Firstly, as always, thanks to all those that have played this year and all those who have followed and/or posted on the thread to make it so interesting to follow. Maximum congratulations to Pipaluk for winning this year's challenge. The “roll of honour” for all those scoring over 100 species was as follows: Pipaluk 161 ShonenJake13 154 Zia 151 BeakerUK 149 MagpieGoose 133 Quincy 104 Given the maximum species available to see was 169(ish) anything nearing 150 is particularly impressive and Pipaluk's 161* very especially so. Special mention to Quincy too who did well to breach 100 given the geographical hamstring (for this challenge) of living in Scotland. I thought it would be interesting to make a note of Challenges past for interest, as follows: 2012 (Bears) SMR 2013 (Cats) Snowy Owl 2014 (Birds of Prey) Hevden 2015 (Old World Primates) Hevden 2016 (Reptiles) ZooGiraffe 2017 (Oldest UK Zoos) Pipaluk Onward to 2018's challenge (details posted elsewhere). Will Pipaluk make it three in a row? Will previous, close-chasing, bridesmaids become brides? Will Hevden make a return? Time will tell but I trust it will be fun finding out. *I'd be interested if Pipaluk knows which species they could have got but failed to do so. Also please get in touch, via PM, with your address if you want your trophy sending.
Many thanks to Shorts for organising another enjoyable challenge and to all the other competitors who helped make it a contest. In answer to Shorts' question, I think I am missing 5 'seeable' species from the list, 4 of which are only on show in Scotland : Musk Ox Markhor Koala Giant Panda The other species, which I don't think anyone saw outside Scotland was Crimson Rosella. Gaboon Viper had gone from Chester by the time I got there, green mamba not on show at the zoos listed on ZTL and obviously the kiwi at Paignton can still only be viewed on a TV screen.
Well it has absolutely made my day to come 4th! Aside from one or two frustrations that I should have seen but failed to, that was pretty much as many as it was possible for me. But I have had a blast doing it and have the little book to keep as a memory. I don't think I will do anywhere near as well at the new challenge this year (I liked the convenience of having the book to work from) so this might be the peak of my challenge performance! Well done to everyone who took part
Great challenge this year, really enjoyed it! Unfortunately life being life prevented me from seeing much past June but I'm still chuffed to have seen as many species as I did. Well done to everyone who played, at the start of the year I never thought anyone would get above 125 so to get some shoess sound 150 is amazing.
Apologies sir/madam -I didn't scan back far enough to pull you into the final honour roll. 136 is an impressive score considering you weren't playing much past June -special "hare overtaken by tortoise" award to you.
I don't think I was ever the tortoise though! I already had 145 at the point Dormitator reached 136, though they always looked like the main challenger. The thing about this challenge was that it was relatively easy to score 100-120 from about 5-8 zoos, but once you passed that, it was all one or two species per visit, which made it slow going from there onwards
Thanks @Shorts - I've just realised I completely failed to update after our trip to Wingham so our final total was actually 155 with the addition of: 29/09/18: Asiatic Black Bear Blue Crowned / Western Pigeon Nile Monitor Puma / Cougar Quite pleased with that tbh! Thank you for running the challenge - we had a lot of fun with it this year
Just totted up some stats from our 2018 Zooing season / challenge - and it has been a great one with 32 Parks visited and 40 zoo days in total! We've been keeping the totals for each species and park visited as follows: Total spots from the book at each park. May have been over more than one visit but each species spot only counted once. Number of visits shown in brackets for parks visited more than once: Colchester 46 (2) Wingham 45 Paignton 42 Whipsnade 40 (3) Cotswold 38 (2) London 34 Blackpool 34 Paradise 32 (2) Chester 32 (3) Marwell 27 (2) WMSP 26 Hoo Farm 26 Flamingo Land 26 Drayton Manor 25 Port Lympne 25 Hamerton 25 Birdworld 23 Axe Valley 23 Twycross 21 Bristol 19 Yorkshire Wildlife Park 19 Chessington 18 Birdland 16 Dartmoor 16 Hawk Conservancy Trust 10 Wild Zoological 10 Big Cat Sanctuary 8 ShaldonWildlife Trust 7 Crocodiles of the World 6 Wild Discovery 4 Cedars Natures Centre 3 Cornish Seal Sanctuary 2 Top 5 species spotted: Meerkat 28 Ringtail Lemur 21 Tiger 18 Lion 17 and a tie for 5th place: Ruffed Lemur / Ostrich / Giraffe 14
Total number of unique spots per species (i.e. does not include any repeat spots if we visited a park more than once): # = We intend to try to see the species in a European park * = Species cannot be seen in any European park Aardvark 3 African (Congo) / Timneh Grey Parrot 6 African / Jackass Penguin 4 African Elephant 3 African Fish Eagle 1 African Hunting (Wild) Dog 7 African (Rock) Python 1 American (Plains) Bison / Buffalo 1 American Alligator 2 Anaconda 7 Andean Condor 1 Arctic Fox 1 Ariel# / Toco Toucan 1 Asiatic Black Bear 1 Bactrian Camel 13 Barbary Sheep 2 Bateleur Eagle 2 Bilby* 0 Black & White (Guereza) Colobus 6 Black Panther (melanistic leopard) 0 Black Rhinoceros 5 Black-backed Jackal 0 Blackbuck 3 Black-headed Weaver 2 Black-tailed Prairie Dog 2 Blue & Yellow Macaw 13 Blue Duiker 1 Blue Wildebeest (Brindled Gnu) 1 Blue-crowned (Western) Pigeon 1 (we counted Wingham as the only holder of what we believed the picture in the book was) Blue-crowned Motmot 1 Boodie* 0 Bottle-nosed Dolphin# 0 Brown Bear 1 Brown Kiwi 0 Californian Sea Lion 6 Canadian (North American) Beaver 0 Canadian (North American) Otter 1 Caracal 3 Caracara (Crested) 2 Caribbean / Rosey Flamingo 5 Caribbean Manatee* 0 Carpet Python 4 Cassowary (Southern) 4 Chapman's Zebra 4 Cheetah 11 Chilean Flamingo 11 Chimpanzee 5 Clouded Leopard 3 Colugo* 0 Common (Green) Iguana 4 Common (Mediterranean) Chameleon 1 Common Boa 6 Common (White Tufted-ear) Marmoset 7 Common Wombat 1 Common# / Belanger's Tree Shrew 3 Crimson Rosella 0 Crowned Crane 10 Dingo# 0 Eastern Quoll 1 Echidna 1 Emu 12 Eurasian / European Eagle Owl 8 European (Great) White Pelican 5 Fennec Fox 1 Fischer's Lovebird 0 (our nemesis!) Gaboon Viper 0 Gelada 1 Gemsbok (Common Oryx) 2 Giant Anteater 7 Giant Armadillo* 0 Giant Panda 0 Giant Tortoise 8 Giraffe 14 Golden Eagle 1 Golden Lion Tamarin 6 Golden Pheasant 6 Gouldian Finch 1 Grant's (Plains) Zebra 3 Great Indian Hornbill 2 Greater Flamingo 7 Greater Kudu 1 Green Mamba 0 Grevy's Zebra 6 Grey Seal 1 Grey Wolf 6 Griffon (Western Eurasian) Vulture 1 Hawaiian Goose 3 Hawksbill Turtle# 0 Helmeted Guinea Fowl 7 Hill Mynah 0 Hippopotamus 3 Humboldt's Woolly Monkey 0 Hyacinth Macaw 2 Indian (Rock) Python 0 Indian (Spectacled) Cobra 1 Indian Elephant 4 Indian Mongoose* 0 Indian Peafowl 7 Indian Rhinoceros 3 Jaguar 5 Jerboa 1 Jungle Cat 0 Kakapo* 0 Kangaroo Rat# 0 King Penguin 1 King Vulture 2 Koala 0 Kookaburra 11 Lady Amherst's Pheasant 2 Lar Gibbon 5 Large Flying Fox# 0 Leopard 5 Leopard Gecko 2 Lesser Flamingo 0 Lilac Breasted Roller 3 Lion 17 Llama 5 Long-nosed Potoroo 4 Lowland Gorilla 7 Malayan Tapir 3 Mandarin Duck 4 Mandrill 4 Mara 10 Maribou Stork 3 Markhor 0 Meerkat 28 Mountain (Hartmann's) Zebra 3 Musk Ox 0 Naked Mole Rat 2 Nile Crocodile 2 Nile Monitor 1 North American (Tree) Porcupine 1 North American Raccoon 6 Northern Lynx 4 Ocelot 3 Okapi 3 Orang-Utan 5 Ostrich 14 Pangolin# 0 Paradise Whydah# 0 Patas Monkey 1 Peccary (Collared) 2 Pere David's Deer 3 Polar Bear 1 Proboscis Monkey* 0 Przewalski's Horse 3 Puff Adder 2 Puma / Cougar / Mountain Lion2 Purple Glossy Starling 2 Pygmy Hippopotamus 5 Rainbow Lorikeet 12 Red Kangaroo 3 Red Panda 13 Reeves' Muntjac 2 Reindeer 9 Reticulated Python 7 Ring-tailed Coati 11 Ring-tailed Lemur 21 Rockhopper Penguin 1 Royal Python 3 Ruffed Lemur (any species) 14 Saiga# 0 Scarlet Ibis 7 Scarlet Macaw 8 Scimitar-horned Oryx 4 Senegal Galago / Bush Baby 2 Serval 5 Shingleback Skink# 0 Siberian Chipmunk 2 Snow Leopard 3 Snowy Owl 9 Spectacled Owl 7 Spotted Hyena 1 Spotted Linsang* 0 Squirrel (Common) Monkey 12 Striped Skunk 6 Sulphur-breasted (Keel-billed) Toucan 1 Sulpur-crested Cockatoo 4 Sun Bear 2 Sunda Pig-tailed Macaque 1 Tarsier* 0 Tiger 18 Two-toed Sloth (any species) 9 Vervet Monkey 2 Western Diamondback Rattlesnake 1 Western Grey (black-faced) Kangaroo 4 White Rhinoceros 7 White-cheeked Turaco 2 White-faced Saki 7 Wild Cat 3 Yellow-backed (Chattering) Lory3
My top (mammal ) species seen from 46 UK collections were 1 Meerkat 31 2 Ring-tailed lemur 27 3 Tiger 18 4 Ruffed Lemur 16 5 Lion 15 6 Coati 14 7 Red Panda 13 8 Giraffe 11 I think a couple of owl species could make the list, but don't have the time to work it out
No sleepy lizards? I can't imagine a world without sleepy lizards!? Although the jolly blighters do love to eat the strawberries growing in the garden! They can look quite scary with their face covered in red! Had to build a wall around the strawberry patch to stop them getting in.
There have been no Dingoes in UK zoos for quite a long time now...the last I remember were in London back in the 1960's.
The last Dingo in the UK was held at Suffolk Wildlife Park in the early 1990s I believe though there were one or two other collections which held them into the 1980s - Knaresborough Zoo and Chester Zoo are the two I know about.
