Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Zoo/Archive 1

Welcome

Welcome to the new project, everyone! The paint is still wet around here, so feel free to comment on everything or make improvements as you see fit. --Ars Scriptor 17:59, 5 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Project

I am excited to see the new project! Some time back I created some articles about zoo-related topics: environmental enrichment and stereotypical behavior. Would these fall within the WikiProject, or will it focus only on individual facilities? --Ginkgo 100 ^talk 04:40, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I would have no problem included zoo-related topics. In fact, both the articles you linked I think could/should be added to {{Zoos}} after some further cleanup/changes. Cburnett 05:36, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed, those would make excellent additions to the template. --Ars Scriptor 13:37, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

General tasks

Where would be the appropriate place to add the following general/non-article specific tasks on the main project page?

Lots of red links at List of zoo associations that could be created with list of members or accredited zoos by them.
Add infoboxes on zoo, aquarium, and adviary articles (I have AZA members covered, but there's the WAZA and many others: see previous point)
Request logos and photos for zoo signs/entrances to put in the infobox
Flesh out infoboxes with sourced information (# of animals, featured exhibits, date opened, etc.).
Add {{Zoos}} to each page (I'm currently into the L's in List of AZA member zoos and aquariums)
Add {{WPZOO}} to each talk page (also to L for AZA)
Revamp {{Zoos}} to include non-facility related articles; add organization to it
Write articles :)
Per Ginkgo100's question above, find more non-facility articles to include that are related to zoos, aquaria, and aviaries
- Zookeeper, captivity (animal), etc.
- Tag with {{WPZOO}}

Cburnett 05:49, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Scope of project

Also include formal recognition of butterfly zoos, petting zoos, reptile centres, and safari parks in the scope of this project? Cburnett 05:49, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I expanded the open task box to include these types of things - it is now organized into "Project-wide tasks" and "Specific article tasks". What do you think? --Ars Scriptor 14:38, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Works for me. Cburnett 16:02, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Awesome. Just moving right along here, aren't we. I also expanding the "scope" statement to include the other things you mentioned. --Ars Scriptor 16:21, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I support including the types of facilities you mentioned in the project. What about animal sanctuaries? I feel they don't fit but would like to know what others think. --Ginkgo 100 ^talk 02:54, 8 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, I'm on the fence about that one. Zoos and animal sanctuaries have animals in a protected environment in common, but differ in their purpose. The former is to educate, the later just a "safe haven" as the article puts it. I see animal sanctuary, animal shelter, wildlife refuge, and nature reserve...and more. I think it might be easiest to leave it at those that could be considered a living museum. A shelter and sanctuary are not. Cburnett 02:34, 12 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's my thought. A sanctuary seems to fit more properly in the category of "animal shelter" rather than "animal park". --Ginkgo 100 ^talk 04:07, 12 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

List of animals

I created List of animals at the Minnesota Zoo some time ago because another author was complaining that it took up too much space on Minnesota Zoo. Opinions and thoughts on lists of animals at a particular zoo? I obviously support their existance and think they are intersted and could be helpful if more lists were created for zoos. What if you wanted to find a zoo that had a Golden-breasted Starling or a Grevy's Zebra? Cburnett 06:00, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I support this kind of list, although I wonder if it could become obsolete too quickly. I know my zoo changes exhibits all the time, adds or removes animals. It is a good list subject though, because it can easily be sourced and is comprehensive. --Ars Scriptor 16:16, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Zoos in Quebec

Just for your information... I'm almost only contributing on the french wikipedia, where I've created some articles about zoos in Quebec. Maybe some of these articles may be interesting to be translated from french: fr:Parc Aquarium du Québec, Quebec's aquarium park in Quebec City; fr:Zoo de Granby which is a stub in english; fr:Jardin zoologique du Québec, the oldest zoo in Canada, in Quebec City, that was unfortunately closed in 2005; fr:Liste des jardins zoologiques et aquariums du Québec, a list of zoos and aquaria in Quebec... I'll be working sooner or later on the Parc Safari (a ride-in-with-your-car type zoo in Hemmingford, Quebec), the Zoo sauvage de Saint-Félicien - Centre de conservation de la Biodiversité Boréale, the Wild zoo of Saint-Félicien, and the Toronto Zoo. If someone speaks french on this new project, he may find a lot of articles about zoos in France in the following categories: fr:Catégorie:Parc zoologique and fr:Catégorie:Aquarium public. There is even one that is an Article de qualité (featured article): fr:Zoo de la Palmyre. Cordially and zoologically yours, Boréal 18:57, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Guitarists in need of Attention ???

In "Specific Article Tasks", the section "Articles in need of attention" currently points to "Guitarist articles needing attention". That can't be right; what should it point to? Gosgood 11:58, 10 December 2006 (UTC) [reply]

Issue addressed. Gosgood 16:52, 10 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia Day Awards

Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 17:08, 30 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Questions about History

I was looking into the oldest zoo, oldest public zoo, and oldest scientific zoo. The page for the London zoo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Zoo claims it as the oldest public zoo and claims 1828 as the date. For a reference it cites http://www.zsl.org/about-us/zsls-history,129,AR.html which confirms the date of 1828 but not the claim of oldest zoo. The only reference I can find that makes this claim is http://www.360cities.net/image/london-zoo.

The wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiergarten_Sch%C3%B6nbrunn claims this as the oldest zoo (public, scientific, or otherwise) and the dates seem to back this up 1779 vs 1828. This claim is repeated on several other Wiki pages and appears correct.

However, the offical cite of the ZLS does claim the oldest aquarium http://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/exhibits/aquarium/the-history-of-the-aquarium,656,AR.html. Fussy1967 (talk) 00:53, 6 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Denver Zoo photos

I know it's short notice, but I'll be going to the Denver Zoo with my camera in about half an hour. Any requests for specific photos? I'll definitely get the entry area, anything else? --Ginkgo 100 ^talk 17:13, 10 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Anything special about this particular zoo? Any buildings or animals? As far as I'm concerned, take pictures of aniamls and add them to the page like I've done for Henry Doorly Zoo. Cburnett 17:27, 10 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Proposal to merge articles on cetaceans in captivity

Hello,I've created a proposal to merge some existing articles into a general article on cetaceans in captivity. I noticed some of those articles are in WikiProject Zoo. I thought maybe some of you would care to drop by at your cousin-wikiproject and comment: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Cetaceans#Proposal_to_merge_articles_on_cetaceans_in_captivity. Cheers, Kla'quot 11:22, 29 January 2007 (UTC) ♥♥♥[reply]

Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration

This is about the article on Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration. I am planning on expanding it later today, because it barely has any information, and the information it does have is inaccurate. I just wanted to let you know that I am going to expand it. Thanks. --Semajws 18:35, 28 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Great! Don't forget to cite your sources, and please don't hesitate to ask with any questions. --Ginkgo100^talk 22:05, 28 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

I am a contributor to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium article. It is currently a Start-class article, and am curious if it warrants a better rating or what people think needs to be added. It has been discussed on WikiProject Ohio of adding a couple images, but other then that, what would be a good addition? Thanks for all your thoughts. Polypmaster 22:31, 23 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I bumped it to a B. It has the basics: intro, history, current events, exhibits, and infobox but could be more indepth. See other B-rated zoo articles for ideas like Henry Doorly Zoo or National Zoological Park (United States). Some suggestions:

Picture of the main entrance
Description of exhibits: buildings, size, # of animals, key points of interest, etc.
More detailed history (e.g., why did it close in Oct 1905?)
Any research/conservation efforts they do there?
Any trams or trains or other rides?
References. Specifically the # of animals & species, and the history section. Any number has to come from somewhere

That help? Cburnett 22:43, 23 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Feature article review for: Aquarium

Aquarium has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. MidgleyDJ 05:42, 29 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

the Wilds

I recently created an article for the Wilds, a wildlife conservation center in Ohio. If anyone knows more about this or wishes to research it more, please feel free. It is off to a good start, but needs images, and more info on what they do. Also, I could not find a good list of all the animals and facilities there. Polypmaster 20:33, 1 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Good Article Nomination

I have nominated the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium article for Good Article status. Feel free to review and comment on the article at Wikipedia:Good article candidates. Polypmaster 18:58, 23 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

AFD for List of AZA member zoos and aquariums

The article List of AZA member zoos and aquariums is up for deletion. I assume everyone here would want to keep it? :) Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of AZA member zoos and aquariums Cburnett 04:01, 26 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Toledo Zoo unsourced statement that sounds fishy

Ok User:72.241.14.177 put this on Toledo Zoo yesterday:

being the only place in the world where a pair of twin polar bear cubs have been born and survived (in captivity)^{[citation needed]}

I flagged it because it was unsourced and little strong, they added the in captivity today, and provided a few weblinks in the external links, but I found nothing in them about the statement. I then did a google search and found book Amazon was selling about San Diego Zoo set of twin polar bear cubs. I guess I need guidance what to do with the quote.BeckyAnne 18:33, 11 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Removed. Need a source for a statement like that that is likely to be challenged. And you did challenge it. :) --Spike Wilbury 20:12, 11 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Washington Park Zoo and washington park zoo

Ok Washington Park Zoo is in Michigan City, Indiana and the lower case one is a redirect to Oregon Zoo. Now I put a {{For}} on Oregon Zoo page to direct people to the other zoo, but should we be redirecting the lower case one or let them go to the upper case one and then use the existing {{For}} to get to the Oregon Zoo page. BeckyAnne 04:03, 16 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds good to me, unless the Oregon Zoo is wildly popular and the other one is tiny. We just need to figure out what most people would be looking for if they typed in "Washington park zoo" :) --Spike Wilbury 03:58, 16 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have personally been to the Mich City one, and it in my mind seemed small, I have no clue on the Oregon Zoo one. BeckyAnne 04:03, 16 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Assessment

I just noticed that we don't have any unassessed articles. And that is neato. Good work everyone. --Spike Wilbury 04:07, 16 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Tagging

I noticed that there are still a lot of articles in Category:Zoos and it subcategories that we have not tagged. I'd like to get them all tagged so we can get a firm idea of the scope of this project, so I'll be spending some time digging through. We should be putting {{zoos}} at the bottom of each article, and {{WPZOO}} on each Talk page with a proper assessment. --Spike Wilbury 14:56, 23 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree with adding {{zoos}} everywhere. More at Template talk:Zoos. Please continue to tag talk pages with {{WPZOO}} --Hroðulf (or Hrothulf) (Talk) 09:49, 13 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Jacksonville zoo

I would like to nominate the Jacksonville Zoo page for GA article status. Feel free to commentJa — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.191.106.37 (talk • contribs) \

In order for the zoo to be a GA it needs references that is the first thing that comes to my mind. It is currently rated start class, but I dont think it is a start class. It looks a B class, but I would like someone to verify that info for me. I tagged a few claims with ^{[citation needed]} that you should work on first of all. Also I fixed a few references to use <ref>webpage</ref>. I also moved the logo and lead image to the infobox.

Speaking about infobox, the infobox needs added to it |date_opened= and |coordinates=. The date open is in the article, the coordinates I usually get from google earth, but I am sure there are other programs out there. To add the coordinates use {{coor}} flag. For more info on that see WikiProject Zoo Infobox Template Info.

It looks like a good article, with some little improvements it will be well on it way to GA status. BeckyAnne (talk) 22:37, 1 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Also the Zoo History is a word for word copy from the zoos websites. That will need to be fixed too. It appears a lot of the article is copy right issue. BeckyAnne (talk) 23:19, 1 June 2007 (UTC)so[reply]

I fixed some parts of the articles so they aren't the verbatum official zoo descriptions. I'll get links later

Ok, but the Zoo History part is the major part that needs fixing, actually I am going to delete the whole bit, your welcome to add a history part back, but make sure it isnt a copy violation. BeckyAnne (talk) 23:58, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Added some more depth to the lead, aswell as some more references

Moving John Ball Park to John Ball Zoo

Can I get some people to comment on this over at Talk:John_Ball_Park#May_2007, Thank You. BeckyAnne (talk) 03:35, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Prospect Park Zoo is GA

Epbr123 was the reviewer; I was article custodian (furnishing 'da Brooklyn' point of view). Tip o' the Hat to this project for help and advice during an earlier peer review. Appreciate any and all help in keeping this article GA. Take care. — Gosgood 02:47, 14 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Nice work! --Spike Wilbury 03:43, 14 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia ads

I'm proud to announce that WikiProject Zoo now has a banner in rotation with Wikipedia ads. It appears as follows:

--Spike Wilbury ♫ talk 01:00, 30 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

speaking of which, i saw this ad on my userpage and clicked on it only to find that it linked to WP:SPAM, don't know if this a problem with my user page or, with he ad, but i thought i'd run it past someone here anyway. peace!Ryan shell (talk) 15:23, 12 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Edinburgh Zoo good article nomination

I've nominated the Edinburgh Zoo article for Good Article status. Please feel free to review and comment on the article as it stands, or if you feel you can improve it, please do! — Jack · talk · 04:33, Thursday, 3 January 2008

Zoos by US State

Does EVERY US state with a Zoo need to have its own category? I'm tempted to divide it into regions (with overlap for border states), put them all just in the US category, or just remove the categories altogether.Andy Christ (talk) 01:20, 19 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

London Zoo

I've done a bit of work on London Zoo, adding a lot more about the areas and attractions, and history. I was thinking of putting it up for WP:PR and maybe nominate it for GA in a bit (wait until Blackburn pavilion opens tomorrow, at least). Anyone got any comments on what else could be done? C hris_huh^talk 19:28, 20 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See the London Zoo talk page. Take care. Gosgood (talk) 22:17, 22 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I nominated an assessment category for discussion

The related Category:List-Class_zoo_articles has been nominated for deletion, merging, or renaming. You are encouraged to join the discussion on the Categories for Discussion page.

I just joined this project thanks to the banner ad, and I think there is some confusion over assessments, hence the above nomination. --Hroðulf (or Hrothulf) (Talk) 09:53, 13 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Changes to the WP:1.0 assessment scheme

As you may have heard, we at the Wikipedia 1.0 Editorial Team recently made some changes to the assessment scale, including the addition of a new level. The new description is available at WP:ASSESS.

The new C-Class represents articles that are beyond the basic Start-Class, but which need additional references or cleanup to meet the standards for B-Class.
The criteria for B-Class have been tightened up with the addition of a rubric, and are now more in line with the stricter standards already used at some projects.
A-Class article reviews will now need more than one person, as described here.

Each WikiProject should already have a new C-Class category at Category:C-Class_articles. If your project elects not to use the new level, you can simply delete your WikiProject's C-Class category and clarify any amendments on your project's assessment/discussion pages. The bot is already finding and listing C-Class articles.

Please leave a message with us if you have any queries regarding the introduction of the revised scheme. This scheme should allow the team to start producing offline selections for your project and the wider community within the next year. Thanks for using the Wikipedia 1.0 scheme! For the 1.0 Editorial Team, §hepBot (Disable) 21:35, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia 0.7 articles have been selected for Zoo

Wikipedia 0.7 is a collection of English Wikipedia articles due to be released on DVD, and available for free download, later this year. The Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team has made an automated selection of articles for Version 0.7.

We would like to ask you to review the articles selected from this project. These were chosen from the articles with this project's talk page tag, based on the rated importance and quality. If there are any specific articles that should be removed, please let us know at Wikipedia talk:Version 0.7. You can also nominate additional articles for release, following the procedure at Wikipedia:Release Version Nominations.

A list of selected articles with cleanup tags, sorted by project, is available. The list is automatically updated each hour when it is loaded. Please try to fix any urgent problems in the selected articles. A team of copyeditors has agreed to help with copyediting requests, although you should try to fix simple issues on your own if possible.

We would also appreciate your help in identifying the version of each article that you think we should use, to help avoid vandalism or POV issues. These versions can be recorded at this project's subpage of User:SelectionBot/0.7. We are planning to release the selection for the holiday season, so we ask you to select the revisions before October 20. At that time, we will use an automatic process to identify which version of each article to release, if no version has been manually selected. Thanks! For the Wikipedia 1.0 Editorial team, SelectionBot 22:34, 15 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Memphis Zoo reassessment

Hi there, the article about the Memphis Zoo was recently expanded by an editor. Part of the material is under copyright but I could get permission of the copyright holder to use it under a free license on Wikipedia. The permission was filed with the OSTR and the article has been tagged accordingly.

The article is currently at start-class but in its current state it should be well justified to upgrade that rating. I have copy-edited the new material to some degree and I would like to ask you for two things:

(1) A re-assessment of the article quality and

(2) suggestions for further improvement of the article.

Thank you very much and thanks for the good work of the WikiProject Zoo. Take care, doxTxob \ ^talk 01:57, 22 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Micke Grove Zoo

I stumbled across this article and beefed it up with some citations and an infobox. I'm not too much of a zoo expert, so I thought I'd ask you guys to assess the article and add any information you thought would be relevant. Thanks. --A ni Mate 00:14, 1 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Coordinators' working group

Hi! I'd like to draw your attention to the new WikiProject coordinators' working group, an effort to bring both official and unofficial WikiProject coordinators together so that the projects can more easily develop consensus and collaborate. This group has been created after discussion regarding possible changes to the A-Class review system, and that may be one of the first things discussed by interested coordinators.

All designated project coordinators are invited to join this working group. If your project hasn't formally designated any editors as coordinators, but you are someone who regularly deals with coordination tasks in the project, please feel free to join as well. — Delievered by §hepBot (Disable) on behalf of the WikiProject coordinators' working group at 07:02, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Article alerts

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If you are already subscribed to Article Alerts, it is now easier to report bugs and request new features. We are also in the process of implementing a "news system", which would let projects know about ongoing discussions on a wikipedia-wide level, and other things of interest. The developers also note that some subscribing WikiProjects and Taskforces use the display=none parameter, but forget to give a link to their alert page. Your alert page should be located at "Wikipedia:PROJECT-OR-TASKFORCE-HOMEPAGE/Article alerts". Questions and feedback should be left at Wikipedia talk:Article alerts.

Message sent by User:Addbot to all active wiki projects per request, Comments on the message and bot are welcome here.

Thanks. — Headbomb {^ταλκ_{κοντριβς} – WP Physics} 09:54, 15 March, 2009 (UTC)

Zoological Society of San Diego

Greetings, zoo editors! There is a discussion going on here about merging the articles Zoological Society of San Diego with San Diego Zoo. They're not the same entity, but there frankly isn't much info about the Society. If you have any input, or even better, if you would like to bulk up the Society's article to make it worth keeping, that would be great! --anietor (talk) 19:36, 27 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

New speedy deletion criterion for animals

Hi everyone. As this week's Wikipedia Signpost reports, articles about "individual animals" are now candidates for speedy deletion if the article does not indicate why its subject is important or significant.. I have left comments here and I think input from other animal-related wikiproject participants would be helpful. Best regards, Clayoquot (talk | contribs) 03:15, 22 July 2009

Are there enough articles on this subject to justify an Outline of zoos?

By the way, here's a relevant discussion about subject development you might find interesting.

Now back to the question...

The Transhumanist 01:28, 31 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Zoo Basel, Switzerland article rating

Hi y'all. I have created and been working on this article. Photos were added, history, future, exhibitions etc, outlined, and the zoo is added on the AZA & WAZA lists. The Zoo Basel article currently has a C-rating, but I hope to bump it up. As I'm still working on it, I would love to have some of your comments & recommendations. - Thanks - lucasuvu 11:56pm, 12 October 2009 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lucasuvu (talk • contribs) 05:27, 13 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]