Of course I disagree with what you said about aoudad lol but I am really happy someone finally stood up for the Nile lechwe, I agree that people way over-hated it.
Ungulate Talk
- Thread starter SanRazo618
- Start date
It's mainly disappointing because this is likely to be the one desert pack we get. If it was labelled specifically as a "Sahara Animal Pack" then that'd at least mean there was a chance for arid species from other parts of the world to appear in a proper "Desert Animal Pack" later on, but now it's unlikely they'll use the same theme again.
But even sticking just to the biodiversity of North African deserts, why ignore species like the African spurred tortoise and Hamadryas baboon? They're no less highly requested and no less common in zoos than any of the ungulates we got in the Arid Animal Pack, and yet would have gone a long way to making the pack feel more varied.
To be clear, I think an Arid Animal Pack being made up of at least half African/North African species is quite justified and I always expected it, but I hoped for 3-4 species from other parts of the world too.
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This.
People are mad about ungulates in PZ because the representation in PZ is not representative of the full diversity of ungulates irl. I really hope we do get more diverse choices and the couple stragglers that I personally still want like the gerenuk and the like
I agree with the tortoise and baboon argument but people seems to keep saying it had ALL North African animals when the black rhino is a southern African animal and the Ass is more East African than anything (still yes all from Africa but they aren’t ALL North African)
Very true, but as goes without saying the desert regions of Africa are all much more similar to one another than they are to the deserts of North America, South America and Australia.
Yeah the Ungulate diversity really kind off is fake, antelopes especially. Its really only the "stereotypical" antelopes with the normal antelope shape. The species that would really increase the diversity, those that stray away form the basic antelope bodyplan are missing. Something that would add real variety would be someting small like duiker or dik dik, something huge and beefy like eland or nilgai and an oddball like the gerenuk
The existence of a North African Pack doesn't mean we won't get an outback pack or a North American prairies pack or something along those lines.
As for the baboon and the Tortoise, those are two of my top 3 best guesses for the anniversary, alongside the American Black Bear. They'll come at some point almost certainly, and even if we don't get the baboon, we'll almost certainly get the gelada at some point.
What species exactly? There's not much else that wouldn't be obscure.
You could say the same about other animals in game. Hence, why I'm always wanting more Canids. As far as I am concerned, a bush dog (or tanuki or maybe grey fox) is a necessity.
Except from Hamadryas baboon which was probably saved for some another pack I really can’t see any really needed typical desert animal that is not in the game yet. At least animals from the arid pack are except from rhino exclusively from desert biome.
Peccary is just as desert as a tropical forest animal so it doesn’t count at all and could as well appear in another pack just as echidna.
Perentie is cool but we just got another monitor and perentie is super rare in captivity.
Bilby would love to see them in the game but they are to small for me. Would rather get them as WE species.
Roadrunner is super small and I don’t think it would be a good choice for a habitat animal.
Bighorn sheep looks like Dall sheep recolor.
Coyote this one I wouldn’t like at all in the game.
We got animals from all over North Africa, part of Asia and the Middle East (super huge region) for me this pack is very diverse because of this.
We finally got west African species, species from the Horn of Africa and very highly requested porcupine. That is why I don’t understand why people are still not happy with it and still give this peccary example where peccary is not desert exclusive animal.
Even if the peccary would be desert exclusive animal and really see no difference between it and Dama gazelle. Both are amazing but Dama gazelle is critically endangered, super important for the conservation, desert exclusive and from the part of the world that has no representation at all.
You're dreaming if you think the baboon will come for free on the anniversary. It's a popular animal and a primate.
Honestly, would you really consider those likely at all though?
From Australia: Yellow-footed rock-wallaby, perentie, short-beaked echidna, greater bilby, central bearded dragon, thorny devil, inland taipan, budgerigars
From the Americas: Collared peccary, white-nosed coati, ringtail, Patagonian mara, greater/Darwin's rhea (yes, the two most wanted animals from Patagonia also live in deserts)
Yeah some of these aren’t exactly ABC species, but the dama gazelle and Somali wild ass aren’t household names either.
If the peccary doesn’t count as a desert animal because it also lives in the tropics, does that mean it doesn’t count as a tropical animal because it also lives in deserts? Widespread animals can come in biome packs too (just take the porcupine for example), and desert is probably the environment that peccaries are most stereotypically associated with (even if it isn’t their primary habitat).
I mean it’s all relative. I’ve seen perenties in multiple zoos whilst half of the animals in the arid pack (dama gazelle, wild ass, sand cat and horned viper) aren’t kept here at all. In a game with more than 10 cat species I also don’t think a 4th monitor is an issue.
Bilbies are the size of sand cats, they’re well above the size of the smallest habitat animals. Also never seen a walkthrough bilby enclosure.
Don’t get me wrong, I am happy with a lot of the animals we got and every new species brings something new to the game (and as I’ve said before the pack is literally a middling pack for me in regards to ranking, not bad at all). But as usual, it’s not what animals were added that I have a problem with, it’s what was missed. The Arid Animal Pack brought a lot of species you wanted, and that’s great! But for me personally, it just feels like a lot of species I’d have loved to see in such a pack now have much slimmer chances of ever making it into the game.
If we’re looking back on this in 5 years time and we’re still getting packs then of course, most of these species would have been added and the Arid Animal Pack would give me way less mixed feelings. But until then that’s just the way I feel.
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What desert species in your opinion would be better for the arid pack then. Peccary, Secretary bird and baboon are obvious so let’s omit them.
Well without those species, I'd keep the dromedary, porcupine* and addax, and add greater bilby, Darwin's rhea, African spurred tortoise, ringtail and either an Australian desert reptile or budgerigar (depending on flying birds) for the exhibit animal. That's just a roster I find more interesting personally and also provides a better coverage of the world's deserts.
*Could also switch the African crested porcupine for the Cape porcupine but it's nitpicky differences at that stage lol
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Personally I wouldn’t trade any of the Arid species because for me it’s the best roster we have ever received.
The only two I could add for regional variety is Vicuña and Honey badger. But from the beginning I really liked that it was Africa centered.
To avoid misunderstandings I would only change the name from Arid to Sahara or Sahel.
Like the black and white ruffled Lemur?
That sounds awful imo. Taking out zoo staples and adding a bird that's barely held in captivity anywhere, one of the most obscure, tiny Australian mammals and another random obscure small mammal. Like why? It's just adding random animals.als for the sake of not because you feel the ungulates, despite all being very solid choices for a zoo game, are too similar.
Because it would add variety which would automatically make the pack better. I wouldn’t make the same choices as Chuditch, but that just underlines that there were plenty of options available.
Darwin's Rhea is not rare in captivity, there is over 50 holders in Europe.