ZooChat Cup S2 Match #8: North Carolina (7) vs Philadelphia

Miscellaneous Mammals

  • Total voters
    7
  • Poll closed .
pachyderm pro

pachyderm pro

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Moving on from yesterdays controversy, the enormous zoological park from the East against Americas oldest zoological park. Todays category, miscellaneous mammals. North Carolina's collection of critters for this category is limited, but with exhibits of relatively high quality. The desert dome is the home of the majority of the zoos miscellaneous mammals. Vampire bats, coatimundi, skunks and rock hyrax have rather high quality exhibits in the Desert dome. Philadelphia on the other hand, has a dedicated small mammal house featuring aardvarks, Madagascar giant jumping rats, Eurasian harvest mice, Brazilian agoutis and Northern tree shrews as highlights. Elephant shrews and Prehensile tailed porcupines are also featured in the Rare Animal Conservation Center building.

The concept behind this poll is explained here: ZooChat Cup Season 2

Tomorrow: Memphis vs Tampa
 
Miscellaneous mammals again!

Hmm, this is an interesting one for me. I've visited Philadelphia two times with plans for a third, but never visited North Carolina with no plans to do so in the near future (not for lack of interest, just for logistic reasons). Philly has anywhere between 10 and 12 species depending on whether two old individuals have died yet or not, whereas, from what I can tell, NC only has 6 with half of those as program-only animals. Philly's rarest species is their single elderly Mexican Tree-Porcupine, though he might be dead by now but he's kept strictly off-exhibit anyhow. NC's rarest species is probably either vampire bat or hyrax. From a species perspective alone, Philly wins. However, as I understand it NC's enclosures for their species are much better than Philly's. Philly's Small Mammal House isn't awful, but most of the enclosures are not exactly that good. The Rare Animal Conservation Center is where the Malagasy Giant Rats are held, and also features Black-and-Rufous Elephant-Shrews which is a species Philly's has had great breeding success with. However, these enclosures are of below-average quality as well.

In this case, I think we also need to look at each zoo's trends and future plans. I can't speak so much for NC, but Philly has been shrinking their small mammal collection for quite some time now. I also know that they have solid plans to shrink it even further with no solid plans to increase it again any time soon. Meanwhile, I know NC has plans for a new Australian exhibit to be built soon, which will surely include multiple new mammals in undoubtedly excellent enclosures.

All in all, I'm undecided. Philly definitely still has the better species line-up, which seems to be what's most important to people here.. NC has the better exhibitry and definitely a brighter future so.

~Thylo
 
pachyderm pro said:
Ah, my mistake. Yes you are correct so discount the coatimundi and skunk at NC.
Click to expand...
Considering NC doesn’t have a coati anyways, perhaps you should do more research for your opening statements.

This is a tricky one. Philly’s Small Mammal House once would have sealed the deal, but that is unfortunately no longer the case. On my last visit over half the exhibits were boarded up and empty; most of the others were repeats of the same two species (tree shrew and gerbil), which aren’t exactly exciting. Several of the other species (agouti, degu, sloth, aardvark) are the last of their kind at the zoo and essentially are just waiting to die. Even more disappointingly, the entire nocturnal wing was closed off, and in its place stands only a lackluster, and almost empty vampire bat exhibit.

In RACC, the two species exhibited are Rodrigues fruit bat and black and rufous elephant shrew. The latter is always exciting to see, but its exhibit consists of wood chips or similar material over a brick floor. The bat exhibit does nothing to excite the visitor either.

The only other species of miscellaneous mammal at the zoo is Malagasy giant jumping rat- assuming they’re still alive. Last I heard, they reside in the aye aye exhibit, but I have not seen them in over a year and I fear they, too, are gone.

Philadelphia was once a great zoo for miscellaneous mammals. On my first visit, I saw three species of tree shrew and numerous other rarities. But since then, it has precipitously declined, and only a few old individuals remain of most species kept. What’s worse is I have heard a rumor that the Small Mammal House may be gone soon. Rumors are rumors, but given the state of Philadelphia’s collection and the lack of effort by the administration to improve this decline, I fear it may be true.
 
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