European (Tea)Cup - League B - Prague vs Antwerp & Planckendael

[remar]

Two people here said something about the good elephant house at Prague? Can someone explain this for me? Yes, the exhibit at Prague is clearly better than Antwerpen, but for a quite new exhibit , that isn't even 15 years old yet it is imo far away from being good. Planckendael is clearly in the lead here. About Antwerp everything necessary has been said here already about the elephants. But the building itself is stunning. Hopefully they will place something smaller in there someday soon.

The mountain ungulate exhibits at Prague are really state of the art, but you see exhibits like this quite often around the alps

I think it's kind of funny, that both Prague and Antwerp have a poster boy species, where they are very successful in ex- and in-situ conservation.

I will go 3:2 for KDMA, because i'm a bigger fan of the collection at the Belgian parks (okapi, african wild ass, dorcas gazelle, babirusa)

 

[Dassie rat]

I used Kalaw's list and deducted animals found at KMDA and Prague. This left 15 for KMDA and 24 for Prague. I also added points for animals represented in up to 10 collections, according to Zootierliste. This gave a final score of 19 for KMDA and 24 for Prague. I have given the score 3-2 to Prague

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Two people here said something about the good elephant house at Prague? Can someone explain this for me? Yes, the exhibit at Prague is clearly better than Antwerpen, but for a quite new exhibit , that isn't even 15 years old yet it is imo far away from being good. Planckendael is clearly in the lead here.

As far as the outside exhibits go, the Planckendael one is only about 10% larger at 10,940 m² to the 9,900 m² of the Prague exhibit, and I would argue that the Prague one is indeed rather good:

I'd be interested to hear what you think makes this "far away from being good"?

The mountain ungulate exhibits at Prague are really state of the art, but you see exhibits like this quite often around the alps

Implicitly deducting points from (or dismissing the worth of) an excellent set of exhibits located in a non-mountainous region of Central Europe because the design is more commonplace in an entirely different area of Central Europe where the mountainous terrain makes their design more-or-less required is a bit unfair

 

[remar]

As far as the outside exhibits go, the Planckendael one is only about 10% larger at 10,940 m² to the 9,900 m² of the Prague exhibit, and I would argue that the Prague one is indeed rather good

Maybe my words were a bit to harsh. I definitely didn't want to say that the exhibit is bad. I just wouldn't use good too. Probably nice or OK comes to mind. It's a basic elephant paddock. Nothing more, nothing less for me. Especially the house is imo quite ugly. And the outdoor paddock could also have better sight-lines. Of course such things doesn't effect animal welfare. Planckendael does a better job at this point (and not to mention other leading elephant exhibits otherwhere).

And of course this is criticism on a very high level. But we are talking about the best zoos in Europe

 

[Lafone]

Based on the thread so far and a review of the galleries (having been to none of them) I've gone for 3/2 Prague.

The collections both have very strong points and there are some great looking images, but some of the enclosures at Prague look particularly good in the Hoofstock space (those Barbary sheep make me want to visit all by themselves).

Some excellent species at the other zoos though and good looking well considered exhibitry on show; another set of quality collections it's a challenge to choose between.

I am however a huge fan of the work on Mongolian / Przewalski's horse at Prague - from the efforts at the zoo and with other collections through to the wild release programme they coordinate which for me tips the balance. This is a fine example of zoos at their best ...coordinating breeding for collections, publicity for education and supporting conservation in the wild. Edited to add I know other zoos are involved in this programme but I give points to Prague for being a key driver!

Przewalski's horses return to Kazakhstan steppes after 200 years

 

[TeaLovingDave]

The result here was never really in doubt:

Prague - 101/155 points - 65.161%
Antwerp/Planckendael - 54 points - 34.839%