ZooChat Challenge UK 2013

Fanfare stage left.....

OK here's the 2013 challenge for all those lucky enough to have the time and resources and crazy/driven enough (not a judgement) to be inspired to join in.

After much thought I've decided to throw down the gauntlet as to who can see the most cat species in the UK in a year (note free ranging domestics don't count).

I thought this would be an interesting challenge as it ultimately doesn't give a geographical advantage to anyone in particular -whilst living in Kent will give some a good start it's likely they're going to have to travel quite a bit (and Kent's a long way from a lot of places) to "mop up" the non-Kent species. There's also an interesting (frustrating?) random factor in that cats can be a little elusive and a trip to a collection with a species in it doesn't always yield a viewing of that species. Finally it's also possible that someone could win, given the above factors, without necessarily seeing every cat species theoretically viewable in the UK. Hopefully all of the above will result in a challenge "with legs" that will keep people interesting for a good part of 2013.

I'm keeping the challenge to a species level as I don't want to get bogged down in the quagmire of debating validity of sub-species and/or genetic purity of specific animals (so a tiger is a tiger is a tiger for purposes of the challenge). Frankly including all sub-species of Leopard and Tiger alone would start to make things a little cumbersome (and may take some fun out of the challenge).

For clarification, 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. You have to see the animal via normal public access (i.e. not including zookeeper for the day or photography days behind the scenes) 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;
4. Any limited opening or private collections (e.g. Heythrop, RSCC, WHF, and any similar collections or refuges) don't count for this challenge. Controversial I know, but see previous point and I didn't think it 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;
5. Report/update your progress on this thread as you go along (let's say mandatory reporting from seven species and above);
6. If no-one gets to see all (currently 24 by my count) species potentially seeable by 31/12/13 the winner will be deemed to be the person(s) who's seen the most at that date;
7. My (final) decision is final but I'm open to discussion and debate on any specific points.

Right, do your Zootierliste research, get your atlases out and Satnavs set, go*!!

*from 1/1/13 obviously, no jumping the gun.

 

There's always one (sigh). Indeed, they'd have to view cat from public position during public hours.

Unfortunately the trophy has yet to be passed on due to SMR being ill over Christmas (get well soon if you're reading) and I very embarrassingly don't know how to upload photos. I'm sure he'll upload a photo once he's received. Don't get too excited, you could fit it in your pocket (though it would be very uncomfortable to sit on).

 

I like it I think I could have fun doing this one,but I'm,not going out of my way to win it!!

 

I think this is an excellent challenge and probably if anything more inclusive than last years, since almost every zoo visit will play a part and ( perhaps with the noted exception of kent) it doesn't heavily advantage those living in a particular area of the UK.
I enjoyed following last years, but since i knew Scotland was never on the agenda for me i had no chance.
If someone has a weekend in kent at howletts,PL & Wingham, they'll take some beating- i'm sure someone has booked theirs today , if they hadn't already.
Incidentally, if anyone wants a zootierliste breakdown of cat species, there is a fairly accurate one on the London 2012 thread.

 

Ha, ha. That's the fiendish beauty of this year's challenge, a number of regular/reasonably well travelled zoo visitors (yourself included I'd imagine) will find themselves in the running without really trying (and then people's competitive nature will kick in).

 

Arguably, but there's a good number of species you can't find in Kent (and there's no guarantee of seeing a species on a single visit).

 

Couldn't agree more! I haven't seen several of the smaller species on my visits to Howletts and Port Lympne and ive never seen the clouded leopards at Linton in 5 or 6 attempts!

 

Nice idea (and glad you like the challenge), but I'll keep it simple for the "official" challenge on the basis:

1. Anyone who can afford to fulfill some of those challenges (travel to Belfast, Edinburgh, Thrigby) should be easily able to get to Kent;
2. I think there's enough potential for travel already. Off the top of my head I can only think of Black-footed Cats that can't be seen outside of Kent and there's still a fair bit of travel needed, even for Kent-based peoples, to see Oncilla, Asiatic Golden Cat and Jaguarundi.

From a personal perspective I'd be interested in seeing the three ssp of Asiatic Golden Cats to compare and contrast but I wouldn't travel just for that purpose as, Thrigby Hall specimen aside, they've never been very showy for me.

 

Hi,

Does this count as Lion or African Lion,Barbary lion,Asian Lion etc

Challenge sounds fun though!

Standpitpony

 

Thanks. I think I there's a new years resolution in itself...

 

Exmoor "had" them when I visited in July (i.e. enclosure labelled, but I didn't see, also mentioned on their website).

I would hope Hamerton's come on display soon as there has been an "activity/completion spurt" there recently -then again, given past experience you wouldn't gamble on it necessarily happening within the year.

 

Hmmmm, this is the first year i haven't been to Kent in January for my zoo visits since 2009, and i wasn't planning on going there until 2014. Oh well guess i'll have to try without visiting Kent.

 

I hope Shorts doesn't mind me mentioning this, but I came up with a challenge I'm setting myself whilst I was walking through town and thought I'd mention it if anybody fancies an unofficial pop at it themselves: Columbidae.

There is travel involved and its quite nice to have a non-mammal challenge [my other idea was dart frogs, but I decided to go with Columbidae as I was interested to see what sort of start Chester would give me for the order]. I'm not setting any rules, and subspecies for me count, so basically if I see a pigeon or dove etc anywhere, it counts.

A few wild plus a visit to Chester today has put me on 16:

Wild
Feral pigeon (Columba livia f. feral)
Common wood pigeon (Columba palumbus)
Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Chester
Mindanao bleeding-heart dove (Gallicolumba crinigera)
Luzon bleeding-heart dove (Gallicolumba luzonica)
Socorro dove (Zenaida graysoni)
Green-naped pheasant pigeon (Otidiphaps nobilis nobilis)
White-naped pheasant pigeon (Otidiphaps nobilis aruensis)
Victoria crowned pigeon (Goura victoria)
Common emerald dove (Chalcophaps indica)
Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica)
Pied Imperial pigeon (Ducula bicolor)
Black-naped fruit dove (Ptilinopus melanospilus)
Superb fruit dove (Ptilinopus superbus)
Golden-heart dove (Gallicolumba rufigula)
Rock dove (Columba livia)


Sorry for treading on toes if I have, that's not the intention, and I will be having a go at the cat challenge as well

 

No problems here, provided people remember mine is the "official" challenge.

To be honest I have thought about non-mammal challenges this year and for the future but was left scratching my head -it always ended up with too many or too few places to visit (in my opinion). I'm off to research yours now out of interest/intrigue. Have you worked out the number of potential species/sub-species and the lowest number of places (to visit) to achieve it yet?

 

But of course - like I say, this started out as a general interest of 'how many species of pigeon/dove do Chester keep?' - and then I thought about how many are about and where would I have to travel and the whole thing actually began to interest me as an 'unofficial challenge' [of which I've set a few, but the others are more along the lines of see X number of life ticks, or visit X number of zoos - traveling for the other challenges picks up enough to complete these by default though ]