Yo good job man. Can't wait to see the indoors.
Calgary Zoo
- Thread starter Captain Callum
- Start date
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- calgary recreation zoo
Penguin Plunge - Indoor Penguin habitat
We have now caught up to the first version of the zoo and finally taking a look at brand new areas of the zoo, and it starts off with an amazing indoor penguin habitat which guests can walk right through between 2 habitats of king, gentoo and rockhopper penguins. That large building is large for a reason! It houses the 2 large penguin habitats, all staff facilties for penguin plunge and a large water filtration room which is educational for guests as there are windows into this filtration room.
Starting outside, the penguin plunge building towers over the humboldt penguin habitat even adding a few more trees to make it seem a tiny bit more natural. The large square/rectangle part of the building is the indoor penguin habitat as the indoor roof is a dome, the dome requires basically the height of the building with some space left so that I could add enough lighting to bring the indoor space to life. Guests will enter on the left path of the humboldt penguin habitat through the doors we see under the penguin art.
In real life, the penguin plunge building has large penguins carved into wall material which obviously isn't really possible in planet zoo, so I thought why not use the large king penguin signs and cover them in a brighter colored plaster? And it turned out really nice! 2 king penguins on some rocks really makes the building entrance standout instead of using default penguin signs.
As we enter the building we are greeted to a hall with 2 notable sides. On the left side, we have 2 windows looking into the water filtration room which serves all pools in the penguin plunge habitat area. A sign tells us about the function of the filtration room and a clear diagram showing how water is taken from the habitat, cleaned and then recycled back into the habitat. Lots of pipes, cleaning tanks and all sorts of realistic looking stuff made this filtration room an experience to build, using all the gutter pipes is incredibly tedious.
On the right side of the hall, penguin pictures of each species found in the penguin plunge can be seen. Large custom media boards are placed really close to the plaster wall then small plaster pieces are placed to create the odd shapes. Plenty of roof lights are present here to ensure a bright entrance way into the penguin building.
The final part of the entrance hall in the penguin plunge building are some penguin models of each penguin. Of course I didn't make these, workshop blueprints save the day covering king, gentoo, humboldt and rockhopper penguin models. Animal info boards are found here as none are present in the actual habitat.
Let's enter the habitat! The rest of the building houses the immersive walkthrough penguin habitat. Penguins gather on the rocks or swim around in the pools on both sides of the path while a polar sky dome sits above our heads. As we can guess this was difficult to build especially regarding barriers and habitat gates. After getting past the barrier hurdle, it was rather simple to place enough rocks for the penguins to roam around on and enough space in the water.
A blend of tundra, snow and tundra colored faux rocks make a realistic polar setting, some penguins do hover around the rock edges as there is zero terrain in these habitats. All rock based aquatic habitats do lead to some animal glitches like standing on top of the water like penguin jesus. It's funny at first but mildly annoying trying to keep the zoo as realistic as possible.
Another picture of the indoor habitat from the other side gives a clearer image of both habitats and the space the penguins have. Only the left habitat (image below for reference) allows the penguins to deep dive but thankfully the penguins are not always in the water which is a good thing. Having the penguins group up on the rocks is what I was trying to aim for as the real habitat shows almost all pictures of penguins grouped up instead of endlessly zooming through the water.
For those wondering about the lighting of the habitat can see below the huge number of lights required. 55 spotlights both above and below provide realistic lighting, it's almost annoying thats the number of lights a building interior needs to look like its real life counterpart. Add in all those roof lights in the entrance and lights inside the filtration room, we could be looking at 100 lights in total for this building alone. Spotlights, the hanging default roof lights and those conservation round garden lights are my choices to light up interiors.
Source: https://youtu.be/vRWbocZn9x4
With all that covered, thats the entrance all completed! Probably the most complex zoo entrance i'll ever build with all the work underground, building a highway, city skyline and a huge penguin building. All that modern urban building makes me want to build something a little in the past...
We have now caught up to the first version of the zoo and finally taking a look at brand new areas of the zoo, and it starts off with an amazing indoor penguin habitat which guests can walk right through between 2 habitats of king, gentoo and rockhopper penguins. That large building is large for a reason! It houses the 2 large penguin habitats, all staff facilties for penguin plunge and a large water filtration room which is educational for guests as there are windows into this filtration room.
Starting outside, the penguin plunge building towers over the humboldt penguin habitat even adding a few more trees to make it seem a tiny bit more natural. The large square/rectangle part of the building is the indoor penguin habitat as the indoor roof is a dome, the dome requires basically the height of the building with some space left so that I could add enough lighting to bring the indoor space to life. Guests will enter on the left path of the humboldt penguin habitat through the doors we see under the penguin art.
In real life, the penguin plunge building has large penguins carved into wall material which obviously isn't really possible in planet zoo, so I thought why not use the large king penguin signs and cover them in a brighter colored plaster? And it turned out really nice! 2 king penguins on some rocks really makes the building entrance standout instead of using default penguin signs.
As we enter the building we are greeted to a hall with 2 notable sides. On the left side, we have 2 windows looking into the water filtration room which serves all pools in the penguin plunge habitat area. A sign tells us about the function of the filtration room and a clear diagram showing how water is taken from the habitat, cleaned and then recycled back into the habitat. Lots of pipes, cleaning tanks and all sorts of realistic looking stuff made this filtration room an experience to build, using all the gutter pipes is incredibly tedious.
On the right side of the hall, penguin pictures of each species found in the penguin plunge can be seen. Large custom media boards are placed really close to the plaster wall then small plaster pieces are placed to create the odd shapes. Plenty of roof lights are present here to ensure a bright entrance way into the penguin building.
The final part of the entrance hall in the penguin plunge building are some penguin models of each penguin. Of course I didn't make these, workshop blueprints save the day covering king, gentoo, humboldt and rockhopper penguin models. Animal info boards are found here as none are present in the actual habitat.
Let's enter the habitat! The rest of the building houses the immersive walkthrough penguin habitat. Penguins gather on the rocks or swim around in the pools on both sides of the path while a polar sky dome sits above our heads. As we can guess this was difficult to build especially regarding barriers and habitat gates. After getting past the barrier hurdle, it was rather simple to place enough rocks for the penguins to roam around on and enough space in the water.
A blend of tundra, snow and tundra colored faux rocks make a realistic polar setting, some penguins do hover around the rock edges as there is zero terrain in these habitats. All rock based aquatic habitats do lead to some animal glitches like standing on top of the water like penguin jesus. It's funny at first but mildly annoying trying to keep the zoo as realistic as possible.
Another picture of the indoor habitat from the other side gives a clearer image of both habitats and the space the penguins have. Only the left habitat (image below for reference) allows the penguins to deep dive but thankfully the penguins are not always in the water which is a good thing. Having the penguins group up on the rocks is what I was trying to aim for as the real habitat shows almost all pictures of penguins grouped up instead of endlessly zooming through the water.
For those wondering about the lighting of the habitat can see below the huge number of lights required. 55 spotlights both above and below provide realistic lighting, it's almost annoying thats the number of lights a building interior needs to look like its real life counterpart. Add in all those roof lights in the entrance and lights inside the filtration room, we could be looking at 100 lights in total for this building alone. Spotlights, the hanging default roof lights and those conservation round garden lights are my choices to light up interiors.
With all that covered, thats the entrance all completed! Probably the most complex zoo entrance i'll ever build with all the work underground, building a highway, city skyline and a huge penguin building. All that modern urban building makes me want to build something a little in the past...
Real Zoo Overview: Prehistoric Park
One of the most unique features of the Calgary Zoo is the addition of a permanent dinosaur park in the north portion of the zoo where zero animals can be found but an abundance of static and animatronic dinosaur statues can be found on a nature trail featuring wonderful rock formations, water features and plenty of lush foliage. It's definitely one of the most unique features of a north american zoo. But why is there a permanent dinosaur park where more animals would seem more appealing?
Well back in the 1920's, nearby fossil discoveries around the town of Drumheller and the red deer river sparked interest in dinosaurs for the city of calgary. Having seen inspiration from the already established dinosaur parks in europe at the time, the zoo decided to build a dedicated dinosaur park at the zoo as one of the very first dinosaur parks in north america. In 1936/37 the prehistoric park opened with hundreds of concrete cast dinosaurs that today would seem questionable in design, over the years the park would be renovated introducing far more accurate dinosaur models but the number of dinosaurs noticeably decreased as more and more foliage grew in.
An example of the old dinosaur models:
In more recent years, plans to completely replace the prehistoric park with asian animals has been mentioned in the likes of the 2013 zoo masterplan but a decade later and nothing has been finalised. Even more modern dinosaur models and renovations have been made to the park in the meantime, likely this zoo recreation will forever keep its dinosaurs as almost no other zoo has quite a collection this this. Many of the european zoos which had impressive dinosaur collections replaced them at around the time calgary zoo built its dinosaur park.
Let's start looking at the modern prehistoric park shall we? A map made by me will help us understand the layout of the park. There are 4 distinct biomes of the prehistoric park, unlike many dinosaur collections the collection here is organised by biome which works and doesn't work at the same time. There are repetitions of the same dinosaurs and oddly placed together dinosaurs which don't belong to the same time period together. So looking at the map below, we can see 32 dinosaur species of which there will be roughly 42 dinosaur models in the park. 42 dinosaur models honestly doesn't sound too much considering the walking trail is like a mile long. The focus on seeing dinosaurs in their "natural" environment is a key focus of the experience here with dinosaurs spread out instead of massive groups of them.
Using the same 4 biomes, lets take a tour of the real park:
Rise of the mountains:
Rise of the mountains is the entrance to the prehistoric park from the north entrance. It is a single trail that does climb back to the default ground level the game map sits at (the north zoo entrance remember is several metres below that height so far). The rise of mountains however actually hints to the rise of the rocky mountains but we don't have much mountains to look at here. A taiga forest trail takes us past several large dinosaurs such as brachiosaurus and tyrannosaurus and even a large cascading waterfall here adds a wonderful nature atmosphere. Other dinosaurs featured here are: Centrosaurus, Albertosaurus, Triceratops and Parasaurolophus.
Prehistoric Park Entrance Sign with a Centrosaurus next to it:
One of the 4 triceratops found in the prehistoric park can be found next to a bench, Triceratops is the most commonly seen dinosaur model throughout the park:
Explosive Volcanoes:
Whether or not dinosaur were actually found in explosive volcanic regions, this is a cool setting to see dinosaurs in. Half of the area features a lake with towering sedimentary rock layers and some very interesting rock formations. The over half features a volcano which may or may not feature a lava flow ingame to make it far more exciting than just a black mound like the real one. Dinosaurs featured here are: Ankylosaurus, Borealopelta, Regaliceratops and Herrerasaurus. Not too many dinosaurs seen here but the main attraction is impressive rockwork which is going to be very challenging to build.
A look at the sedimentary rock layers, which of course will not be easy to pull off. The brown ash like layers will have to be black volcanic rock and the red can be faux rocks, who knows maybe once it's all built with the volcano it might look great:
Lush Swamplands:
After a rocky volcanic region, we descend back down and reach the swampland. This is where the prehistorical trail path splits - the volcano is where the paths actually splits but two distinct paths are located here. The north path features a forest trail at the top of the swampland, nothing really too exciting until we reach the end of the swampland where we can find a tyrannosaurus and triceratops fighting with 2 herbivores stuck between them - edmontosaurus and styracosaurus. The path before this only features a corythosaurus in some bushes.
The southern/lower path is a bit more exciting as this is the actual swampland. The path winds down into wetlands crossing several dinosaur locations and wooden bridges. We start off with an encounter between Zuul (an ankylosaur) and dromaeosaurus, below is the wetlands featuring Iguanodon and stegosaurus before reaching another area which features Struthiomimus.
The only picture i can find on google is of the stegosaurus from 2009
, the stegosaurus nowadays is painted a more red and white color with less foliage in front:
Disappearing Hoodoos
Directly inspired by the landscape of the dinosaur dig sites near alberta, Hoodoo rock formations are basically eroded rock pillars which often have a flat cap on top. So we can tell this will be an arid/ desert like theme to this area. Winding trails shows us few dinosaurs but another area with some impressive rockwork. Dinosaurs featured here are - Apatosaurus, Stegoceras, Pteranodon, and Quetzalcoatlus.
An example of the hoodoo formations on one of the rock trails in the area:
Ancient Oceans:
The last area of the prehistoric park is an aquatic themed area with marine reptiles and other assorted dinosaurs. A sizeable lake holds the marine reptiles while large dinosaurs such as spinosaurus and therizinosaurus tower over them as the giant dinosaurs they are. There used to be a herd of sauropods - i think diplodocus instead of spinosaurus so im not sure which ones I should opt for. Dinosaurus featured are: Spinosaurus, therizinosaurus, velociraptor, protoceratops, elasmosaurus, nothosaurus, tanystropheus, and liopleurodon.
The apatosaurus overlooking the ancient oceans lake:
An older picture of the marine reptiles:
The dinosaur models:
There has been lots of talk about these dinosaurs and how great they could look but how exactly am i going to make all these unique dinosaurs when I suck at making 3D statues ingame? Well, the steam workshop saves the day! (again, yes i know). Thankfully over the years a collection called Dinosaur Digs features over 275 different dinosaurs featuring all these weird and wonderful dinosaur statues made of low piece count primitive shapes. They make look simple but with realistic posing and a recolor to the zoo's dinosaurs, they work really well!
An example of the ankylosaurus:
One of the most unique features of the Calgary Zoo is the addition of a permanent dinosaur park in the north portion of the zoo where zero animals can be found but an abundance of static and animatronic dinosaur statues can be found on a nature trail featuring wonderful rock formations, water features and plenty of lush foliage. It's definitely one of the most unique features of a north american zoo. But why is there a permanent dinosaur park where more animals would seem more appealing?
Well back in the 1920's, nearby fossil discoveries around the town of Drumheller and the red deer river sparked interest in dinosaurs for the city of calgary. Having seen inspiration from the already established dinosaur parks in europe at the time, the zoo decided to build a dedicated dinosaur park at the zoo as one of the very first dinosaur parks in north america. In 1936/37 the prehistoric park opened with hundreds of concrete cast dinosaurs that today would seem questionable in design, over the years the park would be renovated introducing far more accurate dinosaur models but the number of dinosaurs noticeably decreased as more and more foliage grew in.
An example of the old dinosaur models:
In more recent years, plans to completely replace the prehistoric park with asian animals has been mentioned in the likes of the 2013 zoo masterplan but a decade later and nothing has been finalised. Even more modern dinosaur models and renovations have been made to the park in the meantime, likely this zoo recreation will forever keep its dinosaurs as almost no other zoo has quite a collection this this. Many of the european zoos which had impressive dinosaur collections replaced them at around the time calgary zoo built its dinosaur park.
Let's start looking at the modern prehistoric park shall we? A map made by me will help us understand the layout of the park. There are 4 distinct biomes of the prehistoric park, unlike many dinosaur collections the collection here is organised by biome which works and doesn't work at the same time. There are repetitions of the same dinosaurs and oddly placed together dinosaurs which don't belong to the same time period together. So looking at the map below, we can see 32 dinosaur species of which there will be roughly 42 dinosaur models in the park. 42 dinosaur models honestly doesn't sound too much considering the walking trail is like a mile long. The focus on seeing dinosaurs in their "natural" environment is a key focus of the experience here with dinosaurs spread out instead of massive groups of them.
Using the same 4 biomes, lets take a tour of the real park:
Rise of the mountains:
Rise of the mountains is the entrance to the prehistoric park from the north entrance. It is a single trail that does climb back to the default ground level the game map sits at (the north zoo entrance remember is several metres below that height so far). The rise of mountains however actually hints to the rise of the rocky mountains but we don't have much mountains to look at here. A taiga forest trail takes us past several large dinosaurs such as brachiosaurus and tyrannosaurus and even a large cascading waterfall here adds a wonderful nature atmosphere. Other dinosaurs featured here are: Centrosaurus, Albertosaurus, Triceratops and Parasaurolophus.
Prehistoric Park Entrance Sign with a Centrosaurus next to it:
One of the 4 triceratops found in the prehistoric park can be found next to a bench, Triceratops is the most commonly seen dinosaur model throughout the park:
Explosive Volcanoes:
Whether or not dinosaur were actually found in explosive volcanic regions, this is a cool setting to see dinosaurs in. Half of the area features a lake with towering sedimentary rock layers and some very interesting rock formations. The over half features a volcano which may or may not feature a lava flow ingame to make it far more exciting than just a black mound like the real one. Dinosaurs featured here are: Ankylosaurus, Borealopelta, Regaliceratops and Herrerasaurus. Not too many dinosaurs seen here but the main attraction is impressive rockwork which is going to be very challenging to build.
A look at the sedimentary rock layers, which of course will not be easy to pull off. The brown ash like layers will have to be black volcanic rock and the red can be faux rocks, who knows maybe once it's all built with the volcano it might look great:
Lush Swamplands:
After a rocky volcanic region, we descend back down and reach the swampland. This is where the prehistorical trail path splits - the volcano is where the paths actually splits but two distinct paths are located here. The north path features a forest trail at the top of the swampland, nothing really too exciting until we reach the end of the swampland where we can find a tyrannosaurus and triceratops fighting with 2 herbivores stuck between them - edmontosaurus and styracosaurus. The path before this only features a corythosaurus in some bushes.
The southern/lower path is a bit more exciting as this is the actual swampland. The path winds down into wetlands crossing several dinosaur locations and wooden bridges. We start off with an encounter between Zuul (an ankylosaur) and dromaeosaurus, below is the wetlands featuring Iguanodon and stegosaurus before reaching another area which features Struthiomimus.
The only picture i can find on google is of the stegosaurus from 2009
, the stegosaurus nowadays is painted a more red and white color with less foliage in front:Disappearing Hoodoos
Directly inspired by the landscape of the dinosaur dig sites near alberta, Hoodoo rock formations are basically eroded rock pillars which often have a flat cap on top. So we can tell this will be an arid/ desert like theme to this area. Winding trails shows us few dinosaurs but another area with some impressive rockwork. Dinosaurs featured here are - Apatosaurus, Stegoceras, Pteranodon, and Quetzalcoatlus.
An example of the hoodoo formations on one of the rock trails in the area:
Ancient Oceans:
The last area of the prehistoric park is an aquatic themed area with marine reptiles and other assorted dinosaurs. A sizeable lake holds the marine reptiles while large dinosaurs such as spinosaurus and therizinosaurus tower over them as the giant dinosaurs they are. There used to be a herd of sauropods - i think diplodocus instead of spinosaurus so im not sure which ones I should opt for. Dinosaurus featured are: Spinosaurus, therizinosaurus, velociraptor, protoceratops, elasmosaurus, nothosaurus, tanystropheus, and liopleurodon.
The apatosaurus overlooking the ancient oceans lake:
An older picture of the marine reptiles:
The dinosaur models:
There has been lots of talk about these dinosaurs and how great they could look but how exactly am i going to make all these unique dinosaurs when I suck at making 3D statues ingame? Well, the steam workshop saves the day! (again, yes i know). Thankfully over the years a collection called Dinosaur Digs features over 275 different dinosaurs featuring all these weird and wonderful dinosaur statues made of low piece count primitive shapes. They make look simple but with realistic posing and a recolor to the zoo's dinosaurs, they work really well!
An example of the ankylosaurus:
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Prehistoric Park - Entrance
Let's explore the land of the dinosaurs for the next month or so! The prehistoric park may not have any living animals but the abundance of natural features found throughout complement the static dinosaurs very well. So starting off at the entrance we will pass 6 species of dinosaurs: Centrosaurus, Albertosaurus, Triceratops x2, Parasaurolophus, Brachiosaurus and Tyrannosaurus. No dinosaur collection is complete without the iconic tyrannosaurs.
To start off, let's have a look at the overhead view of the entrance. From the entrance plaza next to penguin plunge, we head down to the lower level and then enter the prehistoric park. For the entrance, it is just a single path taking guests towards the waterfall where the path splits in 2 on the left.
At the entrance area of the prehistoric park, we are greeted with the first dinosaur - a Centrosaurus. This ceratopsian dinosaur is a local dinosaur in Alberta where places like the nearby dinosaur provincial park features many fossils of centrosaurus. Each dinosaur will have an attractive information board with facts about each dinosaur even including how to prounounce each dinosaur and I'll admit some of them I got completely wrong. We can't forgot about mentioning the prehistoric park sign, 4 custom sign boards with some jwe dinosaur pictures added is clearly seen by guests moving through the plaza.
Continuing on the path, shortly we will reach a crossroad in the path - right is a staff path, left links the lower paths to the prehistoric park. In front of us we see 2 dinosaurs. On the left, we have the iconic triceratops while on the right there is an albertosaurus, a smaller sized tyrannosaur dinosaur from no suprise, alberta. Next to the triceratops, we see no touching signs. There are plenty of those signs, and no climbing signs throughout the park to try and tell the guests that these dinosaurs are not toys!
A view of the albertosaurus info sign with plenty of educational facts about the dinosaur. I spent so long making 40 something of these signs for every dinosaur in the park. Most of the signs made were sourced from an actual picture from the zoo, so if something is inaccurate, blame the zoo!
Also near the albertosaurus, is a clear map of the prehistoric park. The route of the park is simplified into 2 loops - a short loop which cuts through the middle of the swampland area and joins the top/bottom path , or the full loop which covers the entire prehistoric park. This sign was not fun to make in canva, it involved so many different layers to get the top dinosaur and hill effect to work.
After the albertosaurus section, we head up a slight slope and see the last remaining dinosaurs of the entrance and some of these are huge! First we come across the largest dinosaur of the prehistoric park - the brachiosaurus. This tall sauropod dinosaur is actually a substitue for the similar giraffatitan. My basic dinosaur research tells me that the giraffatitan was a similar brachiosaurus found in Tanzania.
On a much smaller scale, a parasaurolophus can be found in a clearing in the forest.
While the tyrannosaurus can be found next to the brachiosaurus.
At the end of the entrance path, another triceratops can be found next to a bench.
And lastly, we turn around from the triceratops bench and see this wonderful cascading waterfall with the tyrannosaurus next to it. The amount of faux rocks made to create this waterfall was too much for my likening but rockwork in the volcano area will make this seem its made of 4 rocks
Sedimentary rock layers will require so many rock pieces.
Source: https://youtu.be/YZP0afsZWDA
Let's explore the land of the dinosaurs for the next month or so! The prehistoric park may not have any living animals but the abundance of natural features found throughout complement the static dinosaurs very well. So starting off at the entrance we will pass 6 species of dinosaurs: Centrosaurus, Albertosaurus, Triceratops x2, Parasaurolophus, Brachiosaurus and Tyrannosaurus. No dinosaur collection is complete without the iconic tyrannosaurs.
To start off, let's have a look at the overhead view of the entrance. From the entrance plaza next to penguin plunge, we head down to the lower level and then enter the prehistoric park. For the entrance, it is just a single path taking guests towards the waterfall where the path splits in 2 on the left.
At the entrance area of the prehistoric park, we are greeted with the first dinosaur - a Centrosaurus. This ceratopsian dinosaur is a local dinosaur in Alberta where places like the nearby dinosaur provincial park features many fossils of centrosaurus. Each dinosaur will have an attractive information board with facts about each dinosaur even including how to prounounce each dinosaur and I'll admit some of them I got completely wrong. We can't forgot about mentioning the prehistoric park sign, 4 custom sign boards with some jwe dinosaur pictures added is clearly seen by guests moving through the plaza.
Continuing on the path, shortly we will reach a crossroad in the path - right is a staff path, left links the lower paths to the prehistoric park. In front of us we see 2 dinosaurs. On the left, we have the iconic triceratops while on the right there is an albertosaurus, a smaller sized tyrannosaur dinosaur from no suprise, alberta. Next to the triceratops, we see no touching signs. There are plenty of those signs, and no climbing signs throughout the park to try and tell the guests that these dinosaurs are not toys!
A view of the albertosaurus info sign with plenty of educational facts about the dinosaur. I spent so long making 40 something of these signs for every dinosaur in the park. Most of the signs made were sourced from an actual picture from the zoo, so if something is inaccurate, blame the zoo!
Also near the albertosaurus, is a clear map of the prehistoric park. The route of the park is simplified into 2 loops - a short loop which cuts through the middle of the swampland area and joins the top/bottom path , or the full loop which covers the entire prehistoric park. This sign was not fun to make in canva, it involved so many different layers to get the top dinosaur and hill effect to work.
After the albertosaurus section, we head up a slight slope and see the last remaining dinosaurs of the entrance and some of these are huge! First we come across the largest dinosaur of the prehistoric park - the brachiosaurus. This tall sauropod dinosaur is actually a substitue for the similar giraffatitan. My basic dinosaur research tells me that the giraffatitan was a similar brachiosaurus found in Tanzania.
On a much smaller scale, a parasaurolophus can be found in a clearing in the forest.
While the tyrannosaurus can be found next to the brachiosaurus.
At the end of the entrance path, another triceratops can be found next to a bench.
And lastly, we turn around from the triceratops bench and see this wonderful cascading waterfall with the tyrannosaurus next to it. The amount of faux rocks made to create this waterfall was too much for my likening but rockwork in the volcano area will make this seem its made of 4 rocks
Sedimentary rock layers will require so many rock pieces.Love the walk through habitat - I've only done outdoor ones but I've done a few in the past.
Thanks! Indoor habitats are so much more difficult , at some points when building it, I wish it was just an outdoor habitat.
Prehistoric Park - Volcanic Area
After the entrance, we come across a large collection of rocks in a volcanic themed area. This includes a lake, basalt rock columns, an erupting volcano and a large sedimentary rock mountain. The diversity of rock types in this area educates zoo guests on the formation of different rock layers orginating from volcanic eruptions especially basalt and sedimentary rocks in the rocky mountains (the major mountain range in western canada). This area isn't too focused on Alberta where the zoo is based but rather the mountainous regions in British Columbia, the province west of Alberta. For dinosaurs here, we will find Herrerasaurus, Ankylosaurus, Borealopelta, Regaliceratops, Carnotaurus, and Dakotaraptor.
An overview of the volcanic area below, 4 distinct rock formations can be seen. From left to right we have: basalt columns, the volcano, sedimentary rock mountain and the rock arch pile by the lake. Lots of volcanic rocks can be seen throughout, surely one of the only uses i'll ever have for the volcanic rocks.
Heading on the lake loop, we first come across the first dinosaurs of the area. These are armoured ankylosaur dinosaurs, on the right is the walking tank - the ankylosaurus, and left is an alberta ankylosaur, Borealopelta. These dinosaurs are next to this large rock pile/mountain with arched and vertical rock slates.
A better view of the large rock pile, inside the bottom arch are a few small fossils like dinosaur tracks, a small dinosaur skeleton and a dinosaur skull.
On the other side of the lake, we can find a curved basalt column. I know these are not basalt shaped but due to the small size of these columns, the rectangle faux rock had to be used instead of making a custom shape.
Now in the center of the volcanic area with the volcano right in our faces. The lava flows and smoke effects make this area much more lively than the real zoo volcanic area with its dormant volcano mound.
On the left path there is a much nicer basalt column display where we can find 3 herrerasaurus. These small dinosaurs are among the first dinosaurs ever found from Argentina. The real zoo actually has Eoraptors which are even smaller but close enough!
On the volcano side of the left path, we can find a information board about volcanic activity in canada. Pretty simple in detail but enough information to get a good picture of the overall theme of the area. Similar to the prehistoric park entrance sign, this is 3 small custom media screens joined together.
On the right side path on the other side of the volcano are some ceratopsian dinosaurs, these are Regaliceratops. Their orange color works quite well with the volcanic theming. Behind them is the large sedimentary rock mountain. Hundreds of faux rocks make this impressive layering that mimics sedimentary rock layers. Occasional volcanic rock layers can be seen (the darker rock) linking this volcanic activity to the formation of the rocky mountains.
On the other side of the left path, we are greeted with a carnotaurus. This is an addition to my creativity of the area (which will be a running trend throughout the rest of the park) as the real zoo just has a bunch of foilage in this area. The fiery looking carnotaurus stands on top of cooled lava rocks.
A better view of the volcanic activity in the center of the area. A large lava flow slowly becomes a cooled lava field where the carnotaurus can be found at the bottom left.
Source: https://youtu.be/y1ZYfJJb0Hw
After the entrance, we come across a large collection of rocks in a volcanic themed area. This includes a lake, basalt rock columns, an erupting volcano and a large sedimentary rock mountain. The diversity of rock types in this area educates zoo guests on the formation of different rock layers orginating from volcanic eruptions especially basalt and sedimentary rocks in the rocky mountains (the major mountain range in western canada). This area isn't too focused on Alberta where the zoo is based but rather the mountainous regions in British Columbia, the province west of Alberta. For dinosaurs here, we will find Herrerasaurus, Ankylosaurus, Borealopelta, Regaliceratops, Carnotaurus, and Dakotaraptor.
An overview of the volcanic area below, 4 distinct rock formations can be seen. From left to right we have: basalt columns, the volcano, sedimentary rock mountain and the rock arch pile by the lake. Lots of volcanic rocks can be seen throughout, surely one of the only uses i'll ever have for the volcanic rocks.
Heading on the lake loop, we first come across the first dinosaurs of the area. These are armoured ankylosaur dinosaurs, on the right is the walking tank - the ankylosaurus, and left is an alberta ankylosaur, Borealopelta. These dinosaurs are next to this large rock pile/mountain with arched and vertical rock slates.
A better view of the large rock pile, inside the bottom arch are a few small fossils like dinosaur tracks, a small dinosaur skeleton and a dinosaur skull.
On the other side of the lake, we can find a curved basalt column. I know these are not basalt shaped but due to the small size of these columns, the rectangle faux rock had to be used instead of making a custom shape.
Now in the center of the volcanic area with the volcano right in our faces. The lava flows and smoke effects make this area much more lively than the real zoo volcanic area with its dormant volcano mound.
On the left path there is a much nicer basalt column display where we can find 3 herrerasaurus. These small dinosaurs are among the first dinosaurs ever found from Argentina. The real zoo actually has Eoraptors which are even smaller but close enough!
On the volcano side of the left path, we can find a information board about volcanic activity in canada. Pretty simple in detail but enough information to get a good picture of the overall theme of the area. Similar to the prehistoric park entrance sign, this is 3 small custom media screens joined together.
On the right side path on the other side of the volcano are some ceratopsian dinosaurs, these are Regaliceratops. Their orange color works quite well with the volcanic theming. Behind them is the large sedimentary rock mountain. Hundreds of faux rocks make this impressive layering that mimics sedimentary rock layers. Occasional volcanic rock layers can be seen (the darker rock) linking this volcanic activity to the formation of the rocky mountains.
On the other side of the left path, we are greeted with a carnotaurus. This is an addition to my creativity of the area (which will be a running trend throughout the rest of the park) as the real zoo just has a bunch of foilage in this area. The fiery looking carnotaurus stands on top of cooled lava rocks.
A better view of the volcanic activity in the center of the area. A large lava flow slowly becomes a cooled lava field where the carnotaurus can be found at the bottom left.
I didn’t actually make those dinosaurs, that's one thing I cannot pass as my own. There's a collection of the steam workshop called "Planet Zoo - Dinosaur Digs" with over 275 different dinosaurs. What I did was edit the dinosaur models to fit the zoo better, recolor them and pose them in realistic looking scenes. I'm not the best at building 3d models in my zoos but I'm learning! Using these dinosaurs has taught me the basics of using the basic shape blocks.
Prehistoric Park - Dinosaur Model Eye Improvements
The dinosaurs straight from the workshop blueprints came with the default cartoony eyes looked a little too... cartoony. Thanks to feedback over on the what did you do in planet zoo today, I went and replaced all the eyes of all dinosaurs in the prehistoric park with custom made realistic looking eyes which greatly improves the look of the dinosaurs instead of having these cute black and white eyes. Making realistic looking eyes on 3d models is not the easiest task to do, as there are limited sizes of circular shapes on the smaller models. I ended up using the australia circle flexicolor sign for the smaller dinosaurs and the small flat circle primitive shapes on the larger dinosaurs. Let's take a look at a few examples with pictures showing a before and after:
The dinosaurs straight from the workshop blueprints came with the default cartoony eyes looked a little too... cartoony. Thanks to feedback over on the what did you do in planet zoo today, I went and replaced all the eyes of all dinosaurs in the prehistoric park with custom made realistic looking eyes which greatly improves the look of the dinosaurs instead of having these cute black and white eyes. Making realistic looking eyes on 3d models is not the easiest task to do, as there are limited sizes of circular shapes on the smaller models. I ended up using the australia circle flexicolor sign for the smaller dinosaurs and the small flat circle primitive shapes on the larger dinosaurs. Let's take a look at a few examples with pictures showing a before and after:
Prehistoric Park - Wetlands
The dinosaur eye improvements was just timed right to showcase the new wetlands area of the prehistoric park! This is the most species heavy part of the prehistoric park (well in my version anyways), lots of new dinosaurs have been added to fill the rather empty stretches of foliage in the wetlands area. The wetlands area has 2 distinct paths, an upper path which is basically a forest trail with 4 dinosaur displays and a lower path which winds through the wetlands over 3 boardwalks/wooden bridges passing 8 dinosaur displays bringing the wetland area to life with so many different dinosaurs to see.
An overview of the wetlands area below with the previous volcano area in the top left. The lower path is in the top of the picture with a connecting series of winding boardwalks while the upper path in the bottom of the picture cuts through this forest.
On the upper path we can expect to see 4 dinosaur displays, with Ceratosaurus, Corythosaurus & Lambeosaurus (pictured here), Chasmosaurus and Styracosaurus. The foliage here is generally lush to represent a true forest trail.
On the other side of the upper path, the lush foilage opens up to show a herd of Chasmosaurus.
Heading to the lower wetlands path, we start off with a sighting of some Kentrosaurus, a small stegosaur like the stegosaurus.
Then we sight a fight between a Zuul (an ankylosaur) and some dromaeosaurus.
After crossing a wooden bridge, we see a much larger fight between an allosaurus and a stegosaurus.
A fearsome spinosaur, a Suchomimus, lurks in this partially dried up riverbed.
Looking back across the wetlands and views of the wooden bridge, a struthomimus, the ostrich mimic, stands beside the waters edge where reeds grow tall.
As the lower path ends we can see a large sauropod, the diplodocus, between the trees here.
The video taken for this episode was made well before any changes to the eyes were made (the next episode aswell was just completed before it happened aswell), the cartoony eyes will still be present for episodes 10 &11.
Source: https://youtu.be/5XZPDVsmYnc?si=RhUg1Ip-ZEyrsKtQ
The dinosaur eye improvements was just timed right to showcase the new wetlands area of the prehistoric park! This is the most species heavy part of the prehistoric park (well in my version anyways), lots of new dinosaurs have been added to fill the rather empty stretches of foliage in the wetlands area. The wetlands area has 2 distinct paths, an upper path which is basically a forest trail with 4 dinosaur displays and a lower path which winds through the wetlands over 3 boardwalks/wooden bridges passing 8 dinosaur displays bringing the wetland area to life with so many different dinosaurs to see.
An overview of the wetlands area below with the previous volcano area in the top left. The lower path is in the top of the picture with a connecting series of winding boardwalks while the upper path in the bottom of the picture cuts through this forest.
On the upper path we can expect to see 4 dinosaur displays, with Ceratosaurus, Corythosaurus & Lambeosaurus (pictured here), Chasmosaurus and Styracosaurus. The foliage here is generally lush to represent a true forest trail.
On the other side of the upper path, the lush foilage opens up to show a herd of Chasmosaurus.
Heading to the lower wetlands path, we start off with a sighting of some Kentrosaurus, a small stegosaur like the stegosaurus.
Then we sight a fight between a Zuul (an ankylosaur) and some dromaeosaurus.
After crossing a wooden bridge, we see a much larger fight between an allosaurus and a stegosaurus.
A fearsome spinosaur, a Suchomimus, lurks in this partially dried up riverbed.
Looking back across the wetlands and views of the wooden bridge, a struthomimus, the ostrich mimic, stands beside the waters edge where reeds grow tall.
As the lower path ends we can see a large sauropod, the diplodocus, between the trees here.
The video taken for this episode was made well before any changes to the eyes were made (the next episode aswell was just completed before it happened aswell), the cartoony eyes will still be present for episodes 10 &11.
Prehistoric Park - Badlands & Oceans
Let's finish off the prehistoric park so we can soon see some actual animals away from the entrance, here we finish off with 2 smaller areas of the prehistoric park. These are the badlands and oceans areas. The badlands area like the name suggests is themed after the badlands ( A kind of arid terrain where sedimentary rocks and soils have been heavily eroded), the badlands in canada are the key theme where mainly dinosaurs found near the fossil beds near drumheller, alberta and the dinosaur provincial park are featured. We will find Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Gorgosaurus, Ornithomimis, Stegoceras and 2 pterodons - pteranodon and quetzalcoatlus not exactly found in the badlands. There is also an apatosaurus here but does not belong in the badlands theme.
An overview of the final portion of the prehistoric park shows 2 distinct area. To the left is the badlands, arid themed area and then to the right is the oceans area with a slighly large lake with marine reptiles.
Connected to the wetlands area, a standoff between tyrannosaurus and triceratops can be found as guests walk right through this display. The pose of the tyrannosaurus is far more realistic than the one found by the waterfall, definitely one of the larger dinosaurs in the park where guests can realise just how big tyrannosaurus could be. The city skyline also makes for a great background here behind the arid rocks giving the urban feel while exploring this area.
In the badlands area we can find lots of interesting rocks formations - mainly hoodoos (eroded rock columns with a flat cap on top) and these much larger rock mountains I believe are called buttes. These rock formations are made of a combination of savanna rocks and faux rocks, the texture blends betweent the 2 rock types works quite well. The dinosaur we can see here is the Gorgosaurus, a smaller tyrannosaur dinosaur. While in the background the sauropod, the apatosaurus is emerging from the lake.
There are 2 sides to the badlands area with an upper and lower trail like the wetlands area, These trails are divided by the flowing river which complements the rock formations here, some roadrunner like dinosaurs, the ornithomimus, can be senn running to the right of the rock formations.
At the very bottom corner of the badlands area, the area transitions into the oceans area with much more foliage seen. A large quetzalcoatlus is guarding this entrance as a bridge will be built here in the future to link this area to the south zoo. Across the path a very large crocodile, the deinosuchus, can be seen beside the lake.
Now in the oceans area, we can see some marine reptiles (not dinosaurs!) in the lake. A display of a Liopleurodon and a nothosaurus can be seen first. Aquatic plants like those found in previous water features in the prehistoic park will be found around this lake.
A large elasmosaurus with an odd curved postion is seen on the left while a tanystropheus is on a small rock. Behind them we can see a large therizinosaurus which is where a display of mongolian dinosaurs can be found. Not sure why there is a display of mongolian dinosaurs here in an oceans area, maybe the zoo ran out of room here.
A closer look at the mongolian area shows a realistic sized velociraptor (not the jurassic park size!) hunting a small protoceratops next to a nest of eggs.
Across on the other side of the lake we can find a display of the 2 most well known spinosaurs - the spinosaurus on the left and the baryonyx on the right.
And lastly a view of the oceans area from another angle.
One video for each area (1 badlands, 1 oceans) will come out over this week while I start preparations on the next animal area, we can expect to see lots of large, naturalistic habitats for a wide range of canadian animals!
Let's finish off the prehistoric park so we can soon see some actual animals away from the entrance, here we finish off with 2 smaller areas of the prehistoric park. These are the badlands and oceans areas. The badlands area like the name suggests is themed after the badlands ( A kind of arid terrain where sedimentary rocks and soils have been heavily eroded), the badlands in canada are the key theme where mainly dinosaurs found near the fossil beds near drumheller, alberta and the dinosaur provincial park are featured. We will find Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Gorgosaurus, Ornithomimis, Stegoceras and 2 pterodons - pteranodon and quetzalcoatlus not exactly found in the badlands. There is also an apatosaurus here but does not belong in the badlands theme.
An overview of the final portion of the prehistoric park shows 2 distinct area. To the left is the badlands, arid themed area and then to the right is the oceans area with a slighly large lake with marine reptiles.
Connected to the wetlands area, a standoff between tyrannosaurus and triceratops can be found as guests walk right through this display. The pose of the tyrannosaurus is far more realistic than the one found by the waterfall, definitely one of the larger dinosaurs in the park where guests can realise just how big tyrannosaurus could be. The city skyline also makes for a great background here behind the arid rocks giving the urban feel while exploring this area.
In the badlands area we can find lots of interesting rocks formations - mainly hoodoos (eroded rock columns with a flat cap on top) and these much larger rock mountains I believe are called buttes. These rock formations are made of a combination of savanna rocks and faux rocks, the texture blends betweent the 2 rock types works quite well. The dinosaur we can see here is the Gorgosaurus, a smaller tyrannosaur dinosaur. While in the background the sauropod, the apatosaurus is emerging from the lake.
There are 2 sides to the badlands area with an upper and lower trail like the wetlands area, These trails are divided by the flowing river which complements the rock formations here, some roadrunner like dinosaurs, the ornithomimus, can be senn running to the right of the rock formations.
At the very bottom corner of the badlands area, the area transitions into the oceans area with much more foliage seen. A large quetzalcoatlus is guarding this entrance as a bridge will be built here in the future to link this area to the south zoo. Across the path a very large crocodile, the deinosuchus, can be seen beside the lake.
Now in the oceans area, we can see some marine reptiles (not dinosaurs!) in the lake. A display of a Liopleurodon and a nothosaurus can be seen first. Aquatic plants like those found in previous water features in the prehistoic park will be found around this lake.
A large elasmosaurus with an odd curved postion is seen on the left while a tanystropheus is on a small rock. Behind them we can see a large therizinosaurus which is where a display of mongolian dinosaurs can be found. Not sure why there is a display of mongolian dinosaurs here in an oceans area, maybe the zoo ran out of room here.
A closer look at the mongolian area shows a realistic sized velociraptor (not the jurassic park size!) hunting a small protoceratops next to a nest of eggs.
Across on the other side of the lake we can find a display of the 2 most well known spinosaurs - the spinosaurus on the left and the baryonyx on the right.
And lastly a view of the oceans area from another angle.
One video for each area (1 badlands, 1 oceans) will come out over this week while I start preparations on the next animal area, we can expect to see lots of large, naturalistic habitats for a wide range of canadian animals!
I have to say, Captain Callum, I really like how you've chosen to handle this Prehistoric Park section! Everything seems very realistic and true-to-life (other than the fact that the volcano is actively erupting, probably not something you'd see in a real zoo, but of course some creative liberties can be taken). The way you've been handling the nature in this section is great too, the rock work and foliage is so detailed and incredibly well-done. I can't even imagine how much time it must have taken to place all the rocks for those big badlands rock formations, that must have been so tedious! That being said, I'm really excited to see what you do next!
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Thanks, I do half feel bad about being creative with the volcano as it isn't exactly true to it's counterpart but I'm also glad I actually got use out of the volcanic rocks and lava pieces that I will probably never get the chance to use again. The overall foliage of the area looks really complex but honestly not that difficult once a pattern has been found, lots of the bushes including the use of non native but looks similar bushes make up the majority of the complex looking natural areas.
Duplication of core structures in rocks such as the rock formations in the badlands area did bring down the tedious factor of building so many rock formations. The big structures were actually only built once! The structure closest to the tyrannosaurus display was manually built while the rest were simply duplicated and rotated in a different position to look like a newly built formation.
Yeah I'm also glad that you managed to find a use for the volcanic rocks and lava pieces. I have also noticed the fact that you've been using a consistent set of plants throughout the park so far, and that also goes a long way toward making everything feel a lot more realistic. Keep up the great work!
Real Zoo Overview: Wild Canada part 1
Long read ahead as I have lots to discuss about the first proper animal area of the zoo!
The last section of the Calgary Zoo North is a canada themed area known as Wild Canada, formerly known as the Canadian Wilds. The previous canadian wilds has been a long standing favourite of the zoo since the 1990's with many of the habitats were among the best of their kind in north america, large open spaces with ample viewing areas for guests able to see a wide range of diverse animals from canada. The newer update to Wild Canada was just completed in december 2023! a very recent update brings its own set of challenges when I have to rely on online sources.
The Wild Canada upgrade was centered around one star animal - the polar bear. There used to be polar bears at the calgary zoo before but an old style bear pit and welfare issues closed the habitat when these bears died. Now the zoo has a very large modern polar bear habitat which will exceed planet zoo standards, the excellant polar bear habitat complex at the assiniboine park zoo (also in canada) helped design this habitat for holding multiple polar bear rescues - the polar bear habitat is actually called polar bear sanctuary because it currently holds rescued polar bears from the wild.
Before anything else is discussed about the wild canada, let's take a look at my manually drawn out map, using the zoo's intial wild canada plan as a template:
Using the map and my helpful color coded guides, we can identify 7 zones or biomes within wild canada, these are:
Prairie
Animals held here:
Wild Canada Entrance with some abstract structures of the northern lights (i can gurantee you I am not attempting this because it will look awful ingame). The transmission tower seen at the entrance will continue over this area adding the urban feel to the zoo throughout the zoo:
View of the current bighorn sheep habitat which fits quite well for the prairies theme as it is just a grassy field, due to the youtube tour videos being recorded in winter right now some pictures will be lower quality:
Rocky Mountain
Animals held here:
The path in the rocky mountain biome is surrounded by piles of rocks and taiga trees. Great views into each habitat are provided by moat/ditch barriers in the habitats :
Lots of faux rocks create a nice atmosphere for the bighorn sheep habitat:
On the other hand, the mountain goats will have access to this very rocky habitat, the abundance of smaller rocks creates a boulder field style slope compared to the bighorn sheep habitat:
Boreal Forest
Animals held here:
After the walkthrough owl aviary, the boreal forest does open up slightly to reveal the woodland caribou habitat. A long habitat for some woodland caribou or simply reindeer share biomes with the tundra biome as one half of the habitat is for the boreal forest and the other half for the tundra. This is to represent the 2 main biomes frequented by these reindeer.
Entrance to the owl aviary, the name is confusing as it is still called the rocky mountain aviary when it is clearly in the boreal forest biome. I believe this owl aviary was in the older rocky mountain biome when in the canadian wilds but maybe the zoo wanted to save some money on the sign?
The left side of the aviary showing the boreal forest scenery, this aviary is really big, almost as big as the san diego zoo aviaries from the look of it! If we ever get owls in the walkthrough exhibit, this would be a perfect match:
The woodland caribou habitat is also really big, a long habitat is divided into 2 zones with a gate in between each. One is the boreal forest (pictured with new trees growing in by the looks of it) and the open tundra area at the bottom:
Ran out of pictures in this post already! Part 2 (and maybe even 3 if theres that many pictures) will cover the rest of wild canada including the very large polar bear habitat. The polar bear habitat is next to the woodland caribou habitat with the large barriers. The very lengthy discussion about the real animal area is hopefully interesting to everyone to gain an insight on the behind the recreation process.
Long read ahead as I have lots to discuss about the first proper animal area of the zoo!
The last section of the Calgary Zoo North is a canada themed area known as Wild Canada, formerly known as the Canadian Wilds. The previous canadian wilds has been a long standing favourite of the zoo since the 1990's with many of the habitats were among the best of their kind in north america, large open spaces with ample viewing areas for guests able to see a wide range of diverse animals from canada. The newer update to Wild Canada was just completed in december 2023! a very recent update brings its own set of challenges when I have to rely on online sources.
The Wild Canada upgrade was centered around one star animal - the polar bear. There used to be polar bears at the calgary zoo before but an old style bear pit and welfare issues closed the habitat when these bears died. Now the zoo has a very large modern polar bear habitat which will exceed planet zoo standards, the excellant polar bear habitat complex at the assiniboine park zoo (also in canada) helped design this habitat for holding multiple polar bear rescues - the polar bear habitat is actually called polar bear sanctuary because it currently holds rescued polar bears from the wild.
Before anything else is discussed about the wild canada, let's take a look at my manually drawn out map, using the zoo's intial wild canada plan as a template:
Using the map and my helpful color coded guides, we can identify 7 zones or biomes within wild canada, these are:
- Orange - Prairie
- Dark blue - Rocky Mountain
- Green - Boreal Forest
- Purple - Tundra
- Light Blue - River
- Beige - Aspen Woodland
- For reference, the light green shade represents the foliage, zoo borders or staff areas that don't need to be displayed on the map
- First the prairie zone doesn't really exist in the zoo but just a portion of the entrance with a sign for bison and their importance to indigeous peoples. The actual zone is foothills where the habitat for bighorn sheep is present this is because the zoo didn't landscape the area next to the penguin plunge building in really any way. The bad thing about the real zoo is they lost the wood bison as one of their key species to polar bears.
- The mountain goats in the rocky mountain zone are rotated between the 2 habitats allowing them much greater space but that isn't possible to do ingame. This means that the bighorn sheep stay in the foothills area and one of the rocky mountain habitats will always be empty.
- For the mule deer, the moose habitat actually stretches all the way to the porcupine habitat with JUST 2 MOOSE, this is an insane amount of space so to make the river zone a bit more exciting I have decided to bring back the old mule deer habitat (a older part of the moose habitat did hold mule deer).
Prairie
Animals held here:
- Black tailed Prairie Dog
- Wood Bison (Northern subspecies of american bison)
Wild Canada Entrance with some abstract structures of the northern lights (i can gurantee you I am not attempting this because it will look awful ingame). The transmission tower seen at the entrance will continue over this area adding the urban feel to the zoo throughout the zoo:
View of the current bighorn sheep habitat which fits quite well for the prairies theme as it is just a grassy field, due to the youtube tour videos being recorded in winter right now some pictures will be lower quality:
Rocky Mountain
Animals held here:
- Bighorn Sheep
- Mountain Goat
The path in the rocky mountain biome is surrounded by piles of rocks and taiga trees. Great views into each habitat are provided by moat/ditch barriers in the habitats :
Lots of faux rocks create a nice atmosphere for the bighorn sheep habitat:
On the other hand, the mountain goats will have access to this very rocky habitat, the abundance of smaller rocks creates a boulder field style slope compared to the bighorn sheep habitat:
Boreal Forest
Animals held here:
- Snowy Owl, Great Grey Owl
- Woodland Caribou (Reindeer)
After the walkthrough owl aviary, the boreal forest does open up slightly to reveal the woodland caribou habitat. A long habitat for some woodland caribou or simply reindeer share biomes with the tundra biome as one half of the habitat is for the boreal forest and the other half for the tundra. This is to represent the 2 main biomes frequented by these reindeer.
Entrance to the owl aviary, the name is confusing as it is still called the rocky mountain aviary when it is clearly in the boreal forest biome. I believe this owl aviary was in the older rocky mountain biome when in the canadian wilds but maybe the zoo wanted to save some money on the sign?
The left side of the aviary showing the boreal forest scenery, this aviary is really big, almost as big as the san diego zoo aviaries from the look of it! If we ever get owls in the walkthrough exhibit, this would be a perfect match:
The woodland caribou habitat is also really big, a long habitat is divided into 2 zones with a gate in between each. One is the boreal forest (pictured with new trees growing in by the looks of it) and the open tundra area at the bottom:
Ran out of pictures in this post already! Part 2 (and maybe even 3 if theres that many pictures) will cover the rest of wild canada including the very large polar bear habitat. The polar bear habitat is next to the woodland caribou habitat with the large barriers. The very lengthy discussion about the real animal area is hopefully interesting to everyone to gain an insight on the behind the recreation process.
Real Zoo Overview: Wild Canada part 2
Tundra
Animals held here:
The most popular part of the tundra, and most likely the entire wild canada area will be the polar bears. The polar bear habitat is massive, early estimates bring the habitat into the 15,000 - 25,000 m2 habitat size fulfilling planet zoo habitat size requirements easily for just 2 bears! A better idea of the scale of the habitat can be seen from this map at the zoo:
Almost the entire habitat is in that video screenshot where the habitat is split into 3 distinct biomes. Coastline, open taiga woodland and tundra.
View of the central polar bear habitat area with the woodland section in clear view. The splashing pool can just be seen to the left:
Muskox habitat with a small polar bear themed gift shop to the right:
River
Animals held here:
Outside of the otter habitat views of the polar bear habitat continue on the right side of the path, on the left we can find moose. The moose have a flooded forest themed habitat that mimics many of the moose habitats found around the city of calgary along the bow river, this habitat will be right next to the bow river so a flooded forest and river theme is guaranteed. As discussed in part 1, the moose habitat will be cut in half but I can tell you even half of the habitat is huge.
Overhead walkway in between the otter habitat and entrance to the lodge:
View into one habitat for the river otters, the overhead walkway here drops into the middle of the habitat which is covered in a rocky shoreline and lots of water here. While it is just shallow water in this habitat, the second habitat has a deep pool for the otters to dive in:
Views into one part the moose habitat:
Aspen Woodland
Animals held here:
The row of predator habitat on the right side of the path is often named the southwest predator area. Simply because all of the animals found here in large enough natural habitats are predators found in the southwest portion of wild canada. All of these habitats follow the canada woodland theme with varying levels of dense forest scenery, rocky terrain such as in the cougar habitat or even climbable trees for the black bears.
Since I have 3 pictures remaining (and not wanting to do a part 3) heres a sample of the habitats found here:
View into one side of the black bear habitat. Yes black bears but here we can see 3 different fur colors? These are all natural fur colors for the bears and the american black bear mod with its range of color variations allows me to recreate the trio of black bears:
An elevated path for the wolf habitat gives great unobstructed views into the habitat, the wolf den is in clear view in the middle but not sure if it's actuall possible ingame to do that:
Older picture into the mule deer habitat, a large pond will continue the flooded forest theme for the deer habitats found in this area:
That's wild canada all covered with 18 species in 17 habitats to build for! There will be around 16 planned episodes to cover all the large, naturalistic habitats as I slowly build through the wild canada biomes starting off with the prarie biome with prarie dogs and bison. When wild canada is complete, the calgary zoo north will be completed and will be uploaded to the workshop. Calgary zoo south will not be featured in the north zoo map due to the position of the zoo island exceeding the length of the map. Considering how animal dense the zoo island is, I'm glad it is another map taking care of that.
Tundra
Animals held here:
- Polar Bear
- Muskox
The most popular part of the tundra, and most likely the entire wild canada area will be the polar bears. The polar bear habitat is massive, early estimates bring the habitat into the 15,000 - 25,000 m2 habitat size fulfilling planet zoo habitat size requirements easily for just 2 bears! A better idea of the scale of the habitat can be seen from this map at the zoo:
Almost the entire habitat is in that video screenshot where the habitat is split into 3 distinct biomes. Coastline, open taiga woodland and tundra.
- Coastline features a rocky shoreline, a waterfall, a deep diving pool with a window for guests to see the bears diving.This window also serves as the main 'plaza' for the polar bear habitat where there is large space for crowds to gather watching these bears in the pool.
- The taiga woodland follows the line of trees on the map with a stream cutting the habitat in half. We can see the indoor shelter building, varying terrain levels and foliage cover in this area. Just below the number 6 sign is an amphitheatre where a large window is next to the second polar bear pool but this will be a shallower pool than the plunge pool hence the name splashing pool.
- Tundra is the last part of the habitat at the bottom section. Generally this is like the muskox habitat with little foliage cover, some logs and rocks.
View of the central polar bear habitat area with the woodland section in clear view. The splashing pool can just be seen to the left:
Muskox habitat with a small polar bear themed gift shop to the right:
River
Animals held here:
- North American River Otter
- Moose
Outside of the otter habitat views of the polar bear habitat continue on the right side of the path, on the left we can find moose. The moose have a flooded forest themed habitat that mimics many of the moose habitats found around the city of calgary along the bow river, this habitat will be right next to the bow river so a flooded forest and river theme is guaranteed. As discussed in part 1, the moose habitat will be cut in half but I can tell you even half of the habitat is huge.
Overhead walkway in between the otter habitat and entrance to the lodge:
View into one habitat for the river otters, the overhead walkway here drops into the middle of the habitat which is covered in a rocky shoreline and lots of water here. While it is just shallow water in this habitat, the second habitat has a deep pool for the otters to dive in:
Views into one part the moose habitat:
Aspen Woodland
Animals held here:
- Grey Wolf
- Grizzly Bear
- American Black Bear
- Cougar
- North American Porcupine
- Whooping Crane
- Mule Deer
The row of predator habitat on the right side of the path is often named the southwest predator area. Simply because all of the animals found here in large enough natural habitats are predators found in the southwest portion of wild canada. All of these habitats follow the canada woodland theme with varying levels of dense forest scenery, rocky terrain such as in the cougar habitat or even climbable trees for the black bears.
Since I have 3 pictures remaining (and not wanting to do a part 3) heres a sample of the habitats found here:
View into one side of the black bear habitat. Yes black bears but here we can see 3 different fur colors? These are all natural fur colors for the bears and the american black bear mod with its range of color variations allows me to recreate the trio of black bears:
An elevated path for the wolf habitat gives great unobstructed views into the habitat, the wolf den is in clear view in the middle but not sure if it's actuall possible ingame to do that:
Older picture into the mule deer habitat, a large pond will continue the flooded forest theme for the deer habitats found in this area:
That's wild canada all covered with 18 species in 17 habitats to build for! There will be around 16 planned episodes to cover all the large, naturalistic habitats as I slowly build through the wild canada biomes starting off with the prarie biome with prarie dogs and bison. When wild canada is complete, the calgary zoo north will be completed and will be uploaded to the workshop. Calgary zoo south will not be featured in the north zoo map due to the position of the zoo island exceeding the length of the map. Considering how animal dense the zoo island is, I'm glad it is another map taking care of that.
Very cool, I'm very excited to see how you recreate these habitats in the game! I'm a big fan of North American habitats (which makes sense since that's where I'm from) and I think this will all be very interesting. I'll definitely have to download this zoo from the workshop and take a look at it for myself once it's completed.
Just curious, would you consider substituting another animal in place of the Porcupine since the mod currently isn't working? I know you're really trying to be faithful to the real zoo and I really appreciate that, but I feel like it would be unfortunate if you had to leave the habitat empty after making it. The Raccoon is also from North America and is similar in size to the Porcupine, so it could potentially be a fine substitute. This is obviously just a suggestion, you don't have to do it if you don't want to.
Just curious, would you consider substituting another animal in place of the Porcupine since the mod currently isn't working? I know you're really trying to be faithful to the real zoo and I really appreciate that, but I feel like it would be unfortunate if you had to leave the habitat empty after making it. The Raccoon is also from North America and is similar in size to the Porcupine, so it could potentially be a fine substitute. This is obviously just a suggestion, you don't have to do it if you don't want to.