As this year's UK Zoochat Challenge is very specific to the UK alone (though very interesting at that!), Kevin and I figured a challenge for a certain group of species would still definitely be in order. In contrast to 'our' challenge last year, this time instead of limiting ourselves to Belgium, The Netherlands and their neighboring countries we figured it'd be more fun to include the rest of the European members as well (certainly as the UK now has a different challenge). To be specific, the entirety of what is geographically Europe will count in this challenge (including Iceland, the UK, Ireland, the Mediterranean islands, but excluding the Canary Islands, Georgia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and all overseas territories to avoid conflicts about what is and isn't 'Europe.')
This year's challenge will focus on all things Primate; apes, monkeys, prosimians and even the elusive tarsier! Primates should be an interesting challenge because while there are collections (Apenheul, La vallee des singes, Mulhouse, Twycross etc.) that keep a very large amount of primates or even focus on them entirely, there are enough other collections keeping a nice amount of them to prevent one from visiting a single collection and winning the entire challenge that way.
I'll be keeping this challenge to a species level to avoid any confusion and/or debates. For this, I believe IUCN will suffice (in some cases like Eulemur rufus/rufifrons, Nycticebus coucang, Tarsius tarsier, Lagothrix lagotricha, Cebus capucinus, Chlorocebus aethiops and Semnopithecus entellus, I suggest we follow Zootierliste's lead and list them all as the sensu lato species. To expand on this, if (for example) you see both Apenheul's single male Lagothrix poeppigii and their group of Lagothrix lagotricha s.l. you would count both as the sensu lato is of a different species than the pure individual. On the other hand, if you see Prague's pure Nycticebus coucang and Nycticebus coucang s.l. in another collection, you would only count them once, as the sensu lato is of the same species.)
This challenge of course also has rules, with credits to Shorts:
1. You have to actually see the animal, even if just for a second. You don't score if you visit a collection but don't see the animal (harsh, but fair);
2. Proof via photographs is not required, your word is your bond;
3. You have to see the animal via normal public access (i.e. not including zookeeper for the day or photography days behind the scenes) during normal public opening hours (i.e. no scoring because you know the keeper and can get access before/after hours). Basically the species has to be seen as Joe Public would;
4. Only collections located in what is geographically Europe will count in this challenge (including Iceland, the UK, Ireland, the Mediterranean islands, but excluding Georgia, Russia, Azerbaijan and Turkey to avoid conflicts about what is and isn't 'Europe.')
5. Report/update your progress on this thread as you go along;
6. The winner will be deemed to be the person(s) who's seen the most at 31st December 2017;
7. My (final) decision is final but I'm open to discussion and debate on any specific points.
This challenge is solely for fun and sadly I won't be able to offer the winner an actual prize. Most of all, I hope everyone has a great time!
This year's challenge will focus on all things Primate; apes, monkeys, prosimians and even the elusive tarsier! Primates should be an interesting challenge because while there are collections (Apenheul, La vallee des singes, Mulhouse, Twycross etc.) that keep a very large amount of primates or even focus on them entirely, there are enough other collections keeping a nice amount of them to prevent one from visiting a single collection and winning the entire challenge that way.
I'll be keeping this challenge to a species level to avoid any confusion and/or debates. For this, I believe IUCN will suffice (in some cases like Eulemur rufus/rufifrons, Nycticebus coucang, Tarsius tarsier, Lagothrix lagotricha, Cebus capucinus, Chlorocebus aethiops and Semnopithecus entellus, I suggest we follow Zootierliste's lead and list them all as the sensu lato species. To expand on this, if (for example) you see both Apenheul's single male Lagothrix poeppigii and their group of Lagothrix lagotricha s.l. you would count both as the sensu lato is of a different species than the pure individual. On the other hand, if you see Prague's pure Nycticebus coucang and Nycticebus coucang s.l. in another collection, you would only count them once, as the sensu lato is of the same species.)
This challenge of course also has rules, with credits to Shorts:
1. You have to actually see the animal, even if just for a second. You don't score if you visit a collection but don't see the animal (harsh, but fair);
2. Proof via photographs is not required, your word is your bond;
3. You have to see the animal via normal public access (i.e. not including zookeeper for the day or photography days behind the scenes) during normal public opening hours (i.e. no scoring because you know the keeper and can get access before/after hours). Basically the species has to be seen as Joe Public would;
4. Only collections located in what is geographically Europe will count in this challenge (including Iceland, the UK, Ireland, the Mediterranean islands, but excluding Georgia, Russia, Azerbaijan and Turkey to avoid conflicts about what is and isn't 'Europe.')
5. Report/update your progress on this thread as you go along;
6. The winner will be deemed to be the person(s) who's seen the most at 31st December 2017;
7. My (final) decision is final but I'm open to discussion and debate on any specific points.
This challenge is solely for fun and sadly I won't be able to offer the winner an actual prize. Most of all, I hope everyone has a great time!
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