Practice round? Biomes? Eliminated zoos? What is this? See here: ZooChat Cup - rebooted The topic is... mountains and poles. This thread doesn't count towards any qualification and is intended to help with grasping the new format for our final group stage. It's also a nice chance to return to two zoos that we lost all too soon from the game. Have fun!
I may be way off the mark here but here goes: Prague: Amur leopard Amur leopard cat Barbary macaque Barbary sheep Barbary striped grass mouse Bushy-tailed jird California bighorn sheep Central Chinese goral Eastern bongo Eurasian forest reindeer Eurasian wolf Guanaco Himalayan tahr Indochinese clouded leopard Kuban tur Mishmi takin Nepalese red panda Northern blue sheep Polar bear Siberian tiger Vicuna Pairi Daiza Alpine marmot Asiatic black bear Central Chinese goral Chilean chinchilla Eurasian wolf European brown bear Giant panda Himalayan blue sheep Indochinese clouded leopard Japanese macaque Rocky Mountain wolf Nepalese red panda Peruvian squirrel monkey Shensi takin Siberian tiger Snow leopard That makes it 21-16 to Prague. Species I am not sure about include Eurasian wolf (both) and European brown bear.
Visited both zoos and althrough I have a soft spot for Pairi Daiza I think its honest to see Prague as a clear winner here. Most impressive here is without any doubt the enormous rock-wall !
Prague 2-1 thanks to the best mountain exhibitry in Europe, as far as I know, which makes up for the lousy polar bear enclosure. Now, if Prague only could stimulate the caprines to use the entire space a bit more - they tend to group around the houses at the foot. I once came very early, right after the zoo opening, though, and then they were walking over the entire cliff side - it was really magnificent. I did not visit Pairi Daiza. Of the species listed by Amur Leopard, I understand that their bear/wolf enclosure does a great job at depicting a temperate forest, but I do not associate these species, or the PD enclosure, with mountains, so they are left out here.
I honestly want to give Prague 3-0 simply because it has, hands down, the best mountain exhibits I've ever seen in a zoo. ~Thylo
You should not forget though that Prague's Polar Bear exhibit was criticised by yourself and at least one other who has voted 3-0 Prague (I don't think TLD mentioned the Polar bear exhibit at Prague) when it was up against Chester on carnivores! Not a criticism, but just thought it needed pointing out, as when Prague was up against Chester (the zoo everyone including myself loves,) the Polar bear exhibit mattered, but now it is against Pairi Daiza (the zoo many love to hate), the said supposedly awful exhibit seems to have been forgotten? If the exhibit is that bad, surely Prague should not get 3-0? Note I voted for Prague 3-0 v Chester and 2-1 here!
I did and I still do criticize that enclosure, it's probably the worst in the zoo and I look forward to it going. I didn't praise the zoo for its polar exhibitry here, though, I praised it for its superb mountainous exhibitry which includes not only caprine and primate enclosures but also other hoofstock, raptors, and even herps. I've never been to Pairi, and I will admit (both @ShonenJake13 and TLD can attest to this) that it is probably a better zoo than I've always thought it was. The arguments made by others in these matches have proved that to me and I do hope to visit for myself one of these days. As it were, Prague is a collection I have visited, I love, and that I know has many amazing exhibits/enclosures in this category, whereas for Pairi I mainly know of their mixed bear/wolf enclosures. The enclosures themselves look pretty great, but I really don't like wolf/bear mixed exhibits (an opinion I've voiced in the past) so that doesn't gain Pairi a point in my book. Yes Prague has one bad enclosure in this match, but they have so many other amazing ones and Pairi seems to have so little to offer here based on what I know about the zoo that I am willing to overlook the current situation. That should not be mistaken for me forgetting or ignoring it because I'm not. It's worth noting that the bears will not be exhibited here for much longer as well. ~Thylo
That's fair enough, I just thought it needed pointing out as the Polar bear exhibit was a major factor in Prague's elimination (not something I agreed with though)!
No, that's one I criticised too definitely one of the worst exhibits in the place, if not the worst. The basic logic where I am concerned is that, looking at this biome as two distinct categories, Prague has good-to-excellent exhibits where mountains are concerned, and poor-to-okay exhibits where poles are concerned. Conversely, at Pairi the mountain biome is entirely unrepresented, with average-to-okay exhibits where poles are concerned. Therefore, the fact that Prague excels in an area which Pairi doesn't bother with swings it decisively for me. To be fair, exhibit quality wasn't even on your radar as a relevant factor at all as you were openly judging the matter on a pure arithmetic of collection numbers.
