Ailurus Zoo

[aim_foliksta]

Welcome to Ailurus Zoo!

First, despite its name, it will not be a zoo only for red pandas... although it will have some breeding groups. A red panda's zoo is something that I'll probably do in a future

This is my first sandbox zoo and to be honest, is a zoo that I'm developing without any planning. It started as a test zoo for the new buildings that I create, and its first serious exhibit to be created was the antilopenhaus, so I will start showing that part of the zoo. This zoo is being constructed with a look of a modest traditional zoo without many "theme park" themed decoration, and I used as an inspiration many European zoos that I visited. Most of the exhibits will be barrier free, without any fence or glass between guests and animals.

Hope you enjoy visiting Ailurus Zoo:

The antilopenhaus area contains three exhibits. The first one, is for okapis:

On the opposite side, there's the exhibit for nialas:

And last but not least, the biggest exhibit of the zone (and probably of all the zoo), the African Savannah. This is a big mixed exhibit that currently hold giraffes, gazelles and sable antelopes. Probably in the future I'll add more species or change the sable antelopes for other species.

As it is a very big exhibit, I'll show it better on next updates

 

[Lea_G]

Really nice start! I'm currently experimenting with alternative barriers as well, so I'm excited to see more of your zoo

 

[PeppyPepp]

Really nice start! I'm currently experimenting with alternative barriers as well, so I'm excited to see more of your zoo

I love making my own barriers, but it gets heavy with piece count if you do one for every animal. I wish we'd have more barrier types. Maybe in the future!

Btw OP, that circular shelter looks fantastic!

 

[Lea_G]

I love making my own barriers, but it gets heavy with piece count if you do one for every animal. I wish we'd have more barrier types. Maybe in the future!

That's right, but it is a lot of fun - for me it works with relatively small zoos. My love for dense foliage is even more of a "problem" for the performance. But more barriers (that don't look like barriers) would be great indeed.

 

[aim_foliksta]

When I started building this zoo, I mainly used the barriers that you can see on the previous pictures. Later I started to use some other pieces, but always trying to do not use too many pieces to create the fence. Sometimes I combine a perimeter fence with some pieces to create a new fence. I did this for the red panda or flamingo exhibits, but pictures of those exhibits will come later

I think I'll face the same problem regarding the amount of foliage, but for now my zoo is going fine, without any loss of performance.

And now, more pictures of the African Savannah and the antilopenhaus. On this picture, you can see the nyala exhibit in front:

Originally, my plan was to include some staff facilities inside the antilopenhaus, but as the indoor part of that building has some guest viewpoints, that would be a bad combination. So, the staff building was moved next to the nearby bongo's shelter:

But let's come back to the antilopenhaus It's time to see how it looks from inside.

The building entrance is located on the right side of the previous picture. The two terrariums that are at the sides of the entrance point was the place were initially I planned to put a keeper's hut and a staff resting room. But I think that the terrariums look much better
In front of the entrance, there are the dormitories of the giraffes:

On colder days, that shelter is not only used by giraffes, as it has enough room for the other species that inhabit the African Savannah:

But at Ailurus Zoo, the weather is sunny almost all time, so the animals enjoy much more outside

On the next update you'll discover the bongos.

 

[Lea_G]

Oh wow, the indoor decoration of the Antilopenhaus truly looks amazing! Very beautiful And the last screenshot is especially adorable, too.

 

[aim_foliksta]

The exhibit for bongos is located in front of the okapis, on the way to the main African Savannah viewpoints. As the zoo will grow up, it is important to give some indications to the guest, or they will get lost trying to find their favourite animals

The zoo director bought a drone for the zoo, so we can show you an aerial view of the exhibit, with the anitlopenhaus on the background:

And here we are, watching the bongos getting out from their shelter:

Now, we will follow the path that you can see on the first picture, until we reach the next animal exhibit from this African part of the zoo.. They eat ants and termites, so I guess you know what is the habitat of the next animal

 

[Umpaloompa]

That circular roof is gorgeous!! I can never get the shape quite right, you've done a great job.

 

[aim_foliksta]

Thanks Umpaloompa! It took me many time to build the circular part, but once you get some practice it's not so difficult.

For the next exhibit I wanted to do something different. As the aardvarks are nocturnal animals I decided to make an indoor exhibit for them, but I also wanted to create an outdoor part to allow the guests to take some photos of them without worrying about the ISO of their cameras (or in the worst case, to do not tempt them to use the flash on the indoor area!)

The indoor area is located just under a small picnic zone. Under it, there's also a staff area with a keeper's hut and other buildings. Thanks to the last update I don't have to worry about the negative effect of them

On that picture you can see the access to the staff zone (left) and one of the access to the indoor exhibit (right):

The indoor part for guests is small, but the animals have plenty of space:

And when the lights turn off, it's time to wake up and be more active!

But if you like to watch them with some natural light, you can just go outside and sit on one of those two benches:

 

[Joël]

Wow, Ailurus Zoo is a gorgeous looking zoo so far! ❤ Great to see you sharing your adventures in Planet Zoo with us!

 

[aim_foliksta]

Now we're moving the to next exhibit. On this exhibit you can see springboks and gemsboks. They don't have bonus from sharing habitat, but they look great on the same exhibit. The most interesting part of its habitat are the stables, a building inspired by the Berlin Zoo stables for gemsboks.

In front of them there is the habitat for the only birds that currently have this zoo, the flamingos. At this moment there is a "small" group of them, but hope that soon they will start to breed and I'll have a good colony

They exhibit has no high fences and the barriers are almost all natural barriers, giving a good views to the guests. The only "high" fence is the one that you can see on the previous image. From there, guest can see the feeding zone.
And we finish with a generic view of the exhibit:

 

[aim_foliksta]

After so many herbivores, I think that it's time to add a big carnivore to the zoo And it's also time to travel to a different continent, as for now, all animals were from Africa.

The next exhibit is for snow leopards.This exhibit is the first of the upcoming mountain area of the zoo, an area that I hope that some day I'll be able to expand much more with some goat-antelope species and other animals related to mountainous regions.
The guests can admire the snow leopards through some big glass windows. The habitat fence is all naturalised with rocks. On one side of the exhibit there's a small observation house that have two floors. On the ground level floor, the guests have two small windows, but on the upper floor they have a big glass window with much better views.

But when the leopards really enjoy its habitat is when we have some snowfall

 

[aim_foliksta]

As many other zoos, Ailurus Zoo has been closed for some months but now it can open again. To celebrate its reopening, what could be better than some pictures of the exhibit of a very important animal for this zoo, as it is named after it

It's time for some red pandas! Ailurus Zoo has some breeding groups of red pandas, distributed in three exhibits just in front of the snow leopards. Perhaps in the future I'll create an off-show area with more groups.

Looks like the new inhabitants of the zoo caused the attention of many guests, but who could resist to a red panda? The exhibits consists on low wooden fences plus some parts with glass walls. There are many climbing possibilities and places to hide from the views of the visitors if the animals need some privacy. I put some elevated houses similar to the ones that they have on my local zoo.

And last but not least, some photos of the stars of the zoo

What part of the zoo would you like to see on next posts? The still work in progress big cats zone, the american plains or the tropical hall?

 

[Lea_G]

Wow, nice updates! I really like how you mix barriers and natural elements. And the tree house in the red panda habitat is adorable I'd like to see all of those areas in the next post!

 

[aim_foliksta]

I'll continue with the tropical hall, the biggest building of the zoo, at least for now

At this moment it is still under construction and only contains the main terrarium of the zoo (there are smaller ones at the big cat's house and antilopenhaus), a walkthough exhibit with lemurs and exhibits for gharials and Galapagos tortoises. With all those animals, it is about at 50% of its capacity.
As the outside area still needs some gardening work, I'll only show you the indoor part that is completed

Let's start with the terrarium:

Just after the terrarium, you arrive at the rainforest area. Here you can just follow the path to encounter the different exhibits, but if you turn left you can visit the walkthrough of the lemurs.

And tomorrow some pictures of the reptiles that inhabit the tropical hall

 

[NZFanatic]

That settles it, I'm going to have to try building one of these awesome "tropical halls" in my own zoo. I'm not very good with the non-grid pieces, though, so I guess I'll attempt it with grid-pieces first!

This is an awesome zoo! I absolutely love the concepts you've included!

 

[wowman]

this looks great

 

[Cool Cats and Kittens]

I really like your interpretation of Basel's Antelope house and Berlins's Persian Horse house!

 

[aim_foliksta]

We continue walking through the tropical hall....

On our left, there's a big exhibit for the gharials:

Its exhibit has different viewpoints. The two facing to the ground area consist on glass barriers, while the ones facing to the water area have no physical barriers.

We need to cross a small bridge to arrive to the exhibit for the giant tortoises. The bridge is still temporary, it needs some rework

 

[Lea_G]

The tropical hall is really, really awesome. I love those in real life too, the natural path and the roof look absolutely convincing