Which in-game species have you seen IRL?

Seeing that I'm unlikely to see new animals any time soon, here's my updated status:
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Now a question to all european users. If I were to go to one european zoo to see as many animals from my 2 bottom categories, which zoo would you recomend?
Hi @yoav_r , Belgium might be a good option for you. We have 3 amazing zoos here and as it is a small country, they are not very far from each other. You could easily visit all of them in a few days and see a lot of animals on your list !

First of all, you have Antwerp Zoo and Planckendael, which are 2 different zoos but they both belong to the same "company" (the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp). A little bit like San Diego Zoo has the San Diego Zoo and the Safari Park. Anyway, I've been a member for many years and go to both often. They are both very worth it. Antwerp Zoo is the most beautiful historic zoo I've seen. They have the king penguin (mixed with macaroni and gentoo). They also have the mountain bongo (a rare and more endangered subspecies than the "normal" bongo we have in PZ). They also have a very good reptile house but the species there are sometimes changing so I'm not sure about all the species on your list. I'm sure they have golden poison frogs at the moment though because I went 2 weeks ago and saw them.

In Planckendael, they have the "normal" bongo, the Pzrewalski's horse and the spotted hyena. They also had a European badger but I'm not 100% sure it's still there.

Then you have Pairi Daiza, which I've been to several times and is known as one of the most beautiful zoos in the world. Which is totally true. It's huge though. Hard to see everything in one day. I would recommend staying 2 days and 1 night if you can afford it. It's very expensive but I've done it once in the room with view on the tiger exhibit and it was a fantastic experience !

To come back to your list, Pairi Daiza has asian water buffalo (that's how they describe it so I guess it's the domesticated version), clouded leopard, red-crowned crane, japanese macaque, warthog (mixed with white rhinos), spotted hyena, wombat, king penguin and reindeer. They also have moose, beaver and brown bears in their NA area. I think the brown bears are European brown bears and not grizzly though even if they are presented in the American area. Not sure if the moose and beaver are really American or the European version. I've never seen the beaver by the way.

Finally, they have a huge reptile house and I'm not sure about everything they have there but I know they have had gharials at some point. Not sure if they are still there. They also have axolotls but they are located in the aquarium if I remember correctly.

There you go. And if you have even more time, we also have an animal park at "Domaine des Grottes de Han". It's a beautiful place in a nice valley. There is a very beautiful cave that you can visit and also the animal park. It's a park that focuses only on European fauna so they only have European animals. They have all your big European ticket animals like brown bear, wolf, wisent... They also have przewalski's horse (mixed with red deer, fallow deer and mouflon in a huge walkthrough exhibit!) and the recreated version of the auroch. And they have artic wolf and arctic fox to complete your list. Oh and they are the only zoo in Belgium to have wolverines.

There you go. Sorry for the long post but honestly, as much as Belgium is not a perfect country, we are really blessed with our zoos.

If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask me 😉
 
Blijdorp

Click on the link above to see all the animals from Zoo Blijdorp in the Netherlands Rotterdam, I live next door (almost, I can walk to that zoo with little problems)

They skipped the fish and insects/ect on that site, but there are a lot of fish and insects as well of course!
 
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Hi @yoav_r , Belgium might be a good option for you. We have 3 amazing zoos here and as it is a small country, they are not very far from each other. You could easily visit all of them in a few days and see a lot of animals on your list !

First of all, you have Antwerp Zoo and Planckendael, which are 2 different zoos but they both belong to the same "company" (the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp). A little bit like San Diego Zoo has the San Diego Zoo and the Safari Park. Anyway, I've been a member for many years and go to both often. They are both very worth it. Antwerp Zoo is the most beautiful historic zoo I've seen. They have the king penguin (mixed with macaroni and gentoo). They also have the mountain bongo (a rare and more endangered subspecies than the "normal" bongo we have in PZ). They also have a very good reptile house but the species there are sometimes changing so I'm not sure about all the species on your list. I'm sure they have golden poison frogs at the moment though because I went 2 weeks ago and saw them.

In Planckendael, they have the "normal" bongo, the Pzrewalski's horse and the spotted hyena. They also had a European badger but I'm not 100% sure it's still there.

Then you have Pairi Daiza, which I've been to several times and is known as one of the most beautiful zoos in the world. Which is totally true. It's huge though. Hard to see everything in one day. I would recommend staying 2 days and 1 night if you can afford it. It's very expensive but I've done it once in the room with view on the tiger exhibit and it was a fantastic experience !

To come back to your list, Pairi Daiza has asian water buffalo (that's how they describe it so I guess it's the domesticated version), clouded leopard, red-crowned crane, japanese macaque, warthog (mixed with white rhinos), spotted hyena, wombat, king penguin and reindeer. They also have moose, beaver and brown bears in their NA area. I think the brown bears are European brown bears and not grizzly though even if they are presented in the American area. Not sure if the moose and beaver are really American or the European version. I've never seen the beaver by the way.

Finally, they have a huge reptile house and I'm not sure about everything they have there but I know they have had gharials at some point. Not sure if they are still there. They also have axolotls but they are located in the aquarium if I remember correctly.

There you go. And if you have even more time, we also have an animal park at "Domaine des Grottes de Han". It's a beautiful place in a nice valley. There is a very beautiful cave that you can visit and also the animal park. It's a park that focuses only on European fauna so they only have European animals. They have all your big European ticket animals like brown bear, wolf, wisent... They also have przewalski's horse (mixed with red deer, fallow deer and mouflon in a huge walkthrough exhibit!) and the recreated version of the auroch. And they have artic wolf and arctic fox to complete your list. Oh and they are the only zoo in Belgium to have wolverines.

There you go. Sorry for the long post but honestly, as much as Belgium is not a perfect country, we are really blessed with our zoos.

If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask me 😉
Blijdorp

Click on the link above to see all the animals from Zoo Blijdorp in the Netherlands Rotterdam, I live next door (almost, I can walk to that zoo with little problems)

They skipped the fish and insects/ect on that site, but there are a lot of fish and insects as well of course!
Thank you ro much guys! Really appreciate it.
 
Thank you ro much guys! Really appreciate it.
You're welcome. Blijdorp/Rotterdam Zoo is actually not far from Antwerp with the train. I don't know why I've never been there but I'm actually planning to go for the first time this summer. It looks like a very good zoo too from what I've heard.
 
Note, that last time I was there, the Maned Wolf and Takin were not there anymore, but there are Mongoose, I don't see them on that site...
 
Seeing that I'm unlikely to see new animals any time soon, here's my updated status:
View attachment 354957
Now a question to all european users. If I were to go to one european zoo to see as many animals from my 2 bottom categories, which zoo would you recomend?

*I count the wild water buffalo as the water buffalo
So I will make a much more detailed post in the zoo visits thread, but I just visited the Faunia zoo in Madrid, and it's one of the best zoos I've been to in my life, possibly the best. It focuses on smaller more obscure species and large natural habitats.

So here's my list after the visit:
2023-06-09.png


In context of this thread, PZ animals in the Faunia Zoo:
  1. Aardvark
  2. Axolotl
  3. Binturong
  4. Egyptian fruit bat
  5. Emu
  6. Fennec fox
  7. Giant forest scorpion
  8. Giant land snail
  9. Gila monster
  10. Goliath birdeater
  11. Golden poison frog
  12. King penguin
  13. Komodo dragon
  14. Mexican redknee tarantula
  15. Peafowl
  16. Pink tarantula
  17. Puff adder
  18. Rattlesnake
  19. Red panda
  20. Red necked wallaby
  21. Ring tailed lemur
  22. Spectacled caiman
  23. Striped skunk
 
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Seen: Bennett's wallaby, emu, blue wildebeest. Armadillo only in the wild. Never seen maned wolf, caracal, or striped hyena. There's a solid chance I've seen red deer at a safari park, but I have no specific memories of it so they're getting thrown under "never seen".

View attachment 337518
I’ll wait until the next DLC drops before bothering updating the graphic, but as of today I can move gemsbok, scimitar-horned oryx, Eurasian lynx, and caracal into “seen”. Glad I got to see them all, but especially the gemsbok, which is a genuine rarity in the US. I also realized in a previous iteration of this tier list that even though I was adamant I had seen a llama at some point in my life, I couldn’t place when or where. I definitively saw several today, finally.

For new ones from the Tropical Pack, red river hog, lar gibbon, and fossa all go under “seen” as well with only Asian water monitor being unseen.

Assuming all of this year’s plans pan out, I should also wind up seeing the following in 2023: bonobo, gharial, dingo, maned wolf, Baird’s tapir. Baird’s tapir was also a hopeful for today, but it didn’t want to show its face. Fingers crossed for next time.
 
I’ll wait until the next DLC drops before bothering updating the graphic, but as of today I can move gemsbok, scimitar-horned oryx, Eurasian lynx, and caracal into “seen”. Glad I got to see them all, but especially the gemsbok, which is a genuine rarity in the US. I also realized in a previous iteration of this tier list that even though I was adamant I had seen a llama at some point in my life, I couldn’t place when or where. I definitively saw several today, finally.

For new ones from the Tropical Pack, red river hog, lar gibbon, and fossa all go under “seen” as well with only Asian water monitor being unseen.

Assuming all of this year’s plans pan out, I should also wind up seeing the following in 2023: bonobo, gharial, dingo, maned wolf, Baird’s tapir. Baird’s tapir was also a hopeful for today, but it didn’t want to show its face. Fingers crossed for next time.
Where did you see them?
 
Red deer + Grasslands Animal Pack update. Interesting how the last 2 DLCs have nearly doubled the amount of animals in-game that I've seen in the wild (from 8 to 14), though unfortunately half of the new additions have been species that are invasive where I live.

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I'll also wait until the fast-approaching next DLC before I do a proper update to my list, but of the animals in the Tropical Pack I've only seen the lar gibbon (which is the only one of them kept in Australia anyway). I will also be able to move the Japanese macaque into my seen list after I saw them at Gorge Wildlife Park in January this year.

Additionally, I'll be passing through a lot of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory on a road trip next month, and while the main goal there is to see as many wild mammal species as possible I'm also planning to pop into a few zoos along the way. One of these, the National Zoo & Aquarium, has a pair of Sri Lankan leopards, so I should hopefully see my first leopards and be able to move the Amur leopard into the "other subspecies seen" category. Adelaide Zoo had Persian leopards when I was growing up (last one died about a decade ago, also the last of the subspecies in Australia) but I can't recall ever seeing them myself, and I want to be sure before I add them to my list. The National Zoo also has llamas, but unsurprisingly those are less exciting when it comes to species I haven't seen before.

I'm actually most excited to visit the Australian Reptile Park, given it has a whole bunch of awesome reptile species that I haven't seen before - king cobra, Solomon Islands skink, sheltopusik, Madagascar giant day gecko, Philippine sailfin lizard, even tuatara! Unfortunately, none of those are in the game as of now.
 
I'll also wait until the fast-approaching next DLC before I do a proper update to my list, but of the animals in the Tropical Pack I've only seen the lar gibbon (which is the only one of them kept in Australia anyway). I will also be able to move the Japanese macaque into my seen list after I saw them at Gorge Wildlife Park in January this year.

Additionally, I'll be passing through a lot of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory on a road trip next month, and while the main goal there is to see as many wild mammal species as possible I'm also planning to pop into a few zoos along the way. One of these, the National Zoo & Aquarium, has a pair of Sri Lankan leopards, so I should hopefully see my first leopards and be able to move the Amur leopard into the "other subspecies seen" category. Adelaide Zoo had Persian leopards when I was growing up (last one died about a decade ago, also the last of the subspecies in Australia) but I can't recall ever seeing them myself, and I want to be sure before I add them to my list. The National Zoo also has llamas, but unsurprisingly those are less exciting when it comes to species I haven't seen before.

I'm actually most excited to visit the Australian Reptile Park, given it has a whole bunch of awesome reptile species that I haven't seen before - king cobra, Solomon Islands skink, sheltopusik, Madagascar giant day gecko, Philippine sailfin lizard, even tuatara! Unfortunately, none of those are in the game as of now.
Australian Reptile Park is a fantastic place, I have been a fair amount of times and it never disappoints
 
I find this ongoing post as a good metric of which regions and zoos I want to visit in the future. It's really helpful in that regard.

I hope we get some more middle eastern species so I could get more species for my "seen in the wild" category.
 
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Where did you see them?
Brights Zoo in Tennessee. It's a non-AZA facility so I was very apprehensive going in, but by and large I left very happy with the exhibitry I saw. There were quite a few other non-PZ species I saw for the first time there too: black-backed jackal, tayra, lowland paca, common degu, southern tamandua, six-banded armadillo, owl monkey, golden-handed tamarin, red-faced spider monkey, tufted capuchin, white-fronted capuchin, sitatunga, Dama gazelle, waterbuck, cape vulture, channel-billed toucan. Definitely an unusually high number of species to add to my life list at this point.

Edit: forgot to mention, there’s apparently large numbers of various ungulates kept behind the scenes. One of them is Arabian oryx, which would’ve been another new species for me. Sounds like it’s occasionally possible to see these species from the zoo’s train ride… wish I had known that in advance instead of looking it up afterward.
 
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Why would they keep ungulates behind the scenes?
My best guess is that that’s just how the land works out. Since this is effectively a privately owned zoo, I assume the owner just wanted to keep those particular species even though he didn’t have the land laid out to incorporate them into the zoo proper. But I really can only guess. There was an addax enclosure plainly visible behind the gemsboks that wasn’t signed or on the map, and I don’t think it would’ve taken much effort in the grand scheme of things to create a viewing area for them. We were able to get an okay look at them by going off the path so like… why not just extend the path?
 
Why would they keep ungulates behind the scenes?
I can't speak for the exact zoo being discussed, but my local zoo keeps several species off-display despite having empty habitats available for them. Sable antelope and scimitar-horned oryx are among them. The latter is to maximise breeding potential. They used to be display for several years but the park found they had more success with breeding while the animals were out of view of the public, so they just rolled with it.
 
I can't speak for the exact zoo being discussed, but my local zoo keeps several species off-display despite having empty habitats available for them. Sable antelope and scimitar-horned oryx are among them. The latter is to maximise breeding potential. They used to be display for several years but the park found they had more success with breeding while the animals were out of view of the public, so they just rolled with it.
Makes sense. Zoos oftrn keep shy or sensitive animals behind the scenes, but I've never heard it done with big animals like ungulates.
 
Well it's about time I did mine

Two notes:

-Last tier is for exhibit animals I have no idea if I seen or not and I couldn't be bothered to check for each.
-Zootierliste Gaslighting is for animals that I don't remember seeing, but ZooTierListe says that zoos that I visited hold them. Have I seen them but forgot? Have they not shown up those days? Did they get them later? No idea, that's what that tier is for.

View attachment 337658
Creating a list again would be a hassle, so update for last two packs:

Seen in "wild" and in zoos:
-Dromedary Camel

Seen in zoos:
-Fossa
-Red River Hog
-Dama Gazelle
-Crested Porcupine
-Somalian Wild Ass

Never seen:
-Lar Gibbon
-Asian Water Monitor
-Three Toed Sloth
-Addax
-Sand Cat
-Black Rhinoceros

Frogs, Snakes and Spiders:
-Desert Horned Viper
 
I’ll update my tier list in the coming weeks, but I’m happy to be at 6/7 on this pack, only missing the Somali wild ass. I only just added the dama gazelle about a week and a half ago, too.
 
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