ZooChat European Cup Round 1: Belfast vs Faunia vs Kerkrade

[CGSwans]

Three first-time zoos today and... I suspect the category will be happier news for one of them than the others. Miscellaneous mammals.


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[Brum]

I've gone for Faunia as small mammals seem to be a speciality.

This is a case of diversity trumping exhibitry because Faunia has a brilliant collection on a small site, the other two collections have less species but far more area. Faunia is playing to its strengths with many rodents and other small delights. Unless the collection is held in extremely bad enclosures then I fail to see how this is even a competition.

I await someone with a more informed opinion to destroy mine and make me change my vote!

 

[lintworm]

Faunia is extremely lucky to draw this specific mammal category, had it been another mammal category or even birds, the advantage would likely have shifted to Kerkrade...

Many of the Faunia small mammals will be kept in their nocturnal house, which keeps a lot of species, but as I understood, many unsuitable species are kept there (like raccoons), for small mammals this probably won't apply and I can't comment on how suited the enclosures are for the small mammals.

Gaiazoo doesn't come close to the diversity, but all species are kept in pretty good and spacious enclosures. The highlight is probably the Limburg house, which focuses on native species from the region. Here they breed and release European hamster and Garden dormouse, two of the rarest mammals in the Netherlands (breeding behind the scenes, but also animals on show). So Faunia probably wins based on diversity alone, but taking into account conservation and exhibit quality Gaiazoo would deserve more attention. Belfast unfortunately doesn't really have anything coming close to a worthy small mammal collection, except for the Tree kangaroos...

 

[Dassie rat]

DASYUROMORPHS
Faunia: Eastern quoll
DIPROTODONTIANS
Belfast: Goodfelllow’s tree kangaroo
Faunia: Red kangaroo, red-necked wallaby
AARDVARK
Faunia: Aardvark
HYRAX
Kerkrade: Common rock hyrax
ARMADILLOS
Faunia: Large hairy armadillo, six-banded armadillo, southern three-banded armadillo
PILOSA
Faunia: Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth, southern tamandua
RODENTS
Belfast: Cape porcupine. red squirrel
Faunia: Lesser Egyptian jerboa, Mongolian jird, southern springhare, naked mole-rat, Brazilian porcupine, Patagonian mara, greenish acouchi. Chilean chinchilla, Desmarest’s hutia
Kerkrade: American beaver, Common hamster. Indian crested porcupine, Azara’s agouti, coypu, European garden dormouse
HEDGEHOGS
Faunia: Four-toed hedgehog
BATS
Belfast: Rodriguez flying fox
Faunia: Egyptian fruit bat, Seba’s short-tailed bat

Faunia has unique representatives in 8 orders, Belfast has 3 and Kerkrade has 2. This was an easy win for Faunia.

 

[TZDugong]

Faunia has a great species list- so many rodents and 3 species of Armadillos!- but I don't like the sound of their enclosures. Does anyone have photos of Faunia's nocturnal house?

 

[Kakapo]

You can check photos of the nocturnal house - or at least of the inhabitants - in the Gallery. Most of the enclosures are just perfect, while very few (the potto enclosure is the only one that I remember) are just fine but could be somewhat improved.