ZooChat Cup Group A2: Omaha vs Wroclaw

Omaha vs Wroclaw

  • Total voters
    29
  • Poll closed .
C

CGSwans

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
The winner of this one will have one foot in the door of the final eight. No big deal really.

The topic is Asia.
 
I think it's pretty clearly Omaha, right? Wroclaw has Asian animals but only a handful scattered about and no actual Asian exhibit, whereas Omaha has a fairly substantial Asian collection and they just opened an absolutely superb Asian complex.

~Thylo
 
Wroclaw has a good list of Asian mammals, not bad on birds either. I doubt Reptiles, amphibians or fish will be beaten either. Is anyone able to supply a mammal and bird list for Omaha please?
 
pipaluk said:
Wroclaw has a good list of Asian mammals, not bad on birds either. I doubt Reptiles, amphibians or fish will be beaten either. Is anyone able to supply a mammal and bird list for Omaha please?
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Sichuan Takin
Central Chinese Goral
Western Tufted Deer
Pere David's Deer
Reeves's Muntjac
Western Red Panda
Palestinian Wildcat
Amur Tiger
Asian Small-Clawed Otter
Indian Sloth Bear
Straw-Colored Fruit Bat
Indian Flying Fox
Little Golden-Mantled Flying Fox
Egyptian Fruit Bat
Indian Rhinoceros
Malayan Tapir
Sulawesi Crested Macaque
Francois's Langur
Bornean Orangutan
Lar Gibbon
Siamang
Indian Crested Porcupine
Arabian Spiny Mouse
Eurasian Harvest Mouse
Northern Treeshrew
Mandarin Duck
Northern Pintail
Bar-Headed Goose
Marbled Teal
Red-Crested Pochard
Radjah Shelduck
Ruddy Shelduck
Common Shelduck
Tufted Puffin
White Stork
Nicobar Pigeon
Chestnut-Naped Imperial-Pigeon
Luzon Bleeding-Heart Dove
Great Argus
Mountain Bamboo-Partridge
Indian Peafowl
Crested Wood Partridge
White-Naped Crane
Asian Azure-Winged Magpie
Chinese Hwamei
White-Crested Laughingthrush
Cattle Egret
Northern Bald Ibis

Herps are much more complicated because, despite Wroclaw's massive collection, Omaha actually held the record for most herp species in the US (which generally has much larger species lists than European zoos) until recently but most of the collection is bts (they don't have a reptile house) so I can't actually say what exactly they keep Asia-wise. Regardless, the below is what I know they keep:

Philippine Crocodile
Brown Tree Snake
Rhinoceros Ratsnake
Malaysian Blood Python
Chinese Crocodile Lizard
Gray's Monitor
Painted River Terrapin
Asian Black-Spined Toad
Emperor Newt

Based on the above it turns out they have a damn short list of Asian herps on-exhibit compared to literally every other continent apart from Europe which all have pretty substantial lists. That said, I counted up what I know of Wrocalw's herps and found they exhibit ~33 Asian herps. So yes, they do beat Omaha but not by the landslide implied above.

Here are some shots of Omaha's exhibits:

Takin and Goral Exhibit

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full


Amur tiger exhibit

full


full


Greater One-horned Rhino/Pere Davids Deer Exhibit

full


Sloth Bear exhibit

full


Tufted Deer exhibit

full


4-acre aviary

full


full


Gray's Monitor exhibit in Orang house

full


~Thylo
 
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Thanks for posting the lists and photos. Not too much in it really on species, Wroclaw probably shades it, but obviously that isn't the only thing to consider.
 
Coelacanth18 said:
Do they? All but two people so far have given them a point and I couldn't tell you anything about Wroclaw's standing from this thread.
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That's a good point, I've just voted based on the fact that I've actually been so I remember the zoo.

I don't have much time to get in depth or post enclosure photos, but as a basic rundown of their highlights:
-Various rare ungulates such as Golden Takin, Alpine Ibex, Visayan Spotted Deer, and Dybowski's Sika Deer
-A nice newer carnivore complex for Snow and Clouded Leopards
-An Indian Rhinoceros/Pileated Gibbon mixed exhibit
-The only repeated breeding of Sulawesi Bear Cuscus
-Other rare mammals such as Red-and-White Giant Flying Squirrel, Lyle's Flying Fox, and Long-Eared Hedgehog
-Repeated captive breeding of imported Palawan Hornbill
-A few oddball amphibians such as Lake Urmia Newt and Indonesian Floating Frog

While the above makes a strong case for Wroclaw and the species list is mouthwatering, I still believe Omaha's larger collection and much stronger exhibits earn them the win. Wroclaw does also have one huge pitfall which Omaha lacks: they've been using the same house for Asian Elephants since the late 1800s! The house, while mostly closed to the public, is horribly small and in no way comes anywhere close to modern standards of keeping elephants. Additionally, while not awful, I found the soon to be refurbished aviaries lining the outdoors of the bird house to be rather poor as well.

~Thylo
 
Interesting that you state Omaha has the larger collection, if the mammals and birds you listed earlier are the only ones I think it has less mammals and birds and definitely considerably less herps!
 
pipaluk said:
Interesting that you state Omaha has the larger collection, if the mammals and birds you listed earlier are the only ones I think it has less mammals and birds and definitely considerably less herps!
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Do you have a species list? You are the only one that has voted for Wroclaw so make an argumemt that convinces people. No one here has really said anything about Wroclaw other than to say it isn't as good as Omaha and the exhibitry doesn't compare.
 
I'm afraid I don't have a species list written, I just went through and counted on Zootierliste. If I have time I will post lists later
 
pipaluk said:
I'm afraid I don't have a species list written, I just went through and counted on Zootierliste. If I have time I will post lists later
Click to expand...
I have prepared a mammal list and it is 38-25 Wroclaw on mammals. Thylo already posted Wroclaw has 33-9 on herps. Omaha has 15 Asian bird species, without doing the list properly, I'm sure Wroclaw has more than twice that. I don't know whether it is worth typing out lists as it probably won't make any difference!
 
I make it 47 but yes, Wroclaw has a larger species list. However, many of the species are found on the Arabian peninsula and Indonesia and some are debatable, so it really depends what you classify as 'Asian'.

Does anyone want to see the species list?
 
amur leopard said:
I make it 47 but yes, Wroclaw has a larger species list. However, many of the species are found on the Arabian peninsula and Indonesia and some are debatable, so it really depends what you classify as 'Asian'.

Does anyone want to see the species list?
Click to expand...
The Arabian peninsula and most of Indonesia should count along with Eurasian species found in asian Russia
 
Surely we all know by this point that with large collections such as Wroclaw ZTL is often horrendously out of date? Look at Walsrode for instance, some birds on there haven't been in the collection for over half a decade!

Having visited Wroclaw fairly recently I can safely tell you which species of Asian mammals and birds they *do* in fact exhibit:

Mammals:

Asian elephant
Asiatic black bear
Philippine mouse deer
Bear cuscus
Sulawesi crested macaque
Dybowski sika deer
Eurasian lynx
Eurasian otter
Indian rhino
Indian crested porcupine
Barasingha
Indochinese clouded leopard
Javan banteng
Lar gibbon
Long-eared hedgehog
Lyle's flying fox
Michie's tufted deer
Nepalese red panda
Northern Luzon giant cloud rat
Northern white-cheeked gibbon
Northern yellow-throated marten
Pere David's deer
Persian fallow deer
Pileated gibbon
Etruscan shrew
Red-and-white giant flying squirrel
Reeves' muntjac
Shensi takin
Siberian ibex
Siberian Pallas' cat
Snow leopard
Sumatran Prevost's squirrel
Sumatran tiger
Swinhoe's striped squirrel
Philippine spotted deer

Birds:

Alexandrine parakeet
Azure-winged magpie
Baikal teal
Bali starling
Bar-headed goose
Bean goose
Black hornbill
Black-breasted thrush
Brown wood owl
Cabot's tragopan
Cheer pheasant
Chinese bamboo partridge
Coleto
Grey-cheeked liocichla
Emperor goose
Common shelduck
Eurasian golden eagle
Ferruginous duck
Garganey
Germain's peacock pheasant
Golden pheasant
Indian blue peafowl
Himalayan monal
Greater flamingo
Java sparrow
Derbyan parakeet
Luzon bleeding heart dove
Malayan great argus
Marbled teal
Mindanao bleeding heart dove
Palawan hornbill
Philippine scops owl
Red-crowned crane
Rose-ringed parakeet
Ruddy shelduck
Siamese fireback
White-crested laughingthrush
Spot-billed pelican
Steller's sea eagle
Temminck's tragopan
Ural owl
Cattle egret
White-winged duck
Wrinkled hornbill

Yes, in both cases Wroclaw outweighs Omaha on species list.....but is the exhibitry up to scratch? The majority of the above birds are kept in pretty shabby aviaries, and out of the mammals the only enclosures (onshow) I can really rave about are the rhino/pileated gibbon/muntjac mix, the big cat enclosures, the Pallas' cats, the red panda/tufted deer mix, the new otter enclosure by the Odrarium, and the Etruscan shrew enclosure (very similar to all other designs in Europe however). Everything else is either plain, small, or falling apart...........
 
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Thanks for posting the lists, which only total 3 less in each case for Wroclaw than those already stated, despite ZTL being wrong ! Still a fairly big species difference. Either way this should probably be closer than it is and can't see it being a 3-0 difference for Omaha.
For me more than double the number of species gives Wroclaw the win, with Omaha getting a point for overall better exhibits. The reverse to everyone else, but I'm just different!
 
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ThylacineAlive said:
@pipaluk you realize that until now your entire argument for voting in favor of Wroclaw was "I assume it probably is better" right?

~Thylo
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No, I knew it won on species all along, didn't even realise by how much! Species matter more to me than a couple of better enclosures! It is an absolute hammering on species, more than double, so if anyone wants to vote Wroclaw it is justified! Someone else voted Wroclaw before me then changed!
I actually think Wroclaw is worth a point for the Bear Cuscus alone!
 
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