Individual Animal Priority Tiers

This kind of goes along with submissions to the various metalists, but what's everyone's priorities? By that, what must haves are still remaining, what are strongly desired, and so forth? current habitat/exhibit animals only please.

Example for me:

Must have Animals - Happily, I have none now that we have a wombat. Not that I'd want this to happen, but if we did not get anymore animals, I'd still look at the game as meeting all of my minium "Zoo Requirements".

Highest Priority - These aren't "must have" but they are animals I'd strongly desire to get into the game: Wolverine, Red River Hog, an Old World Porcupine (prefer Crested but I'm flexible), and some type of Cobra for an exhibit animal.

Really want but not as high priority - Emu, Maned Wolf, Sloth, Spectacled Bear, Tasmanian Devil, a chameleon of some type. Shoebill Stork, Scarlet Ibis for habitat birds.

Would really like to see but not going to be upset if they don't make it in - a species of Jackal, a species of Tree Kangaroo, Bat-Eared Fox, Grey Kangaroo, a species of Coatimundi, American Black Bear, Tayra, Kiwi, Patagonian Mara, Little Blue Penguin. Secretary Bird, Mute Swan, Marabou Stork. Roseate Spoonbill, a Pelican Species for habitat birds.

That's 27 animals between the tiers. If we included flying/Walk through exhibit birds I'd have some to add, but we're not quite there (yet).

The rest of my wishlist is more of a "hey, it would be neat to have...but I'm really not worried if we never got them, and would much rather have some of my more wanted animals/or have other players get some of their more wanted animals, than these animals this far down on my list"
 
Hmm must have animals?

High priority:
  • Pallas cat - NEED SMALL CATS
  • Musk ox
  • Tasmanian devil
  • Some hog like red River hog or wild boar
  • American flamingo
Like to see:
  • Crested porcupine
  • Another deer like say red deer or Siberian musk deer
  • Wolverine
  • More wader birds like Great egret, roseate spoonbill or even ducks (no flying needed like flamingo)
  • Old world monkeys especially ones like the colobus or de brazza
  • American black bear
Cool additions but couldn't care less if missed:
  • Any kind of cattle to be honest we have ample choice
  • Tree kangaroo
  • Emu
  • More African antelopes
  • Anything from New Zealand since hardly ever represented irl
 
Animals I still think a zoo game should have:
  • Two-toed Sloth
  • Tamarin species
  • Crested Porcupine
  • Emu
  • Coati
  • Wallaby species
  • Pellican species
  • A duck/swan species for generic ponds
  • way more monkeys and birds in general

Animals I think are popular enough to be a priority:
  • Maned Wolf
  • Red River Hog
  • Tasmanian Devil
  • Serval or any other smaller cat
  • Hamadryas Baboon
  • Collared Peccary

SOME of my personal wishes, but I guess not a priority:
  • Roseate Spoonbill
  • Reeves Muntjac
  • Patagonian Mara
  • Golden Takin
  • Striped Hyena
 
Must Have:
  • North Island brown kiwi.
  • Emu.
  • Tasmanian devil.
  • Tuatara.
  • Kea.
  • Bennett's wallaby.
  • Bolivian squirrel monkey.
  • Geoffroy's spider monkey.
  • Sumatran tiger.
  • Little blue penguin.
  • Serval.
Really Want:
  • Sumatran rhinoceros.
  • Diana monkey.
  • Gentoo penguin.
  • Rainbow lorikeet.
  • Waterbuck.
  • Caracal.
  • Eurasian brown bear.
  • Eurasian wolf (a proper one).
  • Eastern grey kangaroo.
  • Shingleback lizard.
  • Social huntsman spider.
Plus more but these are what I can think of on the fly.
 
Must haves for the roster to feel mostly "complete" (must haves for a zoo game roster imo)

  • Emu
  • Wallaby species
  • Crested porcupine
  • Tamarin species
  • A few waterfowl species
  • More monkeys and birds in general, as well as more South American and Oceanian animals in general.
  • Kiwi (preferably North Island Brown so it can be used realistically in international zoos but I'll take any.)

Personal Must Haves:

  • The aforementioned emu, wallaby, and kiwi as well as more birds and Oceanian animals in general.
  • Kea
  • Cockatoo species
  • Macaw species
  • A few other parrots in general aside from the ones mentioned.
  • Toucan species
  • Hornbill species
  • Tasmanian Devil
  • Tuatara

Would really love to see but not quite "must haves"

  • Other New Zealand fauna besides the must have kiwi, kea, and tuatara. Little blue penguin, South Island takahe, kereru, and kakariki come to mind.
  • Matschie's Tree Kangaroo
  • Maned Wolf
  • Another hyena species, the aardwolf is my most wanted but any is welcome
  • Helmeted guineafowl
  • Grey crowned crane
  • Fossa
  • Rainbow Lorikeet
  • Budgerigar and/or Cockatiel (or any other small parrot that can be found in the walkthrough exhibits of smaller, lower budget zoos.)
 
For me the few remaining must haves are all Australian/Papuan species, mostly because native fauna makes up a large portion of most of my local zoos and therefore I feel their absence quite strongly:
  • Tasmanian Devil
  • A tree kangaroo species
  • A wallaby species
  • Emu
My highest priority animals beyond them are a bit more geographically varied - although a fair portion of them ended up being South American and Oceanian:
  • Short-beaked Echidna
  • A two-toed sloth species
  • A crested porcupine species
  • Patagonian Mara
  • Black-capped Squirrel Monkey
  • A tamarin species
  • Geoffroy’s Spider Monkey
  • Maned Wolf
  • South American Coati
  • Fossa
  • Serval
  • North Island Brown Kiwi
  • Any number of waterfowl
  • Little Penguin
  • An Australian monitor lizard
Not going to go into the lower tiers otherwise I’ll be here all day. Didn’t include any flying birds here until we get confirmation that they’re actually coming, as likely as it is now, but they’d lead to significant expansion of both my must have and highest priority list.
 
Must have Animals
  • Honestly, ever since the NAAP, none. There aren't any animals I MUST have, as I got many in that one pack
Highest Priority
  • Black howler monkey
  • Black spider monkey
  • North American snake:
    • Copperhead (E)
    • Cottonmouth (E)
    • Coral snake (E)
  • South American snake
    • Green anaconda (E) - could potentially be WE? Depends if the interior path can be disabled
    • Emerald green boa (E)
  • Dromedary camel
  • Tasmanian devil
Really want but not as high priority
  • Greater rhea
  • Indian flying fox (WE)
  • American black bear
  • Wild boar
Would really like to see but not going to be upset if they don't make it in
  • Gray fox - 😭what have I become?
  • Maned wolf

For simplicity sake, and also because there isn't any proof, I didn't include flying birds
 
Pelicans.

That's it for me. Pelicans are need-to-have. Everything else is nice-to-have.

Of the remaining animals, I would say the most needed are:
  • Baboon
  • Coati
  • Wallaby
  • Emu
  • Flying birds
  • Sloth
  • Ground-dwelling birds/Waterfowl
  • Small monkeys
  • Small ungulates (muntjac/chevrotain)
  • Many lizards (chameleons, geckos, bearded dragons, tegus, etc.)
 
At this point, I’d feel comfortable saying that my only two truly must have species left are the emu and Bennett's wallaby. It’s impossible to create a convincing Australian section in an American zoo with the species we have. If a zoo has the budget/clout to get koalas, wombats (even extending this to include southern hairy-nosed), or obviously platypus, they’re going to have more species from the region to back them up than just the kangaroo. Almost any other common habitat animal niche that’s lacking can be filled by any number of species, but here we need these two very specific ones at the bare minimum. Going to exclude most birds because I still don't feel comfortable making a call on what to do with them.

Truly Essential
  • Bennett's wallaby
  • Emu
Top Priority
  • Dromedary
  • Hamadryas baboon
  • Golden lion tamarin
  • Red river hog
  • American black bear
  • Ocelot
  • Old world porcupine
High Priority
  • Fishing cat
  • Serval
  • Fossa
  • Colobus monkey
  • Squirrel monkey
  • Spider monkey
  • Patagonian mara
  • Tree kangaroo
  • Short-beaked echidna
  • Grey crowned crane
  • Spectacled bear
  • Sloth bear
Bias Picks (as in, I really want them but can't consider them priorities by any objective metric and don't actually expect to see any of them)
  • Tanuki
  • Bat-eared fox
  • Bush dog
  • Black-backed jackal
  • Sand cat
  • Pallas's cat
  • Common genet
  • White-tailed deer
  • North American river otter
  • Crowned lemur
  • Brazilian porcupine
  • Prevost's squirrel
And, as a controversial bonus,

Somewhat Popular Species That I Personally Have Little Interest In (Low Priority)
  • Maned wolf
  • Wolverine
  • Secretary bird
  • Muskox
  • Red deer
  • Gelada
  • Honey badger
 
Must have
These animals are the bare minimum still needed.
  • A wallaby species
  • Red deer
  • Wild boar
  • A large South American monkey species (howler, spider monkey)
  • A small South American non-tropical species (mara, viscacha, etc)
  • A South American rainforest bird (roseate spoonbill, scarlet ibis)
Highest priority
If these animals were added together with 'must have' above and nothing else, I'd be content.
  • Tasmanian devil
  • Emu and rhea. Yes, both.
  • If at all possible: a manatee
  • Maned wolf
  • A baboon species
  • A wild donkey species (somali wild donkey, kiang, onager)
I really want these
To flesh out most if not all areas in game, I'd want these animals.
  • Collared peccary
  • A small North African / Middle Eastern desert cat (sand cat, caracal)
  • A small South American cat (ocelot, margay, jaguarundi, etc)
  • An armadillo species
  • More non-tropical South American animals: mara, viscacha, pudu, pampas cat, spectacled bear, and yes even another fox such as the Darwin's fox
  • More animals from North Africa and the Middle East: Sand cat, Arabian sand gazelle, dama gazelle, addax, honeybadger, striped hyena, dromedary
  • More animals from central Asia: Takin, saiga, yak, markhor, pallas cat
  • An east Asian ungulate such as a water deer, musk deer, serow
I'd like these, but am ok if they were left out
If you really wanted to make me happy, go right ahead and add these too.
  • More antelope: dikdik, giant eland, kudu, hirola, blackbuck, nilgai, etc etc
  • Banteng and gaur
  • More deer: sambar, wapiti, axis deer, marsh deer, white-tailed deer, roe deer, pere David deer, in addition to the red deer and pudu already mentioned earlier, which I feel have higher priority than these. But I'd still like all of them.
  • Musk ox
  • Porcupine
  • Tree kangaroo
  • Grey kangaroo, another wallaby, a pademelon, a wallaroo
  • Black rhinoceros
 
Must Haves
-
Red River Hog-
-Maned Wolf-
-African Crested Porcupine-
-Tasmanian Devil-
-Bennet Wallaby-
-Linnaeus Two Toed Sloth-
-Emu-
-Geoffrey´s spider Monkey-

Personal Must
-Greater Rhea-

-Collared Peccary-
-Seven-Banded Armadillo-
-Sumatran Rhinoceros-
-Kea-
-Blue And Golden Macaw-

Personal Animals That I Don´t Want To see For Nothing In The World
-Tanuki/Raccoon Dog- (Most bizarre species of mammal that i have seen)

-Siberian Musk Deer-
 
Sounds like a good distracter on my way to uni.

Should be in the game:
  • Emu
  • Benetts Wallaby
  • Wild Boar
  • Collared Peccary
  • African Monkey
  • atleast 3 more SA monkeys (White Faced Saki, Black Howler and cotton top tamarin would be my favorite combination)
  • atleast 1 arboral non monkey from tropical south america (preffered coati, but tamandua, kinkajou or a cat are also fine)
  • alpine marmot
  • atleast 1 duck, swan and goose
  • atleast 1 domestic goat, bird and equine
  • tree Kangaroo


Id personally would love and see them as great additions:
  • white stork
  • white faced whistlikg duck
  • mallard duck
  • hawaian goose
  • celenes crested macaque
  • lowland anoa
  • yellow throated marten
  • mandarin duck
  • victorian crowned pidgeon
  • mara
  • rhea

Animals im oddly apathetic towards at this point:
  • pelicans
  • spectacke bear
  • ABB
  • red deer
  • maned wolf
  • Porcupine
  • kiwi
  • small cats
  • Wolverine
  • tasmanian devil

All the animals in the kast category are such where i understand why they would be good additions, but in general wouldnt feel to excited rn.
Ofcourse id be happy to see them, but atleast discussing them became stale and boring, which also let them slide out of my personal wants in favor of more interesting animals and that i realised that while these animals would be nice, those others can expand the game better by either offering something new (for example the celebes crested macaque and the lowland anoa opening up the possibility of an sulawesi themed area with the babirusa) or simply being more needed for the burning pile called south america and oceania.
Hell i know i couldnt care less about the howler, but i can recognise from an objective standpoint that it would fit best to fill sas monkeys holes together with a tamarin
 
This kind of goes along with submissions to the various metalists, but what's everyone's priorities? By that, what must haves are still remaining, what are strongly desired, and so forth? current habitat/exhibit animals only please.
I have a few personal favorites, but mostly I just think of the groups that are lacking. The groups are somewhat in the order of how much I want them, but not necessarily how many are needed. The lower limit is about how many I think I’d need from each category to stop wishing for more of something while building a zoo. The upper limit is where I would start to get sick of them, and I might have questions if a group crossed it before another’s minimum was filled out.

12-18 monkeys: at least 4 from SA, 2 from Africa, 1 from India, and a baboon
10-?* habitat birds: at least 3 from Africa, 2 ratites, 2 from SA, and hopefully 3 waterfowl
4-8 small cats: at least serval, ocelot/margay, Pallas’s; variety in continents and biomes would be nice
7-11 misc. critters: at least 1 sloth, wolverine, coati, old world porcupine, and 2 other rodents
5-7 goats: at least markhor, musk ox, takin, desert goat of some kind
3-7 marsupials: at least 1 tree kangaroo, Tasmanian devil, echidna; maybe 2-3 smaller ones
3-5 deer: at least 2 small, 2 from SA, 1 from Asia
3-6 reptiles: at least 1 crocodilian, 1 habitat lizard, and hopefully 2 aquatic turtles
2-4 pigs: at least red river hog
2-5 dogs: at least jackal, and possibly: tanuki, bush dog, and other foxes
5-11 antelope/other bovids: at least 2 from Asia, 1 small, 1 big African
Other essentials: dromedary, donkey, 2-3 bears, 1-3 pinnipeds; maybes: other tapir, guanaco, manatee, other rhinos, Masai giraffe, "re-skins"

Exhibits: big lizards, tortoise/turtles, colorful snakes, camouflaged critters (i.e. orchid mantis, leaf tailed gecko)

Personal Favorites: golden lion tamarin, American black bear, serval, emerald tree boa – These are the only specific four that would make me sad if they weren’t included.

Essential to the game: dromedary, red river hog, tree kangaroo, crested porcupine, 3 SA monkeys, coati, Indian monkey, blackbuck, Asian caprid, small deer, Tasmanian devil, baboon, SA bird, secretary bird or grey crowned crane, Mandarin duck, mantled colobus, swan, 2 small cats, wolverine, sloth (or tamandua if sloth is exhibit)

*Birds don’t have an upper limit. I don’t like birds as much as some people on the forum, but I do want more. Too many wading birds or pheasants would get old, and if they add a bunch of bird exhibits, I will not want so many habitat birds.

Edits account for new animals.
 
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Essential animals I feel would complete the game. A lot of these are based off realism, conservation, and being successfully kept in captivity.
1) Dromedary Camel
2) Black Howler Monkey
3) Spider Monkey (any)
4) Hamadryas/ Olive baboon
5) Maned Wolf
6) Black Rhinoceros
7) Bennetts Wallaby
8) Spectacled/Sloth/American Black Bear just one will do imo.
9) Tasmanian Devil
10) Emu
11) Birds- pelican, crowned cranes, spoonbill, screamers, secretary, hornbills, turkey, swan ect.
12) Porcupine- African or North American
13) Walkthrough exhibit species- sloth, tamarin hard to imagine these being any different. Sloth is well a sloth and I’m yet to see a tamarin as a open habitat animal. Besides that have fun spotting them or at least enjoying a close up view of them.
14) Addax , Blackbuck, other antelope not many maybe one or two more.
15) Takin as a odd ball species.
16) Aviary birds 4-7 species
17) Swine species- Red River, Peccary, or Wild Boar 1 more will do.
With 3-5 dlcs left I feel the game doesn’t really need a whole lot more. Of course more is always better but with the status of the game unknown past 2023 I’ll stick with these.
 
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I'm a birb boi through and through, so expect to a lot of them on here - but tbh regardless of my personal feelings, 7 birds compared to over 80 mammals is absolutely absurd and PZ absolutely needs more.

Must Have:
  • Sloth
  • Porcupine (any kind)
  • Walrus
  • Dromedary Camel
  • Kiwi
  • Emu
  • Pelican (any kind)
  • A DUCK
  • Galliformes - turkey, guineafowl, pheasant, capercallie, junglefowl, etc.
  • A larger, habitat turtle
  • Another monkey - either South American or Colobus

With the introduction of the bat and flighted exhibit animals, and high likelihood of flying birds being introduced, I'd include:
  • Scarlet Macaw
  • Toco or Keel-Billed Toucan
  • Yellow-Crested Cockatoo
  • Hornbill (any kind)
  • Laughing Kookaburra
  • Bald Eagle
  • Owl (any kind - preferably Snowy)
  • Vulture - any kind
Really Want:
  • Red River Hog
  • Markhor
  • Tree Kangaroo
  • Coquerel's Sifaka
  • Fossa
  • Atlantic Puffin
  • Roseate Spoonbill
  • Nile Crocodile
  • Scarlet Ibis
  • Another penguin - preferably Rockhopper, hey, we got 3 lemurs and foxes!
Personal Faves:
  • African Spurred Tortoise
  • Muskox
  • Sea Otter
  • Burrowing Owl
 
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