How do you get five star animals?

[ctzn_erased]

I'm on the final career zoo and going for gold. The final objective I have to complete is "have 6 five star animals in your zoo at once," but it isn't clear to me what gives an animal a five star rating.

It doesn't seem to be directly linked to how rare or endangered they are. For example:
I've got a one star Giant Panda.
I've got a zero star gold medal Grizzly Bear cub.
I've got two Gemsbok, the one with the silver medal has one star, but the bronze has three stars.
I briefly had a five star alpha female Timber Wolf before she died, but I've absolutely no idea what gave her that rating.

Does anybody have any tips on what leads to an animal being rated five stars?!

 

[Agathorn]

It really just seems to be up to the guests. The star rating is given by how much the guests like the animals. How you influence that is beyond me though. ANY animal can end up as a five star animal from what i've seen.

 

[Mrkoekie1991]

Some animals seem to be just more in "the spotlight" then others. My lions for example hit five stars pretty fast. My warthogs have sometimes five stars aswell. I think the following things impact this:

1: Stats of the animals, Goldies get faster 5 stars.
2: Species themselves, Lions are more impressive then warthogs for example.
3: Quality of food
4: The ammount of breeding
5: A habitat that is very accessable to the population ( No super big habitats where guests can't see the animals as much as they would like)
6: How much donations the animal recieve. For example my warthogs recieve nearly as much donations as my lions, people just love that they can constantly see them upon very close.
7: Happyness and age of the animal? Ppl rate old rollercoasters 5 stars purely of nostalgia. If your animal breeded several time perfect babies... the mother shuld be loved by the people right? Ppl love relics

As said, this is my speculation of 5 star animals. Not sure ifs true, it just feels like it. My park atm has 5/5 rating. And I keep all things above in mind.

 

[zoomac92]

A quick roam around my Career mode zoo and the animal genetics tab seems to indicate that the number of offspring an animal has produced has a major impact on its star rating. I have a male Aldabra Giant Tortoise that has produced 24 offspring with 3 different females. The male's base species appeal is 1875 and his rating is +359, four stars. One female has produced 12 offspring; her base species rating is the same and her rating is +203, 3 stars. The other 2 females have each produced 6 offspring, have the same base species rating, and individual rating is +93, 2 stars. Breed your animals. Take a look around the genetics tab at the stats underneath appeal, they are most likely to effect the animals star rating. Interestingly, the baby tortoises in my enclosure all have boosted based species ratings, 2700 at .4 years, 2325 at 24.2 years (maturity at 25), but their star rating is 0.

 

[ctzn_erased]

Thanks for your replies, one and all! I have now completed Career Mode with gold stars across the board. As it turns out, I didn't really have to get anything new in. I just made a couple of adjustments (findings below!), put the game speed up to maximum and wandered off for half an hour. Bingo Bongo! (Note: I did not have a 5-star Bongo.)

the number of offspring an animal has produced has a major impact on its star rating.

Species themselves, Lions are more impressive then warthogs for example.

I'm not totally convinced about these as a rule of thumb. I got a 5-star Plains Zebra (not the most exciting), Buffalo and Bison that had only had one offspring. In a previous level I had a 5-star Red Panda that was alone in its exhibit and thus, obviously, no offspring.

Quality of food

This, however, you might be onto something. As soon as I maxed out the quality of food in all my exhibits, my 5-star animal count started creeping up.

A habitat that is very accessable to the population

Also this. It seemed to be the animals closest to the entrance that were getting the higher ratings, because they got the most foot traffic. Also those enclosures happened to be laid out in a way that punters had maximum visibility. It's highly advised to get one-way glass researched, that way you can surround exhibits and give guests fantastic views from all angles without stressing the inhabitants out.

Happyness and age of the animal?

I'm pretty sure maximum happiness plays a large part, and the previous comment about food quality will go a long way to securing this. If you've researched far enough for top-tier chow, you've likely unlocked all their enrichment items too. Combine all of these points and you're into a winner. Winner winner Flamingo dinner.