Does combining animals save space?

[NYCChristoff]

Hi all,

If you put animals which get a boost together (so the bulk of African animals) do you save space rather than having lots of separate habitats?

how does the game calculate space requirements? I know that if the time comes and space becomes an issue I can turn off welfare but I’d like it to have some form of realism going on!

 

[NZFanatic]

The game calculates space per individual animal.

You won't need to build as many habitats if you mix species together. Also, turning off welfare makes things more realistic in the game, so don't fret about that. Most of the in-game space requirements are overblown.

 

[NYCChristoff]

Oh really? How so? Or do you mean the space requirements become more realistic?

 

[Cool Cats and Kittens]

The space requirements of many animals are bigger than what is considered necessary (or even possible) by real zoos. This is especially bad with the polar bear, but several other species like the hippo or the nile monitor are affected too (although most of them are still usable).

Additional, only navigable area is considered as space requirements. If you build a detailed habitat with many rocks and plants, only a small fraction of the habitat is counted for the space requirement because of the huge animal hitboxes. But no real zoo (or zoo regulation authority) would substract area with elephant grass or other plants from the habitat area.

If you want to build a habitat that is detailed and meets the animals welfare requirements, it will end up much bigger than the enclosures from a real zoo

 

[NZFanatic]

Oh really? How so? Or do you mean the space requirements become more realistic?

Every aspect of it becomes more realistic, technically. For example, a real zoo in a temperate region would find it pretty damn difficult to import and plant foliage from a tropical region. They might do so for, say, a climate-controlled tropical building or something (like a greenhouse), but typically they'd use local foliage that has a 'tropical' look (such as ferns, broadleaf trees, and so on) or at least only foliage that can flourish in the local climate. So rather than planting a gigantic kapok tree in your jaguar enclosure, which is pretty much impossible, you'd probably put in a common ash or something (of course, in-game this counts negatively towards the animal's welfare).

Real life animals don't distinguish between plants in that manner (unless they have a particularly specialised diet or something like koalas). A lion won't know the difference between a Scots Pine and an Umbrella Thorn Acacia, for example. A tree is a tree. The game does not allow for this flexibility though without turning off welfare.

The only part that becomes less realistic is that by turning off welfare you know longer need to worry about whether your animals are happy or not.

 

[Sclurp]

If you move onto South American animals, I saw someone on here or maybe reddit suggest housing Tapirs, Anteaters and Capuchin monkeys together and I just so happened to have all three in separate habitats, side by side. I combined them and it all worked out quite nicely. No issues in terms of them living together/ terrain and space needs:

 

[ElectricMonk]

Every aspect of it becomes more realistic, technically. For example, a real zoo in a temperate region would find it pretty damn difficult to import and plant foliage from a tropical region. They might do so for, say, a climate-controlled tropical building or something (like a greenhouse), but typically they'd use local foliage that has a 'tropical' look (such as ferns, broadleaf trees, and so on) or at least only foliage that can flourish in the local climate. So rather than planting a gigantic kapok tree in your jaguar enclosure, which is pretty much impossible, you'd probably put in a common ash or something (of course, in-game this counts negatively towards the animal's welfare).

Real life animals don't distinguish between plants in that manner (unless they have a particularly specialised diet or something like koalas). A lion won't know the difference between a Scots Pine and an Umbrella Thorn Acacia, for example. A tree is a tree. The game does not allow for this flexibility though without turning off welfare.

The only part that becomes less realistic is that by turning off welfare you know longer need to worry about whether your animals are happy or not.

whilst all that is 100% true, in practice foliage has very, very little effect on animal welfare in game. In contrast, space requirements are critical. This can, however, be mostly offset by playing on ‘easy’ mode if you still want to have some element of animal warfare.

 

[Cool Cats and Kittens]

whilst all that is 100% true, in practice foliage has very, very little effect on animal welfare in game. In contrast, space requirements are critical. This can, however, be mostly offset by playing on ‘easy’ mode if you still want to have some element of animal warfare.

Animal warfare is not really what I am looking for in a zoo game, but each to their own

But I agree that foliage can be ignored with welfare on while the space requirements can't. But those unrealistic and naive foliage requirements are still a little bit annoying