I think it would be a really interesting addition to be able to create butterfly gardens. It would help with education about pollinators and their importance and could be a unique sort of enclosure to the game. I feel it would be easy to implement them by having them exist in an exhibit that is open air and cutsomizable by the player so they could create large butterfly gardens for guests to walk through by placing the exhibits next to each other and adding foliage to blend them together. Im sure there are other ways to implement them, but thats just what came to my mind. It seems like it would be a really fun addition to me and I hope something similar is added eventually!
Butterfly Gardens
- Thread starter chloeismagic
- Start date
I've wanted something like this from the start, but i think it could be reasonably easily done with butterfly effect spawners - no need for an exhibit per-se.
Yes to both 
That is an idea I have posited many times myself. Effect spawners seem like a really useful tool for this sort of thing (same with adding fish to ponds, which is another thing many people have requested). Zoos don't typically keep butterflies in the same sorts of exhibits as they keep tarantulas and other invertebrates; usually a butterfly garden is a fully-dedicated structure. IMO the whole thing could be achieved with scenery; effect spawners for the butterflies, and we already have the glass building pieces to make the greenhouse, and then they could throw in some 'life stage displays' which would basically be exhibits containing caterpillars and chrysalises (rather than 'true' exhibits, these would be basically props).
In this way, players could build a big butterfly garden to their hearts' content.
I didnt even think of effect spwaners but thats a good idea too! Although they wouldn't be as educational for the player then as they wouldn't need you to care for them or have a zoopedia page. Part of why I thought they would be a great addition is to help people learn about real life pollinators, but I hope they just add them in some form! It is a really good idea with the fish too!
In terms of education, the "life stage displays" I mentioned could be educational facilities (akin to the conservation/education boards). So guests viewing them will get an educational boost, and if a player clicks on one (like with the conservation boards) then it brings up a blurb. They could implement similar items for living ant-farms, or bee hives, or other animals that live in colonies of thousands (making them too impractical for the standard exhibit market).