Two very traditional urban capital city zoos, and a satisfying category for them to face off over: small mammals! The concept behind this poll is explained here: ZooChat Cup In summary, the rules of the game are as follows: - You may choose whatever criteria you like to decide how to vote, as long as it only relates to the category above. - You can use whatever resources you like to inform your vote, including Zoolex, Zootierliste, the ZooChat gallery, trip reviews, zoo maps, books and wherever else. You don't have to have visited both zoos to vote. - Votes are public and can be changed at any time before the poll closes. - The aim of the game is to provoke debate. Post explaining why you voted the way you did, and why others should join you. - The one thing you can't do is vote based on anything other than the relevant category. - Voting closes in seven days.
I thought this one was going to be easy, i remember small mammals being the strong point of Budapest and ungulates being the focus of Paris but looking through zootierliste it's not so clear cut. Still, I'm voting Budapest based on my memory of both collections.
Both: Red-necked wallaby; Siberian Pallas' cat; northern raccoon; Northern Luzon giant cloud rat; Nepalese red panda; western woylie Paris: Bolivian squirrel monkey; big hairy armadillo; rock squirrel; yellow mongoose; golden lion tamarin; Kirk's dik-dik; corsac fox; cotton-top tamarin; Malayan binturong; dusky pademelon; black-rumped agouti; southern pudu; Goodfellow's tree kangaroo; eastern quoll; common marmoset; Indian crested porcupine Budapest: Acacia rat; fennec; Linnaeus's two-toed sloth; black-capped capuchin; steppe mouse*; feather-tailed glider; Azara's agouti; Belanger's tree shrew; Bolivian night monkey; striped and yellow-necked field mice; big hairy armadillo; Seba's short-tailed bat; degu; meerkat; European harvest mouse; European wolverine; western house mouse; European rabbit; European red fox; common vole; Brazilian guinea pig; yellow and dwarf mongooses; brush-tail possum; gundi; common squirrel monkey; golden lion tamarin; greater Egyptian jerboa; Patagonian and Chacoan maras; Lyle's flying fox; ring-tailed and black lemurs; kowari; sugar glider; Mongolian jird; naked mole-rat; New Guinea ground cuscus*; New Guinea short-beaked echidna; coypu; eastern spiny mouse; red ruffed lemur; golden-handed tamarin; bearded emperor tamarin; black-tailed prairie dog; South African pygmy mouse; southern three-banded armadillo; tammar wallaby; Tasmanian wombat*; Wagner's gerbil; brown rat; capybara; Geoffroy's and pygmy marmosets; white-nosed coati Both have interesting collections, but Budapest wins this one.
Against that, though, the Menagerie's interesting small mammal collection is the result of a considered assessment of their ability to house species appropriately, whereas in Budapest's case it's part of a general determination to remain an encyclopaedic collection on an inappropriate site for such a thing. Menagerie for me, for now. Open to convincing though.
I will visit Budapest only by the end of the month for the first time, but I very much like the Menagerie. The Menagerie keeps exactly the species they can keep in mostly the right enclosures (though the Marten and Pallas cat got the short straw). Budapest has a ridiculously large mammal collection for a 17 hectare zoo, so I would expect that enclosure quality is much lower than in Paris, but I would be interesting to hear how they are kept there.
I take your point with the larger mammals but I thought the small mammals were housed ok from memory. It may be that their enclosures seemed good in comparison to the large mammals and the species kept were unusual enough to make an impression. I can't say the menagerie's small mammals made much of an impression, though I haven't visited for some years.
We never really heard from anyone on the question of whether Budapest's small mammal housing is of a good standard or not. That seems to be important. JdP's collection being more thoughtful isn't quite enough to tip it I think.
