European wishlist

[random goat]

Of the deer for a hypothetical European pack, I will advocate for the roe deer. This is my reasoning:

1. They are rather more common in captivity than I first suspected, with at least one source I have found listing 225 zoos around Europe with them (I know this is out of date, with at least one wildlife park not far from me getting their first one earlier this year).
2. While some European deer are widespread globally (moose) or possibly not native (fallow deer), the roe is almost entirely restricted to Europe, with only a small part of Western Asia also inhabited by them.
3. So far, most of the ungulates in Planet Zoo have been larger species while the roe represents a smaller species - the only ungulate of a similar size is the Thomson's gazelle. It would be nice, in my opinion, for a few more small species.
4. I think they are a beautiful deer species, with a brilliant rusty red coat for much of the year. Their fawns are probably one of the cutest animals Europe has to offer.
5. In captivity, they are considered docile enough to live in walkthrough enclosures and mixed-species exhibits. There is one walkthrough enclosure at a zoo in the Czech Republic that keeps roe deer with greater flamingos among other types of bird.

As for the other animals in a European pack, I would try and choose as many environments as possible. With roe deer representing forest environments, I would also pick the Dalmatian pelican (representing wetlands), the Iberian lynx (representing Mediterranean scrub habitat) and either Alpine ibex or Alpine marmot (representing mountainous habitat). As for the exhibit animal I would probably choose the ocellated lizard, as a threatened species that would actually fit into one of the current terrarium designs.

You convinced me
I wouldn't mind the roe deer either. An aquatic bird like the Dalmatian pelican would also be an interesting choice. And the ocellated lizard would be a great addition too!

 

[Jeminyne]

I really like badgers but I have a feeling they are just to small for me and not very popular in zoos. But I must admit I really enjoy their coloration.

I can not dispute the colors of European animals because for me it is the same for all the northern hemisphere species - NA or Asia. For me it is about the very unique character of our animals and the fact that I am from Europe and my own animals are very special for me.
Like a lot of people are crazy about NA animals but for me except for maybe puma they seem not so special at all - with all the respect.

I'm a bit surprised anyone would call a species "too small" given that we need way more small animals than we have now, to fill the "gaps" in our zoos. No interesting zoo is just big open enclosures, there has to be fun nooks and crannies to discover, with smaller animals inside. I'd even prefer going to a zoo that just had bizarre, captivating small animals than a zoo with only the obvious iconic animals.

No offense taken lol, I totally see your point about NA having animals that aren't "unique" in a way. Or at least, many of it's animals are "versions" of animals that also exist elsewhere. But by that same logic you could call Europe uninteresting for having "different versions" of animals that are found in NA. Personally I always preferred the NA white tailed deer to the red deer, the NA river otter to the Eurasian, (NA ones are cuter to me, haha) and the grizzly to the Eurasian brown bear. Heck, we even have Kodiak bears, which can be almost as long and tall as polar bears, but often heavier and much stronger:

They're terrifying to even think about, certainly wouldn't want to meet one. The Bald Eagle is also more interesting to me than the Golden Eagle, though that's not really in the question for Planet Zoo as of yet. There's a lot of iconic birds unique to the continent, like the Canada goose, Loon, Whooping Crane, and Great Grey Owl. These are also unique to NA:

I live on the coast of BC, Canada, and there's this amazing non-albino white mutation of black bears that live here, in an area called the Great Bear Rainforest. They are called Spirit Bears (name given to them by indigenous peoples) and they are protected:

I wouldn't want another black bear though, but they're cool. (Would prefer the Sloth, Sun, or Andean Bear.)

 

[Aramar]

It's a shame that we always end up comparing Europe vs North America. We need both in the game! Both continents have a lot of similarities, bue also enough differences to have each a nice DLC pack. There's also the possibilty of having different DLC not based in continents, for example, a forest dlc or a mountain dlc, mixing animals from NA and Europe (and Asia too).

 

[Jeminyne]

It's a shame that we always end up comparing Europe vs North America. We need both in the game! Both continents have a lot of similarities, bue also enough differences to have each a nice DLC pack. There's also the possibilty of having different DLC not based in continents, for example, a forest dlc or a mountain dlc, mixing animals from NA and Europe (and Asia too).

I think it's inevitable to compare them. And it can even be fun! But I think we will get decent representation of both eventually. Some animals I prefer the NA variants, and some I prefer the Euro variants. But in the end I'll be happy either way.

 

[Henkenstijn]

At the moment there are only 4 European animals, NA has 16. So that is why i think that at this moment we need a European DLC first.