One of my favourite things in Zoos are hippo houses.
Hippos are cool, i think we can agree on that.
They are so cool in fact, that many Zoos give them their own houses and sidekick animals.
Funfact! I like sidekick animals, i like hippos and i like their houses, so why Not make a List of some of my favourite roommates of Le hippopotamzs.
Starting of, we have the whitefaced whistling duck.
I love the whitefaced whistling duck.
But why Do I love them?
Simple, they are a very pretty and distinct looking duck, something we actually need in the game, that can and are held in parks and ponds, whistles a nice three tune call and most importantly lives across allmost all of subsaharan africa, madagascar and south america. A duck, waterfowl, bird, that lives in South america, africa and madagascar ticks so many boxes, its ridiculous.
Best duck 10/10
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Next on the List we have the Ze Brazas Monkey, the largest guenon and one of the Most common in zoos.
Something making them especally fitting for this pack is the fact that they love water, inhabiting swamps and river edges.
Being excelent swimmers, they never stray to far from the waters edge, living monogamous in pairs or little groups with their children, a unique trait amongst guenons.
They also use their size to Bully other guenons, only accepting leafeating monkeys.
Lastly, they are in a very interesting conversational situation, with them having an active breeding programm even though they are not facing danger, but just in case.
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Our third and most direct roommate would be the Sitatunga, a waterloving antelope from central africa.
These fluffy antelopes are one of the most common antelopes in captivity and would be our first venture into aquatic and swamp antelopes, as well as being the first antelope for most of their range (i allready pointed out the weird selection of antelopes in another thread, but for some reason we have no antelopes for pretty much all of the central parts of africa also known as the sitatungas range).
They would fill a nice niche and are cute and common, so hell yeah! More antelopes!
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Lastly to round out the habitat animals, a small carnivore would fit perfectly.
My choice would be the african civet, a groundbased cousin of the binturong, known for their beautiful coat and stink.
One of the most common african mammals, these nocturnal critters live in most of subsaharan africa, but sadly arnt to well known.
They even are great swimmers, making them even more fitting for our swampy tropical house.
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For the exhibit animal i chose the african rock phython.
Its a crime we dont have a phython in the game yet, and this large representative lives in most of subsaharan africa, with the northern subspecies from western and central africa living in the tropical swamps we want to have for our house.
Its one of the 6 largest, currently living snakes and the largest snake from africa.
So africas largest snake and an actual phython?
Sign me up
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So thats it for my animal choices.
I tried to take different picks that best fix africas holes, mostly weird antelopes and no guenons, aswell as only small Desert carnivores.
I considerd the nile crocodile, but it just doesnt Do anything for me, eventhough it would be a good pick for an animal pack, thogether with the saddle-billed-stork and maybe the Red river hog.
I would like to See mostly folliage, some nice tropical and aquatic african plants, aswell as a scenery pack similar to the aquatic one, with the New items being themed around building a tropical house and expanding on glass pieces.
I hope you liked the list and atleast learned why we all should join the cult of the whitefaced whistling duck.
Tell me your thoughts, what your favourite hippo houses or types of animal houses in general are and what you would need to build the hippo house of your dreams in game
