A clash of the titans, this. Both zoos got here easily through the second round - Chester 23-1 against Budapest on birds, Cologne 20-1 against Ostrava on carnivores. This time? Ungulates. Tomorrow: Planckendael vs Zurich
Chester is lucky it gets a mammal category, otherwise it would almost certainly have been exit.... Both: Asian elephant , Lowland tapir, Grevy zebra, Onager, Eastern black rhino, Balabac chevrotain, Southern pudu, Javan banteng, Okapi, Red river hog, Western sitatunga, Red duiker Chester keeps: Malayan tapir Greater one-horned rhinoceros Babirussa, Common warthog, Negros warty pig Barking deer, Eld's deer, Visayan spotted deer Lowland anoa, Red buffalo, Roan antelope, Kirk's dikdik, Eastern bongo Rotschildt's giraffe Cologne keeps Przewalski wild horse Common hippo Bactrian deer Blackbuck, Common impala, Persian gazelle, Greenland musk ox, American bison Reticulated giraffe (Nile lechwe will come to Cologne this year) Overall Chester has more species but Cologne has a higher diversity, as they do keep Common hippo....
I think Prague has a pretty good chance of not getting to the final at all... Zoo Berlin on the other hand is a clear favorite against both Antwerp and Plzen... Zoo Berlin doesn't have a lot of really bad enclosures, just a lot of not special ones, but combined with the high species number, that will sway a lot of people.... Primates and carnivores could be Berlin's potential downfall though....
One of the few ties I'm happy to vote on, as I have been to both. I liked Cologne, but apart from the huge (but partly closed on my visit) elephant facilities and the nice hippo home, there was nothing particularly memorable about it. Maybe the Okapi.
I've very provisionally placed my vote with Chester. Both zoos have signature exhibits within the scope of this category that represent huge investments in space - and in Cologne's case, money - and I think any decision has to take account of them. My leaning is that Chester's enormous complex for black rhinos is better executed than Cologne's elephant park, which could be the best in the continent but for what I felt was an unnecessary barrenness. Going past those two exhibits, though, it does even up. Cologne's hippo house wins points. So does Chester's seemingly singular achievement in displaying suids in something other than a mud pit. I *think* Chester has it, but open to convincing.
I'm giving my vote to Chester, as its 3 species of pigs trumps the 1 species of hippo in the family diversity criterion.
I'm sure he was referring to the 3 extra, Red River Hogs being at both collections I've only just realised there are only 4 Common Hippo holders in the UK
You're right, LittleRedPanda. I should have paid more notice to the list produced by Lintworm. Apart from Cologne's musk ox, I think Chester has a more interesting collection of ungulates.
Having visited Cologne for the first time yesterday, I am in a pretty good position to judge this one as far as I am concerned it is a tricky one; the elephant exhibit at Cologne is certainly the superior of that found at Chester, but the complex of on-and-offshow exhibits for Black Rhinoceros at Chester blow the one at Cologne out of the water. However, on the whole I think most of the other "shared" species are handled better at Chester, and that combined with just how good their Black Rhinoceros complex is swings the issue. I vote for Chester.
Although there's not much to choose between the two collections, my vote goes to Cologne simply because I feel its ungulate housing - as with all of the zoo - simply has more character than is the case at Chester, where the housing for this group is largely functional and, with some exceptions, fairly characterless. Good, I am sure, from a husbandry point of view, but functional, and not really of Chester. Meanwhile, at Cologne, the old Elephant House is an absolute gem (even if, as a rhino house, it lacks, possibly); the new Elephant House is magnificent; the paddocks for the zebra, the camels, the onagers - all rather iconic. Hippo House: fine, but a little too generic (I'm not sure there is anything about it which has a definably Kölsch character). Okapi House: wonderful (of course - Okapi Houses are by definition great. Including Chester's). Over in north-west England, the old Cattle Sheds are great, of course, but probably not long for this world. People who like that sort of thing will like Islands. Elephants are clearly done well, but I never feel that it works as an exhibit, particularly. Rhinos - Black and Indian - are great, of course, but the Indian house is one which doesn't really stand out in any way. Giraffe House, yes, nice - but no nicer than Cologne's. A case fight - but Cologne wins, for me.
For such a clash of the titans, I think there's very little debate. I have not visited Chester, I have visited Cologne. The main exhibits that may determine the outcome are Chester's black rhino exhibit at Chester and the Elephant park in Cologne. I'll say a thing or two about the Elephant exhibit. I hope someone can explain in return why the black rhino exhibit in Chester is so good. The elephant exhibit at Cologne is not perfect, I know. It is too barren in my opinion and the indoor stable has too much concrete. Yet this exhibit did something few exhibit do to me: it changed my perception on the future of elephants in zoos. Before reaching Cologne, I thought elephants in city zoos would soon be a thing of the past. I have seen a lot of elephant stables, and few of them ever impressed me. But Cologne's massive stable, where I could see the elephants running around and interacting, impressed me so much that I started to rethink that. The outdoors is huge too, and it really feels like the zoo is build around the elephant exhibit. The elephants can get away from each other without separation in different exhibits. There are multiple huge ponds for them to bathe in. If only it was less barren it would have been absolutely fantastic. I'll rarely say an elephant exhibit was one the highlights of a zoo day (especially when visiting a zoo with red-shanked douc, tree kangaroos and ring-tailed vontsiras - to not even mention the birds), but in de case of Cologne it was. And therefore I've parked my vote there. Besides this complex, the nice enclosures around the former elephant house, the stylish giraffe stable, the fine paddocks for everything from camels to deer and naturally the Hippodom are all good exhibits. But none made such an impression on me as the elephant exhibit did.
Wow. Seems to be a sweep for Chester. For me it’s not so clear cut. Both have so much good going for them.
