Two zoos that both made it this far by catching more fancied opponents off-suit. Paignton thrashed Nuremberg 25-0 on primates, and Paris wasn't much more troubled by Duisburg on mammals, 19-4. Now one will go through to the third round, where a rather bigger challenge awaits. This time? Carnivores. Tomorrow: Rotterdam vs Leipzig.
Not Paignton's strongest category , but most of their enclosures are good. I'll wait for the species list, but I make it 10-8 to Paris and slightly more variety. This could go either way. ...
Trying to think what Paignton have in carnivores, without looking @ Zootierliste. Asian Lion, Sumatran Tiger, Cheetah, Maned Wolf, Coati, Meerkat........
So the species lists: Both: Lion (Paignton: Asian lion and Paris "Barbary" lion), Meerkat Paignton: South-African cheetah, Sumatran tiger Dark cusimanse South-American coati Nepalese red panda Maned wolf Paris Vincennes: Chilean cougar, Northern lynx, Jaguar Fossa Bush dog, Iberian wolf Wolverine South-American sea lion So both don't have especially big collections and miss some obvious animals like otters. To me Paris' collection is the more interesting though.... Edit: according to ZTL there are no otters in Paris, but European otter are listed on their map... Is this a ZTL error?
I'm going to vote for Paris. I love Paignton but carnivores aren't really it's strongest hand, and the cheetah enclosure leaves a lot to be desired as it's quite cramped and on a narrow, dead-end path which can't be good for the cat. And Paris has a solid collection, just lacking tigers, hyaenas and a bear species to tick all the (expected) boxes whilst still having fosa, wolverine and bush dog, along with rarer (zoo-wise) subspecies of puma and grey wolf. On the other hand Paignton has Kusimanse and a lot of meh species from an enthusiasts point of view. Neither collection breaks any new ground with their exhibits for carnivores so I have based my vote mainly on collection for this match-up and Paris wins.
If one considers the three Whitley Trust collections together, the carnivore section looks much stronger, adding ASCO, African Fur Seal, Owston's Civet, Narrow-striped Mongoose, Carpathian Lynx, Fishing Cat and African Lion. Until recently there were Fossa and Yellow Mongoose too.
They are now, but were under former holdings 1.5 hours ago.... I put them under current holdings, as the website has current info on them.
In that case we would add Obterre and Paris Jardin des Plantes to Vincennes and Paignton would be at a disadvantage again
