Exhibits for smaller climbing mammals, birds, etc.

[AndyZoos]

I know this has come up in a few different threads, but I did a bit of "in-game" research to see how feasible this sort of thing would be with the current game mechanics and what new mechanics/features would need to come into play for this to really "work."

The current game as it stands is close to having all of the basics to build a smaller aviary-style structure or small animal enclosure. See the pics below (one with glass covering the front and the other without so you can see inside better). I put this together with an owl in mind, but I could also see this exhibit also working for raccoons, porcupines, etc.

Obviously, additional pieces with exhibits of this size in mind would only improve things but... The pieces are there. And they are all climbable. And being able to have mesh netting or a chainlink-type wall would make this more realistic than having to use glass. So that would be important to add too.

There's also a few other points to consider:

• A series of smaller food items and enrichment items would be a must. Particularly for birds. Most of the ones that might be appropriate wouldn't fit in an exhibit of this size (or at least, they wouldn't for me in this set-up). It would be particularly cool if these new items were able to be placed on top of and/or hanging from branches.
• The zookeepers. An exhibit set-up like this is tricky for keepers to navigate. I would propose these would be cleaned and animals fed in the same way they are done with exhibits. This could be determined by marking the exhibit in a specific way. I'm not sure what that would be called, but...
• Movement! This is probably the trickiest part. Especially for birds. How do we deal with the movements of these animals? Well...

The red lines indicate areas the animal could traverse. Assuming the animal were an owl here, it could move/walk along the various perches. And would jump/fly from the edges of different points, assuming there is nothing blocking it's way. You don't generally see free-flight for extended periods of time in zoos, so to me this feels like a reasonable middle-ground.

But I also don't know how that all works within the game so... Yeah. Just some thoughts. I think adding something like this to the game would be a really cool (and fun) addition.

 

[NZFanatic]

I think this is probably too ambitious. I wouldn't be surprised if we got a bunch of new exhibit types in future DLC's, such as aviaries, aquaria, and small mammal enclosures, but for the sake of ease of implementation it's likely they would be functionally the same as the exhibits we already have - animal is added, environment is created based on that animal, animal has limited animations.

Aviaries are a little trickier, if only because the sheer variety of not only bird species but types of aviaries in real life is rather staggering, and the variables for what different bird species need. For instance, it would be ludicrous to put a Steller's sea eagle in the same type of aviary as, say, an African grey parrot.

 

[AndyZoos]

I think this is probably too ambitious. I wouldn't be surprised if we got a bunch of new exhibit types in future DLC's, such as aviaries, aquaria, and small mammal enclosures, but for the sake of ease of implementation it's likely they would be functionally the same as the exhibits we already have - animal is added, environment is created based on that animal, animal has limited animations.

Aviaries are a little trickier, if only because the sheer variety of not only bird species but types of aviaries in real life is rather staggering, and the variables for what different bird species need. For instance, it would be ludicrous to put a Steller's sea eagle in the same type of aviary as, say, an African grey parrot.

I guess I'm just not sure how this differs from the current movements in place as far as "standard" malls go? The animals would be on the smaller side, which would (in theory) make it work. But I might be over-simplifying it.

Even with aviaries, I would envision the birds being able to move on certain platforms/parts of the exhibit (think of the "climbable" tag, but "perchable" instead). And they could fly/move from those points. Larger birds (e.g., birds of prey) don't tend to move a whole ton in captivity and those exhibits tend to be larger--and less crowded than what I put forward above. They move, but it's not these massive or constant bouts of flight. It's a hop to one area, then a jump/swoop to another. And of course, the size of the exhibit would have to scale to the animal.

I'm probably over-simplifying it, though. Like I said...

Anyway. Even if we just get exhibits of different sizes with (hopefully a few more customization options than we currently have), I'd be happy with that too! I just got excited when I worked with the pieces in the game already and saw how it might be able to look (and, frankly, how "real" I was able to get it).