ZooChat Cup Group E: Cologne vs Denver

[CGSwans]

The category? Miscellaneous mammals. Anything mammalian that isn’t a carnivore, primate, ungulate or elephant counts here. This one and the other group E match I’m about to post are timed to conclude at about 10:30PM Monday Chicago time.

The rules:

• You have three votes to award. If you think it's a tight match, award 2 votes to the stronger zoo and 1 to the weaker one. But if you think it's a wider margin than that, award all 3 votes to the winner.
• Your criteria for how you make your decision is entirely up to you, *except* that you must stay only within the given category. That includes ignoring the results of the other match: no strategic voting.
• All votes are public, and all votes can be changed. The purpose of the game is to provoke debate, so make your case for why people should vote the same way as you do. Be open to reconsidering your vote.

Tags: @Ituri , @Echobeast , @HOMIN96 , @Giant Panda , @snowleopard , @jwer

 

[lintworm]

I know absolutely nothing about Denver zoo, but Cologne has a varied collection, not with a large number of species, but with good diversity and with quite some rarities.

Species kept in Cologne are as follows:

Sugar glider
Brush-tailed bettong
Matschie's tree kangaroo

Aardvark
Lesser hedgehog tenrec
Rufous elephant shrew

Giant anteater

Lyles' fruit bat
Rodriquez fruit bat

Northern Luzon cloud rat
Southern african spiny mouse
Red-legged sun squirrel
Sumatran Prevost squirrel
Capybara

All marsupials are in the tropical house, the Bettongs share a spacious nocturnal exhibit with the Cloud rats, where the Sugar gliders and Tree kangaroo both have slightly smallish enclosures as well. Lyles' fruit bat are free flying around in the walkthrough and Prevost squirrel are also kept here.

The Hippodom holds most of the other animals from this category. a medium-sized enclosure holds the Aardvark, whereas the Elephant shrews and Sun squirrel have a spacious enclosure. The Rufous elephant shrews are currently the only ones in Europe, but after a population crash breeding has started again in recent years. The Spiny mouse are also housed here in a nondescript exhibit and the Rodriquez flying foxes are free-flying in this house.

The Tenrec shares a spacious enclosure with Goodman's mouse lemur in the Madagascar house.

In the South American part of the zoo there is a good exhibit complex for several Giant anteaters and the Capybara share a spacious enclosure with S-American tapir.


Overall enclosure-wise there is nothing extremely good or bad, but the vast majority of the species. is housed in pleasant spacious enclosures.

I am curious to hear about Denver.

 

[HOMIN96]

Denver's website lists these species:

Capybara
Linne's two-toed sloth
Red kangaroo
Vampire bat


Yeah...well...

 

[Mehdi]

Denver's website lists these species:

Capybara
Linne's two-toed sloth
Red kangaroo
Vampire bat


Yeah...well...

Do keep in mind websites are barely ever comprehensive though so they might have way more, unlisted species (although I doubt it would top Cologne's quite tremendous collection)

I'm not voting yet until I get more insight on what Denver holds and how it holds it.

 

[snowleopard]

Here is a comprehensive species list from 2016 for Denver Zoo:

List of Species on Exhibit 6-8-16 [Denver Zoo]

 

[Coelacanth18]

Do keep in mind websites are barely ever comprehensive though so they might have way more, unlisted species

I know for a fact that this is true of Denver's website. The relevant species from the thread SL just linked above:

African Crested Porcupine
Northern Tree Shrew
Capybara
Prevost's Squirrel
Common Vampire Bat
"Big Fruit Bat"
Seba's Short-tailed Bat
Red Kangaroo
Southern Tamandua
Black-and-Rufous Elephant Shrew

I would say the only clear intrigues here are the tamandua, elephant shrew, and vampire bats.

 

[Mehdi]

So indeed not as good as Cologne's collection but still quite nice! Does anybody know how they're held at the zoo?

 

[Coelacanth18]

So indeed not as good as Cologne's collection but still quite nice! Does anybody know how they're held at the zoo?

I'm currently browsing through the gallery, but it's a laborious process. This competition between zoos with seemingly endless pages of photos is making me really wish that our media gallery was more compartmentalized... making it easier to make specific searches... or at least have more than 25 photos load per page.

Edit: I've only found this enclosure picture for Denver so far, of the kangaroo dwellings:

In terms of conservation work, the zoo works with pikas in Colorado... that seems to be about it. Breeding the elephant shrew could also be considered conservation work, but from what I understand their husbandry is quite difficult and zoos have struggled keeping the population afloat.

 

[Chlidonias]

I'm currently browsing through the gallery, but it's a laborious process. This competition between zoos with seemingly endless pages of photos is making me really wish that our media gallery was more compartmentalized... making it easier to make specific searches... or at least have more than 25 photos load per page.

Use the search bar, e.g. "porcupine" under the Denver category. If you're only looking for a few specific species then that's going to be a lot faster than going through every page trying to find random images.

 

[Coelacanth18]

Use the search bar, e.g. "porcupine" under the Denver category. If you're only looking for a few specific species then that's going to be a lot faster than going through every page trying to find random images.

That's what I've started doing, but the problem is that many relevant photos don't show up that way. A lot of photos are given titles that are either the name of the zoo or the exhibit complex, rather than whatever the actual thing in the picture is.

Do words in the description get included in search results also, or just photo titles and comments?

 

[Chlidonias]

That's what I've started doing, but the problem is that many relevant photos don't show up that way. A lot of photos are given titles that are either the name of the zoo or the exhibit complex, rather than whatever the actual thing in the picture is.

Do words in the description get included in search results also, or just photo titles and comments?

Oh okay. Yeah, I don't think words in the description get picked up in searches unfortunately.

 

[Echobeast]

While I love Denver, this has to be their worst category. Some of the species mentioned I haven’t seen in a while and are potentially not in the collection anymore including Prevost’s squirrel (replaced by a Brazilian porcupine), tamandua, and elephant shrews.

 

[Coelacanth18]

While I love Denver, this has to be their worst category. Some of the species mentioned I haven’t seen in a while and are potentially not in the collection anymore including Prevost’s squirrel (replaced by a Brazilian porcupine), tamandua, and elephant shrews.

I personally feel like a Brazilian porcupine for a Prevost's squirrel is a decent trade (assuming it's a large enough enclosure), but not having the latter two species anymore would hurt it significantly.