European (Tea)Cup - PRESTIGE LEAGUE - Vienna vs Antwerp & Planckendael

[TeaLovingDave]

This one is another nice broad subject with a lot of potential for discussion and debate, I reckon - ASIA.

I'll be interested to see where people's thoughts on the matter lie!

 

[remar]

To me this seems like another very close match were personal preferences will play an important role.

Vienna has of course the giant pandas, a mix exhibit for red pandas ASCO, the rhino park, the exhibits with native animals at the wooden part of the zoo (without the Tirolerhof) and a few tanks at the Terrarium which should be demolished soon and already looks pretty poor. Furthermore there are the Orang-utans at the Orangerie. Not officially announced yet, but already visible are the Golden takins in combination with the Himalayan thars.

Planckendael has a very lovely Asian themed area and also the European area will probably count as a whole. Despite a variety of birds, there are lions, snow leopards, elephants, greater one horned rhino, European bisons, Orang-utans, gibbons and various smaller mammals there.

At Antwerp Asia is probably not the biggest strength with a far from good elephant exhibit, babirusa, Malayan tapir and makhors at the mammal section. Therefore there is also a wide rang of birds and and ectotherms.

Combined the Belgian zoos definitely feel more complete at Asia than Vienna, mostly because of the still closed rainforest house. Therefore right now i'm leaning towards a Belgium win. In a year or two, once the rainforest house has reopened (and the onagers) things would might have be different.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Holding off on sharing my own thoughts and opinions for awhile longer to allow people to hopefully present evidence for both collections, but a quick note:

European bisons

I think that Wisent would be outside the purview of this category, as they haven't occurred within Asia proper for a millenium or more - the extinct populations within the Caucasus were restricted to the northwest, which (unlike the central and southern Caucasus) is generally regarded as purely falling within Europe.

 

[Philipine eagle]

Some of the Asian exhibits at the Antwerp zoo:

Birdhouse - Southeast-Asian aviary:

Goldie's lorikeet, Crested partridge, Cinnamon Ground-dove, Blue-crowned laughingthrush, Blue-crested quail, White-rumped shama

Historic Bird-of-Prey aviaries:

Malay Crestless fireback and Black-and-White laughingthrush

Malayan tapir enclosure (1 out of 2):


Aquarium - Southeast-Asian tank:

Longfin barb, Clown loach, Silver shark, Asian Boney tongue, Denison shark, Canara pearlspot, Mascara barb, Giant gourami, Spannerbarb, Redtail sharkminnow, Apollo sharkminnow, Giant Red tail gourami

Sulawesi Babirusa enclosure:


Reptile House:

Reticulated python exhibit


Komodo dragon exhibit


Reptile House - Tortoise walk-through with several small passerines, including Scaly-breasted munia, Red-billed leiothrix and Star finch

 

[Père Damian's Deer]

I shall do a showcase for Planckendael as I visited today:
Mammals:

@KevinB - A decent paddock for Rhino, albeit inferior to the Vienna enclosure. With good breeding results tho. They are expecting another one in the next month.
Species: Indian Rhino, Visayan Warty Pig, Reeves' Muntjac

@KevinB - Enclosure for Bactrian Camel

@KevinB - A decent enclosure for two Red Pandas with natural trees.

@KevinB - A good Snow Leopard enclosure, which looks a lot different now due to the addition of many climbing frames.

@KevinB - One of the best enclosures for Asian Elephants and a great indoors aswell. The photo shows only half of the outdoor.

@Tiger - Asiatic Lion enclosure which has been critiqued sometimes due to the big moat. It does have very good breeding results with this species.

@KevinB - Islands for three species of primates and a well designed indoor area.
Species: Sumatran Orangutan, Northern White-cheeked Gibbon, Sulawesi Crested Macaque, Asian Small-clawed Otter

 

[Père Damian's Deer]

This might be the speciality for Planckendael.
Birds:

@KevinB - Nice aviaries containg a good amount of category relevant birds
Species: Eurasian Spoonbill, Green Peafowl and Demoiselle Crane, Brown-eared Pheasant, Pied Imperial Pigeon.

Two new very good aviaries for lots of birds.
Species: Woolly-necked Stork, Baer's Pochard, Nicobar Pigeon and Oriental Stork, Black-headed Ibis, White-winged Duck, Red-billed Blue Magpie, Himalayan Monal

@KevinB - Indoor and outdoor aviaries for mostly asian Pigeon species.
Species: Sclater's Crowned Pigeon, Luzon Bleeding-heart, Golden Pheasant and some overlapping species with former aviaries.

@KevinB - Giant Vulture aviary
Species: Eurasian Black Vulture, Eurasian Griffon Vulture

@KevinB - Pond for Dalmatian Pelican

Reptiles:

@KevinB - new addition to the rainforest with nice landscaping.
Species: Sulawesi Sailfin Lizard, Chinese Water Dragon, South-east Asian Box Turtle
Ps:

@KevinB - forgot to add the Przewalski's Horse enclosure.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

I think there is a fairly strong case to be made for Vienna being superior, but annoyingly a) barely any information has been posted with regards to the collection within this thread and b) I've been having a bad day autism-spoons-wise so lack the mental and physical energy to produce a comprehensive post myself.

So I'll just note that the zoo has several excellent category-applicable aviaries and other bird exhibits, a very pleasant and attractive orangutan exhibit which (like much of the zoo) has converted an existing building in a considerate and careful fashion in order to allow it to meet modern standards whilst retaining the charm and aesthetic of the 18th century architecture, perhaps the second-best Giant Panda exhibit in Europe (with the Zoo Berlin exhibit being the best, in my opinion), the various excellent exhibits which I previously highlighted in the "Temperate Woodland" match, a large and well-designed exhibit for Indian Rhinoceros which allows the inhabitants plenty of scope for natural wallowing behaviour - to name but a few.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Quieter than I would have liked, but an interesting match nonetheless - Vienna continues to perform more poorly than many would have predicted when the Cup started, and the Belgian pair continue to perform much more strongly than many would have predicted!

Vienna - 33/75 points - 44.000%
Antwerp and Planckendael - 42/75 points - 56.000%