Are there any animals in-game, which are rare in captivity?

[Matyej167]

I seen in this forum, that many people only want such animals, which are common in captivity. I don't completely agree with this and that's why I created this wishlist:

Rare/non-exist animal in captivity wishlist

Hi everyone! :) I'm opening another wishlist thread that isn't on the usual continental/regional topic. In this thread, I explained why it would be important for Frontier to sometimes include animals in the game that are very rare or not in captivity...

forums.frontier.co.uk

By the way, are there any animals in Planet Zoo that are rare in real life zoos?

 

[Fallax]

By the way, are there any animals in Planet Zoo that are rare in real life zoos?

Yes, there are a few.

• Pronghorn do very poorly outside their natural habitat, there is none outside of North America and even outside their native range its minimal.
• Proboscis Monkeys are only found in some Asian zoos such as Singapore.
• I'm unaware of any zoos holding Wild Water Buffalo, as far as I know all hold the domesticated form.
• Goliath frogs do not fare well in captivity and as far as I know there is none currently.
• Three-Toed Sloths need a very particular diet and are extremely hard to keep compared to Two-Toed Sloths.
• Pangolins are another rarity, more common in Asia but kept in a few zoos in Europe and North America.
• Pure Bengal Tigers are practicially nonexistant outside of their native range, most zoos claiming to have Bengal Tigers actually have tigers of mixed origin.
• Platypus are kept in quite a few places in Australia but only one zoo outside of it.

I think all the other animals have decently sized captive populations (except maybe some inverts?) but I could be wrong.

 

[yoav_r]

Yes, there are a few.

• Pronghorn do very poorly outside their natural habitat, there is none outside of North America and even outside their native range its minimal.
• Proboscis Monkeys are only found in some Asian zoos such as Singapore.
• I'm unaware of any zoos holding Wild Water Buffalo, as far as I know all hold the domesticated form.
• Goliath frogs do not fare well in captivity and as far as I know there is none currently.
• Three-Toed Sloths need a very particular diet and are extremely hard to keep compared to Two-Toed Sloths.
• Pangolins are another rarity, more common in Asia but kept in a few zoos in Europe and North America.
• Pure Bengal Tigers are practicially nonexistant outside of their native range, most zoos claiming to have Bengal Tigers actually have tigers of mixed origin.
• Platypus are kept in quite a few places in Australia but only one zoo outside of it.

I think all the other animals have decently sized captive populations (except maybe some inverts?) but I could be wrong.

Let's break it down even further.

Animals which just happen to be rare in captivity:
These are animals that just happen to be rare in captivity due to outside factors (such as historical/commercial/rarity reasons,) but otherwise fare well in captivity. Here we have:

• Bengal tiger
• Giant panda
• Pangolins
• Platypus
• Wild water buffalo - some small zoos in SEA claim to house them.

Animals which are regionally locked in captivity:
These are animals that need very specific environmental conditions we do not know yet how to replicate in zoos. Could be climatical dietary, or anything else. So they are kept in zoos in their native range but not elsewhere. Here we have:

• Proboscis monkey
• Pronghorn
• Three-toed sloth

Worth noting that this category used to include the Platypus and Pangolins for many years (the Platypus welfare breakthriughs are very very recent), and the proboscis monkey may leave this category soon as well due to recent breakthroughs in replicating their diet.

Animals which are not kept in zoos:
Just weird inclusions from Frontier.

• Goliath frog
• Titan beetle

The titan beetle is especially weird as we have no idea how they reproduce, nor has a lravae ever been found.