Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Zoo/Archive 3

Assessment (B-class)

Being bold here (and hopefully not offending anyone), I have just de-rated two B-class articles this morning. Adventure Aquarium has NO citations, which means technically I would not even rate it as a start-class article. I only de-rated it to C, since it does contain a lot of material and references (which can probably be converted to citations). I think the "B" on this one was from another (now inactive) WikiProject. Berlin Zoological Garden is not comprehensive, it has inadequate citations for a B-class article, and it was still rated start-class by WikiProject Germany. I worked on the citations a bit, added a few, and I think it's at least a C. Consequently, I have activated the B-class checklist in the WPZOO template. We need some control over this if we are going to have some credibility, not to mention everyone can see at a glance what remains to be done for an article. I will go back through B-class articles eventually and check these all (there are currently less than 50), but probably not right away. Donlammers (talk) 15:27, 6 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I had no idea what I was getting into here. I'm through the Cs, and 2/3 of the articles aren't really B - mostly they don't have adequate citations. I'm doing some fixing as I go, but this is a major project getting these up to snuff. Unfortunately, all the way up from start-class a large chunk of the articles don't qualify for their currently rated status because of inadequate citations. Donlammers (talk) 20:31, 6 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome to my world Donlammers. :) ZooPro 01:22, 7 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Done. I have demoted 11 articles and added "attention" to a bunch more -- mostly because they need citation work. I will try to go through these in the next months. Citation work is a bit tedious and time consuming. Donlammers (talk) 16:20, 7 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo is up for deletion

The article Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo is up for deletion. Does anybody want to work on it to try and save it? - Hydroxonium (talk) 00:55, 9 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, you warned us away. I have added a History section, put the references out of the way, and added citations to the zoo site. I cleaned up the lead a bit as well. The item in Sources section should be converted to a citation, but I haven't read it yet so I don't know what it can cite. This is about all I can do without actually reading anything, but I suspect we can find more information in the third party citations that you provided. I have removed the stub templates (this qualifies as start now by WP criteria), and reset the rating to start. I will take a closer look tomorrow morning. Donlammers (talk) 02:05, 9 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Zoo articles have been selected for the Wikipedia 0.8 release

Version 0.8 is a collection of Wikipedia articles selected by the Wikipedia 1.0 team for offline release on USB key, DVD and mobile phone. Articles were selected based on their assessed importance and quality, then article versions (revisionIDs) were chosen for trustworthiness (freedom from vandalism) using an adaptation of the WikiTrust algorithm.

We would like to ask you to review the Zoo articles and revisionIDs we have chosen. Selected articles are marked with a diamond symbol (♦) to the right of each article, and this symbol links to the selected version of each article. If you believe we have included or excluded articles inappropriately, please contact us at Wikipedia talk:Version 0.8 with the details. You may wish to look at your WikiProject's articles with cleanup tags and try to improve any that need work; if you do, please give us the new revisionID at Wikipedia talk:Version 0.8. We would like to complete this consultation period by midnight UTC on Monday, October 11th.

We have greatly streamlined the process since the Version 0.7 release, so we aim to have the collection ready for distribution by the end of October, 2010. As a result, we are planning to distribute the collection much more widely, while continuing to work with groups such as One Laptop per Child and Wikipedia for Schools to extend the reach of Wikipedia worldwide. Please help us, with your WikiProject's feedback!

For the Wikipedia 1.0 editorial team, SelectionBot 23:51, 19 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Marwell Wildlife

I've done some work on Marwell Wildlife and thinks it deserves an upgrade from "C" class quality. Does somebody want to take a look? Khendon (talk) 11:31, 2 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Done has been upgraded. ZooPro 04:47, 3 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary zoo folks. Farjad0322^{(talk|sign|contribs)} 11:41, 2 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Oh wow, which anniversary is it? The Arbiter^★_★^★ 01:21, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The WikiProject was founded on December 2. Right? Farjad0322^{(talk|sign|contribs)} 17:06, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The front page says 2006, so I guess the project is four years old now. Donlammers (talk) 17:33, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Critically endangered

Hi. I´m from es:WP. I´m trying to update our info with the list in Lists of IUCN Red List Critically Endangered species, but I´ve noticed that some names appear to be in spanish. Specifically I´m talking about "Aves" ("Birds") and lot of names like "Falconiformes", "Cuculiformes", etc. that it seems not to follow the scientific structure of the others neither. I write here because I´m not sure where to do it. If is not the right place, please tell me where to do it. Thanks. --Andreateletrabajo (talk) 14:09, 3 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Article to watchlist

Zion Wildlife Gardens could use some more watchers, as it has a history of unexplained deletions that went unrestored. There's some backstory at the help desk. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 12:43, 9 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'll take a look. Cheers, The Arbiter^★_★^★ 15:16, 9 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm...I've found some interesting patterns, see the help desk, I've posted there. The Arbiter^★_★^★ 15:18, 9 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Australasian Zoo community was thrilled when Craig was um "removed", I have added the article to my watchlist as well as some other related articles, the man [redacted per WP:BLP] and should not have been trusted with peoples lives, well that my POV anyway. ZooPro 16:22, 9 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Glad to know you've heard of this fellow, ZooPro, but please remember WP:BLP applies to all Wikipedia pages, not only articles. Accordingly I've redacted part of your above post. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 00:31, 10 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ah yes my apologies for that, Thanks for the blanking :) ZooPro 01:53, 10 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've been watching all the zoo articles since mid-summer now, and it looks like for this article my "baseline" already included most of the damage just restored by Adrian J. I haven't been checking every fact put in every article (only the ones that look suspicious to me when I hover over the "prev" link), but I will start keeping a closer eye on this one too. Donlammers (talk) 10:51, 10 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Announcement about Portal

The portal is almost finished!! I need people to submit DYKS about zoos!!! Please use the same guidelines as WP:DYK, and submit them here. The only difference is that these do not have to be from new articles. They can be from ANY zoo article. I'll organize them into the portal. Thanks everyone! The Arbiter ^Talk 03:11, 13 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hot Articles

Thanks to some editors over at WikiProject Reptiles, I have come across this tool. Very cool indeed. ZooPro 04:03, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Very nice. I reset it to 7 days on my working page -- I think that gives a bit better perspective of what I want to see, since I already have zoo articles watchlisted anyway for the daily perspective. Donlammers (talk) 13:27, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

New template

I have created a new template {{ZooOrg}} to make citations to zoo organizations (and a few environmental organizations) easier. Currently, for most organizations the template will let you point to the membership list or the home page. Allowed parameters are shown in the template documentation, and will be updated as we add new organizations or "page" parameters. By no means should this template be considered "done." It contains the organizations which I have had to cite over the last few months, and nothing else yet. I will add to it as I need to cite new information. If you make a citation that you think belongs in the list, you can update the template if you are template-savvy, or you can contact me with the name of the organization and the article in which the citation appears. I will then add the new organization to the template and update the article. Donlammers (talk) 14:38, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject Coordinator Position

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Notice to all the WikiProject Zoo members, its the start of the new year and with it brings about the start of a new term for the WikiProject Coordinators position/s. I hereby vacate the positions of Coordinator for WikiProject Zoo along with User:The Arbiter. Kind regards ZooPro 08:10, 8 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

A simple approval vote system is used to nominate and vote for candidates, current coordinators can be nominated again and can choose to decline or accept nomination (as can all users nominated).The nominations are open for 7 Days to be closed on the 15 January at 1900 hours (UTC).

If you would like to nominate a User, please add the following to the bottom of the list of nominees along with a short note describing why you think they should be chosen.

For Nominators:
Please use the following code when nominating a user.

===[[User:Example]]===

Support:

(sign with four tildes)

Comments:

(put your reason for nomination, sign again)

----

For Voters:
Please use the following code when voting to support a user.

#~~~

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Sources and care of animals

Hello good people at WikiProject Zoo. I recently read the main article on wiki for "Zoo" and while I think there is a lot of good work there, as a journalist, I have raised a couple of issues about the quality of articles sourced for the "Sources and care of animals" section. I thought I'd bring my comments from the Zoo Discussion page to your attention:

My apologies for this comment being a bit on the long side...

I think this section needs a lot of tightening a cleaning. Many parts don't read as encyclopaedic and deal more with allegations and accusations against specific zoos rather than examples of common animal abuse at zoo facilities. Also, PETA is not the only organization that deals with abuse and quality of life issues for animals, but they seem to get a high degree of mention in this section. I think other sources should be used to compliment the PETA findings.

In addition, I think this Guardian article gets more weight than it deserves as a source:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/28/wildlife.conservation

For a reputable paper like The Guardian, this is a poorly written piece and is not encyclopedic as it deals with accusations but few proven facts - If Ms Claudia Hämmerling's evidence proved true, where are the followup articles? I looked her up on the German language Wikipedia page and while it outlines her political activities, there is only one line about animal welfare. Surely if there was an serious investigation into her claims then there are more supporting periodicals and they should be included in this zoo article. The general writing of The Guardian article is also problematic, granted, papers do not have footnotes or citations, however, when a journalist writes:

'It is believed standard practice for zoos to kill "surplus" animals. Nuremberg zoo's deputy director, Helmut Mägdefrau, was reported as saying: "If we cannot find good homes for the animals, we kill them and use them as feed." Recently an antelope in Nuremberg was fed to caged lions in front of visitors, causing outrage.'

Then if "It is believed..." it is the journalist's responsibility to address: By whom it is believed. The "whom" is important as it leads to credibility. Is it Claudia Hämmerling who believes or another entity? As it is written we have no idea who the journalist is talking about. Further, if Mr Helmut Mägdefrau is "reported" as saying something (especially something controversial), then it is imperative that the journalist cites who reported Mägdefrau's quote. Right now it is an anonymous source which should be avoided by both newspapers and encyclopedias. This is simply proper journalisitc standards and practice. I am not saying what is here is incorrect, but I am saying it needs to be quoted from better material.

This Zoo article should be designed around informing the reader about the negative and positive aspects of zoos. As such, proper sourcing should be used properly and carefully because the ethical treatment of animals is an important, sensitive and an emotional issue. It is important that the information here is accurate and reliable or it should be removed. OK, time for your thoughts (I'd like to get a bit of feedback before I spend time working on this, only to get it reverted)? 76.65.28.115 (talk) 17:17, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

I am reluctant to make changes without first getting feedback from the people at the WikiProject Zoo group as I work in TV journalism and my writing skills tend to be expository/spoken word writing and not encyclopedic. I thought it to be more prudent to see if someone with more knowledge of zoos and more experience as a wiki writer/editor might want to take a crack at it. However, as a regular wiki reader and occasional contributor, I think this section of your zoo article is in need of work. Sophus Bie, a Wiki regular contributor seems to agree for the most part based on her reply to my original post. Codymr (talk) 00:38, 24 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I agree in principle with your comments, but do not have time to do major work on an article right now. If you write it and it's cited (see WP:CITE), and it's written from a neutral point of view (see WP:NPOV), then nobody is likely to complain. If you are worried about the mechanics of citing, go ahead and just leave a url for the source and let me know -- I can help expand the citation and format it properly. If you work in TV Journalism you are already used to reporting in as few words as possible -- just avoid subjective words (biggest, fantastic, etc.), and you should be just fine. Just think of it as investigative journalism -- except that you are looking for written sources instead of interviewees. Don Lammers (talk) 01:15, 24 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Request for Comment: Capitalization of common names of animal species

Hello WikiProject members and others. As part of a discussion at WikiProject Animals, a number of editors have indicated that the presentation of the current guidelines on the capitalization of common names of species is somewhat unclear.

We wish to clarify and confirm existing uncontroversial guidelines and conventions, and present them in a "quick-reference" table format, for inclusion into the guidelines for the capitalization of common names of species.

Please take a moment to visit the draft, and comment at talk. Your input is requested to determine whether or not this table is needed, and to ensure that it is done in the best way possible. Thank you. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 03:43, 16 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:HighBeam

Wikipedia:HighBeam describes a limited opportunity for Wikipedia editors to have access to HighBeam Research.
—Wavelength (talk) 16:24, 5 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Potawatomi Zoo Clean Up

I did some major clean up on this zoo. It was a stub article with one photograph and just a couple of sentences. I have a ton of pictures (some will be added to the gallery section over the next week). Anyone willing to assist with making this article larger is more than welcome. This article is close to home and having the opportunity to edit it has led me to this project (WikiProjectZoo) as a new contributor. --Morning277 (talk) 20:42, 20 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have done some work on infrastructure, and re-assessed the article as start-class. Right now I'm really only doing triage on Zoo articles, and assessing, but I will try to help as I can. Don Lammers (talk) 01:15, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the help. Anything is better than nothing. --Morning277 (talk) 21:05, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Just a note on galleries. They are discouraged now that we have Wikimedia Commons and can point to it. Photos should be in the article text next to what they illustrate. Generally nobody will touch galleries until the article reaches a reasonable length though, since the article isn't yet long enough to actually contain the images. By the time something becomes B-class the photos should be absorbed into the body. Don Lammers (talk) 01:51, 26 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That makes sense. I still have some additions to make to the article. When this happens, I will take the time to move the pictures form the gallery to the article contents and then remove any extra gallery photos. --Morning277 (talk) 12:14, 26 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Popcorn Park Zoo

I added some additional information to the page that can be see HERE. I will also be adding an info box for the zoo as well as the logo. Not sure if it should be removed from being a "stub" or removed from "request for content" under the zoo project. Thoughts? --Morning277 (talk) 14:21, 25 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A bit of infrastructure work, and I removed the stub tags and reassessed as start-class. Removal from the stub list will happen automatically. Not sure where you see a stub listing for Popcorn Park Zoo in the Zoo project pages, but I have removed Potawatomi Zoo from the Wikipedia:WikiProject Zoo/Article requests page (and some others I found there that are now start-class).

Thank you for the good work. I am watching all of the zoo pages, so if you edit something from stub to start (or otherwise add significant content), I should spot it and check it for reassessment within a couple of days. Don Lammers (talk) 01:51, 26 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the help. Please reach out if there is a specific project that you would like me to work on. I have some extra time right now. --Morning277 (talk) 12:13, 26 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Request for Comments Columbian Park Zoo

New page just created for Columbian Park Zoo. Welcome any comments and/or suggestions. Thanks. --Morning277 (talk) 17:19, 2 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Zoos template

Note: Some of this discussion has been copied from other locations so that it appears in a single location.

The zoos template is in every article about a zoo, and has been for years. Is there some particular reason that you have decided that it is "unnecessary" at this time? This template provides links that used to be placed in See also sections. It seems to me that this kind of overall change to zoo articles should have been discussed first at WikiProject Zoo rather than implemented unilaterally. This is hardly TCREEP, as the templates have been around for at least since I have been editing (admittedly only three years), and in in many cases they replaced fairly long See also sections. Don Lammers (talk) 09:50, 23 May 2012 (UTC) (originally at User talk:Bearcat)

Templates are only supposed to be used to link articles of direct, not marginal, relevance to the topic. Having the basic "zoos" overview template on every individual zoo, when it features broadly chosen links like "bear pit", "animal training", "ex-situ conservation" and "nocturnal house" that may not actually be of any functional relevance to that particular zoo, would be very much like placing an overview template about general topics in economics on every individual economist, or placing an overview template about general topics in politics on every individual politician. The links are simply too broad in scope to be useful or relevant or necessary on every single article about every individual zoo.

And at any rate, there's a conscious effort in place (see WP:TCREEP) to keep the number of templates on articles under control — some of the ones I removed it from already have four or five other navbox templates on them, which is far too many. Edmonton Valley Zoo, for example, does not need five different navboxes on it — even four is overkill and should be trimmed further, but {{Zoos}} was the only one of the five that was not clearly essential as they're currently constituted, because normally no article should ever actually have any navbox on it which doesn't itself contain a link to that same article within a list of immediately related topics. The "Zoos in particular province" template should be more than sufficient; the articles simply don't need both templates simultaneously.

And if it's really that important that the general zoos template be accessible, then the "zoos in province" templates can also be modified to provide a text link to the general zoos template if necessary. Bearcat (talk) 21:22, 23 May 2012 (UTC) (copied here from User talk:Donlammers#Zoos template)[reply]

My understanding for the basic "original intent" of the template (I was not involved in its creation) was that it replaced long See also lists (it is much less distraction than 12-15 See also entries). This is essentially how I have been using the template over the last couple of years. I'm not particularly wedded to the idea of this template being in every zoo article, but that is the current guidance in this project, and if it's going to change, the change should be discussed here, along with what needs to be done with all the other articles that would need to be updated. There are probably close to 1,000 articles that currently contain this template, and we should be at least consistent in its usage.

The "Zoos in a province/state/country" template do not currently contain these "See also" entries. As you point out, we can add the ones we think are critical to the other templates, or point to some other location. However, this should be discussed in a location where that discussion can be easily referenced in the future, and for zoo articles this is the best we have. Don Lammers (talk) 00:29, 24 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I just started a "sweep" of start-class zoo articles to "normalize" their templates & categorization. One of my current tasks is to add the Zoos template, so if we are going to reverse that trend, this is a good time to do it. I think bearcat is correct that the Zoos template information might be better handled in other ways. I would like to propose the following as a starting point:

Make sure that all zoos are categorized under a "Zoos in <jurisdiction>" category (I will need to add categories to accomplish this -- Bearcat is already doing this for Canada zoos).
Remove {{Zoos}} from zoo articles in favor of the jurisdiction templates. {{Zoos}} would still be used in the articles that it references, which is most likely where someone will care about those links.
Make sure that there is a link in the lead of every article about a zoo the points to one of the "soo type" articles in {{Zoos}} (Zoo, Public aquarium, Bird park, etc.).
Add one line at the bottom of jurisdiction templates with links we think are important (see {{Zoos of Colorado}} for the current state of this line).
Possibly provide a link to the list of zoos of the country in the infobox or in the "one-liner" mentioned previously.
Remove {{CAZA}} from Canadian zoo articles. It is the only zoo association template we have besides WAZA, the information is duplicated in the "jurisdiction" templates, and in each of those articles we point to the actual CAZA web site list anyway.

Enough for now. If you don't comment, Bearcat and I will end up making the decision and I will publish our conclusions. Don Lammers (talk) 11:31, 24 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have modified the Colorado template to add a line of links at the bottom. Obviously, this can be changed. I have then removed the {{Zoos}} template from the Colorado articles. It seemed like a fairly decent sample without being a huge project, and I can reverse the edits quickly if there is a lot of disagreement now that I've actually done something. I have made the colorado template so it's always collapsed (I hate it when you end up with a huge open template at the bottom, and I added the Denver template (it's amazingly ugly and takes up three whole lines when collapsed) to the Denver venues that it lists. Don Lammers (talk) 22:56, 26 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

No comments yet, so I am starting gradually. You can see what I'm doing by going to Colorado, South Korea, or Rhode Island zoos. I have added {{Zoos of South Korea}} in the new format, and modified {{Zoos of Rhode Island}}. I have created {{Zoos footer}} so that we can modify the "below" information in the "Zoos of <jurisdiction>" templates easily and consistently. Don Lammers (talk) 17:26, 2 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Aquariums vs. aquaria

I went and changed the titles in the "Zoos of" templates (though I missed a few somehow) to "Zoos and aquaria of...", which seemed to be the majority in that particyular set of templates, and now I'm regretting it. IMHO, it looks and sounds terrible. It really should be Zoos and aqwuariums of...". AZA uses Aquariums in its name. WAZA uses Aquariums. Only EAZA uses "Aquaria". The disambiguation article is "Aquariums", not "Aquaria".

If there are no objections, I am going to go change them back eventually. Comments are welcome. Although nobody seems to be watching this page any more, I thought at least the intention needs to be recorded somewhere, even if there ends up being no discussion on the matter. Don Lammers (talk) 00:56, 23 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm watching. As far as I am concerned, you are running the show with this project as there seems to be little involvement from others. There is no objection from me.--Morning277 (talk) 03:02, 23 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It's fine by me. Sorry I haven't been editing lately. Takinzinnia (talk • contribs) 18:36, 23 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

All good by me, Sorry havn't contributed recently ZooPro 14:09, 28 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Listing size (weight, and dimensions where applicable) for animals in a standardized manner

I personally think it would be a good idea to list average adult size (possibly size span as well if it is notable) for species in a standardized manner (similarly to how biological classification is in a template now). Size is probably of great interest for most readers who are unfamiliar with the species that an article handles, and only seek to gain a brief overview. Autharitus (talk) 11:38, 12 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure what this has to do with WP Zoo. We don't list size or any other particulars about animals in zoo articles. Those should be part of the animal article. You may get better comments on changes like this at WikiProject Animals and its sub-projects, where they deal with the actual animal articles.

Oh, of course. We learn by making mistakes, and thus I will proudly add yet another mistake (if minor) to my list. Thanks for linking me to the relevant project page. Autharitus (talk) 18:24, 14 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If this is the worst mistake you ever make, you are doing a LOT better than I. Happy editing! Don Lammers (talk) 00:44, 15 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Do not feed the animals

There is a discussion at Talk:Do not feed the animals#Article title which members of this project may be interested in. -- 202.124.89.1 (talk) 04:48, 5 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Shouldn't it be Wikiproject Zoos?

This project's name seems like it should be Wikipedia:WikiProject Zoos. Any particular reason why it's not? Jason Quinn (talk) 14:53, 22 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

At this point, it's probably more a matter of the effort required to change it everywhere, including such issues as "do we rename the templates as well?" (project templates are transcluded in a bunch of places). I'm doubtful that there would be much enthusiasm for the work involved, and would think any efforts would be better spent improving articles. Don Lammers (talk) 18:22, 31 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Animal welfare ratings

It seems to me that we should make it a high priority to have every article on a zoo to have a section concerning the animal welfare and conditions. But as far as I've been able to tell so far, there isn't any world-authority on the issue. I've found the accreditation database for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums but it seems mostly US centric and only covers a few other countries. Plus, it doesn't give much information on each zoo. I've found a few reports in zoos in specific countries like this one for the UK but there's an awful lot of zoos in the world so that's just a drop in the bucket. Is there really a void for a international zoo animal welfare organization that has unified, consistant standards? Geez, that's depressing if there isn't by the 21st century. Jason Quinn (talk) 15:10, 22 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The overall organization is WAZA, though it is not an accrediting institution. There is a partial list of member organizations in the WP article, and a link to the WAZA site where you can see a full list. The AZA is indeed primarily United States, though there are a few exceptions. Each region has its own accrediting organization, like CAZA, EAZA, etc. Some zoos will belong to multiple organizations (for instance, many zoos in Great Britain belong to both EAZA and BIAZA, and membership requirements are different for each. For instance, although I could get an individual membership to AZA by just paying money, Zoos must be accredited by the AZA to be members. This is not true of CAZA, where zoos can be members without being accredited. Some associations do not require accreditation, the theory evidently being that if they can get everyone to the table, they may be able to influence conditions. So yes, standards are different everywhere, and in some countries there are none. It is somewhat depressing for status in the 21st century. Don Lammers (talk) 17:57, 31 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright issues for this project's logo

Both the 2013 and 2010 versions of the file File:WikiProject Zoo Logo.JPG have possible copyright issues. I have tagged the image so the issues need to be addressed within a week. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs) 20:04, 30 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Frozen Zoo

Please don't forget including and improving the Frozen Zoo article.

mrigthrishna (talk) 14:17, 12 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

New article

Kolmarden Tropicarium in Sweden. Dan Koehl (talk) 14:54, 15 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Page merger discussion

A discussion is taking place that may be of interest to some members of this project at Talk:XY sex-determination system#Proposed merge with Maternal influence on sex determination. Sminthopsis84 (talk) 12:47, 28 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Columbus Zoo GAR

Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, an article that you or your project may be interested in, has been nominated for an individual good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. --ThaddeusB (talk) 00:41, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Comment on the WikiProject X proposal

Hello there! As you may already know, most WikiProjects here on Wikipedia struggle to stay active after they've been founded. I believe there is a lot of potential for WikiProjects to facilitate collaboration across subject areas, so I have submitted a grant proposal with the Wikimedia Foundation for the "WikiProject X" project. WikiProject X will study what makes WikiProjects succeed in retaining editors and then design a prototype WikiProject system that will recruit contributors to WikiProjects and help them run effectively. Please review the proposal here and leave feedback. If you have any questions, you can ask on the proposal page or leave a message on my talk page. Thank you for your time! (Also, sorry about the posting mistake earlier. If someone already moved my message to the talk page, feel free to remove this posting.) Harej (talk) 22:47, 1 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Expert attention

This is a notice about Category:Zoo articles needing expert attention, which might be of interest to your WikiProject. It will take a while before the category is populated. Iceblock (talk) 17:06, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Active?

Is any of the Participants still active within this project? Dan Koehl (talk) 15:03, 27 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The present coordinators, Don Lammers and ZooPro, are both inactive, and the project itself seems inactive. Im willing to be a coordinator, if noone has anything against it, and try to reactive the project. For this purpose it would be good to know if anyone else is active with zoo articles, and will to join in a reactivation? Dan Koehl (talk) 16:12, 30 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2015

Hi there; this is just a quick note to let you all know that the 2015 WikiCup will begin on January 1st. The WikiCup is an annual competition to encourage high-quality contributions to Wikipedia by adding a little friendly competition to editing. At the time of writing, more than fifty users have signed up to take part in the competition; interested parties, no matter their level of experience or their editing interests, are warmly invited to sign up. Questions are welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Thanks! Miyagawa (talk) 21:47, 29 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject X is live!

Hello everyone!

You may have received a message from me earlier asking you to comment on my WikiProject X proposal. The good news is that WikiProject X is now live! In our first phase, we are focusing on research. At this time, we are looking for people to share their experiences with WikiProjects: good, bad, or neutral. We are also looking for WikiProjects that may be interested in trying out new tools and layouts that will make participating easier and projects easier to maintain. If you or your WikiProject are interested, check us out! Note that this is an opt-in program; no WikiProject will be required to change anything against its wishes. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!

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Harej (talk) 16:58, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

New pages 2014

During 2014, I created the following articles and templates: Kampot Zoo, Bayap Zoo, Koh Kong Safari World, Paul Matte, Kolmarden Tropicarium, Tiergarten Walding, Alpenzoo Innsbruck, Furuviksparken, Frösö Zoo, Ystad Djurpark, Parken Zoo, Lycksele Zoo, Ölands Djur- och nöjespark, Gutezoo, Grönåsens Älgpark, Junsele Djurpark, Slottsskogens Djurpark,Skandinavisk Dyrepark, Tropicario, Escurial Zoo and Flower Park, Brno Zoo, Děčín Zoo, Grodno Zoo, Planckendael Zoo, Ostrava Zoo, Liberec Zoo, Plzeň Zoo, Zlín-Lešná Zoo. Jihlava Zoo, Chleby Zoo, Hodonín Zoo, Herberstein Zoo, Schmiding Zoo, Lovech Zoo, Varna Zoo, Pleven Zoo, Plovdiv Zoo , Stara Zagora Zoo, Chomutov Zoo, Olomouc Zoo,Template:Zoos_of_Cambodia, Template:Zoos_of_Germany, Template:Zoos of Czech Republic, Template:Zoos of Belarus‎, Template:Zoos of Belgium, Template:Zoos of Bulgaria.

Unfortunately many stubs, especially several of the zoos in Bulgaria was a challenge, in regard to find any substantial information, and they still remain stubs, but will hopefully be expanded now once they are existing, compared to when they were red links.

I kindly ask anyone with literature about Bulgarian Zoos, to check if you can expand those articles, with more info.

Dan Koehl (talk) 10:24, 15 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Siam Park (Tenerife) listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Siam Park (Tenerife) to be moved to Siam Park. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 22:59, 5 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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Red links

Hello! I have created this red links page which is updated by a bot. It include zoos, aquaria (and dolphinarium) and aviary facilities. I hope it is useful. Most of them don't exist here, although maybe some have different names (create a redirect in those cases). Regards! emijrp (talk) 15:27, 18 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent, thanks @Emijrp:! It seems some of the red links are in Japanese language, was that by purpose or an accident? Dan Koehl (talk) 08:18, 22 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

That is because it only exists in Japanese Wikipedia and there isn't English translation. emijrp (talk) 19:26, 23 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Dawn Brancheau listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Dawn Brancheau to be moved to Death of Dawn Brancheau. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 05:45, 14 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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New pages 2016

During 2016, I created the following articles and templates: Réserve Africaine de Sigean, Zoo de Cerza, Zoo de Doué, Zoo de la Flèche,

Unfortunately many stubs, and some of them still remain stubs, but will hopefully be expanded now once they are existing, compared to when they were red links.

I kindly ask anyone with literature about Zoos, you can expand those articles, with more info. Dan Koehl (talk) 10:07, 19 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Martha (pigeon) listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Martha (pigeon) to be moved to Martha (passenger pigeon). This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 19:02, 22 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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Article Improvement

Hi, I recently improved the article Hutchinson Zoo which is of interest to this group. It still is not the best (difficult to find sources) but I think it is much better than a stub now, so I would love for one of you to take a look at it and change its rating. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kmwebber (talk • contribs) 00:37, 18 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Billabong Koala and Wildlife Park listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Billabong Koala and Wildlife Park to be moved to Billabong Zoo: Koala & Wildlife Park. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 04:46, 14 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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Billabong Zoo listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Billabong Zoo to be moved to Billabong Zoo. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 18:01, 15 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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Changing template titles to Zoos and Aquariums...?

What do people in this project think about changing the titles of "Zoos of..." templates to "Zoos and Aquariums of..."? I created the Woods Hole Science Aquarium article a few months ago and put Template:Zoos of Massachusetts at the bottom, but it looks a little weird there, because it is an aquarium, not a zoo. I understand that aquariums and zoos are related (they both exhibit live animals), but having a "Zoos and Aquariums of Massachusetts" template would be less confusing to the reader, and I think it would better follow the principle of least astonishment. Vejlenser (talk) 03:55, 20 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Durrell Wildlife Park listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Durrell Wildlife Park to be moved to Jersey Zoo. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 20:15, 25 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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Categorization of zoological institutions at WP:GA

I've started a discussion at WT:GA about where to put zoological institutions (mostly public aquariums) in the list of good articles at this thread. – Rhinopias (talk) 21:41, 12 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Polar Zoo listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Polar Zoo to be moved to Polar Park. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 16:16, 27 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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Roer's Safari listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Roer's Safari to be moved to Roer's Zoofari. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 18:03, 27 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

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A new newsletter directory is out!

A new Newsletter directory has been created to replace the old, out-of-date one. If your WikiProject and its taskforces have newsletters (even inactive ones), or if you know of a missing newsletter (including from sister projects like WikiSpecies), please include it in the directory! The template can be a bit tricky, so if you need help, just post the newsletter on the template's talk page and someone will add it for you.

– Sent on behalf of Headbomb. 03:11, 11 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Helsinki Zoo listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Helsinki Zoo to be moved to Korkeasaari Zoo. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 15:01, 7 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

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Tilikum (orca) listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Tilikum (orca) to be moved to Tilikum (killer whale). This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 11:01, 27 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

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List of captive orcas listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for List of captive orcas to be moved to List of captive killer whales. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 13:16, 1 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

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Request for information on WP1.0 web tool

Hello and greetings from the maintainers of the WP 1.0 Bot! As you may or may not know, we are currently involved in an overhaul of the bot, in order to make it more modern and maintainable. As part of this process, we will be rewriting the web tool that is part of the project. You might have noticed this tool if you click through the links on the project assessment summary tables.

We'd like to collect information on how the current tool is used by....you! How do you yourself and the other maintainers of your project use the web tool? Which of its features do you need? How frequently do you use these features? And what features is the tool missing that would be useful to you? We have collected all of these questions at this Google form where you can leave your response. Walkerma (talk) 04:25, 27 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Muskingum County Animal Farm listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Muskingum County Animal Farm to be moved to 2011 Zanesville, Ohio animal escape. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 04:47, 9 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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Chengdu Haichang Polar Ocean World

The title for the page Haichang Polar Ocean World should be changed to Chengdu Haichang Polar Ocean World. There are multiple Haichang Polar Ocean Worlds, and the article is talking about the Chengdu location. — Preceding unsigned comment added by DesmognathusFuscus (talk • contribs) 03:04, 3 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Tilikum (killer whale) listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Tilikum (killer whale) to be moved to Tilikum (orca). This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 07:34, 2 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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List of captive orca listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for List of captive orca to be moved to List of captive orcas. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 00:19, 13 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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Gorakhpur Zoo listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Gorakhpur Zoo to be moved to Shaheed Ashfaq Ullah Khan Zoological Park. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 19:21, 26 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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SeaWorld San Diego

There is an ongoing discussion on including orca deaths in SeaWorld San Diego with further input being requested for interested parties: Talk:SeaWorld San Diego#Why not include orca deaths. Adog (Talk・Cont) 20:35, 14 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Article guidelines

I'd like to propose an addition to the Zoo Article Guidelines.

Under "article body", it suggests including "notable animals". This should be clarified so editors know that a "notable animal" is an animal that has its own unique Wikipedia article, such as Futa (red panda) or Binti Jua.

The guideline should also suggest that editors refrain from listing every single animal species located at the zoo, per WP:NOTDIRECTORY.

I'm making this proposal because I reverted this enormous list by User:Binturong32 of every single animal at Gladys Porter Zoo.

The input of others would be appreciated. Magnolia677 (talk) 10:32, 25 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Magnolia677 and Binturong32: I've seen so many zoo articles which include long lists of all the species which live there. I'd go so far as to say that even though this guideline advises against it, it is standard. I think many animals at a zoo are worthy of including in a zoo's article beyond those that have Wikipedia articles, and though they are too often out of date, a list is fine. I think this proposal should get more feedback before being implemented. SchreiberBike | ⌨ 13:06, 25 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thankyou so much Binturong32 (talk) 13:45, 25 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Largest zoos

Hi, I've never even looked at a WikiProject before so I am extremely sorry if this isn't where I'm supposed to put this, but I cannot for the life of me find any lists of 'largest zoos' and if it doesn't exist, I think it would be worth creating. Again I don't even know if I'm in the right place but I just want to let someone know. Sorry.

Henriio (talk) 05:17, 27 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Marineland of Canada listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Marineland of Canada to be moved to Marineland (Canada). This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 14:16, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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Good article reassessment for Dolphinarium

Dolphinarium has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. Onegreatjoke (talk) 18:17, 10 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Project-independent quality assessments

Quality assessments by Wikipedia editors rate articles in terms of completeness, organization, prose quality, sourcing, etc. Most wikiprojects follow the general guidelines at Wikipedia:Content assessment, but some have specialized assessment guidelines. A recent Village pump proposal was approved and has been implemented to add a |class= parameter to {{WikiProject banner shell}}, which can display a general quality assessment for an article, and to let project banner templates "inherit" this assessment.

No action is required if your wikiproject follows the standard assessment approach. Over time, quality assessments will be migrated up to {{WikiProject banner shell}}, and your project banner will automatically "inherit" any changes to the general assessments for the purpose of assigning categories.

However, if your project has decided to "opt out" and follow a non-standard quality assessment approach, all you have to do is modify your wikiproject banner template to pass {{WPBannerMeta}} a new |QUALITY_CRITERIA=custom parameter. If this is done, changes to the general quality assessment will be ignored, and your project-level assessment will be displayed and used to create categories, as at present. Aymatth2 (talk) 20:27, 10 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Koala Park

In a previous edit I added citations and link to Word Press in which a historian had written about the Koala Park. I know that Word Press is not a preferred reliable source however I verified the authenticity of the historian, his work and he is an award winning author's who writes information about the park as one of many places he writes about in Pennant Hills. None of the writing seemed promotional nor self-promoting. The author is award winning and an historian of the area writing about many places in Pennant Hills. I'm justifying my decision to cite info from his article because there was not much else out there with any significant information to add. I hope that I am not penalised for this as I felt I verified his neutral stance and I felt I added significant information of value to the overall Wiki post on the Koala Park. PatchUpEditsUniversal (talk) 23:50, 2 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@PatchUpEditsUniversal: Regarding your recent edits to Koala Park Sanctuary, do not worry about being penalized. Wikipedia tries to be a welcoming place and seldom actually punishes anyone, but there are some concerns. First, Wikipedia can not legally take text either directly from or closely paraphrased from another source without it being clear that it is a quote from that source. That is a violation of copyright. I suggest reviewing Wikipedia:Close paraphrasing, but there's no need to understand every detail. I'll take a look at the article in a few minutes and try to do some rewriting. Second, regarding WordPress, your points are good. Someone might go through and remove WordPress links, but if there were a hidden note in the text explaining your choice to use that source, your case would be better.

Welcome to Wikipedia and I hope you have a long positive relationship with the encyclopedia anyone can edit. SchreiberBike | ⌨ 12:47, 3 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much for your feedback. I will look at Close paraphrasing link again. I appreciate that. Regarding your suggestion for a hidden note....how would I do that? PatchUpEditsUniversal (talk) 00:35, 4 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@PatchUpEditsUniversal: I'm glad I could help. A hidden note might look like:

... northern suburb of Sydney.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |first=Trevor George |last=Patrick |date=2021-08-13 |title=The history of Koala Park Sanctuary |url=https://trevorp04.wordpress.com/2021/08/13/the-history-of-koala-park-sanctuary/ |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=Hillstorian Australian History Man}}<!-- This WordPress blog appears unbiased and is written by a locally well known historian of Pennant Hills. --></ref>  The park is known ...

Or wording similar to that. The  code means what is typed between the  is visible to other editors, but not to readers. All my best. SchreiberBike | ⌨ 00:08, 5 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals listed at Requested moves

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to be moved to RSPCA. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 01:32, 28 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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