Seems a bit of a pity that such a close-run match with good points made on all sides comes down to a near-tie broken by a single issue voter who hasn't been online for nearly 48 hours.....
That is true.... I guess he loves pangolins sooo much that he will not listen to an argument against them...
I don't think anyone in this thread (barring perhaps a small number of us) would be arguing against pangolins anyhow
Well...I do remember someone (I think @ThylacineAlive ) uttering a blasphemy in saying that pangolins were not special to see and that once you had seen the once, it wasn't impressive. I think someone else then replied saying the same from platypi. I seem to remember it was @CGSwans but I may be wrong...
What is this argument, though? One could easily say, "Well, Leipzig does keep Chinese Pangolins but they don't really do much to conserve them in the wild, whereas Bronx is committing millions of dollars a year to combating the pangolin trade for most, if not all eight species in the wild as well as protecting their native habitat. I love pangolins, and Bronx does more for them despite not currently keeping any, so I'm going to vote for Bronx." Regardless, the user himself isn't actually qualifying his vote. Agreed, especially when they did the same exact thing at the last minute in the Pairi vs Denver match. If I ever said that, I would have been joking (I somewhat remember the Platypus comment, not the pangolin one, though). Pangolins are the main reason I visited Leipzig in the first place and I 100% support zoos working with them, as I said in my initial post on the thread. I've never tried to argue against pangolins, nor do I wish to belittle Leipzig's commitment to attempting to breed them, I've simply tried to argue that Bronx's conservation efforts towards them in the wild outweigh Leipzig simply keeping some in my opinion. Long-term viability in zoos is almost always a sad subject unfortunately. I know in the AZA there are very few species whose genetic populations are large enough to survive the next 50+ years. That's why I support Bronx keeping such large breeding groups of these oddball rodents, though I do agree that we should appreciate the dying off populations while we still have them. I was very happy to see the mole-rats and giant squirrels at Leipzig during my visit. ~Thylo
Last round, as soon as Denver started winning the match, pangolin12 and a couple others randomly switched their votes to 3-0 Pairi and never responded to requests to explain their sudden switch. Makes it a bit obvious in my opinion but that's for others to decide. I know, I was just clarifying for you or anyone else ~Thylo
Really? That is shocking! I know I was advocating Pairi, but at the end I kinda felt as if Denver might have deserved it... Did Pairi win then? OK thx A species that I find slightly underwhelming after 10 seconds is koalas. I'm a disappointing human being, I know, but...
Just so everyone is aware, the current score is 51-51. No one is winning, but no one is losing either.
I don't think it is at all likely that I am going to change my vote... I really do believe in my vote's scoreline and I certainly am not going to change to either 2-1 Bronx or 3-0 Leipzig unless another compelling argument is put forward either way... I know that Bronx has done a lot for pangolin conservation, but then again by housing them, Leipzig is allowing the public to see these genuinely cute animals, and therefore it means the general public is able to see a species they almost certainly wouldn't otherwise, which is one of the founding objectives of zoos in the first place. So though Bronx may well be doing more in terms of actual conservation in situ, the conservation and public stimulation ex-situ is also important - after all, it is the public that gives the zoos the money to be able to participate in these programs. You never know, some random kid in Leipzig may us grow up loving pangolins because of their experiences with them at the zoo and decide to devote their life to saving them...
For what it’s worth, I’m satisfied in the integrity of this outcome. It makes gut-check sense to me that somebody who names themselves after pangolins would consider their presence at the zoo to be an overwhelming point in their favour, which is in fact the rationale Pangolin12 gave for their vote early in the thread. While it’s a shame they weren’t online later in the thread to continue to advocate for their view, that’s sometimes the way it roles: they can’t post if they aren’t online. Thank you to all who participated in the thread, especially after my post yesterday. I think a great 53-52 tussle is ending on a less sour note than it might have.