Just like that….we’re wrapping up 2020. I’ve hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, and a wonderful year (as wonderful as you could make it). We’re onto the ninth installment of the ZooChat Global Challenge! Last year, I know many of us quite possibly missed out on loads of zoo-visiting in 2020, and hopefully 2021 will be slightly better.
Oh and before we start let’s address the elephant in the room.
In case 2020’s challenge was worse than Santa giving you a bag of coals, 2021 will bring you a challenge of miscellaneous mammals! The mammals covered under this category are as follows (in terms of orders):
Chiroptera (Bats)
Eulypotyphla (Hedgehogs, shrews, moles, and others)
Lagomorpha (Hares, rabbits, and pikas)
Diprodontia (Macropods, possums, koala, and others)
Didelphimorphia (Opossums)
Dasyuromorphia (Carnivorous marsupials)
Afrosoricida (Golden moles, otter shrews, and tenrecs)
Scandentia (Treeshrews)
Paramelemorphia (Bandicoots and bilbies)
Cingulata (Armadillos)
Macroscelidea (Elephant shrews)
Pilosa (Anteaters and sloths)
Pholidota (Pangolins)
Hyracoidea (Hyraxes)
Sirenia (Sea cows)
Monotremata (Monotremes)
Proboscidea (Elephants)
Tubulidentata (Aardvarks)
Rodents were to be included but I’ve decided to leave them out as they’ve had their own challenge in the past, and we could have more of a challenge could we
? I’ve included monotremes and marsupials to, in a sense “make up” for 2020. But other than that the challenge is fairly easy after a hard year, and hopefully Australasia won’t be too left out as they usually are (it does look like Europe has this in the bag, though). IUCN taxonomy (regardless of your taxonomic beliefs and how inaccurate it is) will be used for the purpose of a general reference 
.
Rules are as follows:
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. All entries must be presented in numbered list form, with scientific names included (simply to make it easier to keep track of and to avoid uncountable species being slipped in due to vagueness);
4. You have to see the animal via normal public access (zookeeper for the day or photography days behind the scenes do not count) 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;
5. Any severely limited opening or private collections don't count for this challenge. Controversial yes, but see previous point and it isn't fair to include a handful of days these collections might be open to the public as this might logistically disadvantage a large number of people;
6. Only public zoological collections, museums, public park displays, etc. count, animals seen at farms or pet stores do not count;
7. Report/update your progress on this thread as you go along;
8. Only one subspecies per species can be counted;
9. Controversial entries due to splits will be discussed on a case-by-case basis;
10. Domestics do not count, the animals must be in a wild form. You can count a species that's been domesticated just as long as the animal you're looking at isn't;
11. Hybrid animals do not count;
12. Wild animals do not count, all species must be seen in captivity under all the conditions listed above;
13. Anyone caught severely violating any of the above rules and/or participating in extremely unsportsmanlike conduct on or even off the forum is subject to disqualification (these are made for fun, by all means take them seriously but please do not ruin the fun for anyone else. I do not expect to have any problems, but I've added this in just in case);
14. Any issues with any of the above rules is open to discussion but the rules are set and any decisions made are final;
15. Apart from the unlikely event that someone gets to see all the species potentially viewable by 12/31/21, the winner will be deemed to be the person who's seen the most at that date.
Thank you to @Shorts for the concept of the challenge and the general rules format.
Onto prizes now, whoever wins gets an ego boost and bragging rights! Might seem like a worthless prize but one man’s trash is another man’s treasure
.
Well, let the hunger games begi...oh, wrong competition
….anywho, have a great year and happy zoo-going!
Oh and before we start let’s address the elephant in the room.
Anyways, you may notice that @ThylacineAlive is not running this year’s challenge, I am. He’s passed on the “illustrious” honor of running this show for now, so my thanks to you, Thylo.
In case 2020’s challenge was worse than Santa giving you a bag of coals, 2021 will bring you a challenge of miscellaneous mammals! The mammals covered under this category are as follows (in terms of orders):
Chiroptera (Bats)
Eulypotyphla (Hedgehogs, shrews, moles, and others)
Lagomorpha (Hares, rabbits, and pikas)
Diprodontia (Macropods, possums, koala, and others)
Didelphimorphia (Opossums)
Dasyuromorphia (Carnivorous marsupials)
Afrosoricida (Golden moles, otter shrews, and tenrecs)
Scandentia (Treeshrews)
Paramelemorphia (Bandicoots and bilbies)
Cingulata (Armadillos)
Macroscelidea (Elephant shrews)
Pilosa (Anteaters and sloths)
Pholidota (Pangolins)
Hyracoidea (Hyraxes)
Sirenia (Sea cows)
Monotremata (Monotremes)
Proboscidea (Elephants)
Tubulidentata (Aardvarks)
Rodents were to be included but I’ve decided to leave them out as they’ve had their own challenge in the past, and we could have more of a challenge could we
? I’ve included monotremes and marsupials to, in a sense “make up” for 2020. But other than that the challenge is fairly easy after a hard year, and hopefully Australasia won’t be too left out as they usually are (it does look like Europe has this in the bag, though). IUCN taxonomy (regardless of your taxonomic beliefs and how inaccurate it is) will be used for the purpose of a general reference .Rules are as follows:
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. All entries must be presented in numbered list form, with scientific names included (simply to make it easier to keep track of and to avoid uncountable species being slipped in due to vagueness);
4. You have to see the animal via normal public access (zookeeper for the day or photography days behind the scenes do not count) 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;
5. Any severely limited opening or private collections don't count for this challenge. Controversial yes, but see previous point and it isn't fair to include a handful of days these collections might be open to the public as this might logistically disadvantage a large number of people;
6. Only public zoological collections, museums, public park displays, etc. count, animals seen at farms or pet stores do not count;
7. Report/update your progress on this thread as you go along;
8. Only one subspecies per species can be counted;
9. Controversial entries due to splits will be discussed on a case-by-case basis;
10. Domestics do not count, the animals must be in a wild form. You can count a species that's been domesticated just as long as the animal you're looking at isn't;
11. Hybrid animals do not count;
12. Wild animals do not count, all species must be seen in captivity under all the conditions listed above;
13. Anyone caught severely violating any of the above rules and/or participating in extremely unsportsmanlike conduct on or even off the forum is subject to disqualification (these are made for fun, by all means take them seriously but please do not ruin the fun for anyone else. I do not expect to have any problems, but I've added this in just in case);
14. Any issues with any of the above rules is open to discussion but the rules are set and any decisions made are final;
15. Apart from the unlikely event that someone gets to see all the species potentially viewable by 12/31/21, the winner will be deemed to be the person who's seen the most at that date.
Thank you to @Shorts for the concept of the challenge and the general rules format.
Onto prizes now, whoever wins gets an ego boost and bragging rights! Might seem like a worthless prize but one man’s trash is another man’s treasure
.Well, let the hunger games begi...oh, wrong competition
….anywho, have a great year and happy zoo-going!
