People are asking for a list, i liking stating my opinion so im gonna do a list with my opinions!
If the species i mention is wrong pls tell me mr yoav.
Anyways starting:
Americas:
Wolverine: i like it, popular and one of the last missing arctic animals together with the muskox and the walrus. Also great for its large range spanning NA and eurasia.
Racoon: its my personal most wanted north american animal and by far its most common in EAZA comlections, featuring in 549 places. Its also the first and only north american aboreal animal.
Aligator snapping turtle: eh? Its a reptile and a turtle, but thats where the positives end for me. Id say its pretty much the only animal that fits better as an exhibit and id much rather get a bird like the turkey or sandhill crane over the turtle. Still allright for diversity though as we really need some turtles.
American Flamingo: good clone that differs in size, color and continent from the original
Collared Peccary: great inclusion as our first representative for the deserts of southern north america that also stretches down to most if south america as one of it few larger terrestrial tropical animal. Great choice
Ocelot: its a small new world cat and imo the prettiest one. No complaints but also no excitement
Two toed sloth: its the sloth actually found in captivity, whats not to love?
Kinkajou: very cool and unique aboreal animal that really fits as a frontier surprise pick. While another monkey would have been nice and for many preffered, i believe diversity like this is much more important then just 5 SA monkeys, eventhough both would obviously be preffered. Imagine 5 more monkeys, a man can dream
South american Coati: basicly the same as above, but also super common in eaza zoos. Like the kinkajou its also a unique arboreal animal, which actually mostly stands out by also quite liking to be on the ground for foraging, fitting quite well planet zoos hit or miss system of climbing frequenzie.
Tamandua: another non monkey arboreal animal,this time an anteater. Same as the kinkajou this could be another monkey but its nice that its something more unique.
Black howler: big beautiful monkeys that would make great use of the chorus mechanic. Its also has a far wider range then the red ones, including not just the tropical forest but also more open scrublands.
Golden lion tamarin: most obvious pick for the tamarin slot, its golden red hair would be a unique coloration in the game, especally amongst the mostly black primates.
Maned wolf: The last mayor missing larger canid and one of the most unique ones.
Its solidary nature and omnivorous diet with large parts of fruits and roots they stand out amongst the canines and are also the most charismatic member from the sputh american grasslands.
Greater Rhea: solid back bone for every south america section. Super commom and are pretty much allways present for SA sections.
Cheap, unique and in harmony with most other herbivores they are often seen in miced species habitats with animals like capybara, tapirs, lamas and maras.
Also very great for pampa representation
Patoagonian Mara: Basicly the same as the rhea but more suitable for walkthroughs and are even allowed to freeroam in some zoos. Also rodent. Good inclusion
Six banded armadillo: the most common armadillo in captivity and a great burrower. Awesome to live on the ground of arboreal/avian habitats for extra used space. Also just really cute and unique
Europe:
Mute Swan: 10/10. Its a bird, waterfowl, thats common in parks and zoos world wide and both large in size and cultural importance. Associated with love they make for great normal wetlands habitats, all kinds of ponds and lake aswell as highly themed habitats like a boat ride of love. Super versatild and one of the few must have animals.
Red Deer: The best option for the "normal" big deer. Super common in captivity, of high cultural value in europe, spans three continents with africa and eurasia and would make great use of the chorus mechanic. Also essential for european wild parks
Wild boar: Living basicly everywhere in the mainland old world besides the saharah and below, these largest suids are masters of adaptation and live in most biomes in the game. Also just like the red deer they are essential for wild parks.
On another note, they are the only suid without some kind of special features, which is imo important to highlight the odditys of the others while also making it unique on its own.
Its quite the power move to be the most successfull of your family just by musclemass and brainpower alone, while being predated on by humans, wolfs, large bears, tigers, leopards, lions and crocodiles while being very capeable of fighting of anything in or below its own weight class.
Red Fox: Mr worldwide lives everywhere in every biome and only large deserts and south east asias predator bloat can keep it at bay. As a result they are present with a little bit of human help on every continent, often quickly becoming the dominant species in its weightclass.
They are a great addition to add to basicly anywhere, finish of the 3 big foxes and also to educate about invasive species.
Great white Pelican: its the largest pelican that ranges across 3 continents and one of the few missing abc animals. Really hope we will see one.
Middle East + Africa:
Dromedary: It got more scenery then 4/5 of the roster, its a domestic desert animal and another of the missing abc animals.
Propaply quite the save bet to make it with good reason.
Hamadryas baboon: we need a baboon and this is the most common and from the underrepresented deserts, while also the mist visually unique. It also add with white red a new color mix to the primate color Pallete.
Rock hyrax: not the biggest fan, they are really unique but i doubt traversable would do them justice. Also neither that well known or common in zoos, which also has the upside of informing people about its existance. If frontier can pull them off they would be great though.
Striped hyena: gigantus rangus maximus through southern western asia to india while adding a mid size carnivore, a surprisingly small group in the game, while also being present in deserts and africa as a bonus. Great addition, would love to see them as adding to the middle east, north africa, western asia and india is just so good.
Arabian onyx: decent clone, not that different from the gemsbock, but its white coat and conservation history, aswell as cultural value to the middle east make it a good pick
Crested Porcupine: super common and unique abc animal and rodent. Would gameplay wise fill the same habitat niche as the aardvark, so id prefer the more common indian subspecies, but both are great and im happy either way.
One of the few animals id be actually sad to not see in the game.
Addax: the other big north african antelope besides the SHO. Now that the SHO is in the game this antelope with its unique horns has quite the decent shot to be included for a desert pack. And while i know that many people dont want more african antelopes, north africa is so empty a second antelope really wouldnt hurt and is quite needed as a distinct non oryx larger animal.
African spurred tortoise: super common tortoise, its big and cute and from an underrepresented area in the game, the sahel and saharah. We also just need more tortoises and these ones arnt as giant as the giant ones.
Galago/Bushbaby: while cool and somewhat unique, i feel like this would be a weird addition to the game and inferior to a lori in most contexts. Theres only one context where i could see it make its way into the game and being a great addition, and thats in a nocturnal pack. While the galago would feel weird in most places, in a dedicated nocturnal house it would fit great, arguably even better then the a lori, as africas arboreal nocturnal representation is non existant and its terrestrial ones are all quite large besides the fennek fox. Meanwhile the lori could easily be replaced by a binturong of the cuscus later on the list.
So yeah if we get a dedicated nocturnal house expansion im all for it, if not not so much.
Secretary Bird and Grey Crowned crane: They would act as the same animal with a different skin gameplay wise, so im grouping them together. Both are large bur still capeable of flight african grass land birds in a surprisingly open niche. Having both would be nice to be able which one or both you like in your zoo, as one is a raptor and the other a crane, looking quite different even if they fill practically the same role. Atleast one of them would be much appreciated and can be expected for a grassland pack.
Crocodile: i think this is supoused to be the nile? No matter if nile or the more unique dwarf its the crocodile for the last croco free continent. Not super needed or anything, i could and would skip, but a reasonable assumption that we would get one, just nothing to be excited about.
Red river hog: its fine, its pretty tropical africa piggie. Propaply the animal im most burned out by as we allready have 1 african and 2 tropical pigs so getting it but no peccary and/or wild boar would feel like such a waste. But assuming the other 2 join aswell i got no problems with it. Its pretty, got an unusal color and is common in zoos, it just wouldnt help diversity that much for the piggies, but is quite important for tropical africa
Mantled guereza: we need african monkey and this is quite the striking one. I honestly dong care what monkey aslong as we get 1 or 2 but the guereza is a good choice.
Fossa: the most important species left from madagascar, very unique as a fake cat mongoose and cool for island or madagascar sections, while also being great for nocturnal or tropical houses. Imagine an area themed around island oddities, that would be so cool and the fossa would be essential for that.
Asia:
Just the chinese alligator?
Its a meh clone, different continent but super similar in looks to the american one. We got crocodile bloat allready and i dont even want this as a clone, an asian monitor would be a much better new asian reptile clone.
Sulawesi crested Macaque: oops didnt see. But very cool monkey pick, love it. Overall id like more animals from sulawesi to be able to make actual sulawesi themed areas with the babirusa, anoa and macaque, so thats great imo. Also high chance to join in an island pack.
Oceania:
Cuscus: cool surprise pick. An animal nobody thinks about but would have it uses in nocturnal houses and general weird climbing marsupial ways. No complaints, like it alot.
Tree Kangaroo: no brainer cool additon for oceania, its an aboreal cute Kangaroo, whats not to love? Also more new guinea, making a small new guinea section actually possible with the 2 + the cassowary.
Perentie: We need more monitors. Big australian desert lizard. Approved. Alternativly, an aboreal one like the crocodile monitor or lace monitor.
Emu and red necked wallaby: 2 of the most common zoo animals world wide, simply need to be in the game to build realistic australia sections, must haves.
Black swan: 10/10 addition, the addition that this one is similar to the mute swan just makes it better. Common park bird that looks distinct and can also be used for australian wet lands habitats. With the mute swan this would basicly be a semi clone, but by far the best.
Tasmanian devil: Largest marsupial predator and nr 1 on the wishlist. Good stuff.
Kiwi: the new zealand bird, great for nocturnal houses and simply great to have something from there.
So thats all, great list! Besides the chinese alligator i like everything, but now for 5 animals/animal groups that would still be missing in the game. Im limiting this to 5 as its allways easy to just add a lot, but i really like how moddest this list is.
Nr 1: Asian Water monitor:
Allready set it above, this should the asian reptile clone. Common in captivity and a large range across South east asia and indonesia as the second largest monitor lizard that also likes the water. Also a member of the sulawesi squad with the babirusa, Macaque and cuscus.
Nr 2: Asiant Mountai Ungulate
The asian mountain ranges are still quite empty, with the himalaya featuring only 4 animals, 2 being bears, 1 the snow leopard and the red panda. We really need an ungulate here. Domestic Yak, Markhor and Takin would all work well (yes ik the markhor isnt from the himalaya but thats why i said asian mountains), but id say the yak would be great as another domestic animal and being culturally iconic.
Nr 3: Black Buck/Nilgai
We still got only 3 southern asian ungulates, one of them being a rhino. Both black buck and nilgai would be a great fix for that problem, prefarably both but for the sake if keeping with 5 animals i stick with the black buck.
Nr 4: An alpine rodent
We need more rodents and an alpine one is an open niche that also covers the no small mountain animal problem. Both the chinchilla and alpine marmot would be a great fit, but id choose the marmot as we got less for europe and its larger.
Nr 5: domestic Animals
People around here hate to hear it, but domestic animals are important for zoos and one the few thing allmost certain if we get fourth year of support.
The african dwarf goat, scottish highland cattle, domestic donkey and vitnamese pot bellied pig seem like quite the save bets.
And thats it! Really hard to limit it to five, but some honorable mentions are pheasents, storks, small ungulates, wombat, echidna, spectacle bear, gee and ducks.
Great list and while im sure my choices wouldnt be the same, im mostly happy with the outcome and dislike only 1 clone animal thats easily replaced.
Great job yoav, especally on south america you did a great job to diversify it with just a little ammount of additions.
Also while i saud moddest, theste are still 46 new animals and theres still so mich to wish for. Makes me really optimistic about the games future
