New Walkthrough Exhibits: What's Possible?

Some of my thoughts about species that could benefit from these exhibits:

  • iguanas - if we'd get a null-version of their walkthrough exhibit, we could pretend to have "free-roaming" iguanas in tropical hall builds
  • smaller, terrestrial tortoises
  • other lizards and smaller monitors that would have to large space requirements to build habitats for, but are to large for the current exhibit box
  • more bats - i'd love flying foxes and vampiric bats
  • small birds - I also thought of lorikeets, but hummingbirds might also work well with this exhibit type
    • I'd like this system for birds that are so small their hitbos would be difficult to calculate, should they have to freely navigate in a habitat-style aviary
    • For larger birds, such as vultures, eagles, owls, macaws and such, I'd rather have a aviary functioning the same way as habitats, as only having exhibits for birds would be too dull given the limitations of exhibits and their current implementation
  • butterflies - I think this is the best option to include them as actual animals
  • sloths - as they move so slow, I think they would work worse than the koala when used in habitats. They would either spend too much time on the ground to interact with feeders and enrichment as they are so slow, or would require some dedicated items like the feeder tree for the koalas, but to satisfy most of their needs
  • tamarins and marmorsets could work well - they are so small that I don't know how well their hitbox and animations would work with all the ingame items, but I'd rather have them in a large non-walkthrough exhibit with a multitude of customization options for plants, shelters and enrichment
  • finally, the platypus could have benefitted from the same type of large exhibits ...
 
I would really like sloths to be habitat animals.
As I've explained here and here, the way I see it is, three-toed sloths would only be possible as exhibit animals, while two-toed sloths can barely be pulled off as habitat.

This and the fact that two-toed sloths are 137 times more common in the EAZA region alone tells me we are much more likely to get a two-toed sloth over three-toed. Another less important factor would the difference in size, with two-toed sloths almost being two times larger.

All these reasons combined, particularly the first one that is only explained in the linked thread (terrestrial capability and quickness while climbing), make two-toed sloths (thus habitat sloths) more likely, which I think would make a lot of players happier. Although I wouldn't be opposed to getting three-toed sloths in exhibits, with or without having two-toed sloths in the game, but it doesn't seem very likely that the remaining support we have left will be long enough for two sloths, particularly if they are using different mechanics (habitat and exhibit).
 
Are they? I always thought size is mostly similar for all species outside pygmy sloth.
The size range does indeed overlap, but when you look at the averages or both ends of the spectrum, the two-toed sloths are roughly 1.5-2 times larger. You can see the difference visually as well, not just in numbers. The videos linked show that difference particularly well (the ones portraying adults).

Brown-throated three-toed sloth: 2.25-6.3 kg (2.3-5.5 kg according to zootierliste).
Pale-throated three-toed sloth: 3.2-6 kg (3-5 kg according to zootierliste).
Linnaeus's two-toed sloth: 4-8.5 kg.
Hoffmann's two-toed sloth: 4.5-6.7 kg. on average, but up to 9 kg.

Only the maned sloth is comparable in size to two-toed sloths (4-7.5 kg), but it's these other two that have ever been kept in captivity outside of the Neotropics as far as I know.
 
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I could see rainbow lorikeets fitting for that model. And with educator's now being able to hold animals, maybe guests feeding lorikeets in some kind of looped way isn't impossible to imagine.

That is something you see in quite a lot of places.
I've said for as long as I've requested birds in aviaries this species should be one of them, and they way that the new exhibits function, I'm so confident we will see this. They just fit too well.
 
Here are some ideas for walkthrough I came up with today. Looking at the bats, I see that we have plenty of freedom to design the exhibits as we please. Only need to make sure there’s enrichment stations, food and water. Then the rest allows plenty of freedom for us to add rocks, plants as we see fit.
The current WE for bats can also cater for
Tropical birds
Temperate birds
Aquatic WE. A WE that is mostly aquatic with some areas with land, guests walk on a bridge through the exhibit.
Ducks, puffins or any pelagic bird
Reptiles too big for exhibits but not big enough to warrant a habitat
Deep jungle WE
The path is covered by a one way glass tunnel as some of these animals are shy around people. The theme has a dark Forrest heavy vibe to it.
Loris, sloths, tamarins,
Ground theme. This WE has a canyon/rocky almost underground like feel to it. Caters to small mammals that prefer subterranean environments.
 
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