Australian Animals
- Thread starter Zai
- Start date
Animals don’t have to be “at risk” for them to be added to planet zoo
... and I have a soft spot for them. Tasmanian devils would be neat as well though. I would like coyotes to be added... just because I have one, they aren’t at risk either but they are still neat animals.
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Animals don’t have to be “at risk” for them to be added to planet zoo
The coyote would at least be a new species added to the game. The dingo wouldn't be, it's no more unique than the Arctic wolf in terms of taxonomy.
In any case, there's the message of the game to consider. Tasmanian devils are highly endangered now, largely due to human interference in their habitat and the still-lingering misconception that they are harmful to livestock. The game includes several species which aren't common in zoos that are highly endangered, such as the Himalayan brown bear, in order to get a message across. IMO the Tasmanian devil is far more sensible an inclusion than the dingo.
Of course, given that an Australia/Oceania Pack is certainly now incoming, we might get neither. @Danny_zoo pointed out the rainbow gum, and its natural range of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, so assuming we only get the usual four animals I have a feeling we might see a tree kangaroo (most captive species are from Papua New Guinea I believe rather than mainland Australia) instead of something more 'commonly Australian'. If we do, I hope the tree kangaroo replaces the koala rather than something like the devil, but we shall see.
Dingos look more like coyotes than arctic wolves. Not sure why you think they would be no different than wolves, have you seen dingos? Their hair is short, bodies much smaller and thinner, etc.
Of course I've seen them. I've worked with them at Wellington Zoo. Hands-on.
Note I said "in terms of taxonomy". Taxonomically, dingos are not at all any different than Arctic wolves (which are Canis lupus arctos, and the dingo is Canis lupus dingo). Technically speaking, because the in-game "timber wolf" is classified as Canis lupus (generic) we already have the dingo - and we have the Arctic wolf in the game twice!
In any case, the dingo occupies a precarious spot in Australian fauna, somewhere between "native species" and "pest", whereas the Tasmanian devil is endemic, and endangered.
Don't get me wrong, I like dingos just fine, and I'd love to have both if the option was there, but given all DLC has been rather limited in terms of content it's doubtful that will happen.
You are, of course, perfectly correct when you say that the 'Timber Wolf', the 'Arctic Wolf' and the Dingo are all the same species, and I've seen a lot of the posts where you've commented about the inconsistency of having both the generic wolf (Canis lupus) as well as one of its subspecies (Canis lupus arctos) in the game. While I think the point is valid, I actually don't mind the way they've done it (and I'm saying that as someone who can be fairly pedantic about such things (e.g., one of my pet peeves is that they don't italisise species names consistently on the info boards and in the zoopedia). The reason I like the way they've done it in-game, is that the "Timber Wolf" effectively represents a number of subspecies that share very similar habitats, and which do not differ a huge amount in terms of their morphology (specifically their colouration). If the "Timber Wolf" were just the North American subspecies then we'd have to have a new, very, very similar wolf added if we wanted Eurasian subspecies. I'm OK with the Arctic subspecies being added as a separate animal because it has substantially different coloration than North American and North Eurasian subspecies, and inhabits a distinct climatic niche. Similarly, I wouldn't mind the Dingo added as a separate animal, because it has substantially different morphology, behaviour, sounds and climatic niche from the generic "Timber Wolf".
That said, I'd put a number of Australian (habitat) animals higher up my list of preferred species to be added.... My preference would be:
1: Red or Grey Kangaroo
2: A wallaby (Yellow footed rock wallaby if Grey Kangaroo is included, Tasmanian (Bennet's) Wallaby if Red Kangaroo is included
3: Tasmanian Devil
4: Wombat
Other species that I'd put higher up my list from the Dingo include (but are not limited to):
Any Quoll,
Emu,
Southern Cassowary
Numbat
any Echidna
(also any Tree Kangaroo and the Kiwi if its Oceania rather than Australia)
I haven't included Platypus, since I think it'd be better in an exhibit-style format (with looped animations) or the Koala, since they're very inactive and I don't think they'd be implemented in a realistic way (i.e., sleeping almost all the time in a tree).
All of that said, if including the Dingo (and/or Emu or Cassowary) meant more species added (because they could be included with relatively little effort), I'd be perfectly happy (and would pay more than the last two DLCs to get them).
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Thorny devil (Moloch horridus)
Squirrel glider (Petaurus norfolcensis)
I am ecstatic about the Dingo and Cassowary!