Jade Palace Preserve

[XT]

Hi All -
Here's my most ... built zoo (usually I abandon my zoos after a few weeks, sigh). The Jade Palace Zoo is generic Asian - moderately Japanese influenced but not particularly accurate to any culture.

The grounds are surrounded by a defensive wall, from a more violent past. Now guests freely enter. To the right is a small wetlands area, whose seasonal waters overflow the path periodically. Red crowned cranes nest there. I like creating little intrusions to the guest paths, where nature isn't so controlled and I think the bit of overflow worked well here. There's a lamp to help people avoid it at night (I need to go through the entire zoo and do lighting).

The cranes have an enormous habitat along the wall - the building at one end is an information center for guests. I built a fake nest for the cranes near the building, which they sometimes hang out near, as I used bedding for it. I use a lot of workshop items; honestly I don't recall all the names but the folks who do those spectacular items and load them for everyone to use are the real heroes of PZ. Oh, I found out that the keepers can use that prop bridge to cross gaps or water.

Across the path from the crane exhibit is 'hanzo's house' a workshop item that hides the entrance to the deer exhibit and a keeper hut. The deer have a reasonably sized, shady, habitat that is overlooked by the bamboo terrace restaurant. We'll see that later.

Next Up … the Capuchin Monkey habitat

 

[FoxyDee]

Lovely zoo and cool idea with the wall! Cant wait to see more.

 

[XT]

Capuchin Monkey's as promised!

Since I set this zoo in the taiga, I (tried, and sometimes failed) to have tropical animals in totally enclosed habitats. My capuchin money habitat is the first I built for this zoo. It's left and slightly further in than the crane pond, just beyond 'hanzo's house' and the deer enclosure. I'm still not too great at decorations or signage but at least there's a little display leading towards the capuchin building.

It's angled (and that took some fussing with the grid system), and has a glass roof along part of it to give the monkey's some natural light. I used a mix of billboards and the south american wood pieces to decorate the inside. The animals use most of the exhibit pretty freely.

You can see my poor attempt at a 'back stage-y' area, that can be closed off. I was determined to make it useable by the animals, which it is - they often sleep there. I think of a good way for them to enter/exit so I've just propped a stick up. :/

I made a little back area behind the capuchin monkey enclosure that I'm fairly proud of. We're looking directly at the back of the habitat, at the 'backstage enclosure'. Staff can look directly into it. There's a little garden area to grow food for the animals and to the right is staff building.

This last picture is looking 'back' at the capuchin habitat, the Bamboo Terrace building is just behind us and we'll be looking at that next.

(I should note that I use a few mods: most pertinent, the Planet Zoo Plus mod that massively reduces the space requirement for animals). Much of the animal's needs are also turned off, in this zoo too, I think. Especially 'escapes' - otherwise my climbing animals would be clipping out of their habitats with the wooden pieces I use. I hate that issue so, so much.

Next up - Bamboo Terrace and the Pangolins!