Forgotten animals

Some animals dont get much of the spotlight, for whatever reasons. Maybe you disagree with my opinions, maybe you agree or have something to add why they might be on the unpopular side.
If you also have candidates feel free to mention them. The two i think belong in this category are:

Giant Panda: For such a popular and prominent animal in real life i never see anyone build for them or talk about them. Its so weird since for a basegame animal they still look pretty good and the goofy round shape that the other bas game bears suffer from isnt a big deal here.

Sable antelope: Same here, i never see anyone build for them, or talk about them. But i can kinda understand since it kinda suffers from being one among many antelope, and unfortunately all of the newer ones look way better, so there isnt much reason to pick the sable over the scimitar or blue wildebeest for example. Pretty sad since i think the sable antelope is one of the more distinct looking antelopes
 
  • Giant panda for reasons already stated, even i have only used the panda like once since playing the game. Compare that to red pandas where I often find myself building a small habitat for them.
  • Dhole from the southeast Asia pack is often skipped over other canids. Favourites like the gibbons and binturong in the southeast Asia region make one forget the dhole even exists. I have never considered building for them.
  • Various african animals like the bonobo, sable antelope, Pygmy hippo, Thomson gazelle, and okapi. When there is simply so much choice in Africa, it can be hard to give focus on every animal. More popular zoo animals are simply more realistic and appealing to build for.
 
Yeah it's heavily overshadowed by the chimpanzee, even on youtube the major youtubers have not built a bonobo habitat in well over a year.
I suspect some youtubers may be cautious about tripping an algorithm with the bonobo and having their video removed. The female bonobo especially looks very human-like, and it isn't wearing clothes...
 
Giant Pandas do get eclipsed some by other species, which to each their own, but they are such a huge deal in real life. Practically the default iconic animal for conservation. Their appeal should be much much higher than it is in game, IMO. They are also my favorite animal, both in game and in general.

Agree about the Bonobo and Sable Antelope, for various reasons already mentioned. There are just so many African animals in the game, which isn't a bad thing but that means that the more iconic animals (Lions, Giraffes, Elephants etc) are much more high profile and just naturally overshadow many other African animal species.

Feels like the Red Ruffed Lemur, African Wild Dog, Springbok, Okapi, Pronghorn, Nyala, Dall Sheep, Dhole, and Nile Lechwe often fade into the background, I guess there's just so many more interesting animals similar to them, except in the Okapis' case, that they take a back seat. The Okapi always seems like a very low level interest animal since the start, which is interesting since they're unique in taxonomy being a Non-giraffe from the Giraffe grouping.

There's 3 animals though that I am surprised don't get nearly the mention and that's the Snow Leopard, Aardvark and Southern While Rhinoceros (SWR). Snow Leopard is so unique in its markings and seem like they would be more popular than they are. The Aardvark is just unique all around, still the base game animal I was most surprised we got, you'd think it being so unique would cause more interest but it's very little. And honestly the SWR surprises me. For as much clamor and push there was for an African Rhino, it just seems like it's gotten lost in the background not too long after release.
 
A couple of people on here are saying the Pygmy Hippopotamus, but I see a LOT of builds for these guys. I do not see ANY builds for the Common Hippopotamus. Which is such a huge shame!

Let me preface this by saying that I get it… the space requirements for this animal are RIDICULOUS for an animal that in real life barely moves. HOWEVER, I know a lot of people (including myself) turn off space requirements in order to build habitats that look a lot more realistic, so this shouldn’t really be an issue.

The Common Hippopotamus is such a charismatic and recognisable animal, and the male model is one of the best the base game has to offer (no comment on the female model). It is interesting to build for, existing as a semi-aquatic animal. It is such a staple for African sections in zoos, yet I RARELY see ANY youtubers build for it. I’d love to see some Common Hippo habitats in Planet Zoo for inspiration, but they just do not exist. So PLEASE, get to building for this guy!!! I’d love to see what you all have to offer for one of my favourite animals!
 
Giant Pandas do get eclipsed some by other species, which to each their own, but they are such a huge deal in real life. Practically the default iconic animal for conservation. Their appeal should be much much higher than it is in game, IMO. They are also my favorite animal, both in game and in general.

Agree about the Bonobo and Sable Antelope, for various reasons already mentioned. There are just so many African animals in the game, which isn't a bad thing but that means that the more iconic animals (Lions, Giraffes, Elephants etc) are much more high profile and just naturally overshadow many other African animal species.

Feels like the Red Ruffed Lemur, African Wild Dog, Springbok, Okapi, Pronghorn, Nyala, Dall Sheep, Dhole, and Nile Lechwe often fade into the background, I guess there's just so many more interesting animals similar to them, except in the Okapis' case, that they take a back seat. The Okapi always seems like a very low level interest animal since the start, which is interesting since they're unique in taxonomy being a Non-giraffe from the Giraffe grouping.

There's 3 animals though that I am surprised don't get nearly the mention and that's the Snow Leopard, Aardvark and Southern While Rhinoceros (SWR). Snow Leopard is so unique in its markings and seem like they would be more popular than they are. The Aardvark is just unique all around, still the base game animal I was most surprised we got, you'd think it being so unique would cause more interest but it's very little. And honestly the SWR surprises me. For as much clamor and push there was for an African Rhino, it just seems like it's gotten lost in the background not too long after release.
The rhino might have the same situation as the other big bois like the elephants, hippo, giraffe and so on. They required so much space than building something half decently detailed for them takes ages, so it kinda gets avoided.
But i wouldnt call it a forgotten animal personally. And from the 3 rhinos its easily my favorite by a long mile, and also the best and accurate looking imo
 
I suspect some youtubers may be cautious about tripping an algorithm with the bonobo and having their video removed. The female bonobo especially looks very human-like, and it isn't wearing clothes...
Eh i dont think this would be a major issue with the bonobo if the other apes, especially the chimps are fine. Might be a different situation if the bonobos behaved more lifelike :D

Its probably just because the its almost identical to the chimp, but less popular
 
Imma say all primates before the gibbons are forgotten.
I don't see any builds for great apes that often, I don't see builds for the capuchins, nor the macaques, nor the mandrills, nor the proboscis monkeys.

Also, imma say that the bears seem to be forgotten, too. I don't see many builds for the bears, except for maybe the sun bear.

Arctic animals as a whole tend to be ignored. I don't see anything for any of the Arctic pack animals, plus the Arctic fox and the grey seal
 
Imma say all primates before the gibbons are forgotten.
I don't see any builds for great apes that often, I don't see builds for the capuchins, nor the macaques, nor the mandrills, nor the proboscis monkeys.

Also, imma say that the bears seem to be forgotten, too. I don't see many builds for the bears, except for maybe the sun bear.

Arctic animals as a whole tend to be ignored. I don't see anything for any of the Arctic pack animals, plus the Arctic fox and the grey seal
Lemurs kinda are the exception.
 
Reading most of these comments I’m seeing a bit of a pattern. I don’t think it’s that the animals themselves are underrated, it’s just that people don’t want to build for them cause they’re either too boring to build for or they’re challenging to build for.

For example, the hippo isn’t forgotten, it’s just so massive and challenging to build for that it doesn’t get a lot of attention. Same thing for bears, they require a lot of space so people just skip over them.

For what I think are the true animals that don’t get enough attention, here are my main 3:

1. Cuviers Dwarf Caiman. It gets forgotten because of the Spectacled Caiman but the original is just as good as quality and I’ve seen a lot of people seem to forget that. I personally like smaller reptiles cause they’re easier to build displays for, and I didn’t even need the Spec. caiman.

2. Two Toed Sloth. I’m allowed to put exhibit animals in here right? Eh why not. I think even though it’s not the preferred layout, people automatically skip over the sloth because of how complex its climbing frames and how big the WTE is in general. However, if you cut some corners and be creative you actually can cover up the climbing structures. The sloth is the only one that will work with cutting the cage down in size, it would look weird with butterflies or bats flying through the side of it.

3. Moose. Again another interesting pick. I originally didn’t think this was underrated or forgotten but after reading responses on the “cut animals from animal packs” thread and how many people said to cut the moose, it feels like it’s on the lower end of the NA pack when it shouldn’t be, I mean Moose and Beaver are the original icons of NA and the fact that both of these were on peoples list to remove just boggles me. I have seen lots of videos of the Moose and builds for it, I just don’t know if it’s actually appreciated for NA by causal players.
 
I think most of the base game animals and some early dlc animals now are barely used because the time of the game, after almost 4 years most of the people prefer the recent animals, even the RRH is more common to se than the Gorilas (I never thought I would say that) even I hardly used myself but i would like to use them more, in fact I'm doing a zoo with my least used animals and it's very fun, yeah the new model are so good but some base game animals like the okapi are perfect hidden gems

Here a list of some animals that now this days are uncommon to see in Reddit, YouTube and here:
  1. Okapi
  2. Gorila
  3. Chimps and bonobos
  4. Common Hippo
  5. Sable antilope
  6. Nyalas
  7. Timber wolfs
  8. Artic wolf
  9. All bears from the base game
  10. Black wildebeest
  11. Galapagos tortoise
  12. Reindeer
  13. Pangolin
  14. Gharial
  15. Red Ruffed lemur
  16. Giant otter
  17. Dwarf caiman
  18. Dhole
  19. Llama
  20. Even the jaguars
  21. Binturong (at least in social media is rare to see)
  22. Artic fox
  23. Cougar
  24. Moose
  25. Beaver
  26. Proboscis monkey
  27. Nile monitor
To name a few ....
 
I'd say pretty much all animals from the aquatic pack have been forgotten. When they were the only diving animals they were used all the time, but over time more popular animals were added that fullfill similar functions.
 
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