It is shameful for Frontier that you cannot create a European zoo!

[stonegarden]

Those who want to create a European zoo with animals from the European biotope still have to wait endlessly. They will eventually put a European brown bear surrogate as a Grizzly bear, a Bison as a Wisent and a "Timber wolf" as the European gray wolf. It is obvious that Frontier likes other continents much more than the continent that hosts them. Europe is uninteresting, European fauna is despised, considered uninteresting. Australia (Oceania), South America, Indonesia now have much more animals in the PZ than Europe, with all the surrogates from North America. Frontier, when will you create for European players the possibility to create a decent local zoo?!!!!

 

[FoxyDee]

I am from EU and my local zoos barely keeps local fauna tbh. I can certainly create a a typical European zoo.

Regarding the comments that Frontier despise European animals - that is ridiculous, Frontier is a business, so of course, they will priotize animals that most causal players will find interesting. And even within their hardcore community, the wishlist tell us that other animals are more demanded, so of course, they will be more priotized.

 

[Aramar]

Have you bought any of the DLCs? Because at first Europe was very poorly represented, but now it is on pair with Oceania and South America. There are still missing animals (like for all other continents), but Frontier has shown a big love to Europe.

 

[Captain Callum]

I remain doubtful that any specific subspecies for such region will be added for the sake of completeness, each of the mentioned substitute animals do the job well enough to make a European themed area. In my case basing my zoos around the real collections that Scottish zoos hold, the current game roster is really good to represent what is actually kept. Local animals are rare but red deer, Scottish wildcats and wild red squirrels who visit are really the only examples I can think of.

My actual local zoo is well represented ingame including Japanese macaque, amur tiger, polar bear, eurasian lynx, timber wolf, przewalski horse, red deer, Arctic fox, snow leopards, Bactrian camels and moose.

 

[Chuditch]

Australia (Oceania), South America, Indonesia now have much more animals in the PZ than Europe

All of these regions have a similar species count, at least in regards to habitat animals - Europe has 13 (14 including polar bear but they're a bit too marginal IMO), Australia has 12 (Oceania 13), South America has 13 and Indonesia has 15. They were all neglected regions in the base game and it's great to see how far they've come (even if they are all still missing some species, or a lot in the case of South America).

 

[AlexSea]

I really wouldn't call it "shameful", and there's still a good variety of European animals in the game.

 

[Fnord Velkor]

I agree with @FoxyDee - I think it more the case that zoos tend to house species that are not indigenous. Why pay to go see Brown Bears when you can go walking in the mountains and get attacked by one?

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Those who want to create a European zoo with animals from the European biotope still have to wait endlessly. They will eventually put a European brown bear surrogate as a Grizzly bear, a Bison as a Wisent and a "Timber wolf" as the European gray wolf. It is obvious that Frontier likes other continents much more than the continent that hosts them. Europe is uninteresting, European fauna is despised, considered uninteresting. Australia (Oceania), South America, Indonesia now have much more animals in the PZ than Europe, with all the surrogates from North America. Frontier, when will you create for European players the possibility to create a decent local zoo?!!!!

I can mostly recreate my local wild park, what are you on about?
The timber wolf is intended to cover the european grey wolf, we really dont need a third brown bear and the wisent is the last of europes issues.
In fact, just getting the wild boar and a bird would pretty much complete europe.
And frontier defenetly does not hate europe, otherwise why would they have gifted us the red deer for free?
Facing the fact, europe has less typical zoo animals then other continents and while i as a european would like another animal pack worth of animals, lets say chamois, alpine marmot, red squirrel, wild boar, white stork, mallard duck and mute swan, i can also admit that while nice for me i totally understand if many people would get nothing out of it.
Before the europe pack, your complaint would have been very valid but since then and after getting 2 more very basic animals last year with the red fox and deer, we really are not dying for more european animals. 1 or 2 a year would be be nice, but it really wont hurt the game if we wouldnt get more at all.

 

[Orkan]

I am an American Player, but from what I hear from Europe is that the selection is actually pretty decent with DLCs. We’ve got all the essentials like Fallow Deer, Lynx, Ibex, Wolves, and Red Foxes. There are also some more obscure ones like Porcupines.

Planet Zoo is really only complete with DLCs. I’m not saying you have to get every one of them, but it’s good to get the ones you want.

 

[leehonglocal]

Planet Zoo had fourteen Habitat species (and subspecies) that were native in Europe including and even greater flamingo and African crested porcupine (small part of that continent). Also six Exhibit ones from that continent.

 

[DarthQuell]

I don't know much about European zoos, but you gotta consider the fact that, worldwide, how many zoos actually have a dedicated European section?

Planet Zoo is a called Planet Zoo, not European Zoo, so it makes sense to have worldwide animals. Demand for Europe is also not high, and this is including our very own European playerbase, who make up about half of the community (I bet that there are more Europeans than Americans in this forum)


If anything, we should beg for more South American animals over any other continent

 

[sumcherish82]

The same sentence can be applied to South America and Aviary.

It is shameful for Frontier that we cannot create a South American zoo and Aviary zoo!​

 

[Mazoku]

I won't shaming on Frontier for not having more European animals. But, I am completely agree that the game needs more European animals. From my perspective, Europe is overlooked, people not wanting more European animals because of clone/alternative animals (similar to American Bison, Brown Bears, etc) even though they are essential. We have nice European animals already (14 habitat European animals in total iirc) however, it is not really completed yet especially when it comes to iconic European animals, Europe still need more animals. I can even make a long list of missing European animals that are not in the game yet.

Aside from this, I do agree with that some regions in the world needing more animals like South America, this include Europe too however, I feel it is being overlooked in my pov.

 

[Doran]

I dont think I even could build average local zoo in Indonesia or South America (any place) with current roster tbh. Europe is way better equipped for that currently.

 

[wanderoo]

I dont think I even could build average local zoo in Indonesia or South America (any place) with current roster tbh. Europe is way better equipped for that currently.

Agreed, straight up cannot build an average local zoo in India either with current roster. Would need at least 2-3 Indian deer/antelope (axis deer, sambar/barasingha, blackbuck, Indian muntjac), 1-2 Indian monkeys (a langur and a macaque), sloth bear, 1-2 small mammals from India (e.g. Asian palm civet), 1-2 Indian water birds, king cobra, etc.

In this case some of the missing animals are even more egregious as you cannot build an India area for a zoo set anywhere else without the essentials (an Indian deer/antelope, and an Indian monkey) either.

 

[jcp011c]

I see two very polarized viewpoints expressed on Europe quite often of late
1: That Europe has decent representation and is really only lacking the Wild Boar, Wolverine and Eurasian Brown Bear as pretty notably absent mammals - some don't even include the Wolverine as they lump that in with North America.

2: That Europe hardly any representation and needs more focus badly.

I mean, given this would come from multiple people, the two viewpoints are understandable, the question is which one do things shift towards?

 

[Captain Callum]

I see two very polarized viewpoints expressed on Europe quite often of late
1: That Europe has decent representation and is really only lacking the Wild Boar, Wolverine and Eurasian Brown Bear as pretty notably absent mammals - some don't even include the Wolverine as they lump that in with North America.

2: That Europe hardly any representation and needs more focus badly.

I mean, given this would come from multiple people, the two viewpoints are understandable, the question is which one do things shift towards?

Looking at it from a neutral perspective, viewpoint 1 is objectively the right stance. Europe as it stands has a great coverage of different animals covering the majority of the continent in respect to the way planet zoo diversity works. We can all agree surely that the wild boar and the brown bear (I would add the bison in because it often pops up) are the needed keystone species to round out Europe.

Viewpoint 2 I feel is coming from unique regions of Europe such as the iberian peninsula or southeast Europe. The diversity in these regions can be claimed to be vastly different than say central Germany or the UK where general diversity is well represented. This is kind of why we get animals like the eurasian lynx to try to cover as much ground as possible without having multiple kinds of lynx to satisfy each corner of the continent.

But then the viewpoint 2 argument could be said for north america, asia, and oceania where representation in certain regions is lackluster compared to other regions where diversity is overflowing with a wealth of animal additions. Take an example of north american taiga biome where even in the base game was well represented compared to say the deserts in the southwest.

 

[Fallax]

Let's see how Europe is doing for the key "zoo groups":

Carnivorans - Very solid, we have bear (different ssp but it literally looks the same come on) wolf, and lynx which is the big three as well as an aquatic option with the seal and smaller options with badger and fox. Could always do with more like wolverine or marten but hey it is pretty good.
Ungulates - 4/5 we have are deer... Wild boar and wisent would help a ton because of this. Yes Europe doesn't have many ungulate species but reducing it to 4 deer and a goat is a bit much.
Small Mammals - We have the porcupine but that hardly counts... Giving us the marmot or mountain hare would be a big boost.
Birds - There is the flamingo which similarly to the porcupine doesn't count much. This is where Europe is most lacking, the stork, capercaillie, waterfowl, pelican, etc would all be great and that is barely scratching the surface.

So really, Europe is very good for carnivorans and ok for ungulates but still heavily lacking in the small mammal and bird departments. Any other groups aren't really applicable to Europe unless we want to talk about exhibits which yes it would be nice to see European reptiles like a tortoise or adder.

 

[jcp011c]

Let's see how Europe is doing for the key "zoo groups":

Carnivorans - Very solid, we have bear (different ssp but it literally looks the same come on) wolf, and lynx which is the big three as well as an aquatic option with the seal and smaller options with badger and fox. Could always do with more like wolverine or marten but hey it is pretty good.
Ungulates - 4/5 we have are deer... Wild boar and wisent would help a ton because of this. Yes Europe doesn't have many ungulate species but reducing it to 4 deer and a goat is a bit much.
Small Mammals - We have the porcupine but that hardly counts... Giving us the marmot or mountain hare would be a big boost.
Birds - There is the flamingo which similarly to the porcupine doesn't count much. This is where Europe is most lacking, the stork, capercaillie, waterfowl, pelican, etc would all be great and that is barely scratching the surface.

So really, Europe is very good for carnivorans and ok for ungulates but still heavily lacking in the small mammal and bird departments. Any other groups aren't really applicable to Europe unless we want to talk about exhibits which yes it would be nice to see European reptiles like a tortoise or adder.

Good synopsis, though regarding the birds being where Europe is lacking, that's pretty much the case worldwide, assuming you're talking about habitat appropriate birds and not smaller birds. Oceania may be the exception now with 4/5 of 10 birds being able to represent it. Which doesn't mean that saying Europe is lacking birds is incorrect, just that it's in the same situation as North America and South America. But I completely see where you're coming from with this. Wisent seems to be growing in popularity which I like.

Looking at it from a neutral perspective, viewpoint 1 is objectively the right stance. Europe as it stands has a great coverage of different animals covering the majority of the continent in respect to the way planet zoo diversity works. We can all agree surely that the wild boar and the brown bear (I would add the bison in because it often pops up) are the needed keystone species to round out Europe.

Viewpoint 2 I feel is coming from unique regions of Europe such as the iberian peninsula or southeast Europe. The diversity in these regions can be claimed to be vastly different than say central Germany or the UK where general diversity is well represented. This is kind of why we get animals like the eurasian lynx to try to cover as much ground as possible without having multiple kinds of lynx to satisfy each corner of the continent.

But then the viewpoint 2 argument could be said for north america, asia, and oceania where representation in certain regions is lackluster compared to other regions where diversity is overflowing with a wealth of animal additions. Take an example of north american taiga biome where even in the base game was well represented compared to say the deserts in the southwest.

That's also an interesting take, and I totally understand where you're coming from - a "general Europe" roster is something we almost have a good representation of - still need the core three - Wild Boar/EBB/Wisent - but more specialized areas are not so well off. Good example for North America for sure. The wildlife of the Southwest is almost nothing like the wildlife of the Northeast, a handful of species excepting.

 

[Marvinb]

I see two very polarized viewpoints expressed on Europe quite often of late
1: That Europe has decent representation and is really only lacking the Wild Boar, Wolverine and Eurasian Brown Bear as pretty notably absent mammals - some don't even include the Wolverine as they lump that in with North America.

2: That Europe hardly any representation and needs more focus badly.

I mean, given this would come from multiple people, the two viewpoints are understandable, the question is which one do things shift towards?

Kinda also changes with your willingness to use other animals as substitutes (grizzly, wolf, beaver, bison, asco).
Because without it your missing both apex predators and the biggest herbivore. (Imagine NA without them)
Im personally completely fine with using the NA species as their EU counterparts, so for me the european fauna is in an ok state.

The ones im still missing are the boar, waterfowl, stork, marmot and maybe the wildcat. Those would bring europe to a perfect place for me.
Honorable mentions to wolverine, muskox and walrus, but those are more polar animal and also big players in na and asia