In an attempt to better familiarize myself with the location of frequently mentioned zoos in the UK, I inadvertently created what I think could be a fun challenge. Embedded in this thread (and viewable in the gallery) is a road map of the UK, with white bubbles containing the numbers 1 through 80. These 80 numbers correspond to zoological facilities; some well-known, some more off the beaten path (though as an American, I only have a faint idea of where many fall on that spectrum 
). I would like to see how many of these places British (or non-British!) ZooChat members can name given just their location on a map!
As you can see, the map is somewhat detailed, with road and city/town labels; however, some of them have been obscured by the bubbles (the map source is posted at the bottom for unhindered reference). I will not be providing a list of the facilities themselves to match with the numbers; besides a few fun hints I will provide at the bottom, you will either have to work them out yourself or leave blank any you don't know. The reason for this is twofold; one is that it will allow us to see how well British (and non-British) ZooChatters know the zoos of the UK, which is one of the fun results I hope this challenge will provide. The second reason is that I want to avoid people treating this like a matching quiz, as I suspect it would be easier to guess some of the zoos if process of elimination was a viable option.
That being said, what is on the list is fairly straightforward: it is a list of what I have figured to be all of the UK's major zoos, with a decent number of smaller and medium-sized facilities that I have either seen multiple references to on ZooChat over the years, or facilities that seem to show up frequently on ZTL. It only includes zoos located in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland; none of them are permanently closed, and all of them (as far as I know) are accessible to the general public. Given my piecemeal knowledge, don't be surprised if there are a couple or few surprises lurking about
Rules
Please read the rules carefully before starting the challenge; they are straightforward, but I want everyone to be familiar with them so the game can run smoothly.
- Fill out a list in any format you like and send it to me via PM. Please don't post your list (or any of the places on your list) on this thread; the reason for this is that I want to avoid members using previously posted lists as a template. This way, everyone has to do their own list independently from scratch.
- Don’t do any research, Google Maps searches, ZooChat or Wikipedia perusing, collaborating with others, etc. This challenge is meant to test your existing knowledge, not your ability to study. The enforcement for this will be the honor system; I reserve the right to dispute scores if I have reason to believe they were supplemented by external sources.
- Please avoid naming any UK facilities or trying to publicly guess what is on the list, as I will not confirm or deny any of them and it will potentially compromise the results by giving out additional clues.
- For bubbles that contain multiple numbers, like 1-3, the order you put them in does not matter; as long as they are the right 3 for that bubble, you will receive full credit for all of them.
- Make sure that you provide enough of the zoo’s name for me to know which one you are referring to (in case, perhaps, there is a city with two of them – free hint!).
Keep in mind that cheating not only ruins the game (and makes you a cheater
), but also affects the overall picture about what zoos are most well-known or easiest for ZooChatters to place, as well as how familiar ZooChatters are with UK zoos in general. Therefore, please don't cheat 
Timeline
This challenge will be open for one week; as I am opening it this Monday evening, it will close Monday evening next week. I will then announce the top 3 finishers and show some basic stats about how people performed, hopefully with some interesting and useful graphs and comparisons. Only the top 3 finishers' results will have their name attached to their scores on this thread; all other individual results will be PM'ed to the relevant user, and only shown here or among the aggregate data anonymously. If you don’t want your name listed by your score if you end up in the top 3, just note that on the list you send me
Until then, feel free to use this thread to ask questions, request clarifications, or provide feedback. In particular, let me know if the map and numbers are not readable - I experimented with multiple versions to make it easy to read and can post them if necessary. Until then... game on!
). I would like to see how many of these places British (or non-British!) ZooChat members can name given just their location on a map!As you can see, the map is somewhat detailed, with road and city/town labels; however, some of them have been obscured by the bubbles (the map source is posted at the bottom for unhindered reference). I will not be providing a list of the facilities themselves to match with the numbers; besides a few fun hints I will provide at the bottom, you will either have to work them out yourself or leave blank any you don't know. The reason for this is twofold; one is that it will allow us to see how well British (and non-British) ZooChatters know the zoos of the UK, which is one of the fun results I hope this challenge will provide. The second reason is that I want to avoid people treating this like a matching quiz, as I suspect it would be easier to guess some of the zoos if process of elimination was a viable option.
That being said, what is on the list is fairly straightforward: it is a list of what I have figured to be all of the UK's major zoos, with a decent number of smaller and medium-sized facilities that I have either seen multiple references to on ZooChat over the years, or facilities that seem to show up frequently on ZTL. It only includes zoos located in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland; none of them are permanently closed, and all of them (as far as I know) are accessible to the general public. Given my piecemeal knowledge, don't be surprised if there are a couple or few surprises lurking about
Rules
Please read the rules carefully before starting the challenge; they are straightforward, but I want everyone to be familiar with them so the game can run smoothly.
- Fill out a list in any format you like and send it to me via PM. Please don't post your list (or any of the places on your list) on this thread; the reason for this is that I want to avoid members using previously posted lists as a template. This way, everyone has to do their own list independently from scratch.
- Don’t do any research, Google Maps searches, ZooChat or Wikipedia perusing, collaborating with others, etc. This challenge is meant to test your existing knowledge, not your ability to study. The enforcement for this will be the honor system; I reserve the right to dispute scores if I have reason to believe they were supplemented by external sources.
- Please avoid naming any UK facilities or trying to publicly guess what is on the list, as I will not confirm or deny any of them and it will potentially compromise the results by giving out additional clues.
- For bubbles that contain multiple numbers, like 1-3, the order you put them in does not matter; as long as they are the right 3 for that bubble, you will receive full credit for all of them.
- Make sure that you provide enough of the zoo’s name for me to know which one you are referring to (in case, perhaps, there is a city with two of them – free hint!
).Keep in mind that cheating not only ruins the game (and makes you a cheater
), but also affects the overall picture about what zoos are most well-known or easiest for ZooChatters to place, as well as how familiar ZooChatters are with UK zoos in general. Therefore, please don't cheat Timeline
This challenge will be open for one week; as I am opening it this Monday evening, it will close Monday evening next week. I will then announce the top 3 finishers and show some basic stats about how people performed, hopefully with some interesting and useful graphs and comparisons. Only the top 3 finishers' results will have their name attached to their scores on this thread; all other individual results will be PM'ed to the relevant user, and only shown here or among the aggregate data anonymously. If you don’t want your name listed by your score if you end up in the top 3, just note that on the list you send me
Until then, feel free to use this thread to ask questions, request clarifications, or provide feedback. In particular, let me know if the map and numbers are not readable - I experimented with multiple versions to make it easy to read and can post them if necessary. Until then... game on!
