HEAD-TO-HEAD PROTOTYPE: Chester vs Prague (MISCELLANEOUS MAMMALS)

[TeaLovingDave]

Putting together some info on Chester as best I can using my phone whilst on a train to Innsbruck:

FRUIT BAT FOREST

In my opinion, this is the best bat exhibit I have ever seen, with no other exhibit coming close; although for obvious reasons photographs of the interior are somewhat hard to come by, there are images in the gallery showing the layout of the house. Thr house contains massive breeding colonys of Rodrigues Flying Fox and Sebas Short-tailed Bat in the main hall, and smaller for nocturnal mammals (Bsrbary Striped Grass Mouse and Turkish Spiny Mouse at present IIRC) in the entrance annexe.

Certainly more than something only those who enjoy the smell of urine can find merit in, as previously implied upthread!

CAPYBARA AND GIANT ANTEATER

A very large mixed exhibit, which I would argue is significantly better than the equivalent exhibits at Prague:

SLOTH AND AZARA AGOUTI

The land area of this exhibit, along with the several ropes strung throughout the roof of this portion of the Jaguar House, serves as the indoor exhibit for the Linne's Two-toed Sloths held within the complex:

A relatively-new expansion to the exhibit complex is an outdoor enclosure for the sloths, along with Azura's Agouti; the latter species live within this exhibit, whilst the former access it via ropes exiting the main building through high-level windows:

MALAGASY JUMPING RAT

A mixed exhibit complex for Aye-Aye and Malagasy Jumping Rat, comprising two spacious onshow exhibits and - I believe - at least one offshow enclosure. Given the nocturnal lighting conditions, the quality of these images is lower than is possible for other exhibits.

SOUTHERN TAMANDUA

A large and very attractive exhibit, comprising two onshow indoor exhibits, one offshow indoor exhibit and a massive and thickly vegetated outdoor exhibit (shared with tamarins) which provides a vast amount of scope for climbing and natural behaviours.

I'll try to get more photos up tomorrow unless someone beats me to it, but until then here's a good summary by @Fallax from a few months ago:

This is a pretty good category for Chester, there is a good amount of small mammals dotted around the zoo. I won't be counting anything currently off show but here is an overview for people unfamiliar:

• Linnaeus' two-toed sloth above a large aquarium in Spirit of the Jaguar, also with access to an outdoors enclosure from ropes that also contains Azara's agouti.
• The indoors of the okapi house contains three small enclosures for rodents: African pygmy mouse, Acacia rat, and Barbary striped grass mouse.
• Fruit Bat Forest is of course one of the greatest bat houses in Europe with a very large group of Rodrigues fruit bats and Seba's short tailed bats. The house also has two exhibits for Barbary striped grass mice and Turkish spiny mice.
• Capybara and giant anteater are mixed in a large paddock together opposite the Andean bears.
• Goodfellow's tree-kangaroo and dusky pademelon share a mixed exhibit in Islands, both species have bred here and the tree-kangaroos have access to some particularly tall trees.
• Also in Islands, a run of small aviaries at the entrance for Prevost's squirrel and Luzon giant cloud rat.
• For some other species dotted around: Malagasy giant rat in the aye-aye exhibit, southern tamandua mixed with callitrichids, Swinhoe's striped squirrels outside the elephant house

Exhibits not mentioned by @Fallax in her post include the several excellent category exhibits in Heart of Africa:

• Aardvark
• Cape Hyrax
• Cape Porcupine
• Various rodent and small mammal exhibits within "Hidden Savannah"

...all of which I'll also try to illustrate if no one beats me to it.

 

[EliasNys]

Putting together some info on Chester as best I can using my phone whilst on a train to Innsbruck:

FRUIT BAT FOREST

In my opinion, this is the best bat exhibit I have ever seen, with no other exhibit coming close; although for obvious reasons photographs of the interior are somewhat hard to come by, there are images in the gallery showing the layout of the house. Thr house contains massive breeding colonys of Rodrigues Flying Fox and Sebas Short-tailed Bat in the main hall, and smaller for nocturnal mammals (Bsrbary Striped Grass Mouse and Turkish Spiny Mouse at present IIRC) in the entrance annexe.

Certainly more than something only those who enjoy the smell of urine can find merit in, as previously implied upthread!

CAPYBARA AND GIANT ANTEATER

A very large mixed exhibit, which I would argue is significantly better than the equivalent exhibits at Prague:

SLOTH AND AZARA AGOUTI

The land area of this exhibit, along with the several ropes strung throughout the roof of this portion of the Jaguar House, serves as the indoor exhibit for the Linne's Two-toed Sloths held within the complex:

A relatively-new expansion to the exhibit complex is an outdoor enclosure for the sloths, along with Azura's Agouti; the latter species live within this exhibit, whilst the former access it via ropes exiting the main building through high-level windows:

MALAGASY JUMPING RAT

A mixed exhibit complex for Aye-Aye and Malagasy Jumping Rat, comprising two spacious onshow exhibits and - I believe - at least one offshow enclosure. Given the nocturnal lighting conditions, the quality of these images is lower than is possible for other exhibits.

SOUTHERN TAMANDUA

A large and very attractive exhibit, comprising two onshow indoor exhibits, one offshow indoor exhibit and a massive and thickly vegetated outdoor exhibit (shared with tamarins) which provides a vast amount of scope for climbing and natural behaviours.

I'll try to get more photos up tomorrow unless someone beats me to it, but until then here's a good summary by @Fallax from a few months ago:



Exhibits not mentioned by @Fallax in her post include the several excellent category exhibits in Heart of Africa:

• Aardvark
• Cape Hyrax
• Cape Porcupine
• Various rodent and small mammal exhibits within "Hidden Savannah"

...all of which I'll also try to illustrate if no one beats me to it.

The sloths are currently offshow.
And the Giant anteater and capybara exhibit does not really seem better as you claim, unless there is a body of water I can't see in the pictures?

 

[TeaLovingDave]

The sloths are currently offshow.

News to me - your source?

And the Giant anteater and capybara exhibit does not really seem better as you claim, unless there is a body of water I can't see in the pictures?

Its about four or five times the size, and does contain ponds and wallowing areas:

 

[EliasNys]

News to me - your source?

As reported in the Chester zoo news thread:

Looks like the sloths have gone off show while their indoor area gets an upgrade. This is so long overdue so I’m really pleased the dead trees may finally be getting replaced.

 

[Lafone]

The sloths are currently offshow.
And the Giant anteater and capybara exhibit does not really seem better as you claim, unless there is a body of water I can't see in the pictures?

They were reported offshow on the news thread but they were on show when I visited the other week (indeed it was the first time I had seen one outside there using the newer space and it was an opportunity to get excellent outdoor views) and I voted before the report so am leaving the sloth exhibit as counting for my vote though other people may do otherwise of course.

Just to add on the capybara and anteater space I don’t think the visitor viewing does the exhibit much justice it’s one of those times where some sort of elevation would actually be a good thing as it’s hard to see the pools or the area at the back - I don’t think the visitor viewing experience is at max despite the fact the path runs around half of it.

 

[Dassie rat]

Chester has 9 mammal types not found in Prague
Prague has 53 mammal types not found in Chester and has 90 points for mammal types found in up to 10 European collections

I'm going to make it a 5-0 win to Prague

 

[PossumRoach]

Chester has 9 mammal types not found in Prague
Prague has 53 mammal types not found in Chester and has 90 points for mammal types found in up to 10 European collections

I'm going to make it a 5-0 win to Prague

You say that despite photographic evidence showing Prague keeping mice in what are basically large jars.

Wunderbar priorities man…

 

[TeaLovingDave]

As reported in the Chester zoo news thread:

Given the fact that a) in the same post he implies he hasn't actually visited the zoo himself to learn this information and doesn't otherwise give a source and b) I know they were onshow as recently as Thursday per private communication, I think that even if this is true it falls under the same category as when the bull elephant at Zoo Berlin died a few hours into a match where the (lack of) quality of his exhibit was relevant and the ruling was made that it remained relevant despite being freshly empty.

 

[Lafone]

Chester has 9 mammal types not found in Prague
Prague has 53 mammal types not found in Chester and has 90 points for mammal types found in up to 10 European collections

I'm going to make it a 5-0 win to Prague

While if you just want to vote on pure numbers that’s up to you (not my choice but each to their own) I think 0 points for either side in this category doesn’t do any justice to either collection and seems hard to justify.

I’d make the same point incidentally if someone was voting 5/0 Chester because they have more whatever it is than Prague.

0 points implies to me at least that there is so little competition offered that not even a consideration can be given - what is Chester even doing in this final if that’s the case though given some voted I guess some people really don’t want it in the final two so perhaps that’s the point I’m missing.

Given the two competitors are Chester and Prague now however I’m surprised to see any 0 votes for either side for these comprehensive and well managed collections. Is FBF for example worth no consideration even if Prague is considered the winner - I’m not sure such a good exhibit should be so readily dismissed.

 

[TeaLovingDave]

I'm going to make it a 5-0 win to Prague

And I'm not counting your vote as is, on the grounds that your arithmetic is incorrect and moreover relies on a large number of offshow taxa at Prague (both in the count of species not held at Chester and the unspoken count of species held at both which you use to determine whether a species is without merit), and the fact I feel that your points system in general isn't sufficient to sustain a vote with such a strong unbalancing effect - especially when the mechanism by which you decide how many points a given collection receives are as oblique as ever. Obviously, if the vote is amended or you provide more viable reasoning it will stand.

On another note, colour me unsurprised that - having previously seemed entirely incapable of replying or otherwise responding to these matches after leaving his now-routine "vote heavily against Chester no matter the category or circumstances and refuse to elaborate" - it seems Haasje enjoyed the prospect of someone giving Chester zero points enough to actually react to your post....

 

[remar]

Chester has 9 mammal types not found in Prague
Prague has 53 mammal types not found in Chester and has 90 points for mammal types found in up to 10 European collections

I'm going to make it a 5-0 win to Prague

I asked myself already some times, but isn't it getting kind of boring just counting species numbers over and over?

 

[TeaLovingDave]

Chester -- 39/80 points - 48.750%
Prague - 41/80 points - 51.250%