Interspecies enrichment has always been a “wow, that’s neat!” to me rather than a complete necessity. Many zoos in real life house animals of different varieties together and many of those realistic combinations are not found in Planet Zoo’s arbitrary listings. One that comes to mind is Asian Elephants and African Elephants, which would probably make the most sense as higher intelligence animals would sense the need to interact more with those of a different variety. Welfare on or off, there’s still a ton more combinations you can mix together to create unique exhibit dynamics. In my Riverbend Discovery Center I mixed Pronghorn and Ostrich, which wouldn’t be a thing you would see as interspecies enrichment but nonetheless it’s a combo that seems realistic for a zoo to do. The game is all about having fun with what you want to do, and that’s something i hope more people learn with Planet Zoo - the fact that the requirements only serve as a guideline but you can stray from that with no real penalty depending on how you stray. For example, if you use the wrong foliage you only lose 2% at most for overall welfare.
About interspecies enrichments
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When I visited last month Copenhagen zoo I was surprised to see the reindeer entering the seal habitat. I want to try that combo in the game (but I always forget)
What do you mean by "wow that's neat!"? What are the realistic combinations you're even talking about? Well, trying to mix different combinations doesn't seem to be a bad thing. I try to comply to the requirements though.
That's weird...
He says that you can mix whatever and aslong as the animals dont eat each other it could be dope.
The bonusses are pretty random and not something that even covers all obvious mixes that are actually in use irl.
The bonusses are pretty random and not something that even covers all obvious mixes that are actually in use irl.
Yeah the way that I mean “that’s neat” is as if it’s another feature on the box trying to sell the product. Interspecies enrichment bonuses seem to be face level introductions to show off what animals can be mixed, ie savannah animals or weird ones like otters and orangutans, but it can go a lot more deeper than that and I think that it’s awesome to break the mold.
Thank you! What would be some of the obvious mixes not covered that are actually in use irl?
I see... Savannah animals? which ones? Are otters and orangutans weird in your point of view? Not weird in my point of view...
Asian and african Elephants for example, or the two species of giant tortoise. But hey, apparantly monkeys like to live with agressive dagger vacuums and even more impressive agressive dagger vacuums like to live with monkeys.
But the two elephants and two giant tortoises don't live together, don't they? What are agressive dagger vacuums? So hard to understand...
Animals dont care if they could meet in the wild, an african elefant and an asian elefant can and have formed mixed herds in captivity.
Or the most popular example of what would be a literal bonus, cheetahs and domestic dogs.
They dont live together in the wild, but are essential for their captive wellfare
Oh, thank you!
I'm pretty sure there is a hidden barrierer, at least there was when I was there last year. There are some bushes between the two enclosures and in front of them or in between them there are some electric stuff, which kinda look like bushes too. Not sure what to call them. A lot of zoos use them to keep hoof stock away from plants. I might have a picture of it.
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That's interesting
My assumption is that Frontier uses the interspecies bonus to indicate to new players some combinations that share the same needs and won't kill each other and might get enrichment in real life. They seem to only include it for those that do actually share the same rough geographical area so there are lots that are excluded (like the mixed elephant species). Personally I quite like that and don't want every species that can be mixed together to receive a bonus because realistically there are plenty of species that zoos house together irl that basically ignore or even antagonise each other (arguments can be made that antagonism is at least a relief for boredom). I like the fact that I can experiment and see what species can be housed together.
If they were to expand the number of interspecies enrichment bonuses then I would at least like them to enable it one way e.g. meerkats might get a bonus living with another less curious species like hoofstock but that wouldn't be reciprocated as usually it is the curious neophilic species that actually have a good time.
If they were to expand the number of interspecies enrichment bonuses then I would at least like them to enable it one way e.g. meerkats might get a bonus living with another less curious species like hoofstock but that wouldn't be reciprocated as usually it is the curious neophilic species that actually have a good time.
I totally agree with you and think the similar way. I hope the next pack has species with interspecies enrichment too. I was surprised that there were posts suddenly going on this thread while there wasn't one for such a long time.
I love mixing bongos and okapis even though they don’t have a bonus
Saw once Drills, Sittatunga and Pygmy hippo mixed enclosure in Bioparc Valencia. Thought that it will work up well with Mandrills and bongo also. And it’s a great match.
Also in ZT2 always kept those species together.
Maybe the interspecies enrichments do not represent the real life so well.
They live in the same range in the wild