Tallinn will have been hoping for ungulates, but unfortunately for them the category to beat the number eight seed in is... primates. As it is the two collections are broadly comparable, so if you've seen and admired Tallinn's primate exhibits I'm available for convincing. 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.
In terms of collection size it is not a big difference, with 12 species for Tallinn and 11 for Vienna. Both zoos don't have huge rarities with Stump-tailed macaque and King colobus for Tallinn and Vienna respectively as biggest draws for the zoo-nerd. I don't know the enclosures in Tallinn but the few that are in the Zoochat gallery are nothing special, whereas Vienna keeps most primates in two renovated old Baroque buildings, the Primate house and the Orangerie. Based on that the enclosures in Vienna are way superior in Tallinn, but I would like to hear more about Tallinn from someone who has actually visited.
Both: Bearded emperor tamarin; pygmy marmoset Tallinn: Stump-tailed and Japanese macaques; grivet monkey; cherry-crowned mangabey; common chimpanzee; black and white ruffed lemur; Senegal bushbaby; common marmoset; white-fronted lemur Vienna: King colobus; Barbary macaque; Bornean orang-utan; common squirrel monkey; ring-tailed lemur; cotton-top tamarin; red ruffed lemur; Goeldi's monkey Tallinn just wins this one.
Part of Tallinn is the worst zoo I have visited in Europe, and I don't think it's unfair to say it goes toe to toe with the worst I've seen in Asia. The chimps (3) have a moated exhibit that they can't use for half of the year and a tiny indoors. The Japanese macaques have a functional but ugly cage. The tamarins and marmosets are at least reasonably housed. I'm pretty sure some of the lemurs were in the cages adapted from barracks buildings which are truly woeful. I've not been to Vienna, but I think ''Europe's best zoo' can do a little better.... Here are pictures of Tallinn's primate holdings: And Vienna:
FunkyGibbon's excellent post reinforces how important it can be for people who have visited some of the lesser-known zoos to post, explaining why they are/aren't supporting them. I suspect Vienna would be winning anyway, but you wouldn't be seeing such a decisive result based only on ZTL species lists.
Having seen the Tallinn enclosures, I feel I have to vote for Vienna . What I will say though is Vienna is lucky who it was put against! For a seeded(top 8) zoo it's primate list is very poor, probably 75% of the zoos in the contest would beat Vienna on primates!
This is part of the fun. Vienna's probability of getting through the rest of the tournament without having to play on primates again is only about 40%. It doesn't need just one Tallinn - it's more likely than not to need two of them.
Let's put it this way, of the 9 UK zoos in the contest, only Whipsnade wouldn't beat Vienna!! I hope Whipsnade hasn't been given primates, it only has 4!!