Three first-time zoos today and... I suspect the category will be happier news for one of them than the others. Miscellaneous mammals. The rules, in case you’ve forgotten: - You may choose whatever criteria you like to decide how to vote, as long as it only relates to the category in question. - You can use whatever resources you like to inform your vote, including Zoolex, Zootierliste, the ZooChat gallery, trip reviews, zoo maps, books and whatever else. You don't have to have visited all the 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. - Voting closes in two days, and an absolute majority is required to advance. - The one thing you can't do is vote based on anything other than the given category.
I've gone for Faunia as small mammals seem to be a speciality. This is a case of diversity trumping exhibitry because Faunia has a brilliant collection on a small site, the other two collections have less species but far more area. Faunia is playing to its strengths with many rodents and other small delights. Unless the collection is held in extremely bad enclosures then I fail to see how this is even a competition. I await someone with a more informed opinion to destroy mine and make me change my vote!
Faunia is extremely lucky to draw this specific mammal category, had it been another mammal category or even birds, the advantage would likely have shifted to Kerkrade... Many of the Faunia small mammals will be kept in their nocturnal house, which keeps a lot of species, but as I understood, many unsuitable species are kept there (like raccoons), for small mammals this probably won't apply and I can't comment on how suited the enclosures are for the small mammals. Gaiazoo doesn't come close to the diversity, but all species are kept in pretty good and spacious enclosures. The highlight is probably the Limburg house, which focuses on native species from the region. Here they breed and release European hamster and Garden dormouse, two of the rarest mammals in the Netherlands (breeding behind the scenes, but also animals on show). So Faunia probably wins based on diversity alone, but taking into account conservation and exhibit quality Gaiazoo would deserve more attention. Belfast unfortunately doesn't really have anything coming close to a worthy small mammal collection, except for the Tree kangaroos...
DASYUROMORPHS Faunia: Eastern quoll DIPROTODONTIANS Belfast: Goodfelllow’s tree kangaroo Faunia: Red kangaroo, red-necked wallaby AARDVARK Faunia: Aardvark HYRAX Kerkrade: Common rock hyrax ARMADILLOS Faunia: Large hairy armadillo, six-banded armadillo, southern three-banded armadillo PILOSA Faunia: Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth, southern tamandua RODENTS Belfast: Cape porcupine. red squirrel Faunia: Lesser Egyptian jerboa, Mongolian jird, southern springhare, naked mole-rat, Brazilian porcupine, Patagonian mara, greenish acouchi. Chilean chinchilla, Desmarest’s hutia Kerkrade: American beaver, Common hamster. Indian crested porcupine, Azara’s agouti, coypu, European garden dormouse HEDGEHOGS Faunia: Four-toed hedgehog BATS Belfast: Rodriguez flying fox Faunia: Egyptian fruit bat, Seba’s short-tailed bat Faunia has unique representatives in 8 orders, Belfast has 3 and Kerkrade has 2. This was an easy win for Faunia.
Faunia has a great species list- so many rodents and 3 species of Armadillos!- but I don't like the sound of their enclosures. Does anyone have photos of Faunia's nocturnal house?
You can check photos of the nocturnal house - or at least of the inhabitants - in the Gallery. Most of the enclosures are just perfect, while very few (the potto enclosure is the only one that I remember) are just fine but could be somewhat improved.
