ZooChat Cup finals: Vienna vs Wroclaw

CGSwans · 14 Feb 2020

You didn’t think winning the Cup would be easy, did you Vienna? Aquatics.

amur leopard · 14 Feb 2020

On the one hand, you have Wroclaw with its Afrykarium and all the other complxes focused on Aquatics, and then you have Vienna with its Polar bears (arguably), penguins, Amazon river walkthrough in the Reptile house and more. It has to be Wroclaw's win, but by how much? Going with 2-1 for now.

antonmuster · 14 Feb 2020

CGSwans said:
Freshwater is merged with marine and the ‘poles’ component of the former mountain and poles category. This category will be known as Aquatics, and it will inherit the former freshwater draw.

ThylacineAlive · 14 Feb 2020

Between Wroclaw's Afrykarium (fantastic fur seal, penguin, hippo, manatee, crocodile, shark, and various other fish displays), Odrarium (fantastic representation of the Oder River Basin which includes otters, waterfowl, and various fishes from throughout the system in separate tanks), and their small Aquarium (fairly basic in design but includes some great species) I feel comfortable voting 2-1 Wroclaw. If you add on the zoo's focus on obscure and endangered fishes and freshwater turtles, it's a pretty clear victory to me.

~Thylo

Penshet · 14 Feb 2020

I'm currently voting 2-1 Vienna seemingly alone. Probably fair, and if someone is going to make the case for Wroclaw then I will probably change my vote.

Meanwhile, Vienna has quite a few aquatic exhibits.

First and foremost, the Aquarium-Terrarium House has a variety of fish and reptiles. Highlights for me were the enclosures for Morelet's crocodile, caiman lizard and stingrays, anaconda, and the small reef tank. There's also a heavy focus on rare fish, with a couple of rare fish tanks (which in itself are nothing special). Still, a cool addition. Outside, there are small terrariums for a few native amphibians, as well as an enclosure for flamingos.

Vienna's polar bear habitat called Franz-Josef Land is the best I've seen.

The Polarium houses aquatics as well: South American sea lions, northern rockhoppers and king penguins, as well as Humboldt penguins nearby.

The Rainforest House most notably has the Frogs & Friends exhibition, displaying two Staurois species, both of which Vienna has basically established in Europe. Also displayed here are vampire crabs, northern river terrapin (one of two European holders and first captive breeder), mudskippers, three species of treefrog, Asian small-clawed otters, eyespot pufferfish and giant gourami.

Aside from those four major displays, the zoo also houses common hippopotamuses, another species of flamingo, a few aquatic birds and amphibians in the bird house (sunbittern, African bullfrog, strawberry poison dart frog, African jacana, wattled jacana, dyeing poison dart frog), water buffalo, capybara, maned duck and a couple Eurasian waders in a European-themed aviary (pied avocet, little bittern, Eurasian teal).

Finally, Vienna also contributes quite a bit to aquatic species conservation and research. They set up conservation initiatives for the northern river terrapin in Bangladesh and India, support Polar Bears International, protect European pond turtles in Austria, keep and breed no less than 18 species of threatened Aphanius species (two of which are currently EW), and breeds and protects the European mudminnow (a species once thought extinct in Austria). They research communication in the two species of rock frogs and the occurrence of chytrid fungus in Austria.

ThylacineAlive · 14 Feb 2020

ZooChat Cup finals: Vienna vs Wroclaw

Vienna vs Wroclaw: Aquatics

Vienna 3-0 Wroclaw

Vienna 2-1 Wroclaw

Wroclaw 2-1 Vienna

Wroclaw 3-0 Vienna

CGSwans

Well-Known Member

amur leopard

Well-Known Member

antonmuster

Well-Known Member

ThylacineAlive

Well-Known Member

Penshet

Well-Known Member

ThylacineAlive

Well-Known Member