European (Tea)Cup - League D - Leipzig vs Plzen & AkvaTera

Leipzig vs Plzen & AkvaTera - AFRICA

  • Leipzig 5/0 Plzen

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Leipzig 4/1 Plzen

    Votes: 4 18.2%

  • Leipzig 3/2 Plzen

    Votes: 17 77.3%

  • Plzen 3/2 Leipzig

    Votes: 1 4.5%

  • Plzen 4/1 Leipzig

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Plzen 5/0 Leipzig

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    22
  • Poll closed .
TeaLovingDave

TeaLovingDave

Moderator
Staff member
15+ year member
After a long rest, Plzen (and their sister collection in the city centre) rises to contend in another match; their opponent is Leipzig, by now experienced in the Cup; their category is AFRICA.

Which will win? You decide :)
 
This is a fairly strong one for Leipzig, but Plzen aren't exactly slouching in this department either - pending discussion which may strengthen my position or encourage me to switch sides, I think a tentative 3:2 for Leipzig will be best.
 
With the Kiwara savanna, the adjacent black rhino complex, okapi forest, the great ape enclosures and a (somewhat underwhelming) section in Gondwanaland, this is probably the strongest geographical category for Leipzig. Plzen has quite a lot on offer too, but the Madagascar house, African nocturnal house and especially the chimp enclosure aren't the best what Plzen has on offer.... For now I am leaning closer on 4-1 Leipzig than 3-2...
 
I think this is a match of quality vs quantity. Leipzig has very good exhibits for African animals. The unique mix of black rhinos and cheetahs, the incredible exhibits at Pongoland for bonobos, chimpanzees and gorillas; the savanah area has spacious exhibits and I love the theming of the Kopje area! The Gondwanaland area has adequate exhibits for the african species it holds, but I woldn't call them the best. I think that Madagascar doesn't count for Africa, but even then the species that Plzen offers are quite spectacular. I think that in terms of exhibitry, they have some good habitats, a lot of adequate ones and a few that aren't realy the best. So this is a 3-2 for Leipzig for me. Plzen has a good collection but the exhibitry at Leipzig is very good.
 
With Chester and TP Berlin having their African areas under construction and Zurich keeping Gorillas in the old house, only Prague have clear chances against Leipzig in this category, imho. Kiwara Savanna and Kiwara Kopje is likely the second best Savanna experience in this competition. Pongoland is again one of the best Great Ape complexes, with probably the greatest Chimpanzee exhibit in the ZooChat Cup. Makasi Simba is a proud successor of the Leipzig's legendary work with Lions. Marking Gondwanaland as one of the weakest African points, speaks only for the overall quality of the zoo. With respect to Plzen's contributions to the Small mammal loving community, I will also give Leipzig 4 points.
 
twilighter said:
With Chester and TP Berlin having their African areas under construction and Zurich keeping Gorillas in the old house, only Prague have clear chances against Leipzig in this category, imho. Kiwara Savanna and Kiwara Kopje is likely the second best Savanna experience in this competition. Pongoland is again one of the best Great Ape complexes, with probably the greatest Chimpanzee exhibit in the ZooChat Cup. Makasi Simba is a proud successor of the Leipzig's legendary work with Lions. Marking Gondwanaland as one of the weakest African points, speaks only for the overall quality of the zoo. With respect to Plzen's contributions to the Small mammal loving community, I will also give Leipzig 4 points.
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I kind of disagree with that one. First i'm not sure if there are a few more zoos to compete at this category with Leipzig (Antwerp/Planckendael, maybe Wroclaw?).

Regarding the chimp exhibit, as far as i know, the groups are pretty large and there are far to less separation possibilities. And Makasi Simba is good, but a rather standard lion exhibit.

I'm not sure anymore. Does Leipzig have African birds, beside the free ranging ones at Gondwanaland? Personally i would love to like the African aviaries at Plzen, but for their size, there are too many birds within them. I think i'm going with a 3:2 for the German one.
 
As the outlier vote, I'd be interested to hear any arguments posed by @Green_mamba which may help people to either switch to a pro-Plzen vote, or encourage the four heavily pro-Leipzig voters to soften their vote?
 
TeaLovingDave said:
As the outlier vote, I'd be interested to hear any arguments posed by @Green_mamba which may help people to either switch to a pro-Plzen vote, or encourage the four heavily pro-Leipzig voters to soften their vote?
Click to expand...
To be honest, this was just a placeholder vote and I may change my vote at some point before the deadline. My initial reason for voting in favour of Plzen was because I think it has some very nice enclosures for this category and a strong collection. Although some enclosures in Plzen are poor, I don't think this is a quality vs quantity match as Plzen do have some good enclosures. I found the African savannah enclosure to be very pleasant for example. The bird aviary in the pygmy hippo house is an example of Plzen's large collection not always being displayed in cramped conditions. However, I may change my vote to 3:2 Leipzig because I think that its African areas are stronger overall in terms of exhibit quality, with Okapi, African rhinos and high quality ape enclosures present. Leipzig's collection of other African species is also good as it is not overly centred on large mammals.

I think the deciding factor for me will will be the extent of boths zoos bird, herp and fish collections as there is an abundance if aviarys, aquariums and terrariums scattered around Plzen zoo and I can't think off the top if my head how much will count towards this category.
 
A fairly obvious result from early on:

Leipzig - 69/110 points - 62.727%
Plzen & AkvaTera - 41/110 points - 37.273%

Still a decent match even if it was very quiet, however :)
 
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