Animals Missing for your Build

The question is simple, have you ever thought during building "shoot! Animal xy would be perfect rn, why isnt it in the game?"
Bonus points if you otherwise dont care that much for them, had this multiple time, if you even went so far to build a faux habitat for them or if they even made it in since then.

My first time was when i wanted to open tje african area in my first zoo and felt like making an african village Display only to notice that there are no african domedtics currently in the game.
If id go back to that zoo today id put some dromedarys in that habitat, but i can still remember how much i wished for some watussi cattle and african dwarfs goat. Only took 2 years since then to get atleast some african domestic

Second time i remember was after the wetland pack, when i loved the idear of building a tiny japanese garden style area for red crowned crane, red pandas and the important one, chinese muntjak.
Since then the space where they would have gone was changed to a dhole habitat, but we also got the prez wild horse q few months later which became my starting habitat of the zoo right across the cranes.

Just next to the prez wildhorse we got my next candidate, where i started building a habitat for corsac foxes, the primary fox species of central asia and while i did not get those, we got the arctic and the red fox since then with currently 2 arctic ones living in that started mess.

Overall that asian area is on hold in general until we get some more basic asian ungulates, so thats another blindspot for me that im waiting to be filled.

The most important has been when i randomly build a duck pond in like half an hour, only to remember how neat it would be to have ducks, being the origin of my now enormous hunger for waterfowl and both increased interest and vastly more knowledge about them.

And lastly is from an hour ago when i thought that it would be neat to try to incorporate another exhibit into my zoo and to put one in my gorilla house only to notice that there are no cool tropical african exhibits.
I never thought id ever mourn the fact that we got no chameleon, no african rock pyhton or another cool snake like a boomslang or mamba in the game, but here we are
 
A couple of times. There was a time I had wanted to build a southern USA swamp area, but we had absolutely nothing for that area minus the terrapin. A short while later, the NAAP was announced and came the gator, beaver, bullfrog, and even the puma.
And now, with the Twilight pack, I have 3 more choices for that area (skunk, fox, and raccoon)


In general, though, this thought doesn't go through my mind and I typically just see what in-game species would work best. I guess the closest right now would be wishing to have the ABB for all my North American sections
 
Me reading what animals I need to recreate a zoo

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Going from zoos I have visited-

Small nocturnal species - possums, gliders, quolls, Bilby, bandicoot, opposum
Asian hoofstock, especially the serow
Wading birds - Brolga, pelican, swan, ducks
Sumatran Tiger for warm climate zooa
Marmosets and Tamarins
Howler monkies - all monkies if I am being honest
Agouti
Mara
So many more reptiles especially small exotics
Australian friendly seal or sea lion
Baboons

I don't wanna start on aquaria and aviary options
 
I think the only time I've built a habitat for something that wasn't in the game was for the spurred tortoise. This is the list of things I actively miss while building. Not all of them are strong wants.
  • For South/Central American Sections: Tamarins, Spider monkeys, Ocelots, Other Small Arboreals (tamandua, coati, porcupine, kinkajou), pink tropical bird
    • Golden Lion Tamarins will have a place in all of my zoos. The lack of SA monkeys and other small arboreals is one of the biggest holes in the game. It irritates me whenever I try to build SA sections.
  • For Temperate North America: Black Bear (I just need it), Bighorn Sheep (it's like our ibex), turkey, waterfowl
    • A black bear will have a place in all of my zoos, there are 0 birds
  • For Arctic: Wolverine, Musk ox (food for arctic wolves)
  • For Europe: Swan, wisent, pine marten
    • I don't typically build European sections, but I started to make a tiny one. I remember thinking a wisent would be nice and decided that I liked them.
  • For Africa: Spurred Tortoise, Serval, Baboon, small monkeys, grey crowned crane
    • Monkeys and birds are always missing, and a serval will have a place in all of my zoos.
  • For Asia: markhor (to go with snow leopard), blackbuck, muntjac, mandarin duck, monkeys
    • Monkeys and birds are always missing, muntjacs could play with the red pandas, blackbucks are definitely needed for an Indian section
  • For Oceania: Tree kangaroo (their absence will be especially obvious starting tomorrow), Echidna, Rock Wallaby, Perentie
 
I am missing American Flamingo on regular basis, also some colourful SA birds like Roseate Spoonbills and Scarlet Ibis. Everytime I am building an SA section I think: "Oh man, I just need some colourful birds".

In my current build I am also missing "filler" SA animals, such as Coati, Patagonian Mara, Tamandua or Collared Peccary.

Also, for my favourite Zoo inspired build I am missing Lion-Tailed Macaque and Reeves Muntjac.
 
Like others said I mostly base my plans on what's in game. However, there are certain niches I want filled that would make planning easier.
North America for example, needs a bird. South America needs more monkeys (and I'm not even the biggest primate person!).
In addition to all that I'd like a bit more variety with animals we already have in game. Another Zebra, giraffe, wild donkey, crane, maybe Kangaroo.
Finally, I'd like to be able to build a zoo (or even just a small wildlife park/sanctuary) dedicated to even the most obscure areas. For that we need animals from Patagonia, Central Asia, the American Southwest...
At the end of the day, I think the game needs to balance broad niches (birds, monkeys, continents) whilst taking into a bit of account variety (zebra, giraffe). Probably it should prioritize niches...
 
A lot of the time it's been interspecies animals. Like I'll be making a habitat for a certain animal and I'd be like, ah I wish I could house them with (blank). At first I didn't really want the red river hog cause I'd never seen it before and I do still think others suids are cooler, but it's interspecies enrichment makes me use it all the time now.
 
I’ve thought of a couple, and it’s mostly due to visiting other zoos recently and seeing what I am missing.
  1. Any waterfowl
  2. American flamingo
  3. Small South American Monkeys
  4. Another tortoise species
  5. Domestic animals like goats, pigs, chickens, etc.
 
From my plan, I am mainly missing European Animals. But the missing ones are Echina, Eurasian Brown Bear, European Wild boar, Wisent, Mufloun, Eurasian beaver, Eurasian otter, Mara, Spectacled bear, Musk Ox, Wolverine, Walrus American black bear, African forest elephant and African forest buffalo.
 
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