Not that I'm against Turkeys or anything, but that depends on the Species of Pheasant. Most Pheasants would have both Temperate and Tropical tags. Many species have Temperate Deciduous Forest as their Primary Biome, instead of Subtropical Evergreen. Some would even have Taiga to represent Temperate Coniferous Forest, just like Pandas and Formosan Black Bear. I'm going to take it one step further. There are species that are Endemic to the Highland Forests of the Eastern Himalayas and Alpine Tundra of the Tibetan Plateau, sharing range with the Blue Bear and Snow Leopard.
Help me to make the best woodlands/temperate Animal Pack
- Thread starter KönigDerKaffeebohnen
- Start date
Sorry, I should have clarified. The "cool" Asian pheasants I've heard mentioned frequently were Reeve's, Golden, and Lady Amherst's. Those three are mostly (Reeve's might be a little bit deciduous) in subtropical evergreen in southern-ish China. I'm rooting for them too, just in different packs. I'm sure there are other varieties of pheasants in other places. Thanks for catching me on that.
Also, I was thinking a pack like this would be more appreciated next autumn or possibly the autumn after. Currently, I think they should cover a few more regions in dire need, (Middle East, Oceania, and South America). They would even have time to wedge in something else besides just those regions. A pack that fills out the deciduous forests of Europe and eastern North America might be a nice change from some of the warmer places, assuming we get packs that focus on them. I'm hoping support continues long enough.
When I look at detailed maps of Chinese forest biome types, the southern section is listed as subtropical evergreen. Also, the pack I picked out was focused specifically on deciduous forest. I could see the pheasants fitting into a woodland pack without issue, but only the Northeastern section (the smaller part of the Reeve's range) was listed as deciduous. Perhaps I'm reading the map wrong, or we see different things when we search.
Considering these choices skip everything I'd want from a woodlands pack, (and most of these animals aren't temperate), this isn't something I'd like. On themselves, I like the devil, pudu, howler, red river hog. But a woodlands pack is the ideal pack we could finally get the last temperate forest animals for NA and Europe like the red deer, red fox, wild boar, skunk, raccoon, unlike most of your choices that can also come in other packs (islands, rainforests, central America, highlands..) The European forest animals for instance, do not have other viable packs they could come in.
I agree with you, I want more European forest animals myself. But I also think it's better to spread the animal pack selections across all the continents to get more diverse and interesting lineups. Which leads to two problems: 1) European forest animals aren't really viable for that many other pack choices, as you said, and 2) we don't know how many packs are left, so how many would be included in a hypothetical woodlands pack is linked to how many animal slots are still available overall, anyway. Which is why I think it's so difficult to come up with a good roster for a woodlands animal pack that would satisfy most people, because even in this thread we can see how different everyone's ideas of such a pack are.
This pack idear is very well thought out and explained, which i absolutly love, but i still dont really like the pack.
My problem is, that while i like every individual animal this pack does not acomplish what i believe should be the main priority of this kind of pack, which is fleshing out the temperate biome.
Tropical rainforest animals like the red river hog have no buisness being here and while i get the argumentation for the black howler, i also dont think that it belongs, as it does not live in temperate or even just colder woodlands but grassland and scrublands, which is great and a reason why i want them over quite a few other monkeys and can see them in a grassland pack, but still no place in a temperate pack.
Those 2 spots are imo rainforest animals that stole a spot from the temperate animals, while easily being able to show up in many different packs, especally a rainforest pack.
The rest, while in parts not particulary to my personal preferance, all have a good reason to be here, eventhough i cant say the fact that there are 0 temperate european animals is defenetly not catering to my tastes and imo a missed opportunity, as this is one of the few packs still able to bring them to us.
But hey, a wild boar, red fox, racoon and monke urban pack sure sounds great aswell as an alternative.
For what i actually would change for this pack, you pretty much said it yourself.
The wild boar is the more flexible and appropriate suid and an arboreal animal to top it of instead of the howler monkey, where the red squirrel, racoon and a marten all have good arguments for them.
But thank you for the post!
Loved hearing your opinion!
Many of these maps are either too coarse grained or out-of-date/inconsistent/inaccurate. For instance the map you shared includes Central China in the subtropical moist forest zone (by excluding it from temperate deciduous), but at the same time excludes Southeastern US. That's clearly a consistency issue, because the two regions should both be placed in the same category, whether subtropical or temperate. Meaning it would look something like this or this, if it was consistent (using the same method).
On the other hand, most modern classification systems include the majority of Southeastern US and Central China in the temperate deciduous zone. Usually only Florida, Southernmost Georgia/Louisiana/Alabama/Mississippi and South China are included in subtropical evergreen. This latter group is sometimes called temperate evergreen/broadleaf as well. Exclusions being South Florida (tropical), the rest of Southeastern US (temperate deciduous and sometimes temperate grassland/savanna depending on classification) and Central China (temperate deciduous).
I would highly recommend the following sources for reference. Last one, the Wikipedia map, has been corrected based on the first three:
- https://ecoregions.appspot.com/
- https://people.ohio.edu/dyer/gifs/FOR_REG.jpg
- https://www.treehugger.com/thmb/11Q...auto,1)/typindex-56af58223df78cf772c342e9.gif
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Vegetation.png
Please disregard this. I still want the red and grey foxes, but I have since learned that the research about European red foxes as an invasive to North America is from outdated studies. I feel stupid now, and I'm so sorry to anybody I confused.
So here we go.
Of all the pack predictions, id say i have won with 4 temperate animals, all of them being called either in the pack or as honorable mentions, even calling out the downside of the skunk before hand.
But now i wanna ask again, how do we change this pack around?
Well 2 got in, 2 honorable mentions got in, bur i also wanna change 2 other picks, those being the red deer and the tasmanian devil.
The reasons are simple.
The tassie pretty much begs to be included in an island pack, + we honestly got more then enough temperate small carnivores for now, so i want to put the attention to some other more needed and less popular groups that are less likly to make the cut for other packs.
The red deer has an even simpler reason.
After stepping away from the forum for a bit and the 3 small carnivores in the twillight pack both satisfied my need for animals for smaller low budget zoos to a degree, aswell as my some what petty desire to push for in my opinion unjustified unpopular animals, just because i can.
See trash panda rebellion.
So now the remaining members are just the bennetts wallaby and the wild boar, leaving a great white canvas for a new pack.
Starting of, we have the replacement for the red deer and one of nutrits favorites, the pierre david deer.
For those who dont know its a weird looking chinese deer, that sadly became extinct in the wild during the colonisation of china, but luckily a few where shipped away to the zoos of france and germany.
From there the duke of bredford began to aquirre some and breed up a herd to send back to china.
Today while still classified as extinct in the wild the pierres davids deer is recovering both in zoos and in controlled wild spaces in china.
A true hero of a conservation story.
The next one might be a surprise, an animal thats sadly only rarly talked about in these forums, for the simple reason that they dont appear in international collections, but frontier ignored that before and i hope they will do it aggain for this beautiful fellow.
Can you guess who he is?
A master of imitation, ornamented by a majestic split tail on its rather modest body, walking with wombats and koalas.
If your guess was the superb lyerbird, them congrats you guessed right.
A beautiful little bird that we could easily have without aviarys. Iconic to australia and its fauna, i doubt anybody would complain and our australian friends for sure will have a blast with this new and unique take on their fauna in a zoo game.
Im honest, i really hope they make it in someday.
The third member from our squad of newcomers is the north american porcupine. Taking the slot of the now ingame racoon they would be our second arboreal animal from north america and our third rodent in the game, forming the trifecta of water, ground and tree rodent.
They also are just really cute looking and add something completly new to the game, so they also have my full support.
Beautiful potato shapped durians
While i said that the twillight pack mostly satisfied my need for more lowkey smaller zoo animals, theres one that has to many great propertys for me to ignore.
This animal has a range that spans acroos 3 contienents, thrives not only in european farm land and forests, profiting greatly from the mosaic like system of woodlands, wetlands and farmlands, but also in the tropical wetlands of africa and asia.
Im talking ofcourse about the white stork, one of the most common animals in EAZA zoos.
These majestic large wading birds would add a ton to the game and fill a very open niche of bird for 3 continents at a time. Quite the steal
So now before i reveal the final new comer, lets first revisit our returning champions.
One of them small and nimble, the other strong and big.
One from a world down under, the other the conqueror of eurasia, north africa and with the help of us humans every place we brought them.
One very smart and cunning, the other as bright as a loaf of bread.
But both have pne thing in common, they are among the most common animals in the EAZA, especally in the smaller zoos.
These two heroes are the wild boar and red necked wallaby, 2 of the last missing core animals for their respective regions.
You cannot build a wildpark without the wild boar and no international australian section without a wallaby, so lets welcome them with a sweet embrace.
Now for the last animal, lets reflect on what we have in the pack and what we got in the game.
We have a deer from asia, a suid from eurasia and north africa, a large bird from africa, europe and asia, an arboreal rodent from north america and a small bird and small macropod from australia.
We do not have a carnivore in the pack, aswell as 1 animal from north america, 2 animals from oceania, 2 from europe, 2 from africa and 3 from asia, which in my humble opinion is allready quite the good mix.
So statistics say, that a carnivore from north america would be the best choice, right?
Well if we expand our scope, id say no.
The twillight pack just gave us 3 north american carnivorans, we dont really need another one.
The only 2 worthy candidates for this theme would be the wolverine and the american black bear, but of them feel like they are better of elsewhere, eventhough i totally understand if someone chooses them as the 7. Animal.
So if we look at this pack and the game again, somebody here will be lonely.
Eventhough we got a lot of animals from asia, china is quite empty. Also we got only quite the few of non tropical arboreal animals in the game.
Another weird blind spot is that we have only a very little amount of arboreal animals from mainland asia.
Lets just say ive got an animal that can cover all of these, while also adding something new to the allready great south east asia!
Can you guess who it us by looking at its range and the hints above?
If your guess was yellow throated marten, your correct!
A beautiful splash of color that will enhance every region of eastern asia for everyone to enjoy!
And thats it for my update, hope you like it!
Of all the pack predictions, id say i have won with 4 temperate animals, all of them being called either in the pack or as honorable mentions, even calling out the downside of the skunk before hand.
But now i wanna ask again, how do we change this pack around?
Well 2 got in, 2 honorable mentions got in, bur i also wanna change 2 other picks, those being the red deer and the tasmanian devil.
The reasons are simple.
The tassie pretty much begs to be included in an island pack, + we honestly got more then enough temperate small carnivores for now, so i want to put the attention to some other more needed and less popular groups that are less likly to make the cut for other packs.
The red deer has an even simpler reason.
After stepping away from the forum for a bit and the 3 small carnivores in the twillight pack both satisfied my need for animals for smaller low budget zoos to a degree, aswell as my some what petty desire to push for in my opinion unjustified unpopular animals, just because i can.
See trash panda rebellion.
So now the remaining members are just the bennetts wallaby and the wild boar, leaving a great white canvas for a new pack.
Starting of, we have the replacement for the red deer and one of nutrits favorites, the pierre david deer.
For those who dont know its a weird looking chinese deer, that sadly became extinct in the wild during the colonisation of china, but luckily a few where shipped away to the zoos of france and germany.
From there the duke of bredford began to aquirre some and breed up a herd to send back to china.
Today while still classified as extinct in the wild the pierres davids deer is recovering both in zoos and in controlled wild spaces in china.
A true hero of a conservation story.
The next one might be a surprise, an animal thats sadly only rarly talked about in these forums, for the simple reason that they dont appear in international collections, but frontier ignored that before and i hope they will do it aggain for this beautiful fellow.
Can you guess who he is?
A master of imitation, ornamented by a majestic split tail on its rather modest body, walking with wombats and koalas.
If your guess was the superb lyerbird, them congrats you guessed right.
A beautiful little bird that we could easily have without aviarys. Iconic to australia and its fauna, i doubt anybody would complain and our australian friends for sure will have a blast with this new and unique take on their fauna in a zoo game.
Im honest, i really hope they make it in someday.
The third member from our squad of newcomers is the north american porcupine. Taking the slot of the now ingame racoon they would be our second arboreal animal from north america and our third rodent in the game, forming the trifecta of water, ground and tree rodent.
They also are just really cute looking and add something completly new to the game, so they also have my full support.
Beautiful potato shapped durians
While i said that the twillight pack mostly satisfied my need for more lowkey smaller zoo animals, theres one that has to many great propertys for me to ignore.
This animal has a range that spans acroos 3 contienents, thrives not only in european farm land and forests, profiting greatly from the mosaic like system of woodlands, wetlands and farmlands, but also in the tropical wetlands of africa and asia.
Im talking ofcourse about the white stork, one of the most common animals in EAZA zoos.
These majestic large wading birds would add a ton to the game and fill a very open niche of bird for 3 continents at a time. Quite the steal
So now before i reveal the final new comer, lets first revisit our returning champions.
One of them small and nimble, the other strong and big.
One from a world down under, the other the conqueror of eurasia, north africa and with the help of us humans every place we brought them.
One very smart and cunning, the other as bright as a loaf of bread.
But both have pne thing in common, they are among the most common animals in the EAZA, especally in the smaller zoos.
These two heroes are the wild boar and red necked wallaby, 2 of the last missing core animals for their respective regions.
You cannot build a wildpark without the wild boar and no international australian section without a wallaby, so lets welcome them with a sweet embrace.
Now for the last animal, lets reflect on what we have in the pack and what we got in the game.
We have a deer from asia, a suid from eurasia and north africa, a large bird from africa, europe and asia, an arboreal rodent from north america and a small bird and small macropod from australia.
We do not have a carnivore in the pack, aswell as 1 animal from north america, 2 animals from oceania, 2 from europe, 2 from africa and 3 from asia, which in my humble opinion is allready quite the good mix.
So statistics say, that a carnivore from north america would be the best choice, right?
Well if we expand our scope, id say no.
The twillight pack just gave us 3 north american carnivorans, we dont really need another one.
The only 2 worthy candidates for this theme would be the wolverine and the american black bear, but of them feel like they are better of elsewhere, eventhough i totally understand if someone chooses them as the 7. Animal.
So if we look at this pack and the game again, somebody here will be lonely.
Eventhough we got a lot of animals from asia, china is quite empty. Also we got only quite the few of non tropical arboreal animals in the game.
Another weird blind spot is that we have only a very little amount of arboreal animals from mainland asia.
Lets just say ive got an animal that can cover all of these, while also adding something new to the allready great south east asia!
Can you guess who it us by looking at its range and the hints above?
If your guess was yellow throated marten, your correct!
A beautiful splash of color that will enhance every region of eastern asia for everyone to enjoy!
And thats it for my update, hope you like it!
All good choices - South America misses out but it’s nice to see someone else call for the lyrebird. -They’ve been on my personal ‘really want but don’t expect’ list for quite a while now.
This was very well thought
I would buy that pack it in a jiff.I have just completed my first non tropical zoo and your pack would complete it so well.
All the choices are so unique and special that I wouldn’t change anything about it.
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While i also really like the red deer and wouldnt mind its inclusion, it really limits the choices for other regions.I miss the red deer
This is the pack where they would get in. They already have in game statues and signs. They are a European icon. It would be a shame if they did not get in.
I like the pere David deer, but I am partial to the red deer for the above reasons.
2 deer in one pack isnt that great and all the deer in the game live in europe, 2 of them also in the arctic circle.
I have no problem with that, but when deciding for a 4. Deer, i feel like other regions also deserve to get their deers.
The choice was mostly between the pudu and the pierres david deer, which won based on the fact that we needed some more lower effort animals in this pack and the pierres david deer is the most unique deer that could share the most animations with the current ones.
Overall the priority list for me is something like muntjac and/or pudu, pierres david deer, red deer, everything else.
While its an icon for sure, the only really needed additions for europe for me where the wild boar and the red fox with everything else being a nice bonus.
We just got one of them so i felt like a more ballanced approach with the stork would be better for the game overall then overloading this with 3 europe centric animals
I get your reasoning. This is just one of those times I am once again sad that the fallow deer was chosen instead of the red deer to represent Europe in their designated DLC. I'm happy with the red fox. The only European animals I now need are red deer and wild boar. Bonus animals are wisent, mouflon, chamois, brown hare, Eurasian brown bear. Of these, the wisent would be extremely nice to have. But if we got the bonus animals and not the red deer and wild boar, Europe would still be incomplete for me
Kinda both? All of them live in the woods, but temperate is as much of a focus
I asked, because pere davids deer and white stork dont live in woods. Stork especially.
I live in area with a lot of them and every single one avoids forests and prefer to roam over fields and grasslands. One family even nest nearby so i see small storks every year.
Also according to iucn both species live in grasslands and flooded areas
I think pheasant would be better bird option. Pudu or muntjac for deer.
I hope you will get yours deer and there would be also place for mine. That would be perfectI miss the red deer
This is the pack where they would get in. They already have in game statues and signs. They are a European icon. It would be a shame if they did not get in.
I like the pere David deer, but I am partial to the red deer for the above reasons.