After the thread with the needed animals i thought about, that will i dont see some animals as needed to complete sections themed around their continents or to have a good representation of that continent, they would be really great to expand the diversity of their taxonomic group in the game. We allready have threads about birds and monkeys in particular, but i feel like besides our old pals the elephants most group could really benefit from some touchups.
Argueably the only group that could be seen as "overrepresented" (as if anything could be in this game) would be the canids, but even there are some obvious inclusions.
We are still lacking on foxes, i personally really want to see the red fox, but i know atleast someone hear would LOVE to see the silverfox in the game, and you know i dont blame them
Theres also a canid for all continents right now, with only Southamerica missing, making the Maned wolf a great inclusion.
The secound most decisive group are bears. Many people think we have enough, and i would agree, i would be happy with no more bears, but again, adding one last bear for southamerica would give us a bear for everywhere. Ofcourse im talking about the spectacled bear with its cute glasses like eyemarkings. Funfact! There german name is "Brillenbär" which literally means "Glassesbear" or "bear wearing glasses".
Honing in on the third of the top 3 we have the cats. For a long time i was of the mindset that we dont need more cats, cause have one have all, right?
But now building my zoo, im cramming everything full with them. They are just beautiful animals and its really fun to build their enclosures.
But if your thinking im gonna say leopard now you have been fooled! What i think we need more in the game are small cats, 3 to be exact. I would nominate the eurasian lynx as the most important inclusion, followed by the aquatic fishing cat and the adorable ocelot. Small cats are very diverse in the ways they can be used, as they are small enough to fit into a generic animal house with a little outdoor cage, but still big enough to draw attention in a bigger habitat, aka the best kind of animal, atleast for me. The three i choose all represent a different biome, as well as a different biogeographic region, the pale arctic, the indomalayan and the neotropics. The fact that 2 out of 3 of them are heavily underrepresented seals the deal even more.
But for our final small cat i think we simply need the cougar in the game. Funfact! The cougar is despite its size not of the same genus panthera as the other large cats. One of the more notable differences is that this locked them out of the ability to roar, so instead their noises sound like a woman being murderd in cold blood. Nature sure can be creative sometimes.
Having talked about our main carnivores, we should also take a look at our herbivore friends. First of all i want more bovids.
Its criminal the only ones we have are the bison and a testosteron filled beast of rage and anger, that isnt even held in zoos for that region to often.
There are some cool choices, like the euopean bison (yes if you show me two pictures i can actually spot the difference, it isnt hard), african forest buffalo or the gaur, but i feel like we are best served with one domestic breed thats still exotic to us, for example the yak or the watussi cattle, and the anoa.
As the smallest living wild bovine they are only found on the island of sulawesi, the home of the babirusa and lush tropical forests. Growing only to a meter in height and sheeding most of their hair as they grow up, the Anoa would be a more then unique animal, aswell as a welcome reminder for more casual players, as they are facing a large thread right now, with their subspecies, the mountain anoa, arguably allready being extinct in the wild with only one male left in captivity.
But talking about sulawesi, lets talk about pigs!
Right now we have the warthog from the african savannah and the babirusa from the indonesian rainforest, but theres still so much more to be left desired!
Most notably would be the desert dwelling collared peccary from the new world, the red river hog, a beautiful red pig from the tropical africa and the beast, the legend, the black terror of the night, the wild boar from eurasia and everywhere else they have stranded as domestic pigs. But a pig no one is talking about is the Chacoan peccary! Its the largest and most threatend of the 3 peccary species and has been introduced to northamerican and european zoos to establish a breeding population. They live in the Gran Chaco, dry forests in the lower parts of southamerica and are one of the most prominent species of the region. They also look quite distinct to the collared peccary, primarly do to the size difference and their thicker, longer bristle, so having both could actually be a viable option, with the common zoo animal and the newer but more threatend.
The last group i want to mention for now is Caprinae, with sadly only the dallsheep currently in the game. Which is a shame, as the group is home to a wide variety of ungulates and zoo staples.
Starting of, the most obvious one is the african pigmy goat. If we get any more domestic animals, this should be one of them, as they are just super common in zoos and just fun to watch climbing and jumping around.
For the wild animals i will go with one per continent, just kidding, asia alone has more then enough commonly requested goats, namly the takin, the beautiful mountain cow thats not actually a cow, the markhor, a cental asian goat with funny horns and zootycoon classic, the japanese serow, heavily requested as another japanese animal and a cute smaller caprid and my personal wish, the himalayan thar, the main prey of the snowleopard and one of the few animals tough enough to live in the higher alptitudes of mount everest.
Another fun and acutally not to uncommon pick would be the chinese goral. In apperance and behaviour they are like a mix of a goat and an antelope, and also just really cute.
But thats not all, moving to africa we have the barbary sheep, a beautiful orange, bearded mountain goat, that is commonly held in zoos with baboons or vultures. Its inclusion would enable some beautiful mountainous african habitats, that we simply dont have any animals for right now, as the african mountainside is not present in the game at this point.
In europe we meet the alpine ibex and the charming chamois, one is the secound most requested european animal in the meta wishlist and the other one is its smaller cousin, sharing their domain but standing out with their beautiful white and black fur.
Lastly, lets talk about murrica. As far as i know there are no caprids in southamerica, but the northamerican mountain goat and the muskox are both great coldweather champions, that would bring an edge of toughness and ellegance to our mountainous or tundra sections.
As you can see, caprinae is a super fun group of animals that we are seriously lacking, and lets be honest there would be nothing better to build rocky habitats for then some climbing goats.
So thats it for now, maybe i will edit it later down the line when i have the motivation to go over other groups like deer, monkeys or marsupials, but i feel like these 6 groups are for one the three most controversial and the three that no one gives a lot of attention to, which is a shame, as all 6 groups still have great members to add to the game.
Especally if we remember, that in the average a zoo has about 250 different species of vertebrates, with 50 of them being mammals, so theres still alot to be added to the game to reach that number.
But what do you guys think? What groups do you feel like are neglected in discussions and do you agree with my choices? what representatives would you have choosen?
Or do you even disagree with some of my choices? I wanna hear it, the more detail the better so we can have a nice and good discussion about the topic.
I feel like it helps atleast me to really understand my wants and wishes for the game, and my top 20 that i posted in the metawishlist has been quite outdated now for a while, just because im shifting my priorites and actually am starting to have more educated opinions, both about whats common in zoos and what animals would be fun to add in general
Argueably the only group that could be seen as "overrepresented" (as if anything could be in this game) would be the canids, but even there are some obvious inclusions.
We are still lacking on foxes, i personally really want to see the red fox, but i know atleast someone hear would LOVE to see the silverfox in the game, and you know i dont blame them
Theres also a canid for all continents right now, with only Southamerica missing, making the Maned wolf a great inclusion.
The secound most decisive group are bears. Many people think we have enough, and i would agree, i would be happy with no more bears, but again, adding one last bear for southamerica would give us a bear for everywhere. Ofcourse im talking about the spectacled bear with its cute glasses like eyemarkings. Funfact! There german name is "Brillenbär" which literally means "Glassesbear" or "bear wearing glasses".
Honing in on the third of the top 3 we have the cats. For a long time i was of the mindset that we dont need more cats, cause have one have all, right?
But now building my zoo, im cramming everything full with them. They are just beautiful animals and its really fun to build their enclosures.
But if your thinking im gonna say leopard now you have been fooled! What i think we need more in the game are small cats, 3 to be exact. I would nominate the eurasian lynx as the most important inclusion, followed by the aquatic fishing cat and the adorable ocelot. Small cats are very diverse in the ways they can be used, as they are small enough to fit into a generic animal house with a little outdoor cage, but still big enough to draw attention in a bigger habitat, aka the best kind of animal, atleast for me. The three i choose all represent a different biome, as well as a different biogeographic region, the pale arctic, the indomalayan and the neotropics. The fact that 2 out of 3 of them are heavily underrepresented seals the deal even more.
But for our final small cat i think we simply need the cougar in the game. Funfact! The cougar is despite its size not of the same genus panthera as the other large cats. One of the more notable differences is that this locked them out of the ability to roar, so instead their noises sound like a woman being murderd in cold blood. Nature sure can be creative sometimes.
Having talked about our main carnivores, we should also take a look at our herbivore friends. First of all i want more bovids.
Its criminal the only ones we have are the bison and a testosteron filled beast of rage and anger, that isnt even held in zoos for that region to often.
There are some cool choices, like the euopean bison (yes if you show me two pictures i can actually spot the difference, it isnt hard), african forest buffalo or the gaur, but i feel like we are best served with one domestic breed thats still exotic to us, for example the yak or the watussi cattle, and the anoa.
As the smallest living wild bovine they are only found on the island of sulawesi, the home of the babirusa and lush tropical forests. Growing only to a meter in height and sheeding most of their hair as they grow up, the Anoa would be a more then unique animal, aswell as a welcome reminder for more casual players, as they are facing a large thread right now, with their subspecies, the mountain anoa, arguably allready being extinct in the wild with only one male left in captivity.
But talking about sulawesi, lets talk about pigs!
Right now we have the warthog from the african savannah and the babirusa from the indonesian rainforest, but theres still so much more to be left desired!
Most notably would be the desert dwelling collared peccary from the new world, the red river hog, a beautiful red pig from the tropical africa and the beast, the legend, the black terror of the night, the wild boar from eurasia and everywhere else they have stranded as domestic pigs. But a pig no one is talking about is the Chacoan peccary! Its the largest and most threatend of the 3 peccary species and has been introduced to northamerican and european zoos to establish a breeding population. They live in the Gran Chaco, dry forests in the lower parts of southamerica and are one of the most prominent species of the region. They also look quite distinct to the collared peccary, primarly do to the size difference and their thicker, longer bristle, so having both could actually be a viable option, with the common zoo animal and the newer but more threatend.
The last group i want to mention for now is Caprinae, with sadly only the dallsheep currently in the game. Which is a shame, as the group is home to a wide variety of ungulates and zoo staples.
Starting of, the most obvious one is the african pigmy goat. If we get any more domestic animals, this should be one of them, as they are just super common in zoos and just fun to watch climbing and jumping around.
For the wild animals i will go with one per continent, just kidding, asia alone has more then enough commonly requested goats, namly the takin, the beautiful mountain cow thats not actually a cow, the markhor, a cental asian goat with funny horns and zootycoon classic, the japanese serow, heavily requested as another japanese animal and a cute smaller caprid and my personal wish, the himalayan thar, the main prey of the snowleopard and one of the few animals tough enough to live in the higher alptitudes of mount everest.
Another fun and acutally not to uncommon pick would be the chinese goral. In apperance and behaviour they are like a mix of a goat and an antelope, and also just really cute.
But thats not all, moving to africa we have the barbary sheep, a beautiful orange, bearded mountain goat, that is commonly held in zoos with baboons or vultures. Its inclusion would enable some beautiful mountainous african habitats, that we simply dont have any animals for right now, as the african mountainside is not present in the game at this point.
In europe we meet the alpine ibex and the charming chamois, one is the secound most requested european animal in the meta wishlist and the other one is its smaller cousin, sharing their domain but standing out with their beautiful white and black fur.
Lastly, lets talk about murrica. As far as i know there are no caprids in southamerica, but the northamerican mountain goat and the muskox are both great coldweather champions, that would bring an edge of toughness and ellegance to our mountainous or tundra sections.
As you can see, caprinae is a super fun group of animals that we are seriously lacking, and lets be honest there would be nothing better to build rocky habitats for then some climbing goats.
So thats it for now, maybe i will edit it later down the line when i have the motivation to go over other groups like deer, monkeys or marsupials, but i feel like these 6 groups are for one the three most controversial and the three that no one gives a lot of attention to, which is a shame, as all 6 groups still have great members to add to the game.
Especally if we remember, that in the average a zoo has about 250 different species of vertebrates, with 50 of them being mammals, so theres still alot to be added to the game to reach that number.
But what do you guys think? What groups do you feel like are neglected in discussions and do you agree with my choices? what representatives would you have choosen?
Or do you even disagree with some of my choices? I wanna hear it, the more detail the better so we can have a nice and good discussion about the topic.
I feel like it helps atleast me to really understand my wants and wishes for the game, and my top 20 that i posted in the metawishlist has been quite outdated now for a while, just because im shifting my priorites and actually am starting to have more educated opinions, both about whats common in zoos and what animals would be fun to add in general
