New Walkthrough Exhibits: What's Possible?

Now that the new walkthrough exhibit has been announced, what other animals could these larger exhibits house? Here's my theories:
  • Birds (of course); however, will the walkthrough part be optional so that birds of prey can be housed in them?
  • Other Bats; I prefer the Malaysian Flying Fox
  • Sloths
  • Small Monkeys: Tamarins for example
  • Bush Babies
  • Sugar Gliders
  • Smaller Tortoises
And that's all I can think of off the top of my head, but what do you all think?
 
There are, I would say, quite a lot of options:

Birds of many kinds - not just the standard things like parrots, toucans and songbirds; here in Europe there are walkthroughs for vultures, large owls (such as Eurasian eagle and snowy owls) and eagles (the bateleur and even Steller's sea eagle are kept in walkthroug displays).
Butterflies - the third main flying group other than birds and bats that are commonly kept in zoos. With the new automatic population control in the coming update, these will probably be much more doable.

For many non-flying species, I would hope that they were habitat animals to be honest. The only exceptions are perhaps sugar gliders, smaller flying squirrels and sloths, which might be difficult to turn into habitat species.
 
People really want sloths (I don't mind either way but they seem to be popular for some reason) and this seems like the perfect way to add them. They hang upside down like bats, and simple looped animations would be fine because sloths don't move around much anyway.

Just please give us two-toed sloths instead of three-toed sloths if so!
 
Birds of many kinds - not just the standard things like parrots, toucans and songbirds; here in Europe there are walkthroughs for vultures, large owls (such as Eurasian eagle and snowy owls) and eagles (the bateleur and even Steller's sea eagle are kept in walkthroug displays).
Is that safe? I've seen news reports of ospreys divebombing people to keep them away from their nests. Unless they regularly clip their wings, I don't know if I'd feel safe.
 
Is that safe? I've seen news reports of ospreys divebombing people to keep them away from their nests. Unless they regularly clip their wings, I don't know if I'd feel safe.
I've certainly not heard of any incidents in walkthrough aviaries. I wouldn't imagine these walkthroughs would be as common as they are if there was any considerable threat. I have been in an excellent walkthrough aviary at Rotterdam Zoo with four species of vultures (including some large species like griffon vultures) as well as black kites. Even when the birds were being fed, at no point did I feel like I was in any danger.

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I am not sure how would I feel about Tamarins being exhibit animal. On one hand, they are small, but on the other hand, I would really love them being habitat species and the exhibit system is kind of limited, which is fine for the bats, but not sure I would like that for one of my favourite primate.

Also, on one of the keeper talks in my local zoo, I learned that a simple cold, which they can get infected from humans, can kill tamarins, so I am not sure if walkthrough-exhibit would really work for them.
 
I can totally see small birds like budgies and rainbow lorikeets in this new exhibit system, in my opinion they are to small for being habitat animals. For bigger birds like macaws, vultures or owls I hope to see them as a habitat species. Though this all depends on how customizable this new type of exhibit is.
Also, we all know how buggy the climbing animations can be, so I don't know if flying animations for habitat birds could be done in a good, realistic and not so buggy way. If this wasn't the case, I could also imagine bigger birds in these type of exhibits.
 
I am not sure how would I feel about Tamarins being exhibit animal. On one hand, they are small, but on the other hand, I would really love them being habitat species and the exhibit system is kind of limited, which is fine for the bats, but not sure I would like that for one of my favourite primate.
Golden lion, cotton-top, and emperor tamarins (the three most common captive species, IIRC) also aren't that much smaller than meerkats, and are typically housed in standard outdoor habitats like other monkeys in zoos. I really don't see why they would need to be restricted to looped animations in an exhibit.
I could see rainbow lorikeets fitting for that model.
That was actually a thought I had, too. The thing is, though, all we know about the walkthrough exhibit is that it's designed for bats, which tells me it's primarily nocturnal in function. As yet we have no reason to think it will be modified for birds (i.e. given an exposed mesh exterior).
 
Butterflies would work, though they would definitely need the exhibit to be made of glass like real butterfly houses. I also heard someone mention on the PZ subreddit that sloths would work because they wouldn't need to move much.
 
So I love the new exhibit form and I'm gonna be very very ambitious here about how they could be used in the future. I'm aware that this is absolute wishful thinking, but then we never even thought we would get this form of exhibits.

I think the walkthrough exhibits already have great potential, but I would still like to see them being developed in three ways:
  • Introduce hybrid animals that can be kept either in a habitat or walkthrough exhibit (see below for species).
  • Use the walkthrough habitat shell for an underwater tunnel if aquatic species are introduced (smaller species can still be kept in regular exhibit shells).
  • Allow mixed species exhibits for the future introduction of birds, butterflies and aquariums as well as night houses.

With these three introductions, I think walkthrough exhibits will have great potential for the following:
  • Tropical houses with smaller species such as iguanas, basilisks, rodents and birds.
  • Bird walkthrough houses with various species.
  • Hummingbird/butterfly gardens with various species.
  • Underwater tunnels with sharks, rays and some other fish.
  • Night houses with sloths, tarsiers and rodents.

I would love to see the following animals for walkthrough exhibits or as hybrids:

Exhibit Animals:
  • Green Iguana
  • Lesser Antillean Iguana
  • Blue-Tongued Skink
  • Egyptian Fruit Bat

Habitat Animals:
  • Galapagos Giant Tortoise
  • Aldabra Giant Tortoise
  • Koala
  • Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman
  • Black-Tailed Prairie Dog
  • Asian Small-Clawed Otter

New Animals:
  • More tortoises
  • Sloths
  • Tarsiers
  • Tamarins
  • Small Rodents
  • Giant Salamanders
  • Birds
  • Butterflies
 
So I love the new exhibit form and I'm gonna be very very ambitious here about how they could be used in the future. I'm aware that this is absolute wishful thinking, but then we never even thought we would get this form of exhibits.

I think the walkthrough exhibits already have great potential, but I would still like to see them being developed in three ways:
  • Introduce hybrid animals that can be kept either in a habitat or walkthrough exhibit (see below for species).
  • Use the walkthrough habitat shell for an underwater tunnel if aquatic species are introduced (smaller species can still be kept in regular exhibit shells).
  • Allow mixed species exhibits for the future introduction of birds, butterflies and aquariums as well as night houses.

With these three introductions, I think walkthrough exhibits will have great potential for the following:
  • Tropical houses with smaller species such as iguanas, basilisks, rodents and birds.
  • Bird walkthrough houses with various species.
  • Hummingbird/butterfly gardens with various species.
  • Underwater tunnels with sharks, rays and some other fish.
  • Night houses with sloths, tarsiers and rodents.

I would love to see the following animals for walkthrough exhibits or as hybrids:

Exhibit Animals:
  • Green Iguana
  • Lesser Antillean Iguana
  • Blue-Tongued Skink
  • Egyptian Fruit Bat

Habitat Animals:
  • Galapagos Giant Tortoise
  • Aldabra Giant Tortoise
  • Koala
  • Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman
  • Black-Tailed Prairie Dog
  • Asian Small-Clawed Otter

New Animals:
  • More tortoises
  • Sloths
  • Tarsiers
  • Tamarins
  • Small Rodents
  • Giant Salamanders
  • Birds
  • Butterflies
Overall nice ideas which I would like to see as well (esp. hybrid animals) but I don't think caimans, koalas and otters are good choices in walkthrough exhibits.
 
Its very possible that they will get stale and boring very fast just like the current exhibit animals.
Im still on the fence about them, mostly on the negative worrying side because this either is some kind of test demo for flying animals or this is gonna be how we get flying animals.
One of the two is acceptable, the other ruins flying animals for me and proppaply quite alot of like minded players that value the building and creativity behind it.
Worst and propaply most likly case is that its just a big exhibit box with a path way and if thats the case im prepared to say bye bye butterfree the moment an actual flying animals pack drops and just give up on them and put my hopes into modders instead.
And for thinks like butterflies, seriously frontier pls just give us butterflies as effects to pop down, that would be a good solution and one thats more satisfying and versatile then stuffing them in an exhibit.
Sry for the doomer talk, but the walkthrough exhibit is more of a dark omen then anything else to me
 
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