"Boring" Animals You Want

NZFanatic

NZFanatic
The game already contains a lot of "boring" animals. You know, backyard animals, roadkill animals, animals you see on your daily commute, and so on. Red foxes, badgers, skunks, raccoons, garden-variety species that leave some of us scratching our heads as to why they were included, and some of us gleeful.

We also all seem to have certain "boring" animals we really want. This thread is to discuss that without the usual negativity. So what are the animals that you want that you normally wouldn't talk about because they aren't "exciting" or "exotic" or something like that?

My top two are the mute swan and European wildcat. I exclusively like to build in Britain, and although British zoos do tend to focus on the exotic big-ticket animals, I find myself wishing I had a few more "run of the mill" species like these. The European wildcat, particularly the Scottish wildcat subpopulation, is a staple of Scottish zoos in the same way the kiwi is a staple of New Zealand zoos. Since I tend to build Scottish or British zoos as a stand-in for New Zealand zoos, having this species would be a huge boon to me. Likewise, the swan is practically emblematic of Britain, showing up all over the place, from natural rivers and lakes to public parks to zoos.

Edit: I'm just going to point out that there is a reason I put the word "boring" in quotations, so everyone can stop defending their choices as "not really boring" or "boring is subjective" or whatever else.

The whole point is that there are certain animals that some of us find commonplace or "garden variety" regardless of how individually exciting you personally think they are.

Keep in mind I listed the fox, badger, skunk, and raccoon. I'm from New Zealand. Do you think I see an abundance of these species every day?
 
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Sindy

Sindy
For me it's the American black bear, Canadian goose, coyote, and opossum. The big four boring/roadkill/general nuisance North American species.

I know Canadian geese aren't exactly zoo animals, and I can't speak for everyone in NA because there are animals from all over that are more iconic to some than others, but those are the ones that are most familiar to me and I just personally love them in general.
 

DarthQuell

DarthQuell
American black bear for me, as it's my favorite bear and has so many color variants. Say what y'all want (infinite shades of black), but the fact is that it'd have at least as many as the red fox. Piebald bears, red bears, white, black, blue-silverish.

Another is the gray fox, my all-time favorite living animal. Say what you want, but it'd have the unique ability to climb trees, unlike the other canines we have. As well as the beautiful silver and bronze colors
 

Marvinb

Marvinb
Brushtail possum was the first thing that came to my mind when reading backyard animal.
I mean pretty much every animal could be a backyard animal depending on where you live.
Based on where i am i would like:
European wildcat, wild boar, mallard, mute swan and white stork
 

oca2074

O
NZFanatic said:
The game already contains a lot of "boring" animals. You know, backyard animals, roadkill animals, animals you see on your daily commute, and so on. Red foxes, badgers, skunks, raccoons, garden-variety species that leave some of us scratching our heads as to why they were included, and some of us gleeful.

We also all seem to have certain "boring" animals we really want. This thread is to discuss that without the usual negativity. So what are the animals that you want that you normally wouldn't talk about because they aren't "exciting" or "exotic" or something like that?

My top two are the mute swan and European wildcat. I exclusively like to build in Britain, and although British zoos do tend to focus on the exotic big-ticket animals, I find myself wishing I had a few more "run of the mill" species like these. The European wildcat, particularly the Scottish wildcat subpopulation, is a staple of Scottish zoos in the same way the kiwi is a staple of New Zealand zoos. Since I tend to build Scottish or British zoos as a stand-in for New Zealand zoos, having this species would be a huge boon to me. Likewise, the swan is practically emblematic of Britain, showing up all over the place, from natural rivers and lakes to public parks to zoos.
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Seriously, this is kinda euro/american-centric. To Africans, Indians, some Asians, they've literally never seen skunks, raccoons, red foxes, ect. It's quite exotic to them.

Boring is very subjective. It's 100% dependent on what you are used to seeing.
 
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Aramar

Aramar
Although I don't consider it boring at all, I think mentioning the Eurasian brown bear would be a fit for this thread.

European hedgehogs 🦔 could be nice too 🙂.

And I'm going to be hated, but for me watching birds in zoos is quite boring since most of them don't do anything, just stay still perching on a branch.
 

RightWhale

RightWhale
Being from the northeast U.S. I have a couple of boring animals I would want.
  1. American Black Bear
  2. White tailed deer
  3. North American porcupine
  4. North American River Otter
  5. Wild Turkey
  6. Canada Goose
  7. Mallard duck
  8. Wood duck
  9. Whooping Crane
  10. A seabird of some species
  11. A whole bunch of flying birds (Turkey vulture, great horned owl, barred owl, red tailed hawk, songbirds, etc)
  12. American burying beetle
  13. American common toad
  14. The wood frog
  15. Banana slug
  16. California salamander
  17. Timber rattlesnake
  18. California garter snake/ maybe a corn snake
  19. American burying beetle
  20. Red eared slider
  21. Any “backyard” fish I’ll be happy with, like a large mouth bass
  22. Some honeybee to use in game
Not included because I think they will be popular: bald Eagle, burrowing owl, alligator snapping turtle
Also some of these guys are not native to where I live in the United States, but I think they are super cool regardless! I love zoos that show off native species.
 

DarthQuell

DarthQuell
oca2074 said:
Seriously, this is kinda euro/american-centric. To Africans, Indians, some Asians, they've literally never seen skunks, raccoons, red foxes, ect. It's quite exotic to them.

Boring is very subjective. It's 100% dependent on what you are used to seeing.
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Yeah, true, but most of the playerbase is from Europe, USA, and Australia. Some users here have stated that they think that their local "backyard" animals would be wasted slots.

I'm from Texas myself, and when we got the armadillo, raccoon, red fox, skunk, American alligator, and American beaver, I actually was very excited, as these are all animals I've seen in the wild and thought it would be so cool to have in the game. However, some said they weren't that great choices (at least the raccoon, fox, skunk, and armadillo)
 

RedPandaReggie

RedPandaReggie
I'm from Australia, and some of the common animals that would fit in the current system would be the following:

Eastern Grey Kangaroo
Lace Monitor
Australian Wood Duck
Purple Swamp-Hen
Black Swan
Royal Spoonbill
Plumed Whistling Duck
Little Pied Cormorant
Cattle Egret

Those would be the preferred species I would like to see as they are exhibited well in Australian zoos and some zoos elsewhere for diversity
 

NZFanatic

NZFanatic
oca2074 said:
Seriously, this is kinda euro/american-centric. To Africans, Indians, some Asians, they've literally never seen skunks, raccoons, red foxes, ect. It's quite exotic to them.

Boring is very subjective. It's 100% dependent on what you are used to seeing.
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NZFanatic

NZFanatic
NZFanatic said:
I think it fits, as it's pretty ubiquitous in Africa at least.
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oca2074 said:
Seriously, this is kinda euro/american-centric. To Africans, Indians, some Asians, they've literally never seen skunks, raccoons, red foxes, ect. It's quite exotic to them.

Boring is very subjective. It's 100% dependent on what you are used to seeing.
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This thread is all inclusive, very obviously. Don't be so touchy.

Edit: Also, there are red foxes all over the world, and species of skunks everywhere, too.
 
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TheYeti

TheYeti
I must say we got quite some of these animals in the past year, most notably the Asian water monitor, half of the grassland animals and the Twilight AKA Roadkill DLC. Still, I think there are some interesting species left that many would consider boring. Based on the regions I visited, I'd suggest:
  • Mute Swan or Black Swan (common throughout parks everywhere in Europe/Australia (I assume, but never been here))
  • White Stork (increasingly common in Europe, at least Netherlands)
  • Agouti (staple animal in public parks in at least Brazil)
  • Coypu/Nutria or Muskrat (common rodent in South/North America and introduced to Europe/Asia/Africa)
  • Common Marmoset (introduced but now very common all throughout Rio de Janeiro)
  • Squirrel Monkey (one of the most common New World monkeys and also common in zoos)
  • Canada Goose (common in both North America and Europe where it's introduced)
  • Crab-Eating Macaque (most common monkey in the world and found nearly everywhere in Southeast Asia)
  • European Hare (common in Europe and suitable for various areas in zoos)
  • Brown Pelican (found everywhere in at least Galapagos and I assume much of the American coast)
  • Eurasian Wild Boar (I wouldn't call them boring as I've never seen one in the wild, but apparently they're common throughout Europe)
  • Any duck, coot, grebe or waterhen as they seem to be abundant anywhere.

I don't include flying birds, fish and exhibit species for now, as that would make the list way too long.
 

Chuditch

Chuditch
I don't really find any animals to be boring or mundane, but there's a ton of animals that I see regularly in the wild that I'd also love to have in the game. To keep things short, I'll keep it to a few species I see here in the city suburbs:
  • Common brushtail possum: As already mentioned, this is essentially Australia's version of the raccoon and has adapted better to urban life than any other marsupial.
  • Rakali: If the brushtail is Australia's raccoon, the rakali is Australia's otter. These big carnivorous rodents are pretty common in the river down the road from me
  • Grey-headed flying-fox [WE]: There's a big colony of them right next to the zoo and you can see them flying out over the city most evenings.
  • Black swan: A common inhabitant of most rivers and lakes near me.
  • Australian pelican: Commonly found in both in freshwater and along the beaches, these are also the standard pelican for Australian zoos.
  • Rainbow lorikeet [WE]: The most abundant bird species in the city alongside the noisy miner, they'd nonetheless be one of the best options for a bird in the walkthrough exhibits.
  • For exhibit reptiles, there'd also be things like shinglebacks, red-bellied black snakes and eastern water skinks.
Of the animals we have in-game, the eastern brown snake, eastern bluetongue skink, red fox and koala would fit into the same "familiar urban animal" category for me.
 
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TheYeti

TheYeti
Chuditch said:
I don't really find any animals to be boring or mundane, but there's a ton of animals that I see regularly in the wild that I'd also love to have in the game. To keep things short, I'll keep it to a few species I see here in the city suburbs:
  • Common brushtail possum: As already mentioned, this is essentially Australia's version of the raccoon and has adapted better to urban life than any other marsupial.
  • Rakali: If the brushtail is Australia's raccoon, the rakali is Australia's otter. These big carnivorous rodents are pretty common in the river down the road from me
  • Grey-headed flying-fox [WE]: There's a big colony of them right next to the zoo and you can see them flying out over the city most evenings.
  • Black swan: A common inhabitant of most rivers and lakes near me.
  • Australian pelican: Commonly found in both in freshwater and along the beaches, these are also the standard pelican for Australian zoos.
  • Rainbow lorikeet [WE]: The most abundant bird species in the city alongside the noisy miner, they'd nonetheless be one of the best options for a bird in the walkthrough exhibits.
  • For exhibit reptiles, there'd also be things like shinglebacks, red-bellied black snakes and eastern water skinks.
Of the animals we have in-game, the eastern brown snake, eastern bluetongue skink, red fox and koala would fit into the same "familiar urban animal" category for me.
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It's so interesting how different Australian fauna is from the rest of the world and how unaware we are of it. I know quite some Australian species but some of these are new to me even though they are apparently so common there. Never heard of a rakali before in my life.
 

BiologicalHorror

BiologicalHorror
  • Whitetail Deer - There's a doe who is always in my yard who I love seeing and she brings her babies around every year. Speaking of roadkill a buck took out my husbands truck, we had it for Christmas dinner (the deer, not the truck), most expensive Christmas dinner ever lol and due to COVID ended up taking months to get the parts to get the truck fixed. Fun times.
  • Virginia Opossum - Another critter that I often see in my yard feeding on the scraps we throw in our compost pile. Also it's NA only marsupial.
  • Coyote - I love hearing them at night
  • Gray Fox - I just like them and in my interactions with them they are more cat like then Red Foxes which is a big reason why I like them.
  • Spring Peeper - A sure sign of Spring
  • Gray Treefrog - They make the coolest trilling call and look like lichen, being able to change from gray to green.
  • Northern Flying Squirrel
  • Eastern Gray Squirrel - Rescued, raised, and released one
  • Eastern Chipmunk
  • Wood Duck
  • Canadian Goose - Rescue, raised, and released two
  • American Toad
  • Wood Frog
  • Cottontail Rabbit - Rescued, raised, and released one
  • Woodchuck
  • Pileated Woodpecker

I live on a Swamp in Eastern CT
 
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