Ailurus Zoo

[aim_foliksta]

At night the tropical hall looks a bit different:

Before jumping to the big cat's zone, I'll show you some views from the highest point of the zoo. This part is based on the Montserrat mountain located at Barcelona Zoo, my local zoo. For now this area is almost empty as it's meant to be the home of some goat species and other animals that typically live at high altitudes. For now there are only snow leopards and Dall sheeps. Hope that in a future some goats will be released

On the first picture you can see the tropical hall at the background, with all the surroundings still empty:

 

[aim_foliksta]

The feline complex is still in development (waiting for more felines to be released) but at this time it's the home of lions, cheetahs and the two tiger subspecies. Inside the main building there are some terrariums and the guests have viewpoints to the dormitories of the big cats.

This is how it looks at this moment, but it will probably suffer some modifications in the future:

All the exhibits are around this main building. The first one that I'll show you are the two exhibits for tigers. They look like a single exhibit but they are actually two.

Here you can notice the fence that divides both habitats:

This is the one for Amur tigers. They previously occupied an exhibit next to the snow leopards but now they moved to this new exhibit and their former exhibit has been adapted for the Dall sheeps.

And this one for Bengal tigers. In the future they could be replaced by other species:

On this last picture you can also see the recently inaugurated toilets, based on a toilet building from the old Poznan Zoo.

 

[aim_foliksta]

It's time for a big update Today I'll show you part of the primate area. In this case, I'll show you an area that it is based on a real part of the Barcelona Zoo. I decided to upload this area to the Workshop, so at the end of this post you'll find the link.

This primate area consists in a group of 4 exhibits, but currently one of them is empty. Let's start showing the exhibit for chimpanzees. This exhibits have two different viewpoints for the zoo guests, one it's completely barrier free as the separation between them and the animals is based on a water barrier. The other viewpoints are two big glass windows. At the central part of the exhibit they have some climbing facilities like trees and ropes.

Next to the chimpanzees we find the bonobos. The real exhibit at Barcelona is also for chimpanzees as both exhibits are connected and animals can move from one to other, but at Ailurus Zoo I decided to use them as two different exhibits as I created both big enough for two individual groups. On the next picture you can see the separation between both exhibits.

As you can see, this exhibit also use water as a separation between animals and guests and has similar climbing facilities. The differences are on the right side. There's a covered area for both animals and visitors, for if the weather is not nice In that area, guests have two big glass windows, one facing to the outdoor are and other to the indoor area, and also a smaller window to the outdoor part. On the covered part, the bonobos have a lot of climbing facilities.

Gorillas are located on the opposite side. Their exhibit is a little bit larger than the individual ones for chimpanzees and bonobos but smaller than both combined (if you download the habitat you'll see that both exhibits are in fact only one).
In this case, there's no water division and all viewpoints are made of glass windows.

As there's a 10-image limit I continue on the next post

 

[aim_foliksta]

The dormitories of the three exhibits are located inside the separation walls between gorillas and chimpanzees/bonobos. Staff facilities and access gates are also located in that are away from the visitor view

The last exhibit of this area is actually empty, waiting for the release of some new primate that I could use there. The real one is used for mangabeys, so I'm waiting for something similar.
This exhibit is very different. It is small with only one big glass window facing to the outdoor area. But its indoor area is more or less about the same size. There's an indoor part that is hidden to the visitors but there's a public one with a big glass. As it is empty, I'll not show too much about this exhibit and I'll wait until there are some animals on it

And let's finish with some winter images of this area:

If you want to have it on your zoos, you can find it on the Workshop:

Steam Workshop::Zoo Barcelona - Grans Primats / Great Apes

steamcommunity.com

 

[Swjosdotschka]

I normally don't download zoos and I would totally understand if you want to keep your hard work for yourself, but: Would you consider sharing the complete zoo on the work shop? That is one of the rare times I'd love to expierience the zoo myself, because it is so realistic and I could learn so much from you.

 

[aim_foliksta]

Actually, most of the buildings that I uploaded at my workshop page are part of this zoo (shelters, antilopenhaus, tropical hall,...). I try to upload and share all that I create and that I think that can be useful for others.

At this moment I have a private copy of the zoo on the workshop that I use as a backup. I'll be happy to share it on the workshop but once it is finished or at least with the main areas finished. At this moment I have a lot of zones under construction and for example there's no entrance, and this is a zone I need to build before releasing it on the workshop. I also need to finish the are around the elephant house, primate zone, the big cats complex and the area dedicated to the mountain animals.

This is a general view of the current state of the zoo (many areas are still not showed in this thread )

 

[Swjosdotschka]

I happily wait until it's finished, when you want to share it then I just would like to see it in its whole. And good point with the private copy on steam as a backup. I definately need to do that with Unity

 

[aim_foliksta]

Before continuing with the next new exhibit, let me show you how it looks now part of the area near the Tropical Hall after some gardening works

And now I'll show you something that has been partially seen when I showed some views of the zoo from the Montserrat mountain recreation. This part of the zoo suffered some big modifications, as this exhibit was originally for tigers, but when they moved to the feline complex their old exhibit was partially demolished and adapted for the Dall sheeps.

I really enjoyed creating this exhibit with many climbing possibilities for the animals, and also creating a visual effect that makes the visitors think that the exhibit is much bigger and that most of the mountain is part of the exhibit, but it is not

This is what guests see:

But this is the real are of their exhibit (on left there's part of the snow leopard's exhibit):

And now some generic pictures of the exhibit:

And let's finish with a funny moment with the male trying to check if the exhibit was built with real or low quality fake rocks

 

[FoxyDee]

Your zoo is just beautiful, I love how realistic it looks.

 

[wowman]

the goat mountain is some great work. looks very natural and real

 

[aim_foliksta]

After a short break, I'm back with some updates Those days I've been trying to finish the zone around the elephant house and finally building a zoo entrance. I've decided to move some Asian species around that new area and one of the affected species are the Indian rhinos.
As the rhinos already moved to its new home, I'll show you some pictures of them at their former exhibit. The new area still needs some improvements, so I'll not show you pictures of this new area until having worked on it a bit more.

I still don't know what I'll build on this zone. It might be a completely new exhibit or maybe I'll just adapt it a bit for some other species. It will depend on future animal releases as I'm not planning to put there any current animal.

I also want to show you the most iconic building of the entire zoo, a big fountain called "El Dodo del Paraigües". This is a fountain based on a real one located at Barcelona Zoo. Probably you already noticed that Ailurus Zoo have many parts based on my local zoo

I still have to plant some flowers there

 

[Cool Cats and Kittens]

I love the dodo with an umbrella

 

[Swjosdotschka]

After a short break, I'm back with some updates Those days I've been trying to finish the zone around the elephant house and finally building a zoo entrance. I've decided to move some Asian species around that new area and one of the affected species are the Indian rhinos.
As the rhinos already moved to its new home, I'll show you some pictures of them at their former exhibit. The new area still needs some improvements, so I'll not show you pictures of this new area until having worked on it a bit more.

View attachment 196453
View attachment 196454

I still don't know what I'll build on this zone. It might be a completely new exhibit or maybe I'll just adapt it a bit for some other species. It will depend on future animal releases as I'm not planning to put there any current animal.

I also want to show you the most iconic building of the entire zoo, a big fountain called "El Dodo del Paraigües". This is a fountain based on a real one located at Barcelona Zoo. Probably you already noticed that Ailurus Zoo have many parts based on my local zoo

View attachment 196456
View attachment 196457
I still have to plant some flowers there

WOAH! This left me flashed.

I actually like it without the flowers. Gives it a more modern and clean look.

 

[aim_foliksta]

The real one have few bushes and flowers making some decorative shapes. I'll try something similar but if I don't like the result I'll leave it as it is now

Well, let's continue with the area dedicated to primates that is based on my local zoo. Now I'll show the new exhibit for orangutans. It consists on two exhibits, one with an indoor area. One of the exhibits is currently empty and it can be used to expand the current one or to isolate some individuals of the current group.

This is an aerial view of the two exhibits, where you can see that one is clearly empty. The inhabited part is based on the Barcelona Zoo exhibit for orangutans and gibbons, while the other one I decided to make it more different:

Some views of the inhabited exhibit:

This is the viewpoint of the indoor area. Inside, they have many climbing possibilities.

Next to the nearby toilets you can see the other viewpoint to the indoor part:

 

[GGG2021]

Your mountainscapes and rock work are amazing. This zoo is incredible around every turn - wow - very inspiring

 

[aim_foliksta]

After so many time I decided to start building an entrance and the surroundings of it, so I want to share with all of you how it looks the zone around the zoo main entrance. It is still a work in progress, but hope you like it

The main street leading to the zoo entrance:

The zoo parking, still empty:

A smaller dodo fountain is located just in front of the entrance:

As you probably already noticed, there's a tramway line that runs next to the zoo. On the background you can see the tram zoo station (I still have to finish some details on it):

Hope that soon I'll be able to show you the entrance and the firsts guests that will start visiting the zoo

 

[NZFanatic]

This zoo is honestly outstanding. Those big fake trees in the orangutan habitat, did you make those or are they on the workshop? Would love to try something similar.

 

[aim_foliksta]

Thanks!

I made those trees but they are not on the workshop as individual items, but primates complex (chimpanzee/bonobo/gorilla) is on the workshop and it include those trees.

If they can be useful for other players I'll try to update them to the workshop. I'll try to see if I have time this week

 

[aim_foliksta]

@NZFanatic I've just uploaded the fake trees. You can find them on my workshop:

Steam Workshop::Fake trees

steamcommunity.com

At this moment I'm still working on the zone around the entrance. This is picture is just after the entrance, heading to the tropical hall. On your right there's a small restaurant:

But the works on that zone will soon stop to start building a new exhibit for grey seals. They will occupy part of the former rhino exhibit. Rhinos moved to their new home at the zone around the elephant house. This is the next area that I'll show, but for now I'll only show you part of the smallest exhibit of this area:

This is the outdoor exhibit for pangolins. They also have an indoor area but I'll show it later along with the interior of the elephant house. The elephant house is the building that you can see on the background.

 

[NZFanatic]

@NZFanatic I've just uploaded the fake trees. You can find them on my workshop:

Steam Workshop::Fake trees

steamcommunity.com

Thanks a lot! Definitely want to check those out, they look very zoo-ish!