ZooChat Cup QF1: Prague (1) vs Doue-la-Fontaine

[CGSwans]

It's the business end now. Prague's procession through the tournament wasn't interfered with at all by Bristol, which went down 31-0 on birds. Doue-la-Fontaine's impressive run continued, adding seeded Vienna to scalps that already included Cotswold and Magdeburg, 17-8 on primates.

Now we're into the last eight and zoos are going to have to work harder from now on. Instead of a single category, they will have to compete across two: one will be drawn from the three mammal categories that make up the 'ABC' set - primates, carnivores or ungulates - and the other will come from the 'diversity' set of categories: birds, ectotherms or miscellaneous mammals. The other rules stay the same, other than that you'll all need to balance the two categories in your kind before voting.

This time? Carnivores and Ectotherms.

Tomorrow: Chester vs giant killer Planckendael.

 

[lintworm]

Prague is lucky that Doue kicked out Vienna in the previous round, as that would have been a much tougher matchup for these two categories...

Carnivores and Ectotherms are not exactly Prague's strengths with the cat house, Polar bears and no aquarium.... Doue would be a better choice for the carnivores, but is almost completely lacking in ectotherms, so Prague gets my vote here...

 

[SabineB]

Ectotherms is kind of a really bad category for Doue la Fontaine

I agree with lintworm that Duoe bests Prague on carnivores rather effortlessly but gets crushed on ectotherms and so my vote goes to Prague

 

[CGSwans]

Prague is lucky that Doue kicked out Vienna in the previous round, as that would have been a much tougher matchup for these two categories...

Carnivores and Ectotherms are not exactly Prague's strengths with the cat house, Polar bears and no aquarium.... Doue would be a better choice for the carnivores, but is almost completely lacking in ectotherms, so Prague gets my vote here...

Urgh. I just looked at Zootierliste and see what you mean.

Salamander house aside, though, Prague's not exactly a great zoo on that category either. I'll wait for what I imagine will be strong advocacy for Doue on carnivores from @SabineB, I think.

 

[SabineB]

Urgh. I just looked at Zootierliste and see what you mean.

Salamander house aside, though, Prague's not exactly a great zoo on that category either. I'll wait for what I imagine will be strong advocacy for Doue on carnivores from @SabineB, I think.

In all seriousness, if you weigh both categories 50/50 and then rate each zoo within each category I do not see any way that would allow for an argument for Doue-la-Fontaine to be the winner here. Which is sad, because I was hoping hard for birds instead of ectos which would/should have been a blow out for Prague.

So here it goes down, the best zoo in my eyes that Europe has to offer. If you can, go visit!

 

[lintworm]

Salamander house aside, though, Prague's not exactly a great zoo on that category either. I'll wait for what I imagine will be strong advocacy for Doue on carnivores from @SabineB, I think.

Prague still has quite some interesting species in the Africa Rocks, Indonesia house, former elephant house, Cat house, native species on the hill and off course the Gharials. Their reptile collection is rather spread out, but they have a lot of them. But apart from some fish in the Indonesia house, no aquaria come to mind....

Next round they will most probably meet Chester and then Prague has a real problem if they don't get both birds and hoofed mammals.... For me Chester vs. Zoo Berlin is the most likely final, but there have been surprises all along the way....

 

[Fallax]

Chester still has to watch out in case it gets other mammals tomorrow.

 

[pipaluk]

Another absolute hammering! I don't know whether the 2 categories actually helps make it more of a contest for the underdog, they may be better with ' luck of the draw'.
This would have been a battle on Carnivores , but the 2nd category makes it a formality.

Note - Not a criticism! The thought behind it appeared good.
Of course if it had been just ectotherms it would have been a hammering anyway!

 

[Dassie rat]

Both: Dwarf mongoose; South African cheetah; Sumatran tiger; Javan leopard; maned wolf; Nepalese red panda

Doue la Fontaine
Northern lynx; snow leopard; lion; Sri Lankan leopard
Spectacled bear
Asian small-clawed and giant otters

Prague
Philippine palm civet; Palawan binturong
Brown hyena
Dark cusimanse; yellow mongoose; meerkat
Common caracal; jaguarondi; oncilla; fishing and Palawan leopard cats; Indochinese clouded leopard; Malayan and Siberian tigers; Asiatic lion; Amur leopard
South African bat-eared, Arctic and fennec foxes, bush dog, Eurasian wolf
Polar bear
Indochinese smooth-coated and North American river otters; tayra; Central African ratel
Cape fur seal
Striped skunk
Northern raccoon; ring-tailed and white-nosed coatis

Prague has civets, procyonids, a skunk, a hyena and an eared seal. It also has more species of cats and mustelids. An easy win.

Reptiles
Both: Aldabra giant and radiated ttortoises; giant Asian pond turtle; common green iguana; common anaconda; royal python

Doue la Fontaine
African spurred tortoise;
Malagasy tree boa
Dwarf crocodile

Prague
Alligator snapping, brown roofed, Chiapan giant musk, crowned river, European and Malaysian giant pond, Indian roofed, Malayan flat-shelled, Malayan soft-shelled, spiny hill, McCord’s and northern Australian and Siebenrock’s snake-necked, northern Vietnamese and south-east Asian box, pig-nosed, red-bellied short-necked and black marsh turtles; Cuban slider; Asian, black-breasted, eastern black-bridged.enigmatic, Oldham’s and Annam leaf turtles; mata-mata; southern river terrapin; eastern Hermann’s, Indian star, Kazakhstan steppe, Pinzon and Santa Cruz giant, South African leopard, Tunisian spur-thighed, Hermann’s, impressed, Horsfield’s, marginated, pancake, Texas gopher and Egyptian tortoises
Cayman blue, Central American green, Hispaniolan rhinoceros, Oaxacan spiny-tailed, desert, West Indian and Cuban iguanas; common chuckwalla; green basilisk; Baracoa anole; green pricklenape, steppe, Turkestan rock and common agamas, secret and Radde’s toad-headed agamas; central bearded dragon; ornate mastigure; African whole-toed, common leopard, common house, frog-eyed sand, tokay, Turner’s, mourning, striped velvet, Standing’s day, white-striped and Fedtschenko’s grasping geckos; red tegu; African five-lined, Fernand’s, Percival’s legless, prehensile-tailed and common variable skinks; vaillant’s mabuya; giant Madagascar, green-eared, Parson’s, nose-horned, short-horned and canopy chameleons; Uzbek steppe runner; Baja California rock, European green, European legless, pallid knob-scaled, desert spiny, blue rainbow, Iraqi spiny-tailed, North African ocellated, Ngo Van Tri’s lady butterfly, red-sided curtly-tailed, sand, tropical girdled, viviparous, western collared, zebra-tailed and caiman lizards; reticulate racerunner; giant ameiva; slow worm; Borneo earless monitor; black, green and blue-spotted tree monitors; mangrove and quince monitors; Komodo dragon
Boa constrictor; Brazilian rainbow, Kenyan sand and Haitian boas; garden, western Madagascar and Cuban tree boas; Calabar ground, green tree, Indian rock, royal, red blood and D’Albert’s pythons; California, ruthvens and mountain king snakes; Amur rat, brown house, East African egg-eating, banded mangrove, puff-faced water, eastern Montpellier, European grass, oriental whip, Malagasy cat-eyed, Ravergier’s racer, Sinaloan milk, rufous beaked, smooth, rhinoceros and dice snakes; western gaboon, eyelash and northern vipers; Mangshan pit viper; eastern diamondback rattlesnake
Gharial

Prague wins easily, although it has one crocodilian, as does Doue la Fontaine

Amphibians
Doue la Fontaine has no amphibians.

Prague
Alpine and smooth newts; Chinese giant, spotted fire and eastern tiger salamanders
African bullfrog; peacock gliding and agile frogs; American and Australian green tree frogs; common, pied warted, ruby-eyed, Treasury Island and European tree frogs; Colorado River, Cuban, marine, Karoo, Surinam and common toads

A walk over (or crawl over) for Prague

Fishes
Doue la Fontaine has no fishes

Prague
Banded archerfish; arowana; Chinese high-fin banded shark; black ruby, lined, Odessa, rosy, tiger, tinfoil and filament barbs; Barna baril; flying fox carp; Madagascar cichlid; Ceylonese combtail; smudge spot cory; moustached and Sind danios; knight, banded, moonlight, pearl, snakeskin, thick-lipped and kissing gouramis; cloud and half-banded loaches; silver moony; red Madagascar panchax; pearlspot; spotted green pufferfish; red rainbowfish; slender rasbora; giant black, tricolor and redtail sharkminnows; Balsas splitfin; vermiculate river stingray; sultan fish; yellow swordtail

Doue la Fontaine was sunk without trace.


In all categories, Prague wins

 

[vogelcommando]

Never been to Doue la Fontaine but I've been to Prague and found the Carnivore and Reptilian-collection very impresive so my vote goes to Prague .

 

[Chlidonias]

Salamander house aside, though, Prague's not exactly a great zoo on that category either.

They actually have a salamander house? That is cool.

 

[lintworm]

They actually have a salamander house? That is cool.

A Chinese giant salamander house, with multiple enclosures for giant salamanders and two terraria for tortoises and Mangshan pit vipers at the side. The only zoo in Europe with an Amphibian house is Chemnitz, which has a huge collection of frogs, salamanders etc.

 

[Chlidonias]

A Chinese giant salamander house, with multiple enclosures for giant salamanders and two terraria for tortoises and Mangshan pit vipers at the side. The only zoo in Europe with an Amphibian house is Chemnitz, which has a huge collection of frogs, salamanders etc.

Oh, now I'm just disappointed. I was imagining something like a reptile house, except for dozens of different species of salamanders and newts.

I guess if I go to Europe, then Chemnitz has priority over Prague then.

 

[FunkyGibbon]

A Chinese giant salamander house, with multiple enclosures for giant salamanders and two terraria for tortoises and Mangshan pit vipers at the side. The only zoo in Europe with an Amphibian house is Chemnitz, which has a huge collection of frogs, salamanders etc.

Looks like another zoo just made the cut on my Eastern Europe trip!

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Looks like another zoo just made the cut on my Eastern Europe trip!

Given the fact that the last one at Frankfurt just died, Chemnitz is my last chance to see Hellbender in Europe which, along with the massive amphibian collection and a few other treasures, is quite the incentive.

 

[TZDugong]

Oh, now I'm just disappointed. I was imagining something like a reptile house, except for dozens of different species of salamanders and newts.

I guess if I go to Europe, then Chemnitz has priority over Prague then.

If you want to go somewhere for Amphibians, then Detroit is definitely the place to go (at least in North America, I’m not sure how Chemnitz stacks up against it). They have exactly as you described, a large amphibian house, packed with different newts, frogs and salamanders. I’m pretty sure it’s the only one of its kind in North America (there are other amphibian houses, just not on the kind of scale as Detroit). And a bonus, they have Mountain Chickens!

 

[TeaLovingDave]

And a bonus, they have Mountain Chickens!

Funnily enough this is one species Chemnitz lacks, although it is found in a fair number of European collections - seen it in four or five myself.

 

[Rafiaan]

The only zoo in Europe with an Amphibian house is Chemnitz, which has a huge collection of frogs, salamanders etc.

Actually, Paignton Zoo has an amphibian house too.

I think that this is a clear win for Prague.

 

[lintworm]

Actually, Paignton Zoo has an amphibian house too.

I was unaware of that. But looking at zootierliste it can't compete with the 70 species kept at Chemnitz and of the 29 it keeps, most are Poison dart frogs (lots of nice species though), so it is also not as varied. But I still need to adapt "the only" to the largest

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Given the fact that the last one at Frankfurt just died, Chemnitz is my last chance to see Hellbender in Europe which, along with the massive amphibian collection and a few other treasures, is quite the incentive.

As a general update, I have now visited Chemnitz the amphibian house is indeed excellent, with 54 taxa on-show and 4 empty tanks which looked ready for new occupants.