Animal Variants!

[Caemoxie]

Well, I for one am very excited about the newly announced variant coloring coming with the next update and so thought I would take a stab at predicting which animals will fall into which variant category! And which ones may get left behind. I will also note if there are specific variants I am hoping for where applicable. I will also note that I am nowhere near an expert in what color variations animals occur in nature, so a lot of these are based on my knowledge of particular favorite species and google searches. Here we go!

No Change
African Buffalo
Bairds Tapir
Colombian White-Faced Capuchin
Common Ostrich
Dall Sheep
Formosan Black Bear
Giant Panda (unless the qinling variant is different than the existing albino)
Okapi
Plains Zebra
Pygmy Hippo
Sable Antelope
Thomson Gazelle

Subtle
Aardvark
African Elephant
American Bison
Bongo
Bonobo
Bornean Orangutan
Cheetah (Jumping to Major if Frontier is glorious and gives us King variants, but I don't think it terribly likely for this update)
Common Warthog
Giant Anteater
Himalayan Brown Bear
Hippopotamus
Indian Elephant
Indian Rhinoceros
Janguar
Japanese Macaque
Mandrill
Nyala
Polar Bear
Pronghorn
Red Panda
Red Ruffed Lemur
Ringtail Lemur
Snow Leopard
Springbok
Western lowland Gorilla


Medium
African Wild Dog
Aldabra Giant Tortoise (I'm not sure about this one generally, but I know that some tortoises can have really variant/interesting shells, and my google search suggests these guys can have some variation there, but it's hard for me to tell (especially since I can't really be sure if pic is labelled with the correct species))
Arctic Wolf
Bactrian Camel
Black Wildebeest
Chinese Pangolin (to my surprise these guys appear capable of ranging from black to tan?)
Galapagos Giant Tortoise (Same as above)
Gemsbok
Gharial
Greater Flamingo
Komodo Dragon
Nile Monitor
Reindeer
Reticulated Giraffe
Saltwater Crocodile
Siberian Tiger
Spotted Hyena
West African Lion (hoping for a black-maned male)
Western Chimpanzee

Major
Bengal Tiger (my fingers are crossed for golden tabby and psuedo-melanistic black tigers!)
Grizzly Bear
Indian Peafowl (there are so many varieties here and I'm hoping for all of them (however, since I believe many of these were selectively bred, I'm not sure that they'll be included), but special mention to the pied varieties)
Llama (hoping for painty and patchy fellows!)
Springbok (apparently they come in black and copper too)
Timber Wolf

So that is my mix of prediction and wish list for the color variants! What do you think, any alternative predictions you are championing? Got a color morph that I don't know about?

 

[DragonNTiger]

Hmm... I would think Zebras would be getting variants in the form of different patterns myself...

 

[Iben]

Hmm... I would think Zebras would be getting variants in the form of different patterns myself...

The game already features pattern variants, each animal with a pattern (tiger, zebra, giraffe, etc.) have 3 potential pattern skins. The current update post only deals about color-variants; so I wouldn't expect more pattern variants being added here

 

[Urufu1997]

The game already features pattern variants, each animal with a pattern (tiger, zebra, giraffe, etc.) have 3 potential pattern skins. The current update post only deals about color-variants; so I wouldn't expect more pattern variants being added here

Only 3? This explains why all my Siberian Tigers do look exactly the same at the Beginning of the Tail. Are you sure it's really only 3? I remember that I've had a Tiger once that had small Spots on the Head instead of normal Stripes but I didn't get one like that after.
I really hope there will be more Variations for Color than for Patterns and that they hopefully add more Patterns someday.

Didn't they mention once that every Animal will have a completely unique Pattern? That's the Reason why I had the Plan even before the Game released that I want to try to breed Zebras that look like Quaggas once the Game is released

 

[Iben]

Only 3? This explains why all my Siberian Tigers do look exactly the same at the Beginning of the Tail. Are you sure it's really only 3?

Yes, patterns are a separate texture map, and there are only 3 pattern textures in the animal file for each patterned animal so far. So from the looks of it, there's only three indeed.

 

[Urufu1997]

Yes, patterns are a separate texture map, and there are only 3 pattern textures in the animal file for each patterned animal so far. So from the looks of it, there's only three indeed.

Ok, then that's pretty weird because I'm really sure I've had that Tiger with the small Spots on the Head
Maybe one of the Patterns is just extremely rare

 

[LN]

Ok, then that's pretty weird because I'm really sure I've had that Tiger with the small Spots on the Head
Maybe one of the Patterns is just extremely rare

I think the patterns can shift over the entire body of the animal and can look different in that way per animal.
Where one animal has certain stripes on his back, while the other has them on his head.
Could still be the same texture I think.

 

[Sheep]

Yes, patterns are a separate texture map, and there are only 3 pattern textures in the animal file for each patterned animal so far. So from the looks of it, there's only three indeed.

I believe the texture maps take random sections from each map. So some parts on the body can look the same, but another part may differ. These sections are seamless so they fit together.

 

[Iben]

I believe the texture maps take random sections from each map. So some parts on the body can look the same, but another part may differ. These sections are seamless so they fit together.

Yes, I was thinking the same thing; but I wasn't entirely sure so I didn't want to confirm that. I do know that's how the scratch marks work; but the textures didn't look seamless enough for me to do that when it came to the patterns. But I'd gladly be mistaken because that is super cool!

I'll actually give it a test later on and see if I can confirm that theory, would be cool if it is like that!

 

[VetGirl330]

Of all the zebra species the Plains zebra is the most variable in color (not just pattern). Color variance occurs across its range, largely corresponding to different subspecies. The extinct Quagga which was half brown and half striped was a subspecies of Plains zebra. Since Frontier didn't bother to designate a subspecies for the Plains zebra, I hope to see some brown coloration. Then we can have herds of Grant's zebra (classic black & white) and Burchell's zebra (black, brown, & white).

And just for fun ...

 

[BirdsAreCool]

Giant Panda (unless the qinling variant is different than the existing albino)

I hope they don't add the Qinling panda as just a colour variant, it's actually its own subspecies and so would really need to be separate from the current giant panda in game if it were ever to be added. although idk if Qinling pandas are even kept in captivity at all: maybe in China?

if we get golden tabby tigers we'd have to also get snow white tigers, seeing as they come from a combination of the genes for white tigers and golden tabby tigers

I'd actually like to get more African wild dog variants, in particular ones with white markings. we could also get white and blonde bactrian camel variants too

 

[Caemoxie]

@VetGirl330 That baby zebra is adorable and I want it in my zoo! Sold, plains zebra jump to Major in my mental list. Also dug around into zebra variants and the blondes are very pretty and high on my wishlist. Also spotted zebras. Also this guy:

Red/orange stripes, I love it. Why do these things never show up in my nature documentaries?

@BirdsAreCool Awesome wild dog pics, would love to see more of that kind of variety in the game. I don't really know how I feel about subspecies in PZ generally, tbh. There's generally a lot of debate among scientists about how many subspecies there are for any given species (wolves, I believe, are particularly notorious for this). On one hand, subspecies tend to behave and look very similar to the base species and can interbreed without problems, so I don't always see the point of making them a separate species for game purposes. On the other hand, some subspecies have particular conservation stories worth hearing, like the Mexican grey wolf and quagga, so... Maybe a mix bag? "Special story" subspecies get their own species and others... don't? Qinling pandas are probably an interesting enough case for it, but some of what I've read about them is less interesting subspecies and more "super-isolated population suffering from in-breeding" so I could see it going either way for them.

 

[Indoraptor27]

I hope springboks will be major, the zoopedia literally says they can be melanistic, when it's impossible ingame. I also hope that Thompson's gazelle get something good, since despite being deluxe edition/pack exclusive, they don't really have anything making them better than springbok. Tuesdays are usually when announcements are, but it seems like it's probably not going to be today. And out of curiosity, I know how Punnett squares work, and how an existing white varient is determined, but what about if, say "tabby" tiger and white tiger are bred together?

 

[Caemoxie]

@Indoraptor27 I'm no expert and it's been a long time since I've messed with Punnett squares, but I found this which is cool!

So breeding a white and golden tiger should get you just more whites and goldens, or whites, goldens, and a rare chance for a snow white!

 

[BirdsAreCool]

found a couple of (poor quality) photos of almost completely blond (erythristic?) African wild dogs to add on to my previous comment

 

[BirdsAreCool]

found some interesting photos of a "golden" moon bear

 

[Jeminyne]

found some interesting photos of a "golden" moon bear

that looks amazing!

 

[ElectricMonk]

Whilst some of the variations posted above look super cool, I think that the variations in the update are more likely to be on the order of variation within the (statistically) normal range, rather than additional rare variants (like the golden moon bear, or the red-striped or spotted zebras and, honestly, that's fine with me.

 

[Caemoxie]

@BirdsAreCool That is gorgeous. Would it be a variant for the Formosan black bear?

Whilst some of the variations posted above look super cool, I think that the variations in the update are more likely to be on the order of variation within the (statistically) normal range, rather than additional rare variants (like the golden moon bear, or the red-striped or spotted zebras and, honestly, that's fine with me.

You are almost certainly correct. A good way to separate out what is likely to be included in the update might be to consider if it's classed as a variant or a mutation. Mutations probably won't be included and knocks out most of this list. And that's fine with me too. It's still a step in the right direction and we still might get to see these guys somewhere down the road. But... for now it's all speculation and I choose to speculate BIG! Plus I'm learning a lot from this thread

 

[BirdsAreCool]

@Caemoxie I don't know the subspecies, but she is an Asiatic black bear. her name is Brandy and she was rescued in 1999 by free the bears. I don't know where she was rescued from, but she is kept in a sanctuary in Cambodia. I wasn't able to find any other golden moon bears