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ZooChat Cup Group E: Cologne vs Denver

Discussion in 'ZooChat Cup' started by CGSwans, 24 Aug 2019.

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Miscellaneous mammals

Poll closed 27 Aug 2019.
  1. Cologne 3-0 Denver

    57.1%
  2. Cologne 2-1 Denver

    42.9%
  3. Denver 2-1 Cologne

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  4. Denver 3-0 Cologne

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. CGSwans

    CGSwans Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    The category? Miscellaneous mammals. Anything mammalian that isn’t a carnivore, primate, ungulate or elephant counts here. This one and the other group E match I’m about to post are timed to conclude at about 10:30PM Monday Chicago time.

    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.
    Tags: @Ituri , @Echobeast , @HOMIN96 , @Giant Panda , @snowleopard , @jwer
     
  2. lintworm

    lintworm Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    I know absolutely nothing about Denver zoo, but Cologne has a varied collection, not with a large number of species, but with good diversity and with quite some rarities.

    Species kept in Cologne are as follows:

    Sugar glider
    Brush-tailed bettong
    Matschie's tree kangaroo

    Aardvark
    Lesser hedgehog tenrec
    Rufous elephant shrew

    Giant anteater

    Lyles' fruit bat
    Rodriquez fruit bat

    Northern Luzon cloud rat
    Southern african spiny mouse
    Red-legged sun squirrel
    Sumatran Prevost squirrel
    Capybara

    All marsupials are in the tropical house, the Bettongs share a spacious nocturnal exhibit with the Cloud rats, where the Sugar gliders and Tree kangaroo both have slightly smallish enclosures as well. Lyles' fruit bat are free flying around in the walkthrough and Prevost squirrel are also kept here.

    The Hippodom holds most of the other animals from this category. a medium-sized enclosure holds the Aardvark, whereas the Elephant shrews and Sun squirrel have a spacious enclosure. The Rufous elephant shrews are currently the only ones in Europe, but after a population crash breeding has started again in recent years. The Spiny mouse are also housed here in a nondescript exhibit and the Rodriquez flying foxes are free-flying in this house.

    The Tenrec shares a spacious enclosure with Goodman's mouse lemur in the Madagascar house.

    In the South American part of the zoo there is a good exhibit complex for several Giant anteaters and the Capybara share a spacious enclosure with S-American tapir.


    Overall enclosure-wise there is nothing extremely good or bad, but the vast majority of the species. is housed in pleasant spacious enclosures.

    I am curious to hear about Denver.
     
  3. HOMIN96

    HOMIN96 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Denver's website lists these species:

    Capybara
    Linne's two-toed sloth
    Red kangaroo
    Vampire bat


    Yeah...well...:rolleyes:
     
  4. Mehdi

    Mehdi Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Do keep in mind websites are barely ever comprehensive though so they might have way more, unlisted species (although I doubt it would top Cologne's quite tremendous collection)

    I'm not voting yet until I get more insight on what Denver holds and how it holds it.
     
  5. snowleopard

    snowleopard Well-Known Member 15+ year member Premium Member

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    Mehdi likes this.
  6. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

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    I know for a fact that this is true of Denver's website. The relevant species from the thread SL just linked above:

    African Crested Porcupine
    Northern Tree Shrew
    Capybara
    Prevost's Squirrel
    Common Vampire Bat
    "Big Fruit Bat"
    Seba's Short-tailed Bat
    Red Kangaroo
    Southern Tamandua
    Black-and-Rufous Elephant Shrew

    I would say the only clear intrigues here are the tamandua, elephant shrew, and vampire bats.
     
    Mehdi likes this.
  7. Mehdi

    Mehdi Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    So indeed not as good as Cologne's collection but still quite nice! Does anybody know how they're held at the zoo?
     
  8. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

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    I'm currently browsing through the gallery, but it's a laborious process. This competition between zoos with seemingly endless pages of photos is making me really wish that our media gallery was more compartmentalized... making it easier to make specific searches... or at least have more than 25 photos load per page.

    Edit: I've only found this enclosure picture for Denver so far, of the kangaroo dwellings:[​IMG]

    In terms of conservation work, the zoo works with pikas in Colorado... that seems to be about it. Breeding the elephant shrew could also be considered conservation work, but from what I understand their husbandry is quite difficult and zoos have struggled keeping the population afloat.
     
    Last edited: 24 Aug 2019
    Mehdi likes this.
  9. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    Use the search bar, e.g. "porcupine" under the Denver category. If you're only looking for a few specific species then that's going to be a lot faster than going through every page trying to find random images.
     
  10. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

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    That's what I've started doing, but the problem is that many relevant photos don't show up that way. A lot of photos are given titles that are either the name of the zoo or the exhibit complex, rather than whatever the actual thing in the picture is.

    Do words in the description get included in search results also, or just photo titles and comments?
     
  11. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    Oh okay. Yeah, I don't think words in the description get picked up in searches unfortunately.
     
  12. Echobeast

    Echobeast Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    While I love Denver, this has to be their worst category. Some of the species mentioned I haven’t seen in a while and are potentially not in the collection anymore including Prevost’s squirrel (replaced by a Brazilian porcupine), tamandua, and elephant shrews.
     
    FunkyGibbon and Coelacanth18 like this.
  13. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

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    I personally feel like a Brazilian porcupine for a Prevost's squirrel is a decent trade (assuming it's a large enough enclosure), but not having the latter two species anymore would hurt it significantly.