Mascots feel like wasted effort, the moddeling work could much better be used on other aspects of the update like scenery, plants and animals.
Also looking at these, does anyone unironically want an ugly costume person running around their zoo?
And even if we get some, now what? What are they gonna do? Raise guest happyness?
Wouldnt an update to the guest happyness that makes them less reliant on eating, drinking and toileting be a better solution to that?
And how many models would there need to be?
I doubt anyone who wants mascots wants one lion costume and nothing more.
The least would most likly be something like a cat, a bear and an ape, but would people be satisfied?
People who like the mascots would most likly want more to cover the popular themes, like an australian or south american one, meanwhile even more development time is spend on the mascots and not the rest of the update or even pack.
And that isnt something id want to see sacrificed for a new staff in ugly suits with nothing to do.