Could use some help with stress issues.

[Wistala]

Greetings!

So I build a nice habitat for my Greater Flamingos and they are thriving. However, they seem to get stressed pretty often, I checked the Zoopedia and it said they were neutral with humans, people can even enter habitat. So they shouldn't get stressed at all or?
I figured it was a noise issue, so I placed the "Do Not Disturb" sign as well as some ambience speakers, both in the habitat as well as the crossover bridge. Doesn't seem to help. I tried to add a one-way glass on the bridge since for some reason all the people use that one to get around, but I discovered you can't place habitat fences on stuff like that.

Any tip? Its getting pretty annoying, I am playing on Hard difficulty, but I had this problem even before the update that was added in. Added a screenshot of the habitat, as you can see the bridge is full. They seem to get stressed under the shade/shelter/parasol.

Edit: it doesn't seem to want to add the pictures. SAys it keeps running into problems. But it won't tell me what problem -.-
Edit 2: Should work now?

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/370324562971459586/698667311736815647/Untitled.png?width=1120&height=630

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/370324562971459586/698666941845340210/unknown.png

 

[Dinocanid]

Neutral animals can still get stressed, and there are a lot of people walking through that habitat.

It may not be the prettiest solution, but you can put one way glass around the bridge and raise the height so it surrounds it. That's what I did with my okapi habitat and they don't get stressed anymore.

I would also suggest moving the area where the flamingos sleep away from the guests. When the animals are stressed they'll want to go to an isolated area to calm down

 

[Willibn]

I was watching a stream where they had the same issue. It seems adding hard shelter and building custom walls gives them an actual place to hide by breaking line of sight. try it out, and let us know! Thanks for the pics!

 

[Wistala]

Neutral animals can still get stressed, and there are a lot of people walking through that habitat.

It may not be the prettiest solution, but you can put one way glass around the bridge and raise the height so it surrounds it. That's what I did with my okapi habitat and they don't get stressed anymore.

I would also suggest moving the area where the flamingos sleep away from the guests. When the animals are stressed they'll want to go to an isolated area to calm down

If I surround the bridge it will cut prevent the flamingos from getting under the bridge and to the other side.
I`ll try moving it away from the guests.

I was watching a stream where they had the same issue. It seems adding hard shelter and building custom walls gives them an actual place to hide by breaking line of sight. try it out, and let us know! Thanks for the pics!

Yeah I thought the "umbrella's" roof was giving them shelter to break sight of line, but seems like I misjudged the distance between the umbrella and the bridge XD

 

[Dienstbier]

Hello, if the images are larger than 1MB, they will not be accepted.

Maybe it is possible to put a thin layer of earth under the bridge, so you can put a fence on it and the animals can still walk around under the bridge.

If that is not enough with the planned privacy screen.

I would not connect the fence to the regular enclosure walls, not that in the end there would be two enclosures.

Love from
Gabi

 

[PeppyPepp]

Besides the already suggested "Do not disturb signs" and the one-way glass, I also suggest you put ambiance speakers into the habitat. It helps drown out the noise from guests. In my experience, even though you put all those things down, sometimes animals will still get stressed if there's too many guests viewing them.

 

[Wistala]

Hello, if the images are larger than 1MB, they will not be accepted.

Maybe it is possible to put a thin layer of earth under the bridge, so you can put a fence on it and the animals can still walk around under the bridge.

If that is not enough with the planned privacy screen.

I would not connect the fence to the regular enclosure walls, not that in the end there would be two enclosures.

Love from
Gabi

I tried to put earth under the bridge but since its near water and a path, the game wouldn't let me. Been thinking more of moving the umbrella to almost under the bridge or perhaps remove some water and move it further away.

Besides the already suggested "Do not disturb signs" and the one-way glass, I also suggest you put ambiance speakers into the habitat. It helps drown out the noise from guests. In my experience, even though you put all those things down, sometimes animals will still get stressed if there's too many guests viewing them.

Done that. Have two on the bridge and 1 on the umbrella. Doesn't seem to do much, wish we could see the range of it, just like with Educational speakers.

 

[craftymutt]

If you haven't tried it for a while, they did recently add the do not disturb radius! It's visible in the security heatmap I think. I find it much easier to work on stress now I can see what is affected by these signs, but still have a few issues on certain animals that don't seem to want to go under the perfectly functional shelter when they are super stressed. I'm not sure a great way to deal with that problem except create a lot more area blocked from visitor view, so that they spend more time not seeing people just by random chance where they wander.

 

[Lea_G]

If you haven't tried it for a while, they did recently add the do not disturb radius! It's visible in the security heatmap I think.

Thank you so much for that remark, I hadn't noticed that!

As for the flamingos (which is one of the most easily stressed species in the whole game, I think), I would try to block part of the view. Either close off half the bridge, or build something where the flamingos can hide behind.

 

[Wistala]

If you haven't tried it for a while, they did recently add the do not disturb radius! It's visible in the security heatmap I think. I find it much easier to work on stress now I can see what is affected by these signs, but still have a few issues on certain animals that don't seem to want to go under the perfectly functional shelter when they are super stressed. I'm not sure a great way to deal with that problem except create a lot more area blocked from visitor view, so that they spend more time not seeing people just by random chance where they wander.

Oh didn't know. Thanks. I wonder if the ambience speakers will get the same.


By the way guys, I fixed the issue. I simply moved the "umbrella" closer to the bridge so it basically works as a roof, people from the bridge can't see the flamingos if they are under the umbrella but they can when they are out of it. Also helped a little with the traffic of people on the bridge as they move to get a better view now, lol.
Thanks for all of the suggestions/help.

 

[Wistala]

Not sure if I should make a new post or just post here.

I decided to expand the flamingo habitat so they got more space as well as an option to add in Pygmy Hippos. Unfortunately that has made the stress from the flamingos return. I build a second bridge and of course all the guests flocks to it. The flamingo got shelter under the bridges and in the new shelter house so not a problem there, however, as soon as they step outside either, their stress meter quickly drops to zero and I get an alert that they are stressed. The flamingos then flees to nearby shelter. Tried the "do not disturb" signs etc, etc, doesn't help. I really wish we could just use the habitat's one-way glass fence on bridges or places that are off ground. It seriously feels you can't have a bridge without having to trade it for stress levels in animals. I am also very close to just place wooden walls on the bridge so the guests can't see out from it, but that would ruin the design.

Any suggestions? Picture so you can see the new extension.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/370324562971459586/700445650135023696/unknown.png?width=1120&height=630

Edit: There are a lot of guests on the bridge that are hidden by the picture angle.

 

[Dinocanid]

If you do use one-way glass, you could do what I do and leave a gap in the fence near the shelter so the animals can still freely navigate the exhibit while still having lower stress. They still get stressed out for a moment while going under the bridge, but it fades again once they're on the other side

 

[Wistala]

Not sure what you mean. If I use the glass I'll split up the habitat in two, almost.

 

[Willibn]

You have the right idea. Maybe try building an entire section of the habitat that is out of the guests' view. Like surrounded by trees. It's like they are celebrities, as soon as they step out of their house the paparazzi are waiting.

 

[Wistala]

You have the right idea. Maybe try building an entire section of the habitat that is out of the guests' view. Like surrounded by trees. It's like they are celebrities, as soon as they step out of their house the paparazzi are waiting.

Lol. Well the area behind the other bridge (the one with the waterfall is under) has no guests, already seen some hanging out over there so yeah.

 

[Haunt]

Just so you are aware... you can add barrier walls in the middle of your habitat without splitting the habitat apart. You just need to check the box for swapping the barrier from being an escape boundary to simply a visual / pathing barrier.

Also building upon that concept of visual barriers... if instead of building a bridge you simply raise land in one place until it is high enough to create an overpass the animals can go under, then flatten to foundation it, and then stick a path on top for guests, after doing all that then you can stick one-way glass barriers on that ground above and still allow animals to freely walk through below them.

Do be aware though that if you do not check the non-habitat box for any visitor separation barriers that every time an animal crosses down below the barrier you will receive escape message alerts because the game code is too primitive to realize it is not an escape. So make sure every piece of guest hiding glass is marked properly and you will be golden.

I found this little trick of multi layered fencing out by using a building to hollow out the side of a hill on Maple challenge zoo and using the hollowed out area as a hard shelter den for timber wolves. Except every time they entered the den area escape messages would pop up because I had fence posts up on top of the hill above. I fixed that issue by adding a second layer of fencing on the back end of the caved den area and then on the upper hill marking the barrier as not being a boundary. The false positive escape warnings stopped, they got a nice little den area without any eyesore structures, and no actual escapes were attempted. Everyone was happy.

From that fluke bug detection something wonderous was conceived that revolutionized my zoo making, and now I pass it on to you.

 

[Casperite]

Try putting some foliage between them and the crowd as well. That usually helps.

 

[Wistala]

Just so you are aware... you can add barrier walls in the middle of your habitat without splitting the habitat apart. You just need to check the box for swapping the barrier from being an escape boundary to simply a visual / pathing barrier.

Also building upon that concept of visual barriers... if instead of building a bridge you simply raise land in one place until it is high enough to create an overpass the animals can go under, then flatten to foundation it, and then stick a path on top for guests, after doing all that then you can stick one-way glass barriers on that ground above and still allow animals to freely walk through below them.

Do be aware though that if you do not check the non-habitat box for any visitor separation barriers that every time an animal crosses down below the barrier you will receive escape message alerts because the game code is too primitive to realize it is not an escape. So make sure every piece of guest hiding glass is marked properly and you will be golden.

I found this little trick of multi layered fencing out by using a building to hollow out the side of a hill on Maple challenge zoo and using the hollowed out area as a hard shelter den for timber wolves. Except every time they entered the den area escape messages would pop up because I had fence posts up on top of the hill above. I fixed that issue by adding a second layer of fencing on the back end of the caved den area and then on the upper hill marking the barrier as not being a boundary. The false positive escape warnings stopped, they got a nice little den area without any eyesore structures, and no actual escapes were attempted. Everyone was happy.

From that fluke bug detection something wonderous was conceived that revolutionized my zoo making, and now I pass it on to you.

Could you perhaps add some picture showing what you mean? Because if I have understood you correctly then the dirt is not gonna work, the game won't let any dirt near a walk path.

Try putting some foliage between them and the crowd as well. That usually helps.

Tried that, doesn't seem to help.

 

[Willibn]

This is how I understood it. Sorry for the crude example. One way glass (non-barrier) along the land bridge.

 

[Wistala]

This is how I understood it. Sorry for the crude example. One way glass (non-barrier) along the land bridge.

View attachment 170614

That's what I thought he meant, but I can't do that on a path that already exist. I'll have to remove the bridge first, then the path, then add the dirt then make the bridge again. If I try to do it with a path on, the game puts up an invisible wall so I can't get the dirt closer.