Seeing as most amphibians (if not all but) will probably stay in exhibits rather than their own habitats, I think including one of the giant salamanders as a habitat species would be a great idea. They are very large, almost reaching the size of 1,7 metres in some cases.This would most likely be the only viable amphibian for habitats and therefore I think it should be included. The Chinese variant is critically endangered so it could be included to raise awareness. Alternatively the Japanese variant could be included due to a lack of Japanese animals and an abundance of Chinese animals. Either way we would get an amphibian in a habitat, which I will be happy about regardless.
Giant salamander as the only viable habitat amphibian
- Thread starter Korvmaskin
- Start date
I don't believe it is viable as a habitat animal. To be honest given the way temperature and climate works in Planet Zoo I don't even really believe any of the ecotherms are viable habitat animals.
Amphibians are especially tricky because their survival depends on a well-managed climate in zoos. If you have an open-air habitat, for example, it's difficult to control whether the animal gets too hot or too cold or too dry or something else. That's why temperature and humidity play such a vital role in reptile keeping.
Amphibians are especially tricky because their survival depends on a well-managed climate in zoos. If you have an open-air habitat, for example, it's difficult to control whether the animal gets too hot or too cold or too dry or something else. That's why temperature and humidity play such a vital role in reptile keeping.
Well, as it stands right now, I can put a nile monitor in a habitat in the middle of the arctic. Remember, it is a game, and thus far, the most limiting factor for whether animals get exhibits or habitats has been size. In that regard the giant salamander really would be the only viable option within amphibians.
And for the people that enjoy realism, there are plenty of builds showing people fitting (for example) crocodiles into reptile houses, entirely indoors. So I don't see the real life limitations as a problem in that regard. Ofc you'd have more contraints to the animal welfare criterias (temperature as you mentioned), but that would only provide for an interesting challenge in my opinion.
The salamander would most likely be large and mobile enough for Frontier to fully rig and animate the animal as an aquatic habitat dweller.
That's kind of my point.
The way the game is set up, there's no realistic way to keep all the animals present.
For example, one zoo in New Zealand (Auckland Zoo) can keep their alligators in an outdoor habitat, but other places would need to build an indoor habitat. I think I'd like this implemented in Planet Zoo for reptiles and such. If the climate doesn't allow it, we need to build an indoor habitat.
Yes but that's my point. Because the system doesn't allow for a hybrid between an exhibit and a habitat yet the better option would be habitat due to their enormous size. For people that like realism it is entirely possible to construct a habitat fully indoors where heat and humidity could be controlled closely. This is indeed a good compromise. Basically just create a quadratic glass habitat modeling a terrarium or aquarium.
To depict the difficulties in keeping a giant amphibian modeling the welfare criteria to be stricter is probably the most feasible way of implementing that.