Eating from the environment and poo deterioration

[Maky1355]

Let the animals graze/eat from grass, shrubs and trees. Maybe they could have a limited supply that regrows over time.(but the plant doesn't get deleted). The poo could deteriorate over time.
Why? Well, I love creating huge "natural" exhibits and it just doesn't feel right that you need zookeepers to feed the animals that are surrounded by everything they'd have in the wild and pick up their poo.

 

[Hykelion]

Uhh, thats because Planet Zoo is not "the wild"?? You're making a Zoo, not "the wild". A zoo is a simulation of an animals wild habitat, but it is not "the wild".

Animals eat/graze regularly, especially the roaming ones, like the zebra, or wilderbeest. I doubt an enclosure with grasses can keep up with such numbers of animals grazing on them. As for the poo, sure, you can just leave them in their enclosures, sort of a fertilizer, but dont expect that poo to deteriorate in a matter of minutes. In the end, you're likely to have an enclosure ridden with dung lying around.

 

[Maky1355]

Uhh, thats because Planet Zoo is not "the wild"?? You're making a Zoo, not "the wild". A zoo is a simulation of an animals wild habitat, but it is not "the wild".

Way to think inside the box - yea I know, but that doesn't mean it should just be excluded. In ZT2 (before the expansions) animals would regularly eat from trees too, with the expansions this stopped being the case and it was a real shame. For the poo - you can mod it to disappear faster (if you can mod the game tho - so I guess this would be part of my wishlist).

 

[Hykelion]

While I like the sense of realism, the problem with feeding animals primarily using vegetation already inside their enclosures is problematic, since it doesn't have much of a constant supply. That's why we have to feed them, vegetation can then be used as a supplementary source.

 

[Maky1355]

While I like the sense of realism, the problem with feeding animals primarily using vegetation already inside their enclosures is problematic, since it doesn't have much of a constant supply. That's why we have to feed them, vegetation can then be used as a supplementary source.

I said "could have a limited supply that regrows over time"

 

[Jessiy]

Uhh, thats because Planet Zoo is not "the wild"?? You're making a Zoo, not "the wild". A zoo is a simulation of an animals wild habitat, but it is not "the wild".

Animals eat/graze regularly, especially the roaming ones, like the zebra, or wilderbeest. I doubt an enclosure with grasses can keep up with such numbers of animals grazing on them. As for the poo, sure, you can just leave them in their enclosures, sort of a fertilizer, but dont expect that poo to deteriorate in a matter of minutes. In the end, you're likely to have an enclosure ridden with dung lying around.

what you said kind of makes no sense though....
''Uhh, thats because Planet Zoo is not "the wild"?? You're making a Zoo, not "the wild". A zoo is a simulation of an animals wild habitat, but it is not "the wild". ''

Just because its not the wild, doesnt really mean they shouldn't eat the grass? that is kind of like saying, that if you keep horses in a field, they are never going to eat the grass around them, an only ever eat the hay that is left around... in dublin zoo, almost all the herbivores have grass in the enclosures that they can graze.


i mean, as is, a lot of zoo's will try to include natural ways animals eat, like hanging fruit for monkeys to get, or having meat sacks tied up for carnivores to try to get at, grazing is the same.

also, if you where to make one HUGE enclosure, herds move, giving grass in other spaces time to regrow, its not like they should all just stand still in one spot.
im pretty sure OP was thinking of making one massive enclosure like a wildlife reserve, hence the grass re-growing an such an the mention of grazing, if its a big enclosure, there should be more than enough grass and plants to do animals, especially if plant and grass growth is a thing


Edit:
id also like to point out, Cattle eat up to 27 pounds per head per day.
Zebras eat 20 ponds per zebra a day

and yet... we keep a TON of cattle on land, and they dont run out of grass?

 

[m2wester]

also, if you where to make one HUGE enclosure, herds move, giving grass in other spaces time to regrow, its not like they should all just stand still in one spot.
im pretty sure OP was thinking of making one massive enclosure like a wildlife reserve, hence the grass re-growing an such an the mention of grazing, if its a big enclosure, there should be more than enough grass and plants to do animals, especially if plant and grass growth is a thing


Edit:
id also like to point out, Cattle eat up to 27 pounds per head per day.
Zebras eat 20 ponds per zebra a day

and yet... we keep a TON of cattle on land, and they dont run out of grass?

Not an expert, but as far as I know, you either feed the cattle extra or you regularly change pastures. Or your pasture is gigantic.

Personally, I don't have a problem with animals grazing and using that as food. Though the amount of food would need to be pretty limited per space, and I'd want typical problems to be added - in giraffe or elefant enclousures, you need to protect your trees, grass would be kept short through grazing, and we'd get game trails where animals walk around. I don't think it's realistic to have a zoo with large herbivores that get by on pasture alone. Either you'd have too few animals to attract guests or too many animals for your enclosure. A wildlife reserve would work, but I don't think you'll be able to build something like that in planet zoo, from my point of view that's quite a different thing from a zoo and would require different game mechanics.

 

[Maky1355]

Personally, I don't have a problem with animals grazing and using that as food. Though the amount of food would need to be pretty limited per space, and I'd want typical problems to be added - in giraffe or elefant enclousures, you need to protect your trees, grass would be kept short through grazing, and we'd get game trails where animals walk around. I don't think it's realistic to have a zoo with large herbivores that get by on pasture alone. Either you'd have too few animals to attract guests or too many animals for your enclosure. A wildlife reserve would work, but I don't think you'll be able to build something like that in planet zoo, from my point of view that's quite a different thing from a zoo and would require different game mechanics.

It's still a game, with "limitless" creativity, well I want a wildlife reserve park, "ecosystem" park, a regular zoo, a half/half situation, a park where I feed all my carnivores with live food etc. and it's all perfectly doable if you JUST let go of a tiny piece of realism that a large animal could destroy the tree and all grass would eventually be mud.
I loved the feature in wlp2 and 3 and ZT2 without the expansions. If there were a lot of animals you'd still need to place food down so it's pretty balanced in the end, the only thing they got wrong (or it was a very very annoying "realistic" feature) was grass turning to dirt after grazing and you'd need to repaint the ground.

 

[Okapia]

This is also on my wishlist.
I also want animals to be able to live in "natural" exhibits, eat the vegetation (which then regrows over time), play with more natural enrichment, and not be swimming in poop if nobody cleans it up. wlp2 did an okay job of handling the various plants to make feeding on plants some-what possible.

It can be an educational feature, too; herbivores would only eat plants that suit them (for example, eucalyptus is exclusive to koalas). Nobody would need to feed their animals on "wild" vegetation exclusively if it doesn't fit their game-play style, but it could serve as a supplement in a typical enclosure.

 

[EternalAbyss]

This is also on my wishlist.
I also want animals to be able to live in "natural" exhibits, eat the vegetation (which then regrows over time), play with more natural enrichment, and not be swimming in poop if nobody cleans it up. wlp2 did an okay job of handling the various plants to make feeding on plants some-what possible.

It can be an educational feature, too; herbivores would only eat plants that suit them (for example, eucalyptus is exclusive to koalas). Nobody would need to feed their animals on "wild" vegetation exclusively if it doesn't fit their game-play style, but it could serve as a supplement in a typical enclosure.

Agreee!