Franchise Community Challenge Discussion

[Thrippa]

Well, my husband has taken over the PS5, so that's me done. I released one camel (they still count on PS5), and 5 individuals of my seven pairs of breeding stock, and a single, solitary tiger from the many offspring because I simply don't have time to sit and let the game run - especially on a shared console - and hope that they will magically accrue enough stars to release. I tried, and now I will resume not bothering for challenges that require starred animals - unless one of the stored offspring happens to eventually count. (The camel was one of two that I had in the zoo to research Bactrian Camels; the other one simply would not pick up that fourth star, after about 12 in-game years, even thought they both started entered the zoo at the same time and neither had a badge. I finally kicked them both out so I could start research on the Brazilian Tapir and the Aldi Tortoises.)

Oh, my confusion over the white tiger stars vs appeal is that on console the five-star animals do not have the gold border around them, they just show 5 dark stars against white. So my brain was seeing "no gold" and assuming that meant the stars were actually greyed-out rather than filled in.

 

[Xrystal]

Well, my husband has taken over the PS5, so that's me done. I released one camel (they still count on PS5), and 5 individuals of my seven pairs of breeding stock, and a single, solitary tiger from the many offspring because I simply don't have time to sit and let the game run - especially on a shared console - and hope that they will magically accrue enough stars to release. I tried, and now I will resume not bothering for challenges that require starred animals - unless one of the stored offspring happens to eventually count. (The camel was one of two that I had in the zoo to research Bactrian Camels; the other one simply would not pick up that fourth star, after about 12 in-game years, even thought they both started entered the zoo at the same time and neither had a badge. I finally kicked them both out so I could start research on the Brazilian Tapir and the Aldi Tortoises.)

Oh, my confusion over the white tiger stars vs appeal is that on console the five-star animals do not have the gold border around them, they just show 5 dark stars against white. So my brain was seeing "no gold" and assuming that meant the stars were actually greyed-out rather than filled in.

Totally understandable. And, under normal circumstances ( and in the past ) every little did help, just make sure you enjoy your play time on the game when it is your turn to play . Maybe the next one will be an easier one for you as it just takes breeding tundra animals until you get gold babies born. That's it, just born.

 

[Xrystal]

Next Task :

Ice Ice Baby​

All right stop, collaborate, and….breed gold-rated Tundra animals! Think you've got what it takes to complete this community challenge, Zookeepers?

I think my arctic circle zoo will be a boon here. And I will probably work in my North America/Canada, Scandinavia and Siberian area zoos to introduce some more options over the next week.

I'll rig up a list if someone doesn't beat me to it with what Planet Zoo shows as tundra animals so those that do have the time and energy to prepare for the big breeding drive.

 

[Xrystal]

List of Planet Zoo specified Tundra Animals ( from Tundra filter in the Zoopedia in game )

I've included their usual location found, how many babies they have on average and how long between births. Where they have a sterility age I have also added that as well.

A quick look through this and I think the hot favourites will be the canines and felines with their bigger broods and shorter gaps between births. And, their short lives will probably aid with the quick generational turn around to speed up that lower rating up to gold rating in a quicker time frame. I am sure the experts on these species in game will provide their suggestions.

Tundra Animals

Name	Base/DLC	Location	Babies	Interbirth	Sterility
Arctic Fox	North America	NA, EU, AS	3 to 6	1y	10y
Arctic Wolf	Arctic	NA	1 to 3	1y
Dall Sheep	Arctic	NA	1 to 2	1y
Eurasion Lynx	Europe	EU, AS	1 to 4	2y	15y
Grey Seal	Aquatic	NA, EU	1​	13m	30y
Grizzly Bear	Base	NA	1 to 4	5y	~25y
Highland Cattle	Barnyard	EU	1​	14m
Himalayan Brown Bear	Base	AS	1 to 4	4y	~25y
King Penguin	Aquatic	Ant, SAm, Oce	1​	1y
Markhor	Zookeeper	AS	1 to 2	7m	12y
Moose	North America	NA, EU, AS	1​	1y
Pallas's Cat	Zookeeper	AS	2 to 5	9m	8y
Polar Bear	Arctic	NA, EU	1 to 3	3y	30y
Red Fox	Twilight	NA, EU, AF, AS	3 to 6	1y	10y
Red Crowned Crane	Wetlands	AS	1​	1y	4y
Reindeer	Arctic	EU, NA, AS	1​	1y
Spectacled Bear	Zookeeper	SAm	1 to 2	17m	25y
Timber Wolf	Base	EU, NA, AS	1 to 5	1y
Wolverine	Eurasia	EU, AS, NA	1 to 5	2 y

For a money maker walkthrough exhibit animal in this biome we have
Old World Swallowtail

I have all but the Polar Bear in my zoo collection so will likely have plenty to distribute out to others on PC over the next week or two depending on my play time. I've already freed up a bulk of my storage ( My new A Zoo is failing to make money so I have been selling excess animals for cash rofl ) so will have tons of space to store excess animals until the challenge starts and to distribute to the various zoos that house them.

Good Luck everyone. Remember this is a game, when it stops being fun, take a break.

Edit: I have highlighted the ones the website also has as Tundra animals. Just in case the ones on either list but not both are not counted for the challenge. I have also added a column for which DLC the animals are in, just in case that is an important factor to people.

 

[Xrystal]

On the website however, the following show up on the PC's Tundra Filter on the Zoopedia there.
I'm wondering if perhaps this is the reason some of the challenges don't accept all the animals. ponders

Although, I wouldn't be surprised if the website was wrong and the game was correct rofl. But I think I will err on the side of caution and concentrate on the ones both lists share. The other's I'll monitor in existing zoos.

 

[tigertimb]

Didn't do too bad with the last challenge finding a little bit of time each evening.
Ended up with 117 in total, but 20 species was definitely a poor way to do it - spent a lot of time nursing Takins, Water Buffalo, Asian Water Monitors and Chinese Pangolin; all of which yielded only a few 4* animals between them.
Snow Leopards did best for me; but I had a huge head start on them from the recent challenge, with lots of animals that never made it to 3* at the time!

Now to find a way to empty my trade centre ready for the next one which probably needs to be a new zoo - probably better to make the effort to keep the guests warm, rather than coolers everywhere for the animals; maybe something similar to the arctic career zoo

 

[Xrystal]

Didn't do too bad with the last challenge finding a little bit of time each evening.
Ended up with 117 in total, but 20 species was definitely a poor way to do it - spent a lot of time nursing Takins, Water Buffalo, Asian Water Monitors and Chinese Pangolin; all of which yielded only a few 4* animals between them.
Snow Leopards did best for me; but I had a huge head start on them from the recent challenge, with lots of animals that never made it to 3* at the time!

Now to find a way to empty my trade centre ready for the next one which probably needs to be a new zoo - probably better to make the effort to keep the guests warm, rather than coolers everywhere for the animals; maybe something similar to the arctic career zoo

1. Find a zoo that needs cash and sell some animals for cash
2. Trade some herd males out to players
3. Check zoos to see if some animals are close to needing to be replaced and replace them
4. Mass trade or sell as desired rofl.

My usual cycle when I get desperate for space.

I am now down to 90/200 and have expanded my World Zoo collection to Canada and Scandinavia, although they share several tundra animals so will probably work in Taiga animals as well just for some diversity.

 

[slink_v_0000]

I checked my supply of tundra animals and found that I have some elderly (but not infertile) animals which can be released to the wild. I stashed them in the trade center for safe-keeping. But there is no way I am going to donate prime breeding stock such as my only decent female polar bear.

 

[Xrystal]

I checked my supply of tundra animals and found that I have some elderly (but not infertile) animals which can be released to the wild. I stashed them in the trade center for safe-keeping. But there is no way I am going to donate prime breeding stock such as my only decent female polar bear.

The good thing is, that this is just a breeding challenge. So, no release needed for it, unless the animal itself is too old to be productive

 

[Moorwiesen]

Gold Rated Tundra Animals can also be called "Spam the Arctic Fox Challenge".

 

[tigertimb]

 

[tigertimb]

Hmmmm - looks like my new Lapland zoo is going to be more "sculpted" than I'd intended - it's going to be a fun challenge

 

[tigertimb]

Think zoo is basically in place for the challenge now.
Even hillier than I first thought; too steep for ground level paths except for the flat bit at the front.

And being obstinate - don't want to major on the Arctic Foxes and going with the King Penguins instead.

For all that they mate for life, they're not that good at it!
You can leave a pair for a couple of years, and they only decide to get together after new penguins turn up

 

[Xrystal]

Think zoo is basically in place for the challenge now.
Even hillier than I first thought; too steep for ground level paths except for the flat bit at the front.

And being obstinate - don't want to major on the Arctic Foxes and going with the King Penguins instead.

For all that they mate for life, they're not that good at it!
You can leave a pair for a couple of years, and they only decide to get together after new penguins turn up
View attachment 413722

Yeah I hate that. I end up going with one sex from other sellers and the other sex amongst my animals so that I can put in a bunch at a time and let them make their mind up before adding the next group. Which I use is based on which I plan on using.

But so far I have Wolverine and Red Fox's first batch all gold, and a pack of wolves just arrived that may take a while to goldify rofl. Or I can flich some from my other zoos rofl.
Reindeer will probably be next as I have them planned for near the wolves. But I don't expect them to be too useful to the challenge, depending on how many females I can get hold of.

 

[Moorwiesen]

If anyone needs a specific animal for this challenge, let me know I will only breed arctic foxes, so the others are only available on request but i've got them all! add pokemon themesong here

 

[tigertimb]

Yeah I hate that. I end up going with one sex from other sellers and the other sex amongst my animals so that I can put in a bunch at a time and let them make their mind up before adding the next group. Which I use is based on which I plan on using.

That's roughly where I've ended up too:
Introducing new penguins in batches of 6, using "Compare Mates" to ensure that all combinations are at least reasonable
Maturing adults can then either be released, added to the 6 if they make a good fit, or saved for a later batch
I don't get the exact pairings I'd like, but they're good enough and the rate of adding new pairs isn't at snail's pace

 

[tigertimb]

If anyone needs a specific animal for this challenge, let me know I will only breed arctic foxes, so the others are only available on request but i've got them all! add pokemon themesong here

Less generous, but I've put up a few variant Arctic Foxes too - good Size and Longetivity, poorer Fertility and Immunity - but should still produce gold offspring in the right pairings

Eventually got sorted, but did notice a distinct lack of Mooses/Meese in the trade centre (not really breeding them for the challenge, but they keep guests happy)
And turns out it should be "Moose"

 

[Xrystal]

My Reindeers had a gold batch of babies yesterday so that will help over the challenge once they have grown up.

 

[Xrystal]

Less generous, but I've put up a few variant Arctic Foxes too - good Size and Longetivity, poorer Fertility and Immunity - but should still produce gold offspring in the right pairings

Eventually got sorted, but did notice a distinct lack of Mooses/Meese in the trade centre (not really breeding them for the challenge, but they keep guests happy)
And turns out it should be "Moose"
View attachment 413868

Yeah I did similar with my Red Foxes yesterday. Need to reserve a few pairs for the next set of breeding but otherwise will trade out some with at least 50% on fertility/immunity.

And yeah, I noticed the lack of moose too. But will check my MN zoo and see what I have there. Even if babies it's something while I build up the rest of the zoo. I ended up bringing over my Reindeer, Timber Wolves and a family of Wolverine from the Zoolympics zoo now that I've finished with that challenge. Still at 100 storage, so plenty of space so far to hold the first batch(es) of new adults for the week ahead. Then I have the arctic wolves and foxes to set up and introduce. Leaving one of the bears which I may or may not bother with.

 

[iorhael]

Wolverines are hard to find in the market, as markhors are.