challenges have been run in the past and gone quite smoothly. All that matters is specific rules are set at the beginning to dictate what does or does not count. For example in this year's nocturnal animals challenge globally, there is a long list of groups of animals that qualify, but the big difference is this group includes some mammals, some birds, some reptiles, and some fish. Something like this would be a good way of doing things, as it ensures everyone a somewhat level playing field between taxa they are particularly interested in and taxa they are not interested in, as well as taxa they see frequently and see infrequently. A lot of those above also do have regularly found definitions that can be used. For example, using a geographic or biome theme, there are readily available boundaries that determine what would or wouldn't count.

My big issue with taxonomic challenges is that they almost always advantage and disadvantage some region of the country over another. Since plenty of zoos have certain taxa they specialize in, or exhibit a number of species from, it's almost inevitable that people in some part of the country will do better just due to what's nearby. For example, if it was ungulates, those of us in the Northeast would be at a big disadvantage, especially compared to those in places like Texas that have significantly more ungulates represented. By providing a wider and more diverse array of what counts makes it less likely for one region to pose a big advantage over another region.
For an example, one of the one I suggested was "Semi-Aquatic Animals". If this theme was selected, it may not account for every possible semi-aquatic animal, but a list could be posted at the beginning of the different taxonomic groups within that can count. It could read something like:
Hippopotamuses, Otters, Beavers, Polar Bears, Pinnipeds, Penguins, Charadriiformes, Anseriformes, Crocodilians, Chelonians (excl. tortoises), Amphibians, and Lungfishes. (there's obviously some more that could be included as well, this was just a quick list of what was on top of my head). If this challenge was chosen, most Zoochatters would be able to find *something* they see regularly included, along with at least some sort of taxa they are interested in. Unfortunately with strict taxonomic challenges (i.e. amphibians, parrots, etc.), I find those challenges to be overall less interesting and can be discouraging from the start if it's a taxonomic group that you either don't see regularly, or aren't interested/knowledgeable in. I ran into this when it was the amphibians challenge, since a few of the zoos I frequent either don't exhibit any amphibians or had the same few common poison dart frogs and that's it. I ended up doing alright in it due to some trips that year (an unusual year that I get to a few major American zoos), but had I not had the means and luck of travel, I would've done extremely poorly and ended with a single digit total. With a taxonomic grouping, that's bound to happen to someone, just on account of where in the country they live.

 

There's a difference between how things appear on forum, and what happens behind the scenes. For the non-clear cut challenges, you have no idea how many PMs those challenge creators have received, or how much discussion and planning goes in to whether something should count or not. Even the nocturnal animals one had a lot of questions publicly, and had species added after the challenge had started due to that.

As I said in a post before your reply, making things fairly even is a major part of deciding challenges and in trying to make things fair. There are heavy-hitters for nearly everything you could possibly come up with. The south in general has a big advantage for most, because species are out all year and you don't have places that are closed in winter.

 

Can’t deny that the challenge names are fun to come up with!
But yeah, I guess I joined Zoochat on a strange year for challenges. It’s like getting introduced to “The Lion King” via “The Lion King 1 and a half”.

 

Last year when I asked people for suggestions I got a single PM. Imagine my surprise when I saw this thread today!

I appreciate everyone's enthusiasm and creativity; it's nice to see people engaging It's definitely true that non-straightforward challenges can involve a lot of prep work, and are more at risk of getting revised due to public or private dissent... but in fairness participants don't see most of that process, so I didn't expect any of you to take that into account.

The suggestions are really more of a way for me to see what everyone's interests are, or if there's high demand for something I hadn't been considering. At the end of the day, my goal is to find something that is both fun for the players and manageable for me.

I'm really glad that several people enjoyed the challenge this year; however, I know that for others the memory and scorekeeping was a big task. Next year will be something less complicated to give people a breather... but remember 1) there's more years beyond 2023 to experiment with big ideas, and 2) Global will be a different challenge and thus an alternative for anyone who isn't satisfied with my version.

This is a major consideration when designing these challenges, and one that's admittedly hard to avoid. It's a legitimate concern, and one that I'm actively thinking about how to manage in 2023 and beyond that being said, don't forget that it's not just about who wins or could win; these challenges are a way to get people extra motivated to go visit zoos, and to see how many cool animals we can all discover.

 

Maybe it could be as easy as requiring, say, 12 or 15 bovines as opposed to 20.

 

What are you referring to?

 

I mean making some challenged (or at least just this challenge) easier. As has been said, users up north happen to be at a disadvantage due to the warm-weather fauna being outdoors for only a limited time as well as that region largely not being a "powerhouse" for bovines (largely antelopes and gazelles). Bronx, St. Louis, and Denver off the top of my head are arguably the main northern cold-weather places to see lots of ungulates. Maybe requiring fewer bovines to be seen might make it easier, fairer even.

 

Usually the way these ZooChat Challenges work is that there is a single category and everyone just tries to see as many animals in that category as possible. So for instance, Global's challenge this year is nocturnal animals, and the winner will just be whoever sees the most of those. So having lower or higher requirements for how many animals to see was a feature I used this year to make my design work - it's not typically how these challenges go. Maybe because so many new people only started participating this year, it wasn't clear that 2022's design isn't the norm.

I can't remember if I said it earlier, but I can confirm next year's North America game will be more like the usual design - "see as many as you can" versus specific targets like this year.

 

The challenges were just for this year. They were supposed to be fairly difficult Some really just depended on where you went. This year weather was more of an issue because it was based on a first place, vs year end total, giving southerners an advantage (though I think kudu21 would have won even without that!). I saw 20 bovid species at Metro Richmond alone.

 

I know these trials aren't the norm. This was just the first ZooChat challenge I've ever done (different from "design an exhibit" type things), and I didn't know how those previous challenges worked. There had been so many before that I didn't know where to start to see exactly what it was they were after. I see now that the format of "find as many X as possible" has been finalized as the format for 2023.

 

White with Black Stripes or Black with White Stripes (3/3) - COMPLETE

3. Mountain Zebra (Equus zebra)

COMPLETED (24)
1. Sharknado (1/8)
2. Release the Kraken (1/8)
3. One-Zoo Wonder (1/8)
4. Redemption Arc (2/12)
5. Pick Your Poison (2/12)
6. Ring 'n Ruff (2/21)
7. Three Little Pigs (4/8)
8. Duck Dynasty (4/8)
9. Slow and Steady (4/8)
10. The Steve Irwin (4/8)
11. Nighttime Birding (4/9)
12. Puny Primates (5/29)
13. The Edgar Allen Poe (5/29)
14. The Big Squeeze (5/29)
15. Have Trunk, Will Travel (7/29)
16. An Unbearable Challenge (7/29)
17. Planet of the Apes (7/29)
18. Bovine Bonanza (7/29)
19. The Sobek Six-Pack (7/29)
20. One Drop, One Life (7/29)
21. Bona Fide Rarity Hunter (7/30)
22. Polly Wants 20 (9/25)
23. The Coelecanth Stamp of Approval (12/12)
24. Parliament is Now in Session (6/6)
25. Champion of the Sun (3/3)
26. White with Black Stripes or Black with White Stripes (12/17)

IN PROGRESS (7)
1. Rookery Roundabout (1/6)
2. Cat Got Your Tongue (8/9)
3. The Kingmaker (2/3)
4. Another Dang Meerkat (2/4)
5. You Must be this Tall to (Not) Fly (1/4)
6. Pretty in Pink (3/4)
7. Silk and Stinger (4/6)

 

Where did you see this mountain zebra?

 

@Coelacanth18 Is the Phoenix Herpetological Sanctuary a viable facility for this challenge? They do public tours.

 

I saw one individual in the west savanna.

 

I was asking what zoo you saw the zebra at because you didn't indicate it in your post. Unless there's a zoo called The West Savanna that I'm unfamiliar with, I'm assuming this is the name of an exhibit and not the zoo's name. Correct me if I'm wrong, though.

 

Oops! It was at Disney's Animal Kingdom on 12/16. Sorry about that!

 

If you go on a public tour, yes.

 

Great!

 

Back from Phoenix Herp, and here are my final totals for 2022!

The Big Squeeze (5/5) Complete!
Burmese Python (Python bivitattus)

One Drop, One Life (18/18) Complete!
Spectacled Cobra (Naja naja)
Black Mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis)

Sobek Six-Pack (5/6)
False Gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii)

The Coelacanth Stamp of Approval (8/12)
Frilled Lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii)

Completed Challenges (22/36)
Have Trunk, Will Travel
Cat Got Your Tongue
Ring 'n Ruff
Puny Primates Planet of the Apes
Three Little Pigs
Bovine Bonanza
Late to the Party
You Must Be This Tall to (Not) Fly
Pretty in Pink
Parliament Is Now In Session
Polly Wants 20
Nighttime Birding
Slow and Steady
The Big Squeeze
One Drop, One Life
Pick Your Poison
Sharknado
Silk and Stinger
Release the Kraken
One-Zoo Wonder
Breakfast of Champions

Had Wildlife World's walkaroo kangabout been open, I would've seen their swamp wallabies and completed the Steve Irwin.
All in all, this was a fun challenge! I'm holding off on zoo/aquarium visits until the 2023 challenge is announced. Can't wait!

 

It'll go up on New Year's Eve