Vienna and Los Angeles both won their first matches. The winner of this one will have one hand on qualification for the next round. The topic? Birds. The rules: You have three votes to award. If you think it's a tight match, award 2 votes to the stronger zoo and 1 to the weaker one. But if you think it's a wider margin than that, award all 3 votes to the winner. Your criteria for how you make your decision is entirely up to you, *except* that you must stay only within the given category. That includes ignoring the results of the other match: no strategic voting. All votes are public, and all votes can be changed. The purpose of the game is to provoke debate, so make your case for why people should vote the same way as you do. Be open to reconsidering your vote.
So the following list may not be 100% accurate at this point because LA has moved some species around a lot since my last visit but this is an at least semi-accurate species list: -Red-Tailed Hawk -Steller's Sea Eagle -African Fish-Eagle (probably gone now, I think) -American Harpy Eagle -Harris's Hawk -African Crowned Eagle -Chestnut Teal -Trumpeter Swan -Freckled Duck -Northern Ground Hornbill -Wreathed Hornbill -Sulawesi Knobbed Hornbill -Red-Legged Seriema -California Condor -King Vulture -Andean Condor -Cape Thick-Knee -Northern Masked Lapwing -Spur-Winged Lapwing -Greater Roadrunner -Northern Crested Caracara -Lanner Falcon -Blue-Billed Curassow -Great Curassow -Lesser Bornean Crested Fireback -West African Black Crowned Crane -East African Grey Crowned Crane -Lady Ross's Turaco -White-Cheeked Turaco -Vietnamese Golden-Fronted Leafbird -Indochinese Green Magpie -Yellow-Billed Magpie -Vietnamese Red-Billed Blue Magpie -Crested Oropendola -Village Weaver -Black-Headed Weaver -Black-Collared Starling -Bali Mynah -Scarlet Ibis -Chilean Flamingo -Greater Flamingo -Red-and-Yellow Barbet -Keel-Billed Toucan -Salmon-Crested Cockatoo -Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo -Galah -Yellow-Naped Amazon -Blue-Throated Macaw -Military Macaw -Sun Conure -Spectacled Owl -Southern Cassowary -Red-Necked Ostrich -Somali Ostrich So that's 52/53 taxa, a good few of which are pretty rare in zoos. The harpy and condor in particular have good aviaries, and the zoo has been integral to the California Condor recovery program. The zoo also takes in a lot of illegally confiscated birds that come into the country. They definitely have more species bts, including some of said confiscated birds. They had Javan Mynahs at least for a while, I'm not sure if those ended up surviving the confiscation, though. For now I'll be voting 2-1 LA simply because no one has made an argument for Vienna and LA seems to have a good standing for now. ~Thylo
Vienna has 97 species of bird in total. Look at the bird list on ZTL for more info but there are some pretty rare species there as well...
Again, LA likely has more than the species I listed if we include the bts collection. Also, ztl is usually at least somewhat out of date so that 97 number is probably incorrect anyhow. ~Thylo
Vienna keeps around 85 bird species I think, the vast majority is on show. Many bird species are either free-flying in the tropical house (SE-Asian) or in what is possibly the best bird house in Europe. This house consists of 2 walkthroughs, one for African birds and one for S American birds. The species line up and the landscaping are pretty good, but hpw this is integrated in the historic building is just fantastic. That house alone would make Vienna deserve a win against most zoos.
OK … although normally it is relatively up to date... At any rate when I went I was impressed by the bird exhibits. They have done a very good job of making all the necessary adjustments to the old buildings so that they satisfy modern standards while still taking care of the historic buildings. It is difficult to do this (as London zoo has demonstrated), but they have pulled it off magnificently, combining old and new to make a very good, if not world-class, zoo.
Vienna appears to have a great deal more on-show species than Los Angeles, with many outstanding exhibits all throughout that excellent Austrian zoo. Los Angeles had a few nice aviaries when I was last there in 2017, although I also recall seeing species such as African Fish Eagle and Steller's Sea Eagle in those ultra-crappy 1960s 'roundhouses' and that's definitely not cool. Looking through the ZooChat gallery, and reading this thread, I'm going to vote 3-0 Vienna for now...unless someone has a more persuasive argument in favour of Los Angeles to knock the scoreline to 2-1 Vienna.
I've never visited LA, but I did visit Vienna in 2017 and I was very impressed with the entire zoo. The bird house was excellent, but for me it was really the South-East Asian hall that was the top exhibit in the entire zoo. I don't think a 3-0 victory for Vienna is excessive at all.
I'm not a fan of LA's roundhouses for eagles or its aviaries up on the hill, but the harpy eagle aviary is good and their work with California condors has definitively helped prevent their extinction. I'm voting 2-1 for Vienna because I think LA earns enough credit for a point, but maybe because of its downsides it wouldn't edge out Vienna's best.
I've gone 2-1 for Vienna as they have the better collection and presentation. LA still get a point for their California condor exhibit, along with the conservation work they do with that species as well.
I've voted 2-1 Vienna. Birds aren’t one of LA's strongest categories, the Harpy Eagle and California Condor exhibits are really nice, but apart from those two the other bird exhibits are very unmemorable, in fact other than the Harpy Eagle and the California Condors, the only birds I remember seeing were King Vulture and a turaco species in the roundhouses. I’m still giving LA a vote however, mostly due to the good Eagle and Condor aviaries along with the fact that they have a pretty solid collection. I also haven’t really seen a good reason to give Vienna a 3-0 victory.
Unless something has changed recently, the condors are not on show. In fact, one of the key aspects of LA's master plan is to have a public exhibit for them. Their website also states they are not on display: Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens | California Condor Recovery Program Their aviary is in a non-public area, although you can see it from certain vantage points in the zoo (it's quite large). Here is a photo taken at a distance of it. Oddly, it seems to have come from our media gallery, but I can't find it: https://www.zoochat.com/community/d...cca476ebfd4290727de89f08c30bea.jpg?1465950470
It's by @ThylacineAlive - here: California Condor - ZooChat Where did the photo in your post come from?
Ahhhhh…. I'm an idiot Do San Diego zoo have California condors (I know this is off-topic but it is just a quick question hopefully)
Yes they do, it's in their Elephant Odyssey section. I think I mixed up San Diego and LA when I said that the LA zoos Condors were on-show.
