This would be a really cool addition. I wish the exhibits animals had more movement though. As they are now they are like statues with blinking eyes.
Oceania/Australian DLC incoming (unofficially)
- Thread starter Danny_zoo
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Isn't the California Condor only at one zoo (San Diego)? They were on brink of extinction and their sole purpose at San Diego is to release to wild. I think adding an animal like that to PZ would be counter to their overall conservation message.
That is exactly my sentiment, word by word what you have just stated. While I was not crazy for the arctic choice of building components, (They were beautifully done, just not my choice for a zoo game, perfect for a theme park game though) I loved the animals. South America was exceptional in quality, but four animals was beyond disappointing, and the fact that a continent so rich in Flora had so few species added to the DLC was truly puzzling, especially when their advertisement kept on showing heavily themed jungles, that require large diversity. When it come to Australia, it is a major gap in the game, and many of the animals found there are pillar species in the zoo world, so I'm definitely looking forward to this. It is intriguing that once again today Frontier has gone radio silent, reminds me of the calm before the storm.
The California Condor has actually been housed at the Los Angeles Zoo since 1967, and both the Wild Animal Park and The San Diego Zoo have exceptional exhibits dedicated to them, the Oregon Zoo has them as well, as do the Oakland Zoo. Zoo Miami tried for years to incorporate them but unfortunately they were unable to make it happen. There is a Condor sanctuary in Big Sur, the Ventana Sanctuary, and they have been in negotiations with the Singapore Mandai Park, to transport a pair of California Condors to their new state of the art bird park adjacent to the zoo scheduled to open this year (not sure if construction has been delayed due to the Covid virus) Berlin Zoological Gardens made attempts as well in the past to display them. In short, yes they are in short demand if that is what you meant, no different from Frontier's choice to include West African Lions, but major zoos would move heaven and earth to display them. Not sure what message you were referring to.
Thank you for the info, it is new and interesting stuff for me!
I think the message of not having animals in captivity and releasing to wild. Conservation message. Just would seem off to me to see California condors in planet zoo. But then again, they are a flying bird so that may never happen.
Of course, I still can't seem to understand the message part, and how it relates to the zoo game in a negative way. Planet Zoo is primarily at least the way the game was advertise as the most realistic zoo simulation and strategy game of its time, with an emphasis on piece by piece construction similar to Planet Coaster. California Condors are no different than Andean Condors, or even smaller African Vultures, the only difference here is that they are seldom part of zoo collections in comparison to the other species mentioned. Based on the game's conservation message, and the ability to release animals back into the wild, and given the fact that the reintroduction of California Condors back into the wild is one of the crown achievements that zoos can take credit for, primarily San Diego Zoo, then it would not only seem logical, but a perfect fit for the game. It seems i might be missing your point or it could be a communication barrier, Spanish is in fact my first language, so I do apologize if I'm missing something obvious here. In any case, your reference to flying mechanics being an obstacle, that is correct, It was implied when I suggested the California Condor's addition, that adding birds as habitat animals was already a possibility. If this can not be resolved by Frontier at the end, it will go down as one of the great tragedies of this game, and it would certainly diminish everything else that this great game has accomplish, as it can not be a real zoo game without birds (with the exception of flamingos, ostriches and peacocks of course) We can even see it with a possible Australian/Oceania DLC, so many amazing bird possibilities, too many to even mention, but none of them possible because of the current impediments, assuming of course they are still in place. Who knows maybe Frontier already figured it out a long time ago, and a birds DLC is somehow just being held back, until enough content can be added to it. I have always being of the mindset that introducing a groundbreaking DLC with birds that includes the usual four animals might be just as big a tragedy as not ever getting birds, and my opinion is that if Frontier does release said DLC it will be significantly different to anything we have ever seen before.
I tend to think if they do release birds itll be similar to exhibits or the pterosaurs in JWE, and people will be highly disappointed. I just do not see them adding free range birds to behave same as current habitat animals. And if they did and it was locked behind dlc that would also be a bit of a shame for some. As you said, it is not a zoo game without birds so if there are birds, at least some should come with base game.
On point about the Condor, it just seems weird to me to make an animal that is very uncommon in zoos available. But I also find it unrealistic we have access to pandas freely. So who knows what they will do in suspending reality for gameplay in the future.
Yeah, but let me make this crytsal clear: I am not "annoyed" by the australia hype because we have no european animals. I don't feel left out or offended by Frontier or whatever. If european animals will be the last dlc ever in line, it's fine for me. And as much as I'd like them, I wouldn't even mourn if we don't get them at all. I can only speak of german zoos, but we normally don't have our own wildlife in zoos, but only in something else called "Wildparks". So if I build a zoo I know, I don't particualar need these animals.
Which might also be the reason why I don't desperatly long for an australian DLC. There isn't a huge representation of Australian wildlife in german zoos. Is it unfortunate? Yes. But I guess the animals kept in zoos vary a lot among countries.
There are a lot of animals that are more represented in zoos and those I really miss. A lot of monkeys for example. Animals form america and canada.And we rarely have a zoo without asian small clawed otters and harbour seals.
At the end of the day, I'm happy about almost any DLC and I can be happy for those who absolutely need australian animals. But my own excitement is build out of the fact, that we will get something else afterwards. Kind of like you enjoy a good meal and look forward to the dessert nevertheless.
And lets face it: If Planet Zoo has such a small life span as Planet Coaster (and that is my biggest fear) EVERY continent besides Africa will always be underrepresented.
Tbh, I never understood the "but this animals is uncommon in zoos, so it should not be added". Of course, I respect everyones opinion, but if the animal is possible to be kept in captivity and even if just a few facilities have it, why cannot you just headcannon that your zoo is one of those few lucky ones to have it? Nothing unrealistic about that.
So if I had to choose between a kagaroo and wallaby, even though wallaby might be more common, I would always choose red kangaroo, just because it is more iconic.
So if I had to choose between a kagaroo and wallaby, even though wallaby might be more common, I would always choose red kangaroo, just because it is more iconic.
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No, not unrealistic at all. I guess most people just like to add animals they know pretty well. One of the ideas of zoos is, that you support animals that you have a connection with. I think that's right and that comes into play when people make their animal wishlist.
Personally, I'm not saying, animals that are rarely kept in captiity shouldn't be added. I just say, that I don't have a longing for them.
The only animals I'm against are those who simply can not be kept in captivity (Great white shark) or are extinct or fantasy.
Personally I think its dumb to use reality as a reason to determine which animals are added and which ones aren't... this is a videogame... a form of fantasy escapism... it shouldn't be aiming to reflect the real world perfectly... especially when it clearly fails to do so in so many ways (looking at you ugly "human" characters)...
Of course, I am not going against anyone´s wishlist of animals, since everyone will prefer different ones. But I have seen post on these forums from people that are oposing wishes like red kangaro with: No they should not add that, instead it should be a wallaby because it is more common in zoos. I think that logic is wrong, because there is nothing unrealistic about having them, when some facilities have it.
But I agree with you that wishlist of animals are not right or wrong.
I just ignore the subspecies and see it as a lion. I think the situation with the California condor is very different. There might be places wanting to get them but the fact is that they are extremely rare in captivity and limited to zoos in a limited geographic area.
If we are only getting a limited number of DLCs with a limited number of animals I hope we will get something much more widespread in captivity like the bald eagle - assuming we ever get flying birds at all.
Pros of the wallaby would be though, that we could make the habitat open for guests. I believe this would be too dangerous with the red kangaroo, wouldn't it?
Then again,I rarely use walkable habitats, so I don't mind either way ^^
It wouldn't necessarily be dangerous though I could potential for it. Our local zoo has a kangaroo walk through habitat with both wallabies and red kangaroos. Of course, they may be sedated, but I don't really like to think about that.
Which Zoo would sedate the Animals just for Guests to be able to walk trough the Enclosure? I hope it isn't really like that
It’s pretty normal to have roo walkthroughs in Australia - your local zoo definitely hasn’t sedated them. We usually have eastern grey and smaller wallaby species, but lots of places also have red roos. They can be more aggressive, but it’s also a factor of size: stand toe to toe with a red boomer and he’s built like a pro-footballer!
Where I used to work, we only had eastern grey and swamp wallabies in the walkthrough, and we had an aggressive roo and an aggressive wallaby, both of which were kept in the off-exhibit paddock (a large yard with a barn that was a night paddock for all walkthrough animals) with a small group of other roos instead of being out to interact with guests. The kangaroos can always move away from the guest paths and they’re fine. It’s only when guests follow them and harass them that they get snarky.
Well that's a lot of really good information. There are signs up around the habitat to not "chase" the kangaroos and that last bit is probably why. They mostly seem to be very mellow, but if their food is being brought and they're being taken care of, they may just have no worries.
Really depends on the species.
For example: The Emperor penguin doesn't do well in captivity and only 1 or 2 zoos in Japan (?) have them. A more logical choice would be the King penguin - which is a flagship species. Other penguin species are more common but going with iconic/flagship animals - I'd prefer that.
I think it's really easy. When you go to the zoo, you "connect" with certain species in those zoos. If those species are missing, you want to have this in a DLC. Not a huge surprise that people request animals which are more common in most zoos.
I don't think a species that are impossible to keep in captivity should be added to the game. Don't have anything against the very rare species (also depends on region) but have a preference for the more common species. Meerkats are such an example - my favorite animal when I visit the zoo (and very common in most zoos)
I understand your point, and for the record I love the lion and have no issue with the subspecies being used, if anything it is an outstanding choice by frontier, since it brings then necessary focus and attention to the one lion that might be gone soon. I do not think that when it comes to wanting realism for this game, Planet Zoo has a bigger supporter than me. Every single one of my recommendations are always with a focus on realism, however when it comes to animal species, and just following what is or not popular and readily available within zoos, that is a stretch that even I will be willing to advocate for.
I will give you a perfect example (Keep in mind I have been involved with zoos for over three decades in one capacity or another, so I have not only seen it all within this world, but see many things change thru the years) Here in North America (where I currently reside, even though I lived in Europe as well) the current trend (it has been for years now) is to face off a great number of species and concentrate on specific breeding ones. This is not only happening here but eventually all across the world, especially Europe. Sure you might have world renown zoos, like the Berlin Zoological Garten to name one, that will push back and still try to maintain a high number of species (many of them seen nowhere else) But even the great Berlin will eventually fall to the new way of doing things, since they can not successfully replace all of their species once they are gone. In the U.S, the world famous San Diego Zoo was the last stronghold of rare and unusual species and even the mighty San Diego has for years now started to downsize their collection in order to improve the quality of many of its once outdated exhibits.
However when you look at this game, Planet Zoo, such a beautiful concept, the beauty of it all is that we can create iconic exhibits or even complete zoos that can transport you to any part of the world, for this purpose, we need many species that might be available in some zoos and not in others. If you wanted to built the great Berlin Zoo, it would be a shame not to have Giant Pandas, can you say that they are common the world over? of course not, as we all know that China has total control over them. If you wanted to built an exact replica of the beloved Central Park Zoo within the beating heart of NYC, would do it without their famous sea lions? The same can be said about any major Zoo in California, if you wanted to try your hand with the LA Zoo, any of the San Diego Parks (world leaders in the zoological world) You will want the California Condors, and when you think of the U.S, that is an iconic species.
Do not get me wrong, if Frontier released a U.S pack, and they went ahead and go with a bold eagle instead of a California Condor, I would not be upset, but I can tell you that after visiting almost every zoo in this country, there are plenty of Bald Eagle exhibits and most of them if not the majority are extremely unimpressive, most zoos to be honest house them in basic exhibits, since they are stationary most of the time. Condors in the other hand command territory and large aviaries with in many cases intricate designs. I have been lucky enough to see the plans for the California Condor exhibit at the new Singapore Bird Park, and unless Covid19 derailed the process, it is by far the most spectacular bird of prey exhibit I have ever had the privilege of seeing in concept.
In any case, is not a big deal, hopefully we do get a Condor at some point they are majestic either Californian or Andean, but I have to defend this point because if we went that route of the ABC animals with the current trend of zoos, we would end up with the same exact zoos everywhere, and I have never being a fan of franchises, not when it comes to Zoos and Aquariums. And from a conservation aspect, why would you not want the California Condor?