Didn't say that either. Though "unrealistic" is an objective measure. You wouldn't say the tyrannosaurus rex is a realistic pick for a zoo game, would you?
Anyway, there's yet another level of hypocrisy with the saiga. A lot of the same people arguing for it argued against the proboscis monkey. Which tells us that the entire thing hinges on personal preference and nobody is actually being very honest. There were better, more realistic choices for an Asian antelope, especially this late into the game's lifespan. In terms of the "gelada vs an actual baboon" debate, the gelada would not be an unrealistic choice, as it has a significant captive presence, but it would not be the best choice since that presence is mostly in Europe, whereas the Hamadryas baboon is widespread just about everywhere.
European members seem to only look at their own local zoo community when determining whether something has a significant captive presence or not.
Don't interpret people's posts. What you did was simply put words in my mouth. I said what I meant to say, plain as day. I make my own arguments for myself and my point-of-view. Whatever you've read in similar discussions before isn't relevant.
Happens when its the only decent and not extremly time draining source.
- Zootierliste covers ~60% of all zoos in the world, that is very much a very good source on if something is kept or not.
- its not like it covers only europe, as it covers the middle east, new zealand and some asian countries aswell.
Imo way better then the typical thing of "i saw it in 2 zoos so it must be common" that we mostly get about especally the AZA.
People can like it or not but if an animal has 50+ EAZA holdings, its a common zoo animal and most likly are also kept outside of the EAZA, meanwhile if an animal has no EAZA holdings and no easy evidence that its kept in more then 2 zoos somewhere else, its fair to assume that its most likly uncommon in zoos.
Is that foolproof? Ofcourse not, take the rock ptarmigan as an example
They are kept in 2 EAZA zoos so they most likly are uncommon zoo animals right?
They are kept, bred and released in atleast 11 japanese zoos aswell, but heres the issue, for that knowledge i had to track down a news article from a japanese tourist site which doesnt even have a date on it.
I have no clue to know how acurate this knowledge is, if its dated, if since then they gave up the breeding project, if its a success and they maybe are kept in 20 zoos now, i simply do not know without wasting my time searching for it.
So imo there really is nothing wrong atall with just popping up zootierliste, searching the animal in question, look at their number and boom thats your information, no soul sucking search to check zoochat or whatever if a 7 year old post about this animals captive presence in the AZA still holds up or not, if your lucky enough that something like this even exists.
