Education in Zoos and Museum Inspirations

I have been running this thread for awhile now, and I don’t think I have ever posted the stuff that I have made. On my Zoo journey I have seen a lot of cool stuff which has made me reevaluate how I make my zoos. So I wanted to finally post some of it! There is a ton of props I would love to get, and it doesn’t help with my PC I play on low settings. Still, I think it’s about time to show what I have made.

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The grey seal signs and the sea bird signs were made for a polar section I am doing, for the seals I had some signs available to me. As the birds are mods, I had no choice but to use the font pieces. It made me want to rip my hair out. Still, considering I am not a great builder I think they look ok.

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Here I used a sign to create a “pollution” area. I wanted to show what trash in the ocean is doing to sea creatures. Hence all the nets and tires.

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Puffins are modded in, so I had to make my own props. I used the eggs to make barnacles, and luckily there are seagull statues from the aquatic pack!

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In one zoo I made a barn for some highland cow, I wanted to show off some farmer tools. And make it seem like an actual working barn.

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I tried to make some standing “sign boxes” for an Amazon rainforest building I was making. This sign was supposed to show the food we can get from rainforests, from some fruit, to cocoa beans, vanilla, and coffee. The text you have to imagine in.

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Here is another box from that same rainforest building. This time I wanted to show the creatures that live in the river itself. I used the dwarf caiman sign, and the “water” is a piece of glass.

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Here are some trees I made for an Indonesian rainforest building. That’s really all I have to say for this one. I like trying to make things more 3D when I can.

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Here are some more custom signs I made for the Indonesia building, you can try to guess what they are about!

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Another box from the rainforest building, this is supposed to be all about what happens when a tree dies in the rainforest. Behind the box I have a dead log, some underbrush, and mushrooms from the twilight pack.

Due to Vet School (and my patience and interest in playing) I don’t have a ton to post, but I really enjoy the education process. So I am trying to incorporate more in my builds. Here’s hoping Frontier can throw me some more stuff one day.
 
Well, visited some more zoos. Time to get this thread going a bit more. If this next DLC is the last I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see more educational pieces, but as always this thread is for building inspiration above all else.
 
This is such a cool thread, I can't believe I missed it before. I'll see if I can dig up some pics soon.

It's a shame the game doesn't have more education pieces in but I also really enjoy making my own. Maybe I'll spend the evening challenging myself to make some quality ones just to post on here :)
 
This is such a cool thread, I can't believe I missed it before. I'll see if I can dig up some pics soon.

It's a shame the game doesn't have more education pieces in but I also really enjoy making my own. Maybe I'll spend the evening challenging myself to make some quality ones just to post on here :)
Tell me about it! I think my biggest issue is while I love the themed building props, outside of Barnyard and Conservation a lot of the props are too themed for small zoos. Of course a cultural item here or there is always welcomed (I love when zoos teach about native customs) but I don’t think we have had any good general scenery items for awhile.

Education pieces stick out the most to me on this. Trying to make a habitat and I am extremely limited on signs, bones, nests, fur coats, horns, antlers, poaching gear, wildlife tracking gear, conservation station items, etc. will often make habitats kind of boring in my eyes.

So I made this thread for building inspiration! Also to hopefully drive interest enough for Frontier to notice, which seems more likely for a sequel. Or maybe a modder notices this too, and someone can get working on an awesome education mod! I’m a student and don’t really have the income to commission such a mod myself.
 
This is such a cool thread, I can't believe I missed it before. I'll see if I can dig up some pics soon.

It's a shame the game doesn't have more education pieces in but I also really enjoy making my own. Maybe I'll spend the evening challenging myself to make some quality ones just to post on here :)
Well I went in to Planet Zoo to build some educational props and I got distracted and built a large staff complex instead. Which is like the most PZ thing ever. Try again tomorrow...

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UH OH! GEUSS WHAT TIME IT IS

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This is a picture from the North Carolina natural history museum! And it’s a good example of some of the things I feel like are missing in PZ. Migration is so important for wildlife, and it is a massive educational hole not available as one of the signs, we have nothing to replicate it. Unless you want to spend a couple hours trying to painstakingly make your own sign. Or you upload a custom file. Considering PZ is on console, we need a way around this for other players. Or players like me, who just wants something available in game.

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(These next couple pictures are from the Natural History Museum) this is just a neat little way to show how the actions we take can help wildlife. Like making blue bird nest boxes! Once again, nothing like this is available in game.

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I want giant bugs. That’s it. Lots of zoos have them, and they are great educational tool.

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Inside the Natural History Museum are entire habitats made up of Taxidermy animals and honestly it looks fantastic. This one displays an actual running waterfall and a cliff. While it’s great we have live animals, some official taxidermy to be used in game would be nice. It’s just another way to decorate habitats, especially to set up little educational stations.
 
Time to start posting more stuff again!
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From the Topeka Zoo here we have a snare and an elephant gun, like I have said before I think we could use more props to display Poaching. While not the happiest topic, zoos have a duty to educate the public on what dangers wildlife face.

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Inside the Topeka Zoo is an insect house, and inside the insect house is an adorable 1950s “Creepy Crawley Cafe” it was super cute so I had to post it. Fun way to add personality to your zoos. Zoos are educational, but they are also fun!


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For everyone wondering why some NA players want black bears, here’s one of your answers. Lots of potential coat patterns makes this a cool animal. Also at the Topeka Zoo the black bears had a pool, which was cute to see.

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Inside the safari lodge at the Topeka Zoo is a little section dedicated to exploration. I love this sort of look, while 18th and 19th century exploration is overly romanticized, it looks great as an educational piece. I’m just a sucker for the safari lodge look I guess. Which is difficult to make in game.

I have more stuff to post, especially from the Henry Doorly Zoo, but I need time to fit the photos on the forum. Also I remember I can make the photos smaller so they don’t take up the whole webpage lol.
 
Also I intend to keep this thread going for awhile. When it comes to recreating zoos, or looking for inspiration, I find that you will find plenty of photos online for the animal habitats and buildings, but not many for the signs, statues, and all the other little set dressings. So I’ll keep trying to post on this thread, even if people don’t use this for building inspiration you can at least use it so show that proper zoos try to teach people.
 
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