Imo, we can cut those lists down even further.
There are only 3 essential animals left for oceania from an international perspective, those being the emu, wallaby and tree kangaroo, 2 of them being extremly common and one being decently common.
BUT its only fair to give the region some local zoo animals, adding the lyre bird, kiwi and little blue penguin to that list, all 3 of which would also help the struggling bird roster.
In spite of its popularity, i wouldnt see the tasmanian devil as essential but u would certanly love seeing them in the game, eventhough all the animals mentioned above are in my opinion much more important to flesh out australia, new guinea and new zealand.
Europe id say, stop the eurasian wolf and eurasian brown bear nonsense, thats mod territory or Aniversery animals, not something id ever want to see in a dlc slot.
There is just one animal i see as essential to make an europe themed area in a zoo, and thats the wild boar, which would finish the most important european forest animals, but for general use id also add the alpine marmor so that atleast a small alps themed area is possible and atleast 1 of the white stork, mute swan and mallard duck as water fowl and birds to represent ponds, parks and wet lands.
NA is good besides birds, but i dont know enough to judge what bird is best.
What i do know is that the area south of the USA lacks representation, so the best all terrain fix would be the collared peccary, filling up the deserts and rainforests of middle and south america.
And theres a second one that i personally dont care for but defenetly is needed to build a local american area is the white tailed deer.
You cant believe in red and fallow deer greatness without recognising that americans also deserve their common deer.
South Saharan Africa needs 2 things, atleast one monkey and a bird.
Imo something like the de brazas monkey and the marabu stork would work out quite nicly to fill up the tropics and wetlands a bit more, but any monkey or bird would work.
MENA needs the dromedary and thats it.
Everything else is a cool bonus, but imo the onix and fox allready work very well together as a 2 animal themed area with most other animals either overlapping with them (sandcat, addax, arabian oryx) or not vibing with the sand desert like they do.
I can totally see the arguments for hamadryas baboons and barbary sheeps as a second 2 animal combo to add for mena, but just speaking about a themed area the former and the latter dont really vibe well with each other, but this is quite the subjective statement so i can totally see people seeing it otherwise.
For asia, while there are no animals needed anymore for asia in general, it has quite the few areas that feel like they are so close to being considerd their own sub regions, so while non of these animals are necessary in the grant sceme of things, i do believe that they regard some missed potential and black spots that could be filled to make asia sections much more diverse and interesting.
While South East Asia is quite amazing the way that it is, it would be quite easy for frontier to elevate Sulawesi to its own distinct small themed area.
We allready got the babirusa and the addition of the celebes crested macaque and anoa in something like an island animal pack is a realistic way to elevate the area, that seems quite likly for frontier to do.
For central Asia there is one big flaw.
We got 3 apex predators for the himalaya (HBB, snow leopard, asiatic black bear), a small arboreal animal aaaaaand...nothing.
Which is a shame as the himalaya is such a unique and majestic space.
Adding the palas cat, domestic yak and himalayan monal would elevate this area to an actual subsection.
And lastly, i want to take a look at the amur river region, a place allready represented quite a bit that could use a bit of love to exceed even more just being Skandinavia + tiger and asiatic black bear like it allready started with the leopard crane and dhole.
The yellow throated marten, chinese softshell turtle and mandarin duck would all 3 be a first for us and also further enhance one of the coolest underappreciated regions.
Now for the elephant in the room, south america.
In my humble opinion south america sucks and will allways suck for one region: monkeys.
Monkeys are to south america what antelopes are to africa, an essential back bone that should have a diverse and varried roster to pick and choose from.
We got 10 antelopes in the game, 8 being base game + even more miscelanious savanah ungunlates like giraffes, buffalo, zebra or the warthog.
To south america, this should be comparable in arboreal animals, about 8-12 monkeys and a few other aboreal animals like coatis, kinkajous, tamanduas and sloths.
But we got one.
One arboreal animal thats also a monkey.
Yes we can gradually get more south american animals, but this is the main problem weighing south america down. More then any other continent it needs a huge variety in one kind of animal that it just does not have.
I have no doubt in my mind that everything besides monkeys and arboreal animals will be fine if support stays long enough with even just an ocelot, peccary, mara and rhea covering most holes in the SA roster.
But im affraid without mods the arboreal side of things will never be fixed just by the sheer amount of missing animals.
And before you think "sheesh, 8-12 monkeys, are you insane? Wouldnt they be way to similar?" Let me give you a look what thag could actually mean.
1. White Faced Capuchin aka the one we have in the game
2. A Squirrel Monkey as a second general small monkey
3. White Faced Sake for its unique somewhat ugly look and upper medium size
4. Black Howler with its large Size and Chorus
5. A spider monkey as a medium sized monkey with an unique grabbing tail
6. A night monkey for nocturnal houses
7. Golden Lion Tamarin as a small dot if color
8. Cotton Top Tamarin as a second small and very distinct looking option
9. Emperor Tamarin as a third small and very unique looking option
10. Coppery Titi as a medium sized fluffy monkey
Idk about you, but that would be a monkey roster to be excited about.
It would leviate most of both south americas and primates problems in relevanz in the roster, but like i said i doubt we will ever have more then 4 south american primates.
Im honest im also more then cool with a second capuchin or the red howler as clones, as any kind of monkey bloat would be very appreciated.
