See know that what I am talking about, this is pretty much my opinion in a nutshell.
Hot takes for planet zoo
- Thread starter Mr-Hyrax 2
- Start date
You guys can make arguments for your opinion, just remember, everyone's opinion is valid, so while stating why you disagree is fine, but don't try to make others feel there opinion it's wrong
For example, I hate crabs
A good argument would be
Personally I find crabs quite interesting
Or
Crabs are cool
But don't be like
That's a horrible opinion, everyone loves crabs
Or
you are the only one who thinks that's
It can get deeper, but I think this explains it well enough.
For example, I hate crabs
A good argument would be
Personally I find crabs quite interesting
Or
Crabs are cool
But don't be like
That's a horrible opinion, everyone loves crabs
Or
you are the only one who thinks that's
It can get deeper, but I think this explains it well enough.
Seconding, takins have way more appeal than a third Capra IMO. Though out the three species in that genus, the alpine ibex ends up being the most redundant for me.
I would think that this is a redundant thing to say in a thread about hot takes anyways
I do like all three, but I feel a chamois would be better.
My ideal caprine roster would be this:
- Muskox
- Takin
- Peacock Goat
- Hill Radnor Sheep
- Mountain Goat
- Himalayan Bharal
- Barbary Sheep
- Walia Ibex
- Chiru
- Alpine Chamois
- Red Serow
- Arabian Tahr
I would like at least 4 sheep breeds!
- Hill Radnor
- Valais Black Nose
- Barbados Blackbelly Sheep
- Jacob Sheep
I would love a Jacob sheep
I do agree, I would much rather get a Mandarin Duck over a Pekin or whatever
Arctic Hare and Mallard Duck?
European hares and European rabbits seem to be the most commonly kept wild lepid in zoos, but even then it's pretty much only European zoos. North American facilities are nearly allergic to housing wild lepids it seems.
The hare sure. I also like cottontails and european rabbits (which are also endangered in the wild in their native range despite being pests anywhere else lol).
For ducks my number one pick would be the mandarin, and close second the white face whistling duck.
Heres people arguing we really need an 9th bear and I´m sitting here like.....we need at least 3 pelicans and we have zero at this point, what the hell!
We need like five ducks as well.
The black wildebeest is the animal I want to see revamped the most (after the okapi tbh), it's probably one of the worst-made animals in the game and the blue wildebeest outright replaced it for that very reason and it being what people see when they think of wildebeest.
The black wildebeest is such a unique animal and I feel like it was done dirty by the game's original style of animal making and it's obscurity. For that reason I really hope that if PZ2 ever comes, we see the black wildebeest again but properly made.
The black wildebeest is such a unique animal and I feel like it was done dirty by the game's original style of animal making and it's obscurity. For that reason I really hope that if PZ2 ever comes, we see the black wildebeest again but properly made.
The gharial also doesnt come up nearly as much as it should when it comes to revamping old animals. They are just on the standard croc rig, crocodilian high walk and everything, something they are literally physically incapable of doing. Its like if the grey seal would move like a sea lion on land
Showing up very late to this thread to drop my Takes Which May or May Not be Hot:
- I don't anticipate us getting any sort of lagomorph any time soon due to issues with getting them to move realistically.
- There are no more "essential" cats or dogs at this point - if the game didn't get any more DLCs from this point on, the feline/canine rosters would feel pretty darn complete (at least to me). The closest to essential for each group is the ocelot and bush dog.
- The Dall sheep is my least favorite animal in game. It is the only animal I would permanently remove from the game if I were somehow granted that power.
- I would have preferred any duck over the mute swan.
- I'm not a fan of the Patagonian mara in the slightest. It's oddly... unnerving to me. Same goes for most of those long-legged South American rodents. I wouldn't be upset if it were never added.
- On that note, the only remaining essential rodent is a porcupine from the Americas. My preferred pick would be the North American porcupine.
- I desperately want more exhibit invertebrates, particularly insects, and would gladly pay for a pack dedicated to them.
- The coconut crab deserves to be a habitat animal.
- I don't care either way about receiving fully marine animals (sea turtles, cetaceans, manatees, etc.) in the game.
- I quite like the American Standard donkey and think it's overhated (while still acknowledging that it's not the most essential domestic animal).
- The lack of any exhibit fish (particular freshwater species) at this point is very surprising, since plenty of zoos have mini-aquariums.
- The WTE is, of course, dreadfully underutilized, and one of PZ's biggest blunders. We should have received lorikeets, more bats (particularly the vampire bat and the Honduran white bat), hummingbirds, and probably more I'm not thinking of at the moment.
Maybe it's because of the hot weather, but very few zoos I've been to in the Southern states (Texas, Louisiana, Florida mainly) have Grey Wolves. I think they're more common in zoos in cold Northern states like Minnesota, etc. Red Wolves are the much more common species in Southern US states but even they are pretty rare compared to African Wild Dogs, Maned Wolves, and various species of foxes. Maned Wolves are also no longer in a lot of zoos that they used to be as well. I'm from Houston, so I'll use the Houston Zoo as an example. The Houston Zoo at one time had African Wild Dogs, Maned Wolves, and Swift Foxes, but now they are down to the only African Wild Dogs. The Maned Wolves either died or were traded out years ago and I was quite disappointed to find that the Swift Foxes had been replaced by a tortoise when I went to the zoo last year for the first time since the end of the Covid shutdown. So now the only canid the Houston Zoo has are the African Wild Dogs. In comparison, they still have Amur leopards, cheetahs, cougars, jaguars, clouded leopards, African lions, ocelots, and Malayan tigers. There's 8 feline species and 1 single canid species. https://www.houstonzoo.org/explore/animals/
I've also been to zoos like the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin, Texas that had zero canids which was very disappointing.
And when I went to the San Diego Zoo, the wolves and dholes were both behind the scenes animals not actually on exhibit. The wolves I was lucky enough to see on one of their stage shows because they use them as educational animals and they happened to be in the show that day but the dholes were completely off exhibit at the time. I'm not sure if the zoo in has dholes anymore since dholes are very rare in the US since they sadly are restricted as a potential invasive species which I don't understand since they're endangered and there's literally no instance of invasive dholes in any country anywhere that I'm aware of. I get the raccoon dog ban import in the US even though that also makes me sad but it makes sense because they are not endangered, so have been kept by private individuals as pets or for fur farms, and have escaped or been released into the wild in European countries where they became invasive.
But it's not just cats verses dogs. I'm frustrated in general of the fact that many zoos have no canids or only 1 canid, like they either can't be bothered to have a dog or only have one dog or the dog is backstage only. I guess wild dogs are too similar looking to domestic dogs for the public to be interested in them maybe? That's kind of sad in my opinion all though I will admit there's a lot bigger size difference between a lion and a domestic cat than a wolf and a domestic dog. I guess a wolf or other large canid just looks like a slightly larger domestic dog to most people and they find it boring? which makes me super sad.
However there are some zoos that do good on the canid front here. The Los Angeles Zoo is currently on my wishlist to visit because they have 4 different species of canid which is the most I've seen in any one US zoo before (Fennec Fox, only zoo in the country that has a Ruppell's Sand Fox, Maned Wolves, and African Painted Dogs). The only other zoo I've been to that has 4 canids is the Fort Worth Zoo which is my favorite because it has both Coyotes and Red Wolves plus African Wild Dogs and Swift Foxes. The Austin Zoo has coyotes, Grey wolves? /wolfdogs?, and red foxes, so has 3 different canids. Minnesota Zoo used to have 3 canids because they have Gray Wolves, Coyotes, and they used to be one of the few zoos in the United States to have Dholes but sadly all their dholes died and they couldn't replace them because dholes are so hard to import here. Apparently the Bronx Zoo has dholes now so I'll have to make a trip back to New York and the also still have African Wild Dogs as well.
I'd be so mad about the Guanaco if they did that. No need for a 3rd llama-like species when we already have the llama and alpaca. I'd rather get both the Bush Dog and the Tayra and no Guanaco. As much as I say I'm jealous of the cats, I'd also love the ocelot but I still would want the bush dog as well if we got the ocelot. Change the American flamingo to a more interesting bird like a macaw or at least some kind of South American duck or even another penguin if Frontier is determined to remain flight-phobic. And the deer should be some kind of small deer like a pudu or preferably a coati instead of an ungulate because ungulates have dominated all the recent packs.
My ideal South America pack would be:
-Golden Lion Tamarin
-White-nosed Coati
- Tamandua
-Ocelot
-Bush Dog
-Tayra
-WTE Macaws: Scarlet, Blue and Gold, and Military at a minimum.
I'd kind of want a Pink Hairy armadillo and Patagonian Mara too but I'm not sure which of those animals I'd want to give up to get them and a pudu deer would be an acceptable ungulate but I don't really want any more ungulates that much.
I prefer the mix of everything approach because I wouldn't want to buy a pack that had only ungulates in it and no carnivores or a pack that had only birds and no mammals for example. It took me a long time to buy Barnyard at all because its all domestics and all ungulates except for the chicken but I did give in and finally buy it because I'm a completionist with OCD and the pack did grow on me a little.
I was today years old when I found out that there's more than one species of Red Panda. That was very fascinating to look up.
I would've removed the Himalayan Brown Bear only because it's not its own species and only a subspecies. Then I would have turned the Grizzly into a generic "Brown Bear" like they just have a generic "Timber Wolf" for all the subspecies of Grey Wolves. Also, if I kept the Formosan Black Bear, I would change the Formosan Black Bear just into the generic "Asiatic Black Bear".
So mine would be:
-Brown Bear (Replaces both Grizzly and Himalayan Brown Bear) (Iconic and most recognizable bear species).
-American Black Bear (add it to game) (Most common North American bear zoo animal at least in Southern states.)
-Polar Bear (Iconic, well-known, and an endangered species icon and dangers of global warming icon)
-Giant Panda (Adorable, goofy, iconic, well-known, endangered species icon)
-Sun Bear (Smallest bear in the world. It's a very cute, tiny bear.)
-Spectacled Bear (South America's only bear species. It's cute and it's eyeglasses like markings are very adorable and unique. )
Optional but not necessary. I am happy to see them in the game since they are there but wouldn't be that sad if they weren't:
-Asiatic Black Bear (replaces Formosan Black Bear subspecies)
-Sloth Bear
In my opinion, they should've just made a generic Brown Bear instead of having a Grizzly and a Himalayan Brown Bear. Then all the bear species would be complete.
Yes to the coyote, Kinkajou, American Black Bear, and either Civet species. I could take or leave the walrus and also ironically the tanuki since I'd rather have the coyote over it if I had to choose between only 1 more canid since the coyote is the iconic North American canid species although the tanuki is admittedly more unique both looks and behavior-wise as far as canids go.
I like almost all your animal picks for this pack. I'd just choose a Pink Fairy Armadillo over a Screaming Hairy Armadillo and don't want a margay at all. Also, as much as I love coyotes, I see then more as a North American animal than a Latin American animal even though they do have a little bit of range into some Latin American countries.
I still think a climbing porcupine like the Brazilian porcupine or the more recognizable North American porcupine would have been better than the African Crested. The Markhor is just a goat with funny-looking horns and we already have multiple goat species. I don't know why people wanted both species of rhino when they look identical to each other. I don't understand the want for the Addax when the game already has so many antelope. And I don't understand why 3 different pig-like animals were so highly requested (Red River Hog, Wild Boar, and Peccary).
I've actually seen way more foxes at zoos I've been to than wolves, which is pretty interesting but again, it could be due to the hot climate of the states I've most visited zoos in.