Altered Species Enrichment Compatability

Mjmannella

Mjmannella
Right now, some combinations of animals that give species enrichment is a bit messy. Here's my proposal for revised groups to hopefully organize things:
  • Bongo + Greater Flamingo + Okapi + Pygmy Hippo
  • Aardvark + Black Wildebeest + Common Ostrich + Common Warthog + Gemsbok + Nyala + Plains Zebra + Sable Antelope + Springbok
  • Aardvark + Common Ostrich + Common Warthog + Plains Zebra + Reticulated Giraffe + Thomson's Gazelle
  • Greater Flamingo + Red Ruffed Lemur + Ring-Tailed Lemur
  • Gharial + Greater Flamingo + Indian Peafowl (gharials aren't adapted at catching prey besides fish, peafowl are perfectly safe around them)
  • Greater Flamingo + Hippopotamus
  • Chinese Pangolin + Red Panda
  • American Bison + Pronghorn (unchanged)
 

Villa11

V
It would be cool to be able to keep some species of carnivores in the same habitat as well.
My local zoo has a brown bear+ wolf and a brown bear + black bear habitat, and i think they are planning to move their second wolf pack into the later habitat as well.
As of now I can't recreate this, both species of brown bear kill the wolfs and formosan bears. Wolf and formosan bear is possible without them fighting, but the wolves keep growling at the bears, causing them to keep running around like crazy :/ .
 

bhutch

B
This would be neat! I'm definitely on board, especially with the idea of mixing carnivores. I can also see the idea of mixing some carnivores with some herbivores/omnivores. A great example would be any kind of insectivore with herbivores; they're not going to bother each other generally.

Or, if(when) we get smaller carnivores like foxes, coyotes, servals, caracals, clouded leopards, etc. they should be safe to put into an enclosure with much larger herbivores/omnivores of the same biomes/locales. For example, clouded leopards are known to hunt animals up to ~50kg. Throw them into an enclosure with a Takin (similar to a musk ox, weighing 250-350kg) and the clouded leopards simply wouldn't bother them IRL. This would allow players to build much more complex and interesting habitats. Likewise for red foxes and whitetail/fallow/blacktail/mule deer. Likewise for arctic foxes and caribou, moose, or bison. Likewise for most small-predator-large-herbivores.

Villa11, I didn't realize you could even mix formosan bears and wolves. Wonder if there's a way to structure the enclosure to where the bears have a way to get away from the wolves. I might try to experiment and see if I can come up with anything. (I'm assuming the bears can climb, here, but haven't checked. If they can, putting some things on top of a climbable object might help them escape the wolves when needed, though it doesn't solve the behavior issue.)
 

Mjmannella

Mjmannella
bhutch said:
This would be neat! I'm definitely on board, especially with the idea of mixing carnivores. I can also see the idea of mixing some carnivores with some herbivores/omnivores. A great example would be any kind of insectivore with herbivores; they're not going to bother each other generally.

Or, if(when) we get smaller carnivores like foxes, coyotes, servals, caracals, clouded leopards, etc. they should be safe to put into an enclosure with much larger herbivores/omnivores of the same biomes/locales. For example, clouded leopards are known to hunt animals up to ~50kg. Throw them into an enclosure with a Takin (similar to a musk ox, weighing 250-350kg) and the clouded leopards simply wouldn't bother them IRL. This would allow players to build much more complex and interesting habitats. Likewise for red foxes and whitetail/fallow/blacktail/mule deer. Likewise for arctic foxes and caribou, moose, or bison. Likewise for most small-predator-large-herbivores.

Villa11, I didn't realize you could even mix formosan bears and wolves. Wonder if there's a way to structure the enclosure to where the bears have a way to get away from the wolves. I might try to experiment and see if I can come up with anything. (I'm assuming the bears can climb, here, but haven't checked. If they can, putting some things on top of a climbable object might help them escape the wolves when needed, though it doesn't solve the behavior issue.)
Click to expand...
I know 1 zoo mixes cheetahs and white rhinoceroses, but the cheetahs may not exactlly be thrilled with their temperamental roommates.
 

Villa11

V
bhutch, I didn't build a complete habitat, I just tried to see how the species would respond to one another. So I didn't build any climbing structures or elevated terrain for them to be able to hide one, I'm interested to know if that could help :).
I also had a similar reaction with hippo + gharials, and gharials + flamingo.

Most mixed carnivore or carnivore+ herbivore/omnivore exhibits that i know of in zoos involve bears and a more agile and faster species (squirrel monkey, foxes, coyotes, coati,..)
I know the same zoo that has the bear+wolf exhibit wanted to do a bear+deer one, but they just never ended up doing it. And another zoo has crocodiles and iguana, but I don't think the iguana can get to the crocodiles, they just sit on branches that are above the exhibit, which makes me want to try building a crocodile and lemur habitat know :D, just to see if it is possible.
 

NZFanatic

NZFanatic
Many of these combinations are not actually realistic in the slightest. Red pandas for example are naturally very solitary animals, mixing them with another species in real life would be counterproductive to captive breeding programmes.

In any case, with many of the proposals here, it's simply too risky. Hippos and flamingos is one that was possible in Zoo Tycoon, but in real life if a flamingo gets on the wrong side of a hippo the hippo wouldn't hesitate (there's a reason they are considered the most dangerous animal on earth).

As for the gharial, their evolutionary drive is the presence of certain prey species. They only eat fish in the wild because there's an abundance of fish to eat - in a zoo, putting a peafowl in with them could very easily result in the peafowl being attacked, creating stress even if it doesn't get bitten.

I would question the ethics of any zoo that puts cheetah in with rhinos. Cheetah are nervous in captivity as it is (hence why many zoos now put a therapy dog in with their cheetah to keep them calm), so putting them with a large, generally aggressive animal like a rhino (aggressive due to poor eyesight mostly) seems terrible.
 

Villa11

V
I am aware that hippos are dangerous (and surprisingly good sprinters). But I was just testing to see which animals could (in the game) be housed together without them starting to fight. :). There are many things in this game that aren't advisable for real life zoos. (e.g. zookeepers just entering any habitat with animals in it), but it is still a game.

Two zoos i know of keep pelicans with the hippos, I think in one of them there might be a barrier hidden somewhere underwater so it only looks as if they share a habitat. The other zoo( pygmy hippo in this case) does have them actually mixed as i have seen them interact (and I don't think the pelicans are particularly happy with that), but there was plenty of room for the pelicans to flee, as well as a floating raft the hippo can't get on. The hippo never seemed aggressive towards the pelicans, she just slowly stalked them.

And white rhinos are more docile than black ones.
 

Tatu

Tatu
In beta I think Indian elephant, indian rhino and peafowl were compatible, but now it is removed. I would really like if that is added back.
 

Mjmannella

Mjmannella
Tatu said:
In beta I think Indian elephant, indian rhino and peafowl were compatible, but now it is removed. I would really like if that is added back.
Click to expand...
The the beta, Indian elephants, peafowl, and rhinos all got species enrichment from each other. African elephants also got an enrichment bonus from every African grassland herbivore in the game (as well as gemsbok).
 

DrBurrito

DrBurrito
Some of the fish gharials eat are larger than birds. It is true that gharials are not adapted to hunt large game but birds don't fall into that category. Therefore peafowl wouldn't be completely safe.
 

Mjmannella

Mjmannella
DrBurrito said:
Some of the fish gharials eat are larger than birds. It is true that gharials are not adapted to hunt large game but birds don't fall into that category. Therefore peafowl wouldn't be completely safe.
Click to expand...
The mouth of a gharial is too specialized to go after birds; they're tride-and-true piscivorous specialists.
 

DrBurrito

DrBurrito
Mjmannella said:
The mouth of a gharial is too specialized to go after birds; they're tride-and-true piscivorous specialists.
Click to expand...

That was exactly what I was saying. Gharials are specialists but that doesn't entirely stop them from hunting other game that falls in the suitable weight category.

naja.in

naja.in
 
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