Don't they just kinda eat down there, kicking up once in a while to get a breath and go back to eating? Most of their other behaviors are done in the shallows with their heads above water AFAIK (like social interactions, and none of the other animals have social interactions in the water, unless I'm somehow just blanking)
Add deep diving to the Nile monitor
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They often "breach", i.e. float to the top before sinking back down, for one, and they "push off" along the bottom of their pools as well, basically gliding. They're very graceful under the water and do a lot more than just walk and eat.
Even using your example, however "wallowing" behaviours in shallower water would still be nice to see. Even just one or two new animations overall.
They actually don't even eat Underwater if I am not mistaken. They graze on land at night in the wild, and in captivity they also eat outside from what I know. As for their Underwater Animation limitations, they indeed look like they are made out of Solid Rock or Metal in the game with no buoyancy the way they are now, which is further from the truth. While they don't float, they don't sink like a rock either, which is how they can glide and porpoise, thanks to an almost neutral buoyancy. They would require an alternative to Deep Diving (which starts off from the Surface) where their 3rd Dimension of movement starts from the bottom, opposite to Deep Diving mechanic.
Hippos don't eat in the water. They graze outside the water, mostly at night. They also don't really swim. I think what needs to be added in the game is an animation where we would see just their head poking out of the water. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. They sometimes stay like that for a long time and it's a pretty iconic hippo posture.
Exactly! That's what I want for the hippos. A greater range of motion, especially for an animal that spends so much time in the water.
I thought there were some underwater plants that they grazed on. I do know they come out of the water to graze at night as well, I was thinking like reeds/grasses that may grow partially submerged in shallow water right along the shore line would be eaten by hippos (in like 2-2.5 ft of water). Do they not? I'm not arguing about hippos with someone whose name is "TheHippoGirl", because I think you probably know way more about hippos than I do! I'm not trying to be stand-offish, I'm genuinely asking because I'm curious.
Also is the aquatic feeder only used as a diving feeder? I've actually never used it in-game somehow and realized I have no clue as to the animation. I was picturing the iconic scene of a moose standing knee deep (for a moose) at the edge of a misty lake with it's head underwater and coming up with a mouthful of aquatic plants. Is that how the feeder works, at like wading depth or is it used while diving? I was kinda thinking the hippo feeding like that, on plants at wading depth; but if they don't realistically do that than of course that shouldn't be in-game.
How exactly are they sitting when just their head is poking out of the water? Are they floating? From my understanding the reason they can't swim is because they're too dense, not crazy so, but like an astronaut on the moon, an astronaut can't flap their arms and fly (a hippo can't kick it's legs and swim), but they can definitely bounce super high and sink slowly. But that would mean hippos shouldn't be able to just float. Or are they kinda standing in shallow water/standing on their hind legs in deeper water (kinda like a crocodilian when they float but with the hippo's back feet touching the bottom)?
I've realized I've actually never seen underwater video from Africa of hippos just hippoing. My guess is it's generally too murky to see much of anything if they tried? And only 2 zoos in the US have hippos, so I haven't really seen one in zoos (I actually have been to Philadelphia Zoo, but it's been many years and I can't remember much about the hippos).
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Completely agree, at first I just genuinely thought you meant swimming around. A surprising number of people who generally know a lot about animals don't realize that hippos can't actually swim. They're one of those overlooked animals besides the fact of being the most dangerous in Africa.
Oh you can argue with me, no problem
I'm not a zoologist and I don't know everything. I called myself TheHippoGirl because it's my favorite animal, that's all. Of course, because it's my favorite animal, I've read quite a bit about them. But yet, I'm not going to pretend I know everything about them. And in fact, even scientists don't. It's a surprising thing but it's a species that has actually not been studied that much compared to many others. Anyway, they can probably eat a few aquatic plants that grow in border of the water sometimes but like 95% of their diet is grass. During the day, they stay in the water and don't eat. At night, they go out and graze on grass for several hours.
They can't really swim nor float because they are too heavy. So they just use the floor to walk underwater or to bounce back to the surface. When they are in that posture with their head outside the water, their feet are actually touching the floor. That's why they live in shallow water, not very deep water.
And I'm pretty sure there are more than 2 zoos with hippos in the US. Maybe they are less common than in Europe, I don't know, but they are definitely in more than 2 zoos. A quick Google search already tells me they are in San Diego, Cincinnati, San Antonio, Dallas, St Louis, Philadelphia, Busch Gardens Tampa, Memphis...
Yeah I wasn't expecting it for this update, if it had been a thing they would have mentioned it in the update announcement just like they did when they added deep-diving to other species. Hopefully they do it for the next update ^_^No mention of this on the update details
Climbing would be amazing but I would rather them deep dive if I could only have one.
Climbing for Habitat Lizards is apparently really difficult to pull off with the current Climbing System. Probably why the 2 Arboreal Iguanas we have in Base were Exhibit to begin with, a decision I am glad about. Although I would prefer Terrestrial Iguanas like the Rhinoceros or Grand Cayman Blue to be Habitat, since they are possible from a technical point of view, but also require more space than other Iguanas. According to guidelines, the current Exhibits are enough for Arboreal Iguanas, but not for Terrestrial species.
Out of interest, what are the space recommendations for Cyclura? And do the in-game iguanas actually climb? I can't remember seeing that at all.
Modern recommendations are roughly twice the size of current Exhibits, but smaller enclosures around the size of in-game Exhibits are still used. Their space requirements, particularly of larger species, are comparable to modest sized Monitors and knowing Frontier didn't put Nile Monitors in Exhibits Boxes, I would expect the same treatment for Rock Iguanas. If they were made as Habitat Animals, they would probably get the minimum 180 square metres treatment like other Animals that require much less, for example Koalas.
They don't actively climb, but spawn on Limbs and Branches on all levels of the Exhibit, giving the illusion they do. If Frontier had managed proper climbing for Lizards, my guess is we would have seen them as Habitat Animals already, but the Climbing System is probably very challenging to adapt for long bodied animals that drag their tails behind. Otherwise I would love to see Climbing for Monitors as well, including Juvenile Komodos.
In Australia (the only country where a zoo association has made husbandry guidelines public), the absolute minimum space requirement for a pair of rhinoceros iguanas is 3 metres by 2.4 metres. Another source in the guidelines suggests a minimum size of 10 square metres, but the main recommendation is that they receive an outdoor enclosure wherever possible that also offers as much room as possible.
Probably notDo you think we will get this before support ends?
It still baffles me that it wasn't added when they launched the Tropical Pack. Pls Frontier!