Explore a world of islands in the heart of Indonesia with the Wallacea Animal Pack! Here, where continents collide, a strange assortment of animals can be found with origins tracing back to both Asia and Australia, eight of which will be coming to your zoos!
For my second submission to this thread I wanted to highlight a part of the world I find extremely fascinating, Wallacea, which consists of the islands sitting between Asia and Australia. Given its unique position between two continents with drastically different faunas, Wallacea acts like a biogeographical mixing pot where lineages stemming from both Asia and Australia can be found, with the animals becoming more overwhelmingly Australian as you move east and vice versa as you move west towards Asia. As a result, it provides a very interesting mix of species to make an animal roster out of - I don't know too many other regional themes where you can have macaques and sugar gliders in the same pack!
I also decided to make this pack explicitly for Planet Zoo 2 as I don't think it really works with seven habitat animals and one exhibit animal, and I also wanted to include aviary species and more exhibit animals (assuming revamped exhibits would mean we got more than one per pack). It is also created under the assumption that all Wallacean species that made it into PZ1 are also in PZ2 - these are as follows:
Endemic to Wallacea:
- North Sulawesi Babirusa
- Komodo Dragon
Widespread but range into Wallacea:
- Spectacled Flying-fox
- Southern Cassowary
- Saltwater Crocodile
- Asian Water Monitor
Anyway, onto the species in the new pack:
Sulawesi Bear Cuscus (Habitat) - Bear cuscus look a bit like someone tried to turn a possum into a koala! Endemic to Sulawesi and surround islands, they grow larger than any possums back home in their ancestral Australia, and also differ in being diurnal rather than nocturnal.
Sugar Glider (Aviary or Exhibit) - The loveable sugar glider ranges west from New Guinea and onto Halmahera in the northern Maluku islands, possibly originating from an ancient translocation by humans. Although more associated with Australia, most, if not all, sugar gliders in captivity outside Australia actually originate from Indonesia, from where they are far easier to export.
Taxonomy note: The former "sugar glider" is currently undergoing a major taxonomic revision, with those in Australia already having been split into three distinct species while those in New Guinea and Indonesia are believed to represent a currently undescribed species complex. As a result, the sugar gliders on Halmahera are almost certainly not P. breviceps, but until the whole mess with their taxonomy is sorted out I think it's more than fine to class them as such. Plus, Planet Zoo generally doesn't pay much attention to recent splits, such as how little penguins are still considered a single species in-game.
Sulawesi Crested Macaque (Habitat) - The funny haha smile monkey some of you are scared of for some reason. Sulawesi has a number of different macaque species, all descending from a single common ancestor that floated over from Borneo millions of years ago, but this species is easily the most widely kept and iconic.
Lowland Anoa (Habitat) - One of two living species of anoa, dwarf buffalos from Sulawesi, the lowland anoa is a secretive but feisty resident of rainforests and swamps. As well as being adorable, they'd be a great species to mix with the babirusa.
Knobbed Hornbill (Aviary) - A beautiful hornbill endemic to Sulawesi and surrounds, they play an important role in dispersing the seeds of many species throughout their range. Like most hornbills they are monogamous, and the female will seal herself inside a tree hollow when breeding, relying on the male to supply her with food..
Salmon-crested Cockatoo (Aviary) - On the other side of Wallacea on the island of Seram lives the salmon-crested cockatoo, a boisterous character that is popular both in zoos and the private bird trade. Unfortunately, its popularity as a cage bird has led to massive numbers of birds being trapped and exported from the wild, leading to the species to be classified as vulnerable to extinction.
Weber's Sailfin Dragon (Exhibit) - Sailfin dragons truly do look like living breathing dragons, and they are among the largest agamids in the world. Although different species can be found throughout Wallacea and north to the Philippine's, Weber's sailfin dragon occurs in the Maluku islands in the east of Wallacea. As well as being the most common of the Wallacean sailfin dragons in zoos, I specifically chose Weber's because it is named after Max Weber, a German biogeographer who also delineated the Weber Line - a theoretical line which marks roughly where Wallacea's biota switches from mainly Asian in origin to mainly Australian in origin. It's just a nice nod!
Reticulated Python (Exhibit) - The world's longest snake, the reticulated python is widespread throughout south-east Asia and can also be found right throughout Wallacea. Aside from on some of the Lesser Sunda islands, home to the Komodo dragon, the reticulated python is Wallacea's largest land carnivore and apex predator.
Shoutout to the maleo and chattering lory, both of which were very hard to exclude from this pack.
