But can they swim? A Zoopedia add-on.

nosnos01

nosnos01
During the ongoing construction of my zoo, I'm frequently pondering the question, can this animal cross water? Can this animal benefit from a water area in it's habitat? Can I beautify this place with usefull functioning rivers that will enrich my animals and make my guests go "Aawwhhh" ?
So I open my Zoopedia to see if the specific animal I'm constructing for, can indeed go in the water. But sadly, my only source of information on this animal, doesn't tell me if it can swim.

It tells me their mating rituals, their projected age, and even some frankly useless information (when it comes to habitat building) like how large it can get, or how dominant they are.
But the real question remains,..

Can they swim?

Here is my suggestion: color the minimum water requirements red = can't swim/won't touch water and green = Michael Phelps Y'all.
 

Gorf2010

G
I was taught in school that the only animals in the world that can't swim are humans. And even then, as babies, can adapt to water quite quickly.
 

7thDeath

7thDeath
I only ever went from my own experience, so my beears got a reasonable size of water to swim - which they indeed used a lot.
But it would be nice to know if an animal does or does not swim.
 

zoomac92

Z
I have a river running through my African savanna habitat with a rock bridge over it. Some animals as well as all of the keepers will use the rock bridge to cross, but some of my hoof-stock apparently enjoy a nice dip. Sable antelope and wildebeest aren't exactly the kinds of animals you think about enjoying swimming, and neither requires water in the zoopedia, but they'll swim quite happily in my zoo, opting for the river instead of the bridge. Definitely information the game is lacking. My only minor addition to this suggestion is to use blue for swimmers instead of green due to red-green colorblindness being relatively common.
 

Villa11

V
Gorf2010 said:
I was taught in school that the only animals in the world that can't swim are humans. And even then, as babies, can adapt to water quite quickly.
Click to expand...
Most mammals can, except for giraffes and apes (including humans), in the later group swimming can be learned. hippos can't really swim either and sink to the bottom due to their weight, they just walk underwater really.
If you want to read more on that subject, I found a good article here:
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170320-the-cruel-experiments-that-revealed-most-mammals-can-swim
But most animals don't swim as it can be very exhausting, and they will only do so when given no other choice. (e.g. escaping from predators or crossing rivers during migration)

I personally fall back on my knowledge and on what I have seen in zoos to decide on using water or not. But I do agree that it would be informative to add to the zoopedia if water can be used as a barrier, however I think they would also need to add info on how deep it has to be (minimum), if animals can just walk through it, it wouldn't be very effective :p.

Edit:
So, it turns out that the traversable area heat map can tell you if an animal can swim.

I made a 2m deep river around a habitat, I made sure to smooth the edges and fenced it with null barriers. I plopped every possible animal in it. Most animals were able to escape by swimming across the river, except:
-All primates
-Red panda
-Indian Peafowl
-Both tortoises
I redid the experiment for the ostrich and giraffe with a river that was 4m deep, as i suspected the 2m was to shallow for both, they both can't swim.

Hope this helps. :)
 
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nosnos01

nosnos01
Villa11 said:
Edit:
So, it turns out that the traversable area heat map can tell you if an animal can swim.

I made a 2m deep river around a habitat, I made sure to smooth the edges and fenced it with null barriers. I plopped every possible animal in it. Most animals were able to escape by swimming across the river, except:
-All primates
-Red panda
-Indian Peafowl
-Both tortoises
I redid the experiment for the ostrich and giraffe with a river that was 4m deep, as i suspected the 2m was to shallow for both, they both can't swim.

Hope this helps. :)
Click to expand...

This helps for now, as dlc animals are sure to come, and I don't expect you to keep this list up to date.
I guess to clearly adres the swimming abilities of animals is more of a QOL type thing.
 

Villa11

V
I wouldn't mind keeping this list updated for as long as needed :). But I do hope it could be added in the zoopedia at some point.
 

NZFanatic

NZFanatic
I had this problem with my okapi. Tried to build a moat, they swam across and escaped. Seems a bit silly - plenty of real life zoos use moats effectively for all kinds of animals.
 

Villa11

V
Real life zoos can have steep edges to those moats, or electric cables on the moat edge, also most real life animals will not go for a swim if they don't have to.
It seems that the in game animals are very eager to swim if it means they can escape.
 

Cynogale bennettii II

Cynogale bennettii II
Some of the inclusions on the list of animals that can't swim are pretty inaccurate - giant tortoises are actually very capable swimmers and Japanese macaques are one of the few animals in the game that should not just be able to swim but actually dive and swim underwater, a behaviour they carry out in the wild.

Video of swimming Aldabra tortoise:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlfno6YJ-Co


Video of swimming and diving Japanese macaque:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4lBp104SBE
 
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