A Europe Animal Pack is fairly easy to put together.
- Eurasian or Iberian lynx (former is more popular, but latter fits the conservation bill).
- Red deer or fallow deer (former is more iconic, and has scenery pieces in the game, but the latter comes up just as often).
- European badger or wolverine (both come up frequently; I'd say the wolverine is more likely due to both its popularity and because it also occurs in North America).
- Dalmatian pelican (pelicans have seen a surge in popularity since it was first suggested in the Aquatic Pack).
- Alpine ibex (headliner - the iconic mountain goat in international terms, and a carryover from both Zoo Tycoon titles).
- European pine marten (a sort of "out there" inclusion, but a small arboreal mammal comparable to the red panda in terms of niche).
- African crested porcupine/golden jackal (preferably the former, but either gives a little more punch to the "Mediterranean" climate.
- Scheltopusik/leopard snake/Greek tortoise/fire salamander/take your pick for the exhibit animal.
I would say the candidates for a European Animals pack would be
Alpine ibex
Eurasian or Iberian lynx
Eurasian badger
Golden jackal
Red fox
Red deer
Fallow deer
Great white pelican
Chamois
Wild boar
Wolverine
Saiga
Capercaillie
I don't dislike any of these but they don't exactly excite me. I'd rather we get one or two for instance like a Temperate Animals pack, like the Eurasian lynx and Fallow deer, alongside temperate animals from other places.
I'd be interested in seeing a Europe pack, although I'm not convinced that we won't get biome-based DLC instead. The lack of desert animals in the North America pack is suspicious. That being said, these are the animals that I would like to see from a European scenery pack:
Alpine Ibex - If you don't count animals with extremely similar counterparts, the ibex, black rhino, and dromedary camel are the last base game Zoo Tycoon 2 animals that we're missing. Ibexes also popular on their own merits, and we need another caprid after the dall sheep.
Iberian Lynx - The Eurasian lynx is more requested, but these are both critically endangered and would represent the Mediterranean region well. They would fill the charismatic predator niche for the pack.
Red Deer - We still need a traditional deer, and although the fallow deer and roe deer are possible options, I would prefer the red deer. This is because they already have scenery items in the base game, and would make up for not having North American elk.
Red Fox - Another canid would be controversial. However, it's popular on the meta wishlist and would round out our fox representation. We'd have one species each for hot, cold, and temperate climates. Plus I'm biased if you can't tell.
Fire Salamander - Hard for me to think of better exhibit options.
And if it's an animal pack, add these three:
Eurasian River Otter - A giant otter clone feels like a no brainer for down the line, so why not put it here? Their cuteness would help sell the pack to casual players.
Saiga Antelope - A critically endangered species that deserves more attention, both in zoo games and real zoos. Helping their population recover could be a focus of the pack's timed scenario.
Wolverine - Probably the most popular North American animal left out of the upcoming pack, to the point that I have to wonder if they're saving it for down the line.
The Mediterranean monk seal is an honorable mention for me, if only because I'd like a grey seal clone. Plus it would hold notable conservation value.
I'd be interested in seeing a Europe pack, although I'm not convinced that we won't get biome-based DLC instead. The lack of desert animals in the North America pack is suspicious. That being said, these are the animals that I would like to see from a European scenery pack:
Alpine Ibex - If you don't count animals with extremely similar counterparts, the ibex, black rhino, dromedary camel are the last base game Zoo Tycoon 2 animals that we're missing. Ibexes also popular on their own merits, and we need another caprid after the dall sheep.
Iberian Lynx - The Eurasian lynx is more requested, but these are both critically endangered and would represent the Mediterranean region well. They would fill the charismatic predator niche for the pack.
Red Deer - We still need a traditional deer, and although the fallow deer and roe deer are possible options, I would prefer the red deer. This is because they already have scenery items in the base game, and would make up for not having North American elk.
Red Fox - Another canid would be controversial. However, it's popular on the meta wishlist and would round out our fox representation. We'd have one species each for hot, cold, and temperate climates. Plus I'm biased if you can't tell.
Fire Salamander - Hard for me to think of better exhibit options.
And if it's an animal pack, add these three:
Eurasian River Otter - A giant otter clone feels like a no brainer for down the line, so why not put it here? Their cuteness would help sell the pack to casual players.
Saiga Antelope - A critically endangered species that deserves more attention, both in zoo games and real zoos. Helping their population recover could be a focus of the pack's timed scenario.
Wolverine - Probably the most popular North American animal left out of the upcoming pack, to the point that I have to wonder if they're saving it for down the line.
The Mediterranean monk seal is an honorable mention for me, if only because I'd like a grey seal clone. Plus it would hold notable conservation value.
Any pack with a Saiga is an insta buy for me. I would hope for Prezwalski's wild horse as well, but a pack with deer AND ibex AND antelope AND horse might be a bit hoof-stock heavy for Frontier to consider.
That would be a possible scenario for Europe.
I'll switch the Wolverine from NA to Europe now and I choose the fallow deer instead of the red deer (because i like the dots in their fur...lol)
Not shure about the lynx, I'm fine with one of the two, but I think the iberian lynx fit a bit better.
And as you can see, I made my Homework for our Aussi Buddys
Any pack with a Saiga is an insta buy for me. I would hope for Prezwalski's wild horse as well, but a pack with deer AND ibex AND antelope AND horse might be a bit hoof-stock heavy for Frontier to consider.
Here we are again, discussing about a potential European pack
The possibility of getting a dedicated Europe 4+1 pack, a Europe animal pack, an Eurasian animal pack or a Temperate animal pack all depends on how many DLCs there are left and how they would approach the December DLC (which most of us expect it to be focused on birds).
If there are only 2 DLCs left, I'd assume they'd go for a safe bet and do aviaries pack and a final Eurasian animal pack, just to include the Amur leopard on top some European animals.
If we get more than that, it's safe to assume they will do biome packs at some point, which could potentially eliminate the possibility of an European pack if they do a Temperate animal pack that includes ~5 European animals.
If the presumable aviary pack contains no new scenery apart from bird cages and enrichment that would come free with the update, a Europe 4+1 pack would be more likely right afterwards.
Many 'ifs' in the equation. But regardless, I'll reiterate again that at least 3 European animals (Alpine ibex, lynx, red deer) could be very good flagships of any pack, just as much as the beaver, the cougar or even the moose.
My personal opinion as a European who has lived in South, Central and Northern Europe is that Europe, like other regions, had 2 main problems when the the game was released: quantity and quality in terms of representation. I'm going to focus on Europe only now, but that doesn't mean I don't want that the other contintents have their problem fixed too.
The game started with only 2 European animals: a wolf (with the name wrongly translated in several languages) and a flamingo (not the most iconic European animal). We were even denied our supericonic and supercommon brown bear in favour of a third Asian bear, a decission I will never understand. Very slowly, the number has increased and the problem of quantity has been solved now. We have grown to 7 habitat animals + 1 exhibit, which I'm very thankful for. The 5 new animals are found in Europe but also in Asia and North America, which is good because they add more flexibility.
However, the second problem is still alive: Europe in general is not well represented in the game, only Northern Europe (which is a small part) is well represented now. Southern and Central Europe are completely underrepresented (other continents have similar issues with some regions not represented, like the Middle East or the Patagonia). Imagine if North America only had animals from the Caribbean or Asia only had animals from the Russian steppe but not from India or China... that would be a problem, right?
So I think a Europe DLC should focus on fixing the problem of good representation for Europe as a whole, providing animals that fit in the underrepresented Mediterranean and temperate Europe as well as in the taiga biome (which includes mountains). So, personally, I need animals that we can consider 100 % European (even if they are found somewhere else too). So for me, animals like the Przewalski's horse, Barbary macaque, musk ox, saiga or Japane raccoon dog aren't good candidates for a Europe DLC even if they have small populations within Europe. For example, the horse is mostly associated to the Gobi desert and the saiga range is mostly pure Asian too (see picture below).
A different situation are animals like the alpine marmot or the Iberian lynx: they have small populations in Europe, but they are 100 % European in terms of geographic location, political boundaries and cultural background.
If I have to choose animals for a European pack, a deer will represent Europe much better than a Przewalski horse, and any of the European goats (mouflon, Alpine or Iberian ibex, chamois) will represent Europe better than a saiga or a takin.
So my ideal Europe pack to get a better represantion of Europe as a whole is something like this:
-Alpine ibex: to represent the European mountains.
-Red deer: the classic temperate animal found from the Iberian peninsula till Skandinavia, including Ireland and Great Britain.
-Iberian lynx: to represent the Mediterranean forest. An Eurasian lynx would work too for being more common, but would add another taiga animal to an already good list.
-European badger: like the deer, is found all over the continent and it has a very unique look different to any other animal in the game so far. And it's cute!
If it's an animal pack, I can add:
Alpine marmot: to reuse the prairie dog and meerkat's digging system. Adds another animal to the Central and Southern European mountains.
Wolverine: a second chance for this popular animal that would increase again Northern Europe plus North America plus Asia.
A mute swan or Dalmatian pelican: people have been asking for aquatic birds for ages, so this would be a popular choice. A non-bird alternative: wil boar or red fox or even fallow deer. we just got two rodents in the same pack, and red and fallow deer are different enough.
There are many options for exhibit animals too: frogs and toads, snakes, salamanders, lizards, tortoises, chameleons...
Finally, I think that it is very likely that we get an aviary pack this Christmas, which opens the door to many more choices for Europe. I'm sure there will be people who think European birds are boring, but I think we have a huge range of awesome birds to choose from. So, basically, a European pack won't happen before next year and we have to wait to see if/how birds are introduced, because that can change forever the new DLC models that come afterwards, including any potential European pack.
In a 4+1 that would mean: Red deer, Alpine ibex, Iberian lynx, and European badger. With fire salamander.
In a 7+1 that would mean: Red deer, Alpine ibex, Iberian lynx, European badger, red fox, wisent, ...chamois or alpine marmot. And fire salamander.
Build themes: Dutch and Bavarian. It's colorful and rustic, with colored bricks as a distinguishable new feature, and imagine scenery with windmills and boats...! It could add a new boat type to our transport rides.
Here is my Europe list of habitat animals in order of preference. I limited myself to 22 (there’s a Eurovision reference there…).
My personal preference is towards Alpine and Nordic species but I would hope that a Europe animal pack would reflect the biodiversity of Europe and its different regions whilst ensuring that the most iconic species are included.
have included the musk ox (I know, controversial) and mouflon which some might argue is Asian but otherwise no introduced species (considering fallow deer and porcupine native for this purpose) and no birds, even ones that would work with the current mechanics.
I thought people are still arguing about if the Mouflon originated from mediteranian islands and spread everywhere else after domestication or if it was the other way around.
Or a little wikipedia questions later, the european subspecies originates from Corsica and Sardinia, while the other one comes from Turkey and co.
Both are cool though, would love some Muffelwild in the game
If it’s a Europe-only pack I’d expect 4+1 and would choose something like:
Alpine Ibex
Fallow deer
European badger
Eurasian river otter
Fire salamander
if it’s a 7+1 Eurasia animal pack i’d add
Persian leopard
Dromedary
Red fox
I’d keep Prezwalski's horse and Iberian lynx as the Asian and European representatives in an endangered species pack. If no such pack is planned I’d swap out the otter for the lynx and the fox for the horse.
Here is my Europe list of habitat animals in order of preference. I limited myself to 22 (there’s a Eurovision reference there…).
My personal preference is towards Alpine and Nordic species but I would hope that a Europe animal pack would reflect the biodiversity of Europe and its different regions whilst ensuring that the most iconic species are included.
My theory is that if we do get biome packs once the continental packs are done (which seems like a logical next step), there won't be any new building themes anymore in order for Frontier to increase the animal count (also, we can already build almost anything with the pieces in game). So, I wouldn't find it unlikely to see a Europe Pack next spring with 4+1 animals and a final building set that focuses possibly on Mediterranean, possibly on Bavarian architecture (those two seem to be the most prominently named sets to represent Europe).
So, if we do get 4+1, I suppose the line-up would look roughly like this:
Eurasian Lynx
It's just too iconic a species for European fauna to exclude from this pack, and would be an obvious headliner that would convince a lot more customers of buying this pack than if it was excluded. You can make a case for the Iberian Lynx, especially if the pack is more mediterranean-focused, but we do lack smaller cats for the colder regions so far, and the Eurasian Lynx would be a perfect fit. The only counter-argument I could think of would be that we already received the cougar and the clouded leopard, two other smaller cats, in recent packs, but I think the lynx is iconic enough to warrant inclusion nevertheless.
Alpine Ibex (or Chamois, or Mouflon)
I don't think they would include more than one of these, not in a scenery pack and not even in an animal pack. The ibex has been heavily requested and is frequently associated with European wildlife, and would even work as a flagship animal for the pack. I can imagine that a lot of people would be disappointed not to see it, especially since it allows for some alpine representation.
Red Deer
We have been in desperate need for more deer species, and even with the reindeer and the moose in the game, this is still a niche that needs yet to be covered (particularly since we do have scenery for this animal in the game). The Red Deer is iconic to European fauna and is quite versatile too; a lot of people would use it as a "filler animal" to fill in those empty sections between 'bigger' habitats.
Wolverine or European Badger
A small mustelid seems a must-have for this pack, and I suppose it would be one of those two. The badger feels more iconic to Central Europe, but the wolverine has been highly requested and suspiciously excluded from the NA pack, so I suppose they are waiting for its inclusion in a Europe pack.
Plus a fire salamander for the exhibit animal, but I don't really care too much about the exhibits and all my predictions on that account have been wrong in the past, so.
This would still exclude some fan favorites such as wild boar, red fox, porcupine or the eurasian otter, but would still offer a solid representation for European wildlife imo.
My only question mark is whether Frontier really considers that a Europe DLC would sell as well as, say, a North America DLC or the African DLC, because it inevitably lacks those exotic animals that made the previous packs an instant-buy for many. So, it might be possible that we see some (or all) of these animals in a temperate biome pack down the road, or we get the Iberian Lynx in a Critically Endangered Animals Pack and a totally different deer species, maybe even the Père David's. My fingers are crossed for a Europe Pack, though, and it's probably my most wanted addition to the game (outside of a tropical pack with capybaras and tree kangaroos, of course ).
Despite what some people say, I think Europe has a ton of options (even if not endemic) that would be great for Planet Zoo. Here's just some of the following European species I'd love to see get added:
It would be a huge disappointment to not include a lynx (damn, the iberian one is even nearly extinct!) in a europe pack.
There's plenty of deer and wild boars in the woods - that's why a lynx, as critically endangered, is a must!
It would be a huge disappointment to not include a lynx (damn, the iberian one is even nearly extinct!) in a europe pack.
There's plenty of deer and wild boars in the woods - that's why a lynx, as critically endangered, is a must!
Still an excellent conservation narrative showing the importance of captive breeding and zoos as homes for ambassador animals and raising awareness and education.
(But I’d still prefer the Eurasian lynx. Or ideally both).
