Colder Weather animal talk

jcp011c

jcp011c
For the most part, there's a huge majority of dryer-climate or tropical climate animals highly requested over animals that would fit in a colder climate. This has both an advantage and disadvantage for those cooler climate animals. Advantage due to the fact that if there is a pack that's ever released around a colder climate, these animals would have a greater chance of showing up. Disadvantage just due to sheer numbers versus the warmer climate animals, and less biome related themes they could fit in.

I wanted to create a part of the community to talk just about those colder and cooler climate animals. Those climates should be temperate, taiga, and tundra. They may have some overlap with dryer climates as well, but definitely should include at least one of those three climates.

For reference from the Meta List, some of the higher ranked animals are as follows - and please correct me if I'm wrong, I'll remove/update as needed.

Tasmanian Devil - #1 on the list - Temperate
Wolverine - #6(tied) on the list - Taiga, Tundra
Walrus - #10 - Tundra
Musk Ox - #13 - Tundra,
North Island Brown Kiwi - #15 - Temperate
Takin - #16 - Taiga, Temperate(?)
Markhor #22 - Temperate, Taiga
Spectacled Bear #24 (tied) Taiga, - Being debated
Sea Otter - #37(tied) - Temperate, Taiga(?)
Pallas Cat -#39 - Temperate, Taiga
Wild Boar - #40 - Temperate
North American Black Bear - #46(tied) - Temperate, Taiga
Elk/Wapiti - #48 - Temperate, Taiga(?)

If I've counted and located everything right, that's 13 in the top 50. Frontier can of course definitely pick other animals, these are just what show up on the Meta List.

For me, a colder weather pack would more consist of just Taiga and Tundra animals, but in the game, it does also get cold in temperate maps, so I'm including them.

What's everyone's ideas of a pack? The Devil, Spectacled Bear, Wolverine, and Kiwi would be my pick for a scenery pack, but I'd add in the Markhor, Walrus and Muskox/Takin for an animal pack. For WE exhibits I'd choose eagles, falcons or owls, though woodpeckers could also work.

Edit, removed Mantled Guereza - #32 - Temperate as it should be tropical.
 
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Fallax

Fallax
For an animal pack the following would be nice as habitat animals:
  • Tasmanian Devil
  • Wolverine
  • Walrus
  • Muskox
  • North Island Brown Kiwi
  • Mantled Guereza
  • Himalayan Monal
Edit: I somehow forgot walrus
 
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yoav_r

yoav_r
They are a minority on the meta-wishlist due to the cold climate focus for the last year and a half (which was broken by the grassland pack).

I think we should expect this year to be the opposite, with a warm climste focus and some cold climate animals here and there.
 

jcp011c

jcp011c
yoav_r said:
They are a minority on the meta-wishlist due to the cold climate focus for the last year and a half (which was broken by the grassland pack).

I think we should expect this year to be the opposite, with a warm climste focus and some cold climate animals here and there.
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And that's a fair point to make, but it doesn't preclude talking about them nonetheless.

but to your point directly, I have to disagree. The NAAP, the European Pack and the Twilight pack leaned heavily into colder animal focus. The Grassland, Wetlands and Conservation packs leaned heavily to warmer climate animals. Not completely in either case mind you, but it seems colder and warmer climate animals were fairly evenly represented.
 

Aramar

Aramar
I still need many "cold weather" animals. From my local zoo I want:
  • Wolverine
  • Muskox
  • Pallas's cat
  • Wild boar
  • European bison
  • Alpine marmot
  • Markhor
  • Takin
  • Eurasian otter
  • European mink
  • European pine marten
  • Eurasian brown bear
  • Barbary macaque (while not really a cold animal, it is quite resistant to the cold)
From other zoos:
  • European mouflon
  • Tasmanian devil
  • Walrus
  • American black bear
  • Siberian musk deer
  • Wapiti
  • Sea otter
And I'm probbly forgetting some animals. How to get these animals? We need several packs: tundra pack + forest animal pack + mountain animal pack.
 

ReptoMin

R
Doran said:
Remove spectacled bear and guereza since both are found strictly in tropical area.
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Why remove Spectacled Bear? They are Alpine Animals that are only found in the Andes. They are not found in the Amazon or other Lowland Regions. They come down to slightly Lower Elevations and Slopes only when the Weather is cool enough. They can't cope with the Heat very well. I wouldn't be surprised if Frontier only gives them Taiga and Temperate tags, as Tropical would require Heat Tolerance due to how Temperature works in the game. But Formosan Black Bear has it too, so maybe.

Aramar said:
  • Barbary macaque (while not really a cold animal, it is quite resistant to the cold)
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They are found in the High Atlas, which is colder than most of Europe. So I think it is safe to include them.

 
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jcp011c

jcp011c
Doran said:
Remove spectacled bear and guereza since both are found strictly in tropical area.
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Thank you! I've removed the guereza, I thought it was in temperate as well but my mistake. I'm not sure about the Spectacled Bear there. It seems like it's in a mixture of biomes and does inhabit both warm and colder climates. Temperate at the very least, I should think. I'm open to review it though.

That means there's only 12 or 13 colder weather animals in the top 50 on the meta list
 

wanderoo

W
I couldn't tell if you're just listing the cold biomes that fit for these species or all their possible biomes, but if it's the latter, then wild boar should also get at least tropical and grassland because of its range in India/Southeast Asia. Unless the game chooses to specify for the European wild boar.

In addition to all that you've listed from the meta-list, I think some larger ground birds would also be good fits. Himalayan monal, golden pheasant, etc. I'd also like the yellow-throated marten as a good species that covers several biomes in Asia including temperate and taiga, but it's highly unlikely against a wolverine or even tanuki I would imagine. And then small deer like southern pudu.
 

jcp011c

jcp011c
wanderoo said:
I couldn't tell if you're just listing the cold biomes that fit for these species or all their possible biomes, but if it's the latter, then wild boar should also get at least tropical and grassland because of its range in India/Southeast Asia. Unless the game chooses to specify for the European wild boar.

In addition to all that you've listed from the meta-list, I think some larger ground birds would also be good fits. Himalayan monal, golden pheasant, etc. I'd also like the yellow-throated marten as a good species that covers several biomes in Asia including temperate and taiga, but it's highly unlikely against a wolverine or even tanuki I would imagine. And then small deer like southern pudu.
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Good additions! As far as the list of biomes I’m listing just the 3 that have the potential for colder weather. In some cases they may have wamer climates too; though in some it they may only live in the colder weather
 

ReptoMin

R
jcp011c said:
Thank you! I've removed the guereza,
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I wouldn't have removed Mantled Guereza either, because they are also Alpine in some of their Range. Some Subspecies are in fact almost entirely Alpine and live in the same Environment as Geladas in the Ethiopian Highlands. They are also one of the most Cold Tolerant Old World Primates, probably the most Cold Tolerant out of the Species from the Tropics, as the cold tolerant Snub-Nosed and Macaque Species are not from the Tropics. A lot of European and North American Zoos prefer Mantled Guerezas over other Colobus for their better Tolerance to Cold Weather. Attaching some Sources I found below.

1) https://assets.speakcdn.com/assets/2332/colobus_care_manual_2012.pdf
2) https://www.researchgate.net/public...of_Zoo-Housed_Colobus_Monkeys_Colobus_guereza
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantled_guereza#/media/File:Colobus_guereza_map.svg
 

Cynogale bennettii II

Cynogale bennettii II
Two of my most-wanted animals are the yellow-throated marten and bar-headed goose, both of which definitely fit the 'colder climate' idea.

The geese breed on the plains of Central Asia, which get very cold, but migrate south into India to overwinter, so they aren't a purely cold-weather species. The martens, while they range right across East and Southeast Asia, I am more comfortable including as a cold-weather species because almost all of the martens kept in zoos are of the Northern subspecies, which lives in the cold forests of eastern Russia and Korea.

While both would fit into a colder climate pack, they also have the advantage of fitting into many other different themes as well.
 

BananaLeech

B
For cold tolerant primates I would also like to bring up the François langur which as far as I know live in an elevated habitat.

I also would like to bring up the American mountain goat and the Japanese serow. There’s no such thing as enough caprids.
 
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