Columbidae challenge 2013

[Javan Rhino]

I hope Shorts doesn't mind me mentioning this, but I came up with a challenge I'm setting myself whilst I was walking through town and thought I'd mention it if anybody fancies an unofficial pop at it themselves: Columbidae.

There is travel involved and its quite nice to have a non-mammal challenge [my other idea was dart frogs, but I decided to go with Columbidae as I was interested to see what sort of start Chester would give me for the order]. I'm not setting any rules, and subspecies for me count, so basically if I see a pigeon or dove etc anywhere, it counts.

A few wild plus a visit to Chester today has put me on 16:

Wild
Feral pigeon (Columba livia f. feral)
Common wood pigeon (Columba palumbus)
Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Chester
Mindanao bleeding-heart dove (Gallicolumba crinigera)
Luzon bleeding-heart dove (Gallicolumba luzonica)
Socorro dove (Zenaida graysoni)
Green-naped pheasant pigeon (Otidiphaps nobilis nobilis)
White-naped pheasant pigeon (Otidiphaps nobilis aruensis)
Victoria crowned pigeon (Goura victoria)
Common emerald dove (Chalcophaps indica)
Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica)
Pied Imperial pigeon (Ducula bicolor)
Black-naped fruit dove (Ptilinopus melanospilus)
Superb fruit dove (Ptilinopus superbus)
Golden-heart dove (Gallicolumba rufigula)
Rock dove (Columba livia)


Sorry for treading on toes if I have, that's not the intention, and I will be having a go at the cat challenge as well

I'm making a separate thread to keep people updated with my pigeon/dove-related travels so that the other one doesn't get bogged down.

As well as what is quoted above, a visit to Walton Hall Children's Zoo has added:

Walton Hall Children's Zoo
Diamond dove (Geopelia cuneata)
African collared dove (Streptopelia risoria)

 

[filipinos]

May i ask why this very interesting challenges are only made for British Zoochatters?

Would you or Shorts mind if i made a challenge for all members?

 

[Javan Rhino]

May i ask why this very interesting challenges are only made for British Zoochatters?

Would you or Shorts mind if i made a challenge for all members?

I think it's for fairness sake - I've set no rules to this, and it's not actually a competition - it is a challenge I've set myself and it's an idea if anybody else wants to pick it up they're welcome, no matter where they're from

 

[filipinos]

Well, i shall create a similar topic for all Zoochatters. If it works, nice, if it doesn´t, i don´t see no harm.

Thanks

 

[Chlidonias]

May i ask why this very interesting challenges are only made for British Zoochatters?

Would you or Shorts mind if i made a challenge for all members?

the problem would be one of inequality in country collections. For example, the bear competition of last year, if I had wanted to compete in that: there are only two bears in New Zealand and they are both sun bears.

 

[filipinos]

I can understand that. I think only Australia and New Zealand could be considered out of the competition.
I´ll think about a contest where all continents can enter.

 

[Shorts]

the problem would be one of inequality in country collections. For example, the bear competition of last year, if I had wanted to compete in that: there are only two bears in New Zealand and they are both sun bears.

Exactly! I know the UK collections and UK geography well enough to design a competition that is of roughly equal difficulty for all people interested (in the UK). I think it'd be difficult to think of many competitions that would provide equal opportunities for players beyond a single country (or possibly a handful of very close ones).

For instance on a worldwide basis the bear challenge could be completed by some people visiting only two zoos (until recently Berliners could have probably done that challenge in a very frantic, slightly lucky, morning). Another advantage of the UK is that the size of country and distances needed to be traveled are not excessive and consequently keeps the challenge open to almost anyone (even those who rely on public transport, props to TeaLovingDave et al). In the US someone following a challenge, depending on their state of residency, might either easily complete the challenge within their own state or face significant inter-state travel (hardly fair/balanced).

I think people could sent workable challenges for Germany, The Netherlands and probably a number of other countries.

I don't think it'd be worthwhile, even if you could set up a evenly balanced challenge, to set a Europe-wide challenge as the costs of travel would limit the challenge to those with satisfactory financial resources and personally I don't think there's any people daft enough to plan their lives around a challenge that leaves them racing over Europe on a tick list rather then just visiting the zoos they want to and can easily afford to (also I wouldn't want to be responsible for triggering that level of obsession).

The above said, it might be possible to set an equally balanced global challenge. Maybe the Penguin one fits the bill (I've no idea of the global distribution of species in captivity)?