Tiergarten Friedrichswalde

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Good day ladies and gentleman, friends, foes and frenemies alike, im here to present to you the fact that i finally got the guts to make my own zoo thread.
As already announced, this zoo, oriented on parklike german cityzoos (idk if these zoos are anyway special from the look, its just that thouse are the zoos i have been too mostly) will feature animals choosen by you, the community for me to build around.
Right now there are 18 animals on my list to be put in the zoo, if you want to check them out or even suggest one yourself if you havent, https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/choose-some-animals-for-me.588276/ .

So then, onto my zoo!
With a lot of joy and pride, i can declare FoxyDees Penguin Beach to be opend. The 6 african penguins inhabiting the habitat absolutly love it and so do i.
I took some lose inspiration from their habitat in the Zoo wuppertal, which will be one of my main sources of reference for most of the zoo.
It has a rather modern and less classical look, but i dont see this as a bad thing, as most zoos these days are modernising, with penguins often being some of the earlier renovations.
I wanted it to look like an african rocky shore, and i think i succeeded.
Because of realism sake, the animals sadly cant dive, but with only about a meter and half of depth it isnt that noticeable. The one major gripe i do have is that i cant put down benches opposite to the glass because of planet zoos wonky definitions of "bumpy terrain", but thats something i can overlook for what i would call quite the nice habitat.
I hope Mr/Mrs Dee likes what i have done with her suggestion, as she was the first to comment on my original thread and it just felt right to put them front and center of my zoo.

Theres also a view inside the penguins shelter and across the hill, leading into what i imagine right now to be the start of a more hilly path, working as both a shortcut for the staff and some more unique sideviews away from the main path for the visitors.

But that aint all for today, im also mostly done with my own animal of choice, the giraffes.
I mostly did some backgroundwork and foliage today, marking one of the edges of my zoo. Sadly their house still looks kinda boring from the outside, but thats something i guess i have to live with.
Right now there are 3 different viewpoints, the first one from the top of the first hill of the park.

You can look over from one viewpoint over to the other, with one on groundlevel with the giraffes and one on eye level. You can even get quite close to them on the ground level if the giraffes decide to come down into their dry trench, being roughly on eyelevel with the visitors but way closer to them.

But the thing i like most what i have done for the giraffes today were these implied sliding doors. I really didnt like the open building, but not im quite satisfied with the giraffes point of view, eventhough the gate is allmost invisible for the visitors.

And while i might have allready shown of these two pictures, for completion sake i will add these interior shots for the giraffe house aswell. I still really like their sleeping boxes and iplan on putting some implied feeders up their too in the future.

Lastly i wanted to show of a skyshot of the zoo from birdseyeview. The entrance still is nothing special, but the general layout will propaply stay. I personally really like the way the pathwork and layout of the giraffes worked out and i cant wait to continue over there, but i think the most logical thing to do will be to work myself up from the bottom to the top of the hill, so first i will add atleast an habitat for what i feel right now to be the babirusa to the left of the penguins and maybe something to the right aswell, but we will see how exactly that will work out.
I want to thank anyone who actually read my ramblings to the end and want to ask you all for feedback and idears to improve or overall build the zoo in the future.
As this is my second zoo after 200 hours i want to make this one count and do a great zoo that i can be proud of from start to finish and hey, if everything works out this might be one day on the workshop to walk around in or to even be sent in to a certain designer of the community to tell us how inspiring it will be

 

[FoxyDee]

Yay! Glad to have my animals right at the entrance, love the habitat, I really like the beach look to it and the awesome viewing into the sleeping cave. Also, thanks for naming the habitat after me, that is very nice of you.

The giraffe enclosure is also great, love the zebra pattern fence. It gives the place a nice African feel.
I like the overall layout, it will look perfect once it will be fully decorered.
Great job so far, looking forward to see more!

 

[DarthQuell]

Nice. Imma watch this thread and get some ideas for Build-It Zoo 2

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Today i present you the secound fully finished (unless my gut or you guys tell me different later) habitat of zoogarten friedrichswalde.
Sponsored by the bigger_dreamer, the babirusas could finally move into their renovated home.
Its the half of what i imagine to be a duo habitat, where the animals switch habitats from time to time, shared with 2 giant anteaters that you can also see in the background of some pictures. The only remaining question would be if bamboo, a little trench and mesh really are enough to keep in an anteater, but thats a question for another day.
The one thing they will deffenetly be sharing will be their shelter, with one half for the pigs and one for the eaters of ants.

On the edge between both habitats and the start of the first small hill on this side of the zoo, we find a very special memorial statue, dedicated to Ernie the Boar.
Once captures as a little piglet in the jungles of Sulawesi, Ernie was brought to Germany at a young age after being confiscated from an illegal black market in Taiwan.
Through the love and care of his keepers he regained not only tolerance, but also trust and an overall playful attitude towards humans, especally children.
He became famous as the friendly pig from the jungle and was a proud ambassador for his species and conservation efforts in general.
But he not only loved children, he also loved making them! Even more important then his role as ambassador animal was his role as a breeding stud.
Theories go, that allmost all of the babirusa population in western zoos are descended from just 3 pigs, brought to a jarvan zoo 1972.
As new genematerial he was very important to prevent inbreeding and has put out more then just a few little piglets into the world.
At the ripe age of 22 he peacefully slept away, a great loss for his caretakers, visitors and conservation efforts alike.
To his honor, this little statue was build to always remember him in love.

After that emotional tale, how about a view from the penguin shelter!
Now thats a toneshift, am i right?

Lastly, a new overview frombirdseyesview. It really fits nicly into the zoo, doesnt it? Im very happy with it and i hope our donor bigger_dreamer is too ^^
Thats it for today, see you tomorrow were i will hopefully present Finis anteaters and maybe a honoary playground next to the babirusa, see you next time

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Today we are gonna take a look at one of the newer species in the zoo.
After Ernies death, the zoo lost a lot of significance in the breeding of babirusa, with only a small breeding group of one male and 2 females remaining in the zoo, as the EAZA assigned 4 of the 6 females to different zoos.
With less then half of the pigs remaining, their old habitat, intended to be the breeding grounds for 2 different males, Ernie and one of his Children Elmo, who still lives in the zoo today, doesnt need that seperation anymore, as Ernies breeding group has left the zoo completly.
After some vocal efforts of the zoos private sponsoring association, especally from its Famed Member Fini, the two habitats were renovated with one of them not being intended for babirusa anymore. Instead, the zoo accepted a pair of giant anteaters from a zoo in spain, that desperatly needed to make space, as their habitat was getting overcrowded with their new youngs, sparking a safety issue from infighting for the cubs.
Fini learned of these 2 cubs in need and proposed the idear, as well as starting multiple fundraising campaigns to quickly assemble enough money to assure a fast solution.
Both the zoo director and the officials of the EAZA were amazed by her engagement, naming the habitat to her honor "Finis anteater refuge".

This story, aswell as Ernies and overall information about the Babirusa breeding program in Zoogarten Friedrichswalde, can be read about on an informational Sign about the history of the old pighouse right next to it on the little forest path. I only need to figure out and find fitting images for the billboards and this little piece of history will be fully available to the visitors of my zoo and you, the readers in these forums ofcourse
I hope you guys liked this little piece of history, as i really enjoyed making up and writing out the lore about Ernie the Babirusa and thought, that a little lore could give this what is suppoused to be an older german zoo a nice touch.

But onto the habitat itself, as you might have picked up on already, today i worked on Finis suggestion, that i hope doesnt mind to have that level of involvement in the lore of my zoo, the giant anteaters.
After looking up pictures of the babirusa habitats in Wuppertal, i got this idear of a repurpoused secound breeding habitat, something that coincidentally exists in wuppertal.
When the lore of my zoo dictates that such a rariety like fresh babirusa genes lived there, it only makes sense that they got some extra space for more efficient breeding and with the idear of repurposing i could do that justice, while adding to the lore of my zoo and without actually having two habitats for the babirusa, which is a +++ in my eyes.
The habitat is build into the hillside around a mighty oak, that i wanted to use as the visual center of the habitat. It gives a real nice forresty vibe, without putting in tons and tons of trees, cluttering the view.
This shot is from the sidepath view, eventhough im not quite sure yet how it will go. Maybe i will just circle backaround to the mainpath orbuild another enclosure next to the upper path of the anteater habitat. I also really like the gentle slope of the hilliin contrast to the steepness of the rocks, it just makes for a really great natural feel.

From the mainpath the habitat has a more open and grassy side, with a nice view back down onto the babirusa. This half oak, half openess also really allowed the natural lighting to give both sides a very different vibe, which i also pretty like.
I also like the fact that i could open up the view from the mesh with this little bit of rock, allowing for some way nicer picture opportunitys for guests and an overall nice view, with the steepdrop not really being noticeable from the rocksthemself, as the ground slopes up aggain, creating the illsuion of being way closer to the animal then you actually are.

Lastly their is a nice view from up the hill,again really benefitting from the gentle slopes of the hill. I really need to build more into hilly terrain and face the challange instead of chickening out, it lead to some really great improvisation and redoing here, especally the outer border, that i dragged up the hill, because i didnt want to ruin all the gentle slopes with steepness like my one spot of rocks has.

 

[DarthQuell]

Love the lore. Imma do some lore for Build-It Zoo 2, too.

Some Data and some Lore

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Honestly thinking up the lore was just super fun and also really helped to make sense of why their are now anteaters living in the same old stable as babirusa.
I might not do that much for every part of the zoo, but atleast for everything thats supoused to be historic and to actually logically have some history attachted to it. Ernie was a throwaway idear because i thought it would be cool to have a memorial statue, but after finding out about reallife babirusa breeding, the idear for more lore attachted to it sparked, and here i am making some little cabin shelter a historical building. Great stuff

 

[Fini]

[...] , especally from its Famed Member Fini, [...]

That's me

I love it! I love the lore, I love the looking of the habitat! It's so natural! You know what I like and how I would build it xD that scares me a bit.
I definitely steal the fence idea from you. I am currently fully happy xD even though I have to work until 6:00 pm today.
Can't wait to see more!

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Glad you like it that much, propaply we just take similar zoos as inspiration xd

About that fence, its just the african woodlogg thing with a 2 meter mesh piece combined.
Saw a similar combination in zoo berlin and im very happy with how it looks, even though its thankfully quite easy to make.

And honestly i alsi cant wait to see whats coming uo, im very pleased and oleasentky surprised by myself about the quality of the three habitats, now i just gotta bring the entrance and the giraffes up to snuff and this will be by far the best thing i have ever build.
Cant wait to get back to working on it ^^

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Hello there everybody, after not playing for three days i could finish Hugo98s suggestion, a large hilly plain for our beautiful kangaroos!
Im really happy with this habitat and i hope you guys like it too, eventhough i still need to add a sign with hugos name and an info sign with the kangaroos name, but i want to build a bit up the hill first, because i dont feel like putting it into one of the current viewing areas and want to wait till the stuff around them has atleast been planned out a bit.

Starting from the foresty sidepath, we can see the shelter of the roos, an older barn with onesidedwindows, allowing to watch into their stables without disturbing the roos. It stands right next to the secound view onto the penguins and babirusas, so i imagine that this could be quite the hot spot when the zoo is open.

A bit higher up is a small view into their habitat opposite to the anteaters.

As you can see from this shot the middle part of the habitat is quite empty, leaving a lot of space for the roos to graze and jump around. Its the overall largest enclosure yet and will defenetly stay in the top 3. Im thinking about including a view from up here, as i really like the view down the hill and onto the giraffes in the background, maybe im gonna do a little ofshoot of the road with just a bench and a bin, we will see.

I honestly love the way from the mainpath, this shot is taken fromin front of the giraffes, so basicly on the opposite side from the previous one. I love the gentle slopes of the hill and how it becomes more foresty farther back, as well as how open and free the habitat feels.

This one is from the top of the giraffes hill, being a nice overview back to the entrance and the penguins. I really love how interconected the zoo feels, with every habitat having viewpoints were you see atleast one other habitat/majorviewpoint. It just feels organic and im just really happy how well it turned out.

Lastly, another overview over the Zoo. Im honest, as you might have allready noticed i love the central area and just really really hope that i can keep up the quality, as its way better then i would have ever imagined anything build by me to look like. For now the next highpriority things to do would be to fix up and finish the giraffes and maybe continue on their side, i thought about maybe putting a little house with outdoor cages on top of the hill, circling around and maybe in it with the peacocks as pheaseant substitutes and maybe the aardvarks, pangolins or capuchin monkeys? Another thought was to cap the bottom left side of my zoo, with the most logical idear propaply being the small asia tropical house with komododragons, pangolins and also maybe peacocks? We will see, maybe i will also leave that spot open if anybody still suggests another bigger animal like maybe an elephant or another thought was to put the meerkats and the foodcourt there. If you have any idears pls tell me, i cant wait to hear them as every comment not only helps and motivates me to make the zoo better, but also just makes me happy as im honestly starting to really love this project and i love talking about it. So you know where you find the list of animals, you know whats still open, if you have idears, pls tell me!

 

[Hugo98]

Yay, kangaroos! I'm happy that "my" 'roos have such a nice looking habitat with a lot of space.

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Thx, glad you like it ^^
I just figured, that of all the animals the roos would love the space the most + id rather have an accident with a roo finding a way into the penguin beach instead of an african wild dog. Doubt the Dee Foundation would like that.

Another thing i like is, that it completly broke the regions, a far stray from my previous very regionally themed zoo.

 

[Leaf Productions]

Looks beautiful so far!

 

[FoxyDee]

Doubt the Dee Foundation would like that.

Thats right. We would not appreciate that at all.

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Looks beautiful so far!

Thx! If there any animal you want to suggest, just tell me, i still got atleast 2 open and a lot of zoo to fill

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Good day everybody, its been over a week since the last habitat, but dont worry, it was well spend on the biggest, most detailed and largest pain in the butt i have build in this game so far. Follow me on our Tour through our newly renovated tropical hall "Little Asia", where we will meet some rare gems from southeast asia.
I had a lot of fun building this, and eventhough only one of 4 outdoor habitats have been finished, i thought the house itself is more then enough for another post. So lets begin.

We start our tour on the giraffe hill in front of the subject of todays episode. Here we can see a memorial statue, build in memory of Clara, Isabell and Hektor, 3 eldery Gorillas that spend their entire live in the Zoo. The breeding of gorillas has a long history in Friedrichswalde, but in the 2000ths the old apehouse was deemed to old and not suitable for the animals. Most of the breeding group was brought to other zoos, while the 3 oldest and not suitable for the breeding programms were allowed to stay,living in the old gorilla house as their retirement home. After their deaths in late 2018, the Zoo, in cooperation with the Zoo Leipzig, renovated the old house, taking in youngs from the other zoo that needed to go. More specificly, 1 young male komododragon and 2 pangolins, making them the second zoo in europe to hold them, an offer that the zoo could not reject.
The renovation was completed in Summer 2020 and mates for both the pangolins and the komododragon have been found, letting the zoo hope for their own breeding success.

As we move into the airlock, we can see donorplates to both sides, one for Neviren and one for Mr Dr Professor Peafowl, two long time donors that helped tremendously in the funding of this building.

When we go in, we are greeted by the warm air of the tropical jungles of south east asia. Multiple plants have been planted here, but none stands out as much as the titan arum, a botonical highlight in itself. As such, it was planted right in the middle of the mainhall, spreading its rather unpleasant odor from time to time. To counteract that, a ventilation system has been put in place, powerd by solar cells on the roof of one of the keeper buildings.

As we move to the left, we can see the indoor habitat of the pangolins. They are offererd alot of dirt and sand to dig, aswell as a cave for shelter and to retreat from the guests view. The shelter is actually usable btw.

As you move along the path, you will find the pangolin rock niche. Visitors can climb up the little stairs onto the fake rock to get a closer look on the little critters.

A lot of effort was done to hide the exit door into their outdoor habitat, being mostly coverd up in rocks and vines. One of the 4 pangolins of the zoo, Ling Fei, is often found here interacting with visitors. Shes by far the least shy and fearful of the pangolins and loves interacting through the glass, standing up and taking a look on those big creatures that look at her. She especally likes small children and chubby people, but for some reasons she took quite the dislike to tall men with hats, curling in as they come close.
She is the main star of the tropical house and has met most of the important visiotrs, that visited Friedrichswalde since she has moved in, becoming a major attraction and even being featured in the local news from time to time. But Ling Fei doesnt care, she just lives her happy go lucky pangolin live, excited about every child or chubby guy walking past her habitat.

Turning left at the entrance brings us to the indoor viewing of the komododragons. Sadly because of the large hitboxes, they cant use the things i have build for them, not even exit into their outdoor habitat. In the middle of the wall you can see two seperate passways to the outdoor habitat, with the one on the left being open. They serve the function of little cages, for the case that the dragons need to be seperated, cleaning needs to be done or medical appointments. The gates are controlled from the main kitchen and allready found plenty of use. Afterall nobody wants to step into a cage with 2 angry komododragons. On the left and right of them are two niches for them, both featuring heatlamps for the dragons. The one in front sits nicly in the view of the guests, but the one in the back has two lairs with a ramp leading up to the higher one, making sure that both dragons allways can retreat from the action without having to come to close to each other.

Next to the dragons are two exhibits. The first featuring a woody and rocky terrarium for banded bullfrogs. These colorful frogs, also known as the rice frog or bubble frog, live in a group of 8 indivduals. While being non threatend in the wild and common in the pettrade, not much is known about them, something the Tiergarten Friedrichswalde wants to change, holding them primarly for scientific purposes, but also as ambassadors of the colorful amphibeans around the world.

In a second tank lives another ambassador animal, this time Pyra the reticulated python. Though largest species of snake currently living in the world, they are surpisingly docile, with Pyra often being referred to with the loving nickname "little Princess" or "Prinzesschen". Quite used to being handled, she is one of the main attractions at birthday partys at the zoo, bringing joy to both young and old.
When not serving the noble goal to prove, that snakes can be just as cute and friendly as any fuzzy little creature she eats for breakfast, she can be found in her terrariums, most of the times either sitting on the logs or in her waterbowl, relaxing from her royal princess duties.

After you have made your way through the main hall, the path connects in a second, smaller room, featuring the entry to the main kitchen for the staff, aswell as an information board about the dangers to the natures of southeast asia, a third and last exhibit for oriental garden lizards and a view into the outdoor pangolin enclosure from the inside.

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Speaking of which, we exit the tropical house. On the right we can see one of the two pangolin habitats, themed around a chinese garden with bamboo, sprinklers, a little pond, just as Sir Neviren has wished for and a lot of rocks. A more detailed showcase might come when the other habitats are also finished.

And last, the view from birdseye view. I personally am very happy with how the building turned out, it was a big and exhausting task at times, but it was really worthwile and by far my best building ive build in this game. To the left of the main building you can see the blue and white stripes of some customs solarpanels ive made, on top of the entry into the pangolin habitat, aswell as the stables of once pire davids deer, but in the present day the habitat will be inhabitated by nyalas, one of the next build projects.
On the bottom of the house, inbetween to the kangaroos i allready started work on the second, more natural looking habitat, while to the right will be the outdoor habitat of the dragons. Above them will be a smaller habitat for ardvarks, marking the right border of the zoo, before circling back around to the main path and up the hill to the wolfs.

I hope you liked the update, i put a ton of work in it and i wish you all a nice week, see ya later aligator ^^

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

For a little update, i finished a small backstage enclosure for the antelopes today. Its not much, but i thought you guys would like to see it anyways.


First a view from the top. As you can see, the horny jail is centerd between the kangaroos, not yet pangolins and a staff path. For the antelopes to actually acess the outdoor enclosure, they are first herded into a seperate box in the stable, before they are let out in the little mini yard on the bottom, where they can move through a floodgate (?) to the other side when its doors are open. Their are also two doors inside of it, so that the staff can pass through, when its not being used.
The main usage for the seperate enclosure is to seperate the second male during the rutting season, preventing potenally dangerous fights between both males, as well as a calmer area away from the guest for the antelopes if they are pregnant or recovering from an injury, or to introduce new animals to the herd, where they are also able to have protected contact in the little bottom yard.
To be honest, this isnt fully finished yet, as i will propapply add some decore in the future, but i doubt it would be much, if anything at all, but you never know when its literally cornering two work in progress habitats.

The floodgate is what i personally like the most about this little habitat. As you can see, its used as a little crossroad for both the stath and the antelopes. I especally like how the doors for the staff turned out, the flagposts have a really nice metall lock to them.

The habitat itself isnt viewable for the public, but you can catch glimpses of it and the animals from the main path, mainly across the kangaroos, were the trees nicly cover up most of the building, aswell as across one of the pangolin habitats.

Another discovery i had today, was that the fairy lights from the arctic pack actually do quite nicly with the aquatic fence piece for electronic fences, or atleast wire fences in general. It doesnt look perfect, but its sadly the closes thing we have to actual wire.

And thats it!
No view from birds eye view, cause that will reveal a work in progress secret you guys arnt suppoused to know yet, but its quite the headache so i propaply will only continue it after my exams next week. Till then i hope you liked the little update and i wish you all a wonderful evening ^^

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Another small and more spontanious update, the second pangolin outdoor enclosure is finished. Wanted to put it in the other thread first, so i only have 2 screenshots, but i decided that a little update over here would be nice.
Its a nice little enclosure, that with another fence propaply also would have been great for a fox, mustelid or another small animal. Im quite happy with it, nothing special but still pretty, two traits the most wellmade somewhat realistic habitats have.

For the view from top, a lot has been done since the last one. The central area is about 3 quarters finished, with only the top left needing to be build. You can also see the small habitats for greek tortoises and prariedogs on the hill. In the bottom left i tried to build an amphitheater for animal shows, but thats very hard, annoying and looks bad, so for now its the place where i put things that are kinda cool but i dont know if i use them or where. I also startet working a bit more on the giraffes, which will be the next species to finish together with the komododragons and the aardvarkson the right side. Thats it for today, hope you liked it, see you next time. Btw if theres any part of the zoo you want to see more pictures of or something in more detail, just ask. I would gladly put in some screenshots just because i can ^^

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Welcome back to Tiergarten Friedrichswalde!
Today we are gonna take a look at the so far smallest inhabitants of the zoo, that arnt imaginary.
After the zoos group of striped mongooses died out of old age, the famous Fini struck again.
In a bigger, rather questionable shop for exotic "pets", Fini found a group of Prariedogs. Determined to give every animal the best life possible and knowing about the new, empty habitat that already was safe from burrowing, she brought her request to the Zoo Administration, who quite frankly, loved it. For the cheap price of 500€, 8 Prariedogs got a massive upgrade to their living standards and quickly became a new attraction at the Zoo, as part of Finis Prariedog Station.

The Prariedog habitat is tugged in between the Nyala yard and the Zoos central plaza, with the little (and unfinished) foodcourt in the back.

You can both view them from the front or down the hill, where you can also take a nice glimpse of the ironically not visible Nyalas in this picture or the reindeer, if not both!

Their habitat is accessible for the staff by simply stepping over the fence, while their shelter can be opened up on top, aswell as to the side, to sweep out old hay and stuff.
I also made this Sign, that i really like and will try to upload it to the workshop, as the first thing ever. Wish me luck.

And as a last funfact, i did some trickery with the barrier, making a huge one around the entire plaza and hiding the door in the building. That way i can have "free" roaming peacocks, which can also move through the prariedog habitat, which doesnt need an ugly door now. Win Win. Funnily enoug, i was allready dreading to manually put them all in, but in one large polonaise they all moved into their intended habitat through a gap in the fence. Truly magnificent and well behaved little guys, that gave me a good laugh.

But thats it for today, see you next time when we hopefully have either build the meerkats, decorated the area around the prariedogs more or have build the komodragons an outdoor habitat. Till then, see you later