European (Tea)Cup - League E - Chester vs Beauval

Chester vs Beauval - ISLANDS

  • Chester 5/0 Beauval

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Chester 4/1 Beauval

    Votes: 6 30.0%

  • Chester 3/2 Beauval

    Votes: 13 65.0%

  • Beauval 3/2 Chester

    Votes: 1 5.0%

  • Beauval 4/1 Chester

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Beauval 5/0 Chester

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    20
  • Poll closed .
TeaLovingDave

TeaLovingDave

Moderator
Staff member
15+ year member
Well.... I think it is reasonable to assume that this one will be a very hard-fought and active match, with plenty to discuss and debate, as these two behemoths of the western European zoological scene come face to face against one another - the category is ISLANDS, and everyone has three days to make their case and cast their votes!

Enjoy!
 
I think that Chester has this one pretty securely in the bag, given the very high quality (and plentiful quantity) of the exhibits and species it has to offer where this category is concerned - I'll provide a full breakdown come the morning, but for now I think I will vote 4-1 for Chester with the caveat that if I find any of the arguments people may make for Beauval convincing I may be able to be negotiated down to a 3-2 Chester vote!
 
Very Chesterish category here, but I believe that 4:1 is way too harsh. Beauval have more than enough assets to justify 2 points. Lemur Islands, Tasmanian Devil exhibits, Tree-kangaroo/ Koala house , Clouded Leopard /Lutung exhibits, Fishing cat, Malayn Tapir, Douc Langur and more.
 
twilighter said:
Very Chesterish category here, but I believe that 4:1 is way too harsh. Beauval have more than enough assets to justify 2 points. Lemur Islands, Tasmanian Devil exhibits, Tree-kangaroo/ Koala house , Clouded Leopard /Lutung exhibits, Fishing cat, Malayn Tapir, Douc Langur and more.
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Not that the Douc Langur counts for the category in any case!

Not sure the Clouded Leopard would either, considering the island native subspecies is believed extinct.
 
Look, I've never been to Beauval (as much as I'd love to), but I'm sure it's got some great Island/Australian species, at least from what I've seen on their official website and on ZTL. However, going up against Chester in the "Islands" category is a death wish, tassies or otherwise.

Lets see what Chester actually has that's relevant.

  • Realm of the Red Ape, a large multi-story orangutan house which also houses a couple of other relevant species.
  • Dragons in Danger, which on top of the titular Komodo dragons also features a large variety of Indonesian birds, many of which I understand are rescued.
  • Madagascar, which was cited in Chester's last round as one of the best representations of the island country in a European zoo, with the UK's only Coquerel's sifaka to boot.
Those three alone would make Chester a serious contender, but then we get to "Islands at Chester Zoo", a whole massive section dedicated entirely to the wildlife of the islands of South-East Asia, and it blows most of everything out of the water. It was definitely the highlight of my most recent visit.
 
Same I’ve never been to Beauval but Chester is so hard to beat in this category because of the quality of the islands category exhibits.

Dragons in Danger of course has the Komodo dragons but lots and lots of reptiles and birds from Madagascar and Indonesia which are always a nice thing to see.

Realm of the Red Ape is just such high quality for the Bornean Orangutan and all the other species like the reticulated Python and all the lizards and insects. Everytime I go inside I always enjoy it so much and always a highlight of my trip.

The Madagascar area is also good with the Malagasy Fossa and the coquererl’s Sifaka and of course the walkthrough which is well themed and has a nice atmosphere.

But nothing comes close to the islands which ever since I was a kid has always been my favourite part of the zoo with tons of incredible species and amazing habitats.The theming is simply unreal and the boat ride adds to that atmosphere. The crown jewel Monsoon Forest which is the best habitat in the zoo ( in my opinion) and just is so good . Such a great bio dome with Sumatran Oranguatns and Silvery Gibbons. But also the rhinoceros hornbill and the sunda gharial. Not forget all the free flying birds and other insects.

So for me even though Beauval looks to have a lot of Australasian species like the tree kangaroo and koala plus lemur island .But Chester is just so good it is very hard to beat .
 
Y'know, just a random observation here, but I do feel that the votes in this League are at their lowest when the match-up is a foregone conclusion, which is unfortunate but also unavoidable at some point or another.

Beauval probably had the best shot of taking on Chester in "Islands", but it's still a massive uphill task against a zoo where "Islands" is literally a huge part of what it is.
 
Anyone fancy breaking down the arguments for each collection - and in particular Beauval? Given how dogged the supporters of the collection have been throughout the Cup in surprised none have bothered this time.

And I'll note that even if a result is deemed a foregone conclusion it's still very much worth voting, as this helps to determine the final score where people differ on the degree to which the final result is the case. For instance, there's currently 6 votes for 4:1 Chester, which will have a stronger impact if only 12 people vote 3-2 (as is the case presently) and a lesser impact if more people vote 3-2 the next day. Similarly, even two or three more 4-1 votes would have a big impact on the final result.
 
I can think of few arguments why Beauval could win this: in both mammals and songbirds, 2 of my favourites, there is a clear difference in Chester's favour.

Beauval's strengths, Giant panda, Golden snub-nosed monkeys, Red-shanked douc, Yellow-backed duiker and Simple greenbul, are not in play for this contest. Tasmanian devil, Javan chevrotain and Javan Lutung yes, but that's a bit underwhelming to give them the win.

So 3-2 in favor of Chester.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Any late-game arguments from @Kalaw relating to his 3-2 Beauval vote?
Click to expand...
I’m afraid I’ve left it too late for that. I kept meaning to decide between 3-2 either way but forgot until around midnight last night and was too tired to explain myself. However, in spite of the poll now being closed, I will explain myself a little bit given for the sake of justifying myself.

First of all, I think Beauval has the best Australian zone that I have seen. Some excellent koala and tree kangaroo enclosures, a really interesting coral reef tank and some lizards, whilst the outdoor enclosures feature Tasmanian Devils and some more macropods. The langur and clouded leopard (if they count) cages opposite are also really good. In terms of Madagascar, Beauval hasn’t got any sifakas or fossas, but it has got in my opinion far better enclosures for the lemurs that they do have than Chester, with some gorgeous islands near the entrance with some impressively tall and mature trees.

When it comes to Southeast Asian islands, of course Beauval doesn’t had anything quite comparable to Chester, although there is still a lot that is really good: a superior Malayan Tapir enclosure to the one at Chester, Fishing Cats, a very good orangutan enclosure (albeit miles inferior to either of Chester’s) and a good Tomistoma pool to name just a few that spring to mind. It also helps that I really wasn’t convinced by Islands. It felt like a lot had been spent on theming only for it ultimately to completely fail in convincing me even for a second that I was anywhere other than rural Northern England. The boat ride, from which I saw no animals, was massively underwhelming, and the really disjointed structure that with the closure of Monsoon Forest forced one to backtrack quite considerably was also immersion-killing. The enclosures are really good, though.

That said, there is a lot of excellence at Chester (Tuatara breeding despite them being offshow, the incredible work with Babirusas, the huge Rhinoceros Hornbill aviary etc), and I cannot dispute that they are a most deserving winner here, but I do think that all the 4-1 votes are seriously unmerited, and regret somewhat that I didn’t try and contribute to the discussion sooner. Lesson learned for future matches.
 
A fairly decisive win, although discussion levels were abysmally-low and I strongly suspect that the result could have been somewhat closer had people attempted to make the case for Beauval a little sooner!

Chester - 65/100 points - 65.000%
Beauval - 35/100 points - 35.000%

But never mind :)

Kalaw said:
I cannot dispute that they are a most deserving winner here, but I do think that all the 4-1 votes are seriously unmerited,
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Speaking only for myself, I flip-flopped between 4-1 and 3-2 multiple times over the course of the match, with the general deciding factor being that pretty much nothing (until your own post) had been posted to actually defend Beauval and counter the general impression that Chester had an overwhelmingly large advantage where the category was concerned, and - to be brutally honest - a creeping suspicion that this was because the previously-active fans and defenders of Beauval were remaining silent in the hope that people might default to a closer result! Had your vote and explanation come sooner, or had more people posted information relating to Beauval, I may well have moderated my final position somewhat!

To address a minor point - the tuatara breedings at Chester took place whilst the species was still onshow, and the species is once again onshow now. As a matter of fact, having popped into Chester for 90 minutes this morning on my way home from a Bartlett Society meeting on Friday, I saw several of the tuatara within the last 24 hours!
 
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