Oregon Zoo

[Captain Callum]

Habitat Design #2 - Primate Forest

With the pacific shores zone now complete the zoo has seen 13/20 habitat zones completed. This might not seem that much but we still have half a zoo to cover including the giant elephant habitat. Up next is another modern habitat zone called the Primate Forest. As you might of guessed this will hold a collection of primates which includes one habitat of chimps (8 of them) and a second habitat of orangutan and siamang (2 orangutan and 4 siamang). The only substitution in place is siamang - the zoo holds white cheeked gibbons and i guess the siamang is a decent alternative.

Not as many concept art pictures for this habitat since the focus was heavily on the polar bear habitat rather than a new habitat for chimps. I am unaware if the orangutans got a new habitat compared to the older one - both habitats however are very nice examples for primates. For comparision i can visit the chimp building at the edinburgh zoo which is an excellant example of how a zoo should build a modern primate habitat. So a large indoor and outdoor habitat is what i like to see for a half decent primate enclosure - guest viewing should be ample and show both indoor and outdoor viewing areas with plenty of educational material on primary reasons for primate habitat loss.

As such oregon zoo has centered the primate forest around the main conservation theme - habitat loss through the use of illegal logging and agriculture. This threatens basically most primate species and especially the animals shown in this habitat zone. So looking at the picture above, there is some nice natural features mixed in some modern climbing structures. We have a nice running stream of water among a modern clibing structure with plenty of ropes and swings for the chimps to use, also some real trees and rockwork adds to a natural looking design. Note this is just one section out 3 viewing areas for the chimps.

Heres basically the same picture on how it turned out in real life, this is from the path perspective. The concept art shows a fully grown habitat so a lot of refernces kind of look either muddy or quite basic looking foilage - my recreation will of course include the full growth foilage similar to the concept art. The main omission i can see is the running water stream which is a let down although it could be behind the climbing frames of course since the rockwork is visible at the back. Quite cool the modern climbing frames and differs alot of from the boxy structures ingame.

Here we have the google maps view of the primate forest. For reference in location so far - the picnic plaza from the polar bear area is located upper middle where the 3 brown squares in a stone area are. So the primate forest holds 2 habitats as mentioned - the left habitat including the large white building and the central habitat are for the chimps. This is a quite a nice amount of room of a family of chimps. On the right we can see a grey roof building with a single habitat - this is the orangutan/siamang habitat with a smaller indoor building as i believe the chimp building also holds staff facilties like a staff room, large keeper hut for example. The path is a pretty cool design where it winds around both habitats until then going through a walkthrough tree which itself is located right in the middle of the habitat.

Heres an old picture of the walkthrough tree in mention. Is this possible ingame? Well i guess we will find out xD

New Chimp indoor area

Old Chimp indoor area

Looking at both of those indoor pictures then, thats an upgrade if i ever saw one. The old indoor area is small, boxy, has concrete flooring, little climbing and overall looks sad. The new one looks miles better for both a guest and the animal but especially the chimps. It looks twice the size, has a series of complex climbing frames for enrichment and natural flooring for the chimps which alone helps them live more comfortably. Yeah the staff area doors and windows are much more noticeable similar to the polar bear habitat but we cant all have it perfect.
So ingame the bedding area will likely be behind this wall and the staff gate will be the gap for the chimps to enter/exit since that square hole in the wall just is not gonna work out due to the annoying hitboxes and pathing problems.I really hope climbing enrichment like this will be useable instead of using the default looking logs.

Lets head outside now and visit the main outdoor area for the chimps. 2 large wooden structures (maybe a little too artifical coloring here) are the main enrichment sets for the chimps along with ropes linking both. The barrier here is a curved stone kind of material that if you look at the map, curves in various shapes for a cool shaped habitat. As you can see we have modern glass viewing barriers for the guests - this is a sunken habitat if it was not obvious. Other things include large termite mounds behind the far clinbing structure,broken logs about and some small rock shelters behind this curve on the right. If anyone is wondering what material will be used for the barrier, i plan to use the mud wall without the pattern to make a nice curved barrier since rock cladding will look awful when curved like that.

Heres a cool find on zoochat, this is the orginal plan way back when the masterplan was published. Remember how the polar bear was vastly changed well i guess the primate forest didnt meet the budget requirements. Looking at this design, it looks really modern maybe too modern for my taste xD. Im sort of glad this didnt work out due to the really complex method here with glass panels - that aint no dome. If anyone wants to recreate that, that would be awesome.

The lack of the orangutan pics are due to not really any habitat pictures minus what i can find on youtube, youtube videos usually feature alot of people and cant really show habitat design with various weather condtions, crowds of people and shaky cameras. Anyways heres the overall design of the upcoming area - the next design post will be the massive elephant habitat which is like literally half the zoo in size.

 

[Captain Callum]

Primate Forest - Chimpanzee Habitat

Up first in the primate forest, there is a pretty big chimpanzee habitat which features 3 kind of areas, 2 outdoor yards and an indoor space. The habitat features 8 chimps who mainly spend their time climbing around all the structures although the siamang animations would be great for all big primates.

So lets picture we just finished visitng the penguinarium and then we leave the central plaza heading deeper into the zoo. The above picture is our first stop at a overlook for the chimpanzee habitat for the larger outdoor yard. This habitat features 2 large climbing structures (made of australia logs and wooden planks) joined together with ropes - basically tightropes for the chimps to run along. Its really cool seeing the chimps on the ropes and they even sit on them in front of that second overlook providing guests with a great view of them. Various real life items like termite mounds, small bedding areas, broken logs were added to make this area popular with the chimps - this is the most frequently visited area out of the 3.
Also the barrier walls are made of the mud wall 4x2m (i think), these are colored to a netural soil tone to blend in well.

Isnt this cool? I never though of using ropes for primates but it works really well. The second pic was an earlier scene before the finishing touches

Moving on, inside that large building holds the indoor area for the chimps with doors to each yard. Comparing to the real life picture, the main change here would be the wall mural - the grey streaks were a bit bland personally so i went out my way to create a tropical forest mural which looks fantastic. The mural was created layering tree/plant signs. Of course we can see the food tray so guests can see the chimps eat up close, along with various climbing frames that really make the indoor area feel like primate indoor enclosure. Yeah there is bedding on every platform here but the apes prefer to sleep literally anywhere else.

Alright the last yard to look at, this is at the other side of this large building. Lots more climbing frames although they seem to never want to climb up these ones for whatever reason. The large structures in the large yard are the favourites it seems. The main sight here then would be the water pool for the chimps although with some nice grassy scenery with the trees and bushes. Irl has a complex barrier that is fully enclosed at the top but ehh it isnt needed since the chimps dont climb at this area anyway.

 

[TuchA]

The climbs look amazing

Isnt this cool? I never though of using ropes for primates but it works really well.

I was also in awe of how the ropes can work together with the logs

 

[Captain Callum]

Primate Forest - Orangutan/Siamang Habitat

Well heres the second/final part of the primate forest which was quite interesting with the walkthrough log right in the middle of the habitat, but wow it came out great. Orangutans share the habitat with siamang (irl white cheeked gibbons) with 3 sections of the habitat like the chimps - an indoor, and techinally 2 outdoor yards split by the log. This habitat is probably a bit more open than irl since the real habitat is stuffed full of logs/climbing structures.

So lets approach the habitat from the elephant plaza side. This is where the walkthrough log has modelled roots - again irl is far more appealing but near impossible to replicate ingame easily. This log is made of arctic wood supports angle snapped to form a log shape - this is also curved ontop of that along with multiple viewing windows for the guests. Like the chimp habitat, irl it is fully enclosed at the top but the weird shadows that the mesh panels give off is totally unrealistic and just ruins the appearance.

Heres the overview of the log, 2 climbable log ramps on each side allow the animals to climb over the log and a possible chance to see an orangutan walk right over your head. We can see both habitats here divided by the walkthrough log and the indoor habitat in the background building.

Enter the log and we can see some fantasic views of the orangutan walking right above. Im not sure if the guests look around in the tunnel but they sure do seem to crowd around here, thankfully the huge crowds in my stellar cove tunnel have decreased dramatically. Maybe guests love tunnels in habitats, thats a new one for me.

Heres one of the first proper viewing areas just in that building - the log exits here and a look in the more open habitat can be seen. There is also another viewing area across to the right next to the future Africafe (aviary cafe?). I do have to mention, no i did not build these climbing structures unlike in the chimp habitat - these were workshop additions which sped up the progress by quite a bit.

Unlike the chimp habitat, i get little animals that like to hang around inside while trying to replicate the climbing structures here - they really dont care about the bedding. Again like the chimps, the only reason they enter the indoor area is to eat and travel between the 2 habitat yards. If only we could get hammocks or stuff for orangutans to use.

I would say this is one of the main viewpoints here, an enclosed space to view the second habitat where a small waterfall pool acts as the drinking area along with a complex climbing frame which you can see both siamangs and orangutans climb all over which is cool. Custom media as always has been used to bring information displays to life.

Heres that complex climbing frame, looks great when the orangutans are using it

Siamang getting stared down by the orangutan pair

And finally heres the full overview of the new primate forest including the chimp habitat with the huge building for them. Plants seem a bit repetitive from above but far from that on the ground.

No new update yet, i plan to expand the elephant plaza a bit so guest needs are fully met - some are dying to get a closer toilet by now since the closest would be the education center back in the discovery zone xD

 

[Captain Callum]

AfriCafe and Vollum Aviary

Wow this weeks building has ramped up the challenge, the main restaurant of the zoo and its ajoining aviary was some work and then some! A dual level building, a very large interior, an aviary with a view from the interior of the restaurant and another plaza.

One of my favourites view in the zoo right now. As you can tell with the picture, thats the african zone for the zoo now begun with the vollum aviary. The aviary is a full walkthrough aviary with so much glass work to look nice. This is all custom built since none of the prebuilt glass roofs were suitable. Building the aviary itself was not that difficult, the scaling and postion of the aviary took hours to figure out but in the end it really looks like the irl aviary.

Lots of small african birds call the aviary home with some fantastic birds provided by the great workshop creators. Tried to match the tropical plants as much as i could but the centerpiece trees were just way off the game offered. So a nice big fig tree dominates the aviary with tons of birds perched around it.

We cant forgot the main part of this update though, the afriCafe is the main restaurant for the zoo with a fantastic view of the aviary where guests can dine on burgers while viewing the aviary.

The interior of the afriCafe is mostly accurate although the kitchen is in the following picture where a fast food style ordering is done. I wanted to have a restaurant building here so the addition of that is techinally fictional but still works great since there is a kitchen view here as well.

Checkerboard tiles make so much difference compared to bland walls for kitchen areas. The skylight here is also really cool which adds so much atmosphere to a realistic build. I guess all the little things add up.

And heres the exterior, to put it lightly this was a pain to build. I dont really have much experience doing multilevel buildinhs especially as complex as this, but as they say - theres a first time for everything. Anyways, the next update for the zoo is out and exploring the new aviary is really cool.

 

[Captain Callum]

Elephant Lands - construction of a 25,000m2 habitat

Well if anyone might of guessed by the oregon zoo banner - elephants are quite the special part of the zoo. Asian elephants roam the elephant lands at the far end of the zoo and it seems like the elephants get about half of the zoo is roam about. Now im split on this habitat - the good things is that it is modern, large indoor facilties, no concrete, tons of room and lots of enrichment. But on the other side, my god its bland - its like soil/sand for the entire habitat with broken logs and small rocks everywhere. Lots of water is a plus with the huge 3000m2 pool for them with some fantastic viewing of the elephants for the guests but apparently grass or any kind of foilage was too much to ask.

See that sand , yeah thats about half of the habitat. It comes from the vet hospital at the northwest zone, goes behind the huge 5000m2 polar bear habitat, wraps around the elephant plaza and ends where that smaller white roof building is to the right. The terrain marks sort of define the remaining portion of the habitat so i hope the keepers are up to walking xD. Yeah with the experience of huge habitat from my jacksonville zoo (20,000m2) probably i will assign 5 keepers to just this single habitat becuase in jacksonville , the keepers are on constant poop and scoop duties.

Heres a closeup of the furthest end of the habitat, you cant see this exactly from a guests perspective here but the train tracks are here so yeah this is the view from the train. It doesnt look that bad but sure could use some greenery - it is what it is though. It not like the siberian tiger habitat which is those old bear grottos and really small. This is a massive habitat and should look great when the elephants are up and about.

Heres that same habitat section but from the guest perspective, note the how far down it goes. A covered shelter and some info boards are at this area although nothing special in this exact area really, elephants in theory should travel past this viewpoint and maybe hang around this shelter for some fantastic closeups.

Moving onwards, there is the second habitat on upper side of the left side of the elephant plaza. This is the elephant pool and provides some really nice views of the 3000m2 water pool for the elephants. A tropical wall cladding here allows for unobstructed views. On the left with the path going towards a building, thats a walkway that allows elephants to move directly from the indoor housing to the elephant pool.

Guests will take a bridge across the habitat to reach the indoor building , this splits the habitat into 2 sections if you will. This will be pretty cool, hoping there is a good clearance for the elephants to walk under the bridge while guests will see the elephants from a different perspective. Of course the mesh panels are safety guards and slightly dampen the great view but you cant have kids wanting to jump on an elephant xD

Now we reach the major section of the elephants lands. This is the indoor housing area and the indoor guest viewing areas all in one huge building named the forest hall. The guest area is pretty cool with a elephant skeleton, education area for elephants , and a large open viewing area to view the elephants including rows of seats for a elephant talk. Trying to get the talk seating in line with a curved concrete seating was not the easiest of things but worked out really well. A huge amount of work will be required for this building and im still expecting at least another week of work on this building alone. This isnt just a slap a roof and call it a day kind of building - take a look at the below picture of the irl building.

 

[Captain Callum]

Elephant Lands - Forest Hall

Alright i am actually days ahead of my plan, work on the forest hall went very quickly the last 2 days so lets take a look at this massive elephant building.

Heres the forest hall (left) and the elephant indoor bedding shelter or whatever you call it xD (to the right) The forest hall is a fully detailed both inside and out elephant viewing area with an education area, viewing area and animal talk seating. Normally this would be massive to any part of the zoo but considered there is a 26,000m2 habitat attached it doesnt look that big imo.

Enter the forest hall here, a rather lackluster wooden front to the building although the wooden slats above is kinda cool. The wooden walls are made of the conservation slat walls merged together to make a nicely layered wooden wall way different than the stained walls. To the right would be the staff serivce building for the hall but not the keepers - the educators and caretakers use this to take a break from all that walking.

Enter through the double doors and you are greeted with this view, a wide overview of the massive indoor building. A glass barrier and wooden slat roof makes a modern feel to the building (was built in like 2017 so yeah) . As you can see a vista point makes guests stop here and take some pictures of the area. I bet no one thinks 32 spotlights are being used to light up here since the roof lights are doing an fantastic job /s

Turn around and we see the education area, not as flashy as irl with huge elephant photos of past zoo elephants. The workshop sourced elephant skeleton is the main attraction with plenty of info boards behind. Also some toilets to keep guests satisfied with the long walk from the elephant plaza - well like 2 irl minutes but oh no thats too far

Head on down the stairs to the front of the forest hall and thats a great view of the elephant (elephants when they actually can be bothered). The feeder tree is the main source of food with a large tray at the bottom slighly edged out the tree to make the elephants happy enough. Lots and lots of detailing with roof grid panels, girder supports, air con systems, piping, overhead walkways for staff (not functional sadly). I really try to make a building have as little as pieces for fps optimisation but yeah 4500 pieces is no joke here

Some closer pictures of the roofing work, im really impressed with the end result

Heres the behind of the forest hall with the elephant corridor path linking the bedding area to the elephant pool. As expected this is a popular choice for the elephants - and the staff paths work well with no interferance with habitat barriers (null barriers are a blessing)

Cant forget where all those air con systems and pipes go - heres the extensive exterior air con work on top of the elephant bedding building. The cool idea is angled skylights among the conservation grassy roof which works really well - irl is scattered stones but my idea looks way better

The rest of the habitat is still to be completed to no suprise, it aint easy building such a large habitat but going full details. If anyone has seen my jacksonville habitat with its huge habitats aswell - theres a huge difference in my work there

 

[FoxyDee]

Whoa, amazing job with the details of that building, looks incredible.

 

[TuchA]

I always admire such buildings. I always have the usual "4 walls". Amazing what this game allows you to create Well done

 

[XT]

The elephant exhibit landscape isn't boring irl. There are some shallow grade changes through it all to help the animals feel like it's bigger, and a feeding puzzle of some sort at one end (I think they still have the guest/elephant water enrichment somewhere too). Also there's a huge amount of lush, pretty tall foliage along a lot of the borders. There's also an offstage area where they rotate the bulls in and out (I believe the zoo has 2 bulls now, which is very rare). The elephants mash any plants in their exhibit to mush, even with as advanced and well planned habitat as this, they still get pretty bored.

All of which comes down to ... god this looks great.

 

[Captain Callum]

The elephant exhibit landscape isn't boring irl. There are some shallow grade changes through it all to help the animals feel like it's bigger, and a feeding puzzle of some sort at one end (I think they still have the guest/elephant water enrichment somewhere too). Also there's a huge amount of lush, pretty tall foliage along a lot of the borders. There's also an offstage area where they rotate the bulls in and out (I believe the zoo has 2 bulls now, which is very rare). The elephants mash any plants in their exhibit to mush, even with as advanced and well planned habitat as this, they still get pretty bored.

All of which comes down to ... god this looks great.

Ah ok, elephant habitats from my initial real life zoo research was difficult to understand how a elephant habitat looks good. When trying to implement realistic elephant habitat there is the struggle of how do you make dirt look appealing as so many habitats are full of dirt and not much proper grass of sorts. My 2 main research habitats were the Oregon zoo and the San Diego zoo which both pretty much have similar habitats but still feel lackluster online.

I won't lie that I don't have any local elephant habitats near me so hard to implement this accurately. I think I last saw an elephant was at the Jacksonville zoo in Florida like 6 or 7 years ago. My recreation build there was pretty much the same - big indoor building, big pool, large area of dirt with a wooden shelter. Maybe I'm too used to making lush savanna habitats full of interesting features that just makes it so much more exciting

 

[Captain Callum]

Elephant lands - Overall Habitat

I thank everyone for the feedback on the forest hall which is by far my most impressive building (so far xD). Shame it looks so small when compared to this massive habitat which finalised at 26,000m2 for the elephants or 44,000m2 total habitat space which actually took 2 entire minutes of a freeze to calculate the habitat. Thankfully this was on a newer laptop or the game would most likely crash.

Alright so the sand paint went and light soil replaced it for a far more natural looking oregon dirt. As we can see the habitat stretches all the way from the vet hospital in the top left to the wildlife live stage down at the bottom. But it works, a huge habitat actually works in the game which is not the easiest of things to do.Well ok the very bottom right corner is never used but the bull elephants will go up to the north habitat and play around with the enrichment toys.

Since there isnt much to be discussed about the habitat itself , heres the pictures:

Anyone who is familar with the oregon zoo will know i have reached the bottom of the zoo and what is left is to link up to the discovery zone. To finish the loop, there is 3 main sections which are all african based. First up is the predators of the serengeti which features key predators - lion, cheetah and painted dog along with meerkat and lemurs. Following that is the african savanna habitat which will feature african rhino, antlope, giraffe and giant tortoise. The african rainforest will be the final addition with flamingo, aardvark (pray we get a porcupine in the dlc), and crocodile.

 

[Captain Callum]

Predators of the Serengeti

Well i expected this to take a week or so to build with 2 updates to look at this building but uh progress went a little faster than i thought. So heres the first major section to the africa area in the zoo with mainly grassland predators - cheetah, lion and wild dog. Also some out of place animals which include meerkat, ring tailed lemur and 2 exhibits.

Lets do a walkthrough since we have a fully detailed interior to show off. Heres the entrance at the predators plaza where those huts near the vollum aviariy are located. A simple mud hut with palm thatch makes the entrance. The path does go down here which is the lowest part of the zoo.

Head on down the path and the first habitat we see is the overlook for the lion habitat. Every time i add lions im so disappointed with the out of date models. Below the glass barrier is a concrete grotto style slope to stop the lions from jumping out. Hidden from guest sight of course. Taiga rock is used for the barrier and works nicely with the grassy habitat.

Onwards takes us to the predators building with a fully detailed interior since thats where the viewpoints for the habitats are. A retaining wall supports the entrance with the ever abundant trees surronding the building. This is a large building so dont be fooled by its small appearance here.

Once inside the first habitat is the meerkat habitat. A full indoors habitat for the meerkat with being right beside the path makes the habitat look a little brash in areas but looks decent enough. It just meets the habitat space requirements since im trying to satisfy the animal needs as much as possible in this zoo. Near this habitat is 3 african exhibits with 1 holding puff adder and the other 2 holding scarab beetles. I wish we got a proper warm climate lizard here.

The first major habitat would be the cheetah. A nicely sized habitat of 3000m2 allows cheeth to dash at great speeds towards enrichment spread around the habitat. 3 viewing windows provide nice views of the habitat including one shelter window to see cheetah sleeping right by the window. Mainly long grass is used for the habitat with dirt trails to simulate the well travelled paths of cheetahs.

Moving on, we have a rocky tunnel for the shelter viewing windows. Feels like you are in a cave with the animals - this picuture shows the wild dogs habitat. Rock walls split the habitats apart making the transitions seamless from the guest perspectives since the wall barriers are hidden behind building walls. Once you move from one room, the next habitat appears.

This is the main viewing window for the wild dogs. A large shelter right infront of us allows for ample viewing of the dogs sleeping here. They jump around the rocks here and tend to drag their toys down below the window area, a great lively habitat when the dogs are not sleeping,

We return to the lion habitat and see the expansive habitat with the lions. One male and 3 females is a good match for a typical small lion pride. There is a waterfall to the left of here and large african trees add lots of atmosphere to this rather plain grassland habitat.

And lastly there is the ring tailed lemur habitat which is in the middle of the building. There are 4 window viewing areas spread around (one before cheetah, one after wild dogs, and 2 at the lions) a mesh net encases the habitat. Lots of grass and small climbing frames spread around to keep the lemurs nice and happy.

After here, the building exit is close and return back up to the predators plaza to continue the future tour of africa

 

[Captain Callum]

African Savanna - rhino, springbok and giant tortoise

Contining the tour of africa leads us back to the predator plaza and into the next section which is the african savanna. Of coursethis mainly features herbivore animals found in the africa savanna. The vollum aviary which features african birds is part of this section but it already has been covered so the main habitats are ready for a tour.

So the entrance of the savanna section greets you with a nice large african design sign with my usual trick of making 2d text look 3d. It is 2 sets of 2d letter with a black set behind and positioned slighly below to give a nice 3d effect. The vollum aviary can be seen in the right with both doors to the aviary attached to the rhino habitat viewing. There is no access from the africafe to the aviary directly despite being attached.

Heres the first habitat - the african white rhino (irl black rhino). There are 4 viewing areas to view the decent sized rhino habitat which of course is typically muddy. In the center of the habitat features a raised rock area that splits the habitat in half allowing privacy for the rhinos if the crowds get too much for them. The bedding is featured in the raised rock with a carved rock area that we can see and of course the holding building has indoor space. The africa area is going to feature this cool wooden fence a lot and work way better than the in game default wooden fence. Speaking of the holding building , its right there behind the tree line to the left.

Moving onwards there is a rocky passage way that joins the rhino habitat to the springbok habitat and all building and facilities are hidden again with foilage placement. Rock cladding and mulch is how i made the rocky walls.

Next habitat is the springbok habitat which replaces the cool looking bontebok irl. Of course there is only like 2 bontebok compared to my 6 springbok but just 2 springbok would just be a little sad. Anyways this is a nice large open savanna feeling habitat where the springbok like to roam together although i typically dont observe much herd behaviour for other animals. 2 viewpoints on the ground which is next to the water barrier - the water nearest the path is deep so they cant jump over the low fence. For the actual barrier is there a pile of rocks and logs keeping the springbok and future giraffe apart, and for the main barrier is a raised taiga cladding to make it seem like a carved rock wall contains this habitat.

Just behind the springbok viewing areas is a small habitat with 2 giant tortoise. A basic house and grassy area holds these 2 tortoise, nothing fancy but realistic enough considering zoos rarely have lush habitats for tortoise.

For the last part of the springbok habitat, there is a modern raised platform which connects to the giraffe raised pathway. This is a favourite for the guests as you can get a much better viewpoint of the springbok especially when they come to have a drink from the water.

 

[Captain Callum]

African Savanna - Giraffe, Lemurs and exhibits

The zoo is wrapping up pretty nicely (so is my fps but thats expected) with the africa section now about 60 percent complete. The addition of the large giraffe habitat and its building adds some new heights to the africa area as we reach the height of giraffes for some wonderful closeup views.

A reworked sign for the savanna area which is far more faithful to irl compared to the default africa sign. This is the view from the work in progress rainforest plaza looking into part of the giraffe habitat. As mentioned the wooden fence makes an appearance again making a nice african feeling fence merging nicely into the environment. This habitat features giraffe x5 and thomson gazelle x3.

Layered rock cladding allows for a realistic and nice looking barrier which does not intrude guest viewing at all. Between these 2 viewpoints is the african savanna building (not aware of actual name) where there is another lemur habitat and several exhibits which try to carry out an african theme.

So another large scale building which houses the lemurs, exhibits and the indoor area for the giraffes . A raised walkway enters the building from both sides which brings us up to the giraffes level. The flow of this habitat works really well of the building and extensive landscaping has allowed a seamless experience.

I loved my work on the alligator habitat in the jacksonville zoo and this reminds me alot of it. A raised walkway with custom fences with lots of immersive foilage. The giraffe feeder is right next to the walkway and allows for some immersive views of the giraffe. You can also slighly see ahead of a window in the building - this is a window into the bedding area where typically the gazelle can be found.

Heres the exhibits in the building with 2 more around the corner. The blue tongue lizard is present in these 3 exhibits to resemble the desert african lizard here. The building interior is nothing really to shout out about but still works great.

The last habitat in the african savanna to mention is the red ruffed lemur habitat (irl de brazza monkey). A nice contrast to the ring tailed lemur in the predators building which is a much more open grassy area. Here lots of climbing frames allow the lemurs to swing about.


With the zoo nearing completion, i note that this is my biggest zoo yet in terms of detail. A total of 38,000 highlight-able pieces are present with my previous was 31,000 in Jacksonville. Funny that jacksonville is irl 120 acres compared to oregons 64

 

[Captain Callum]

African rainforest and completion

I am glad to announce the oregon zoo is going to plan for the release of the first real life opening day (7 november 1888). The last section to discover would be the african rainforest which of course the plaza is seen in the picture above with the final touches being added. Lets run a quick view of the habitats to complete the entire journey of the zoo.

First up is a small habitat right in the rainforest plaza which is the african crested porcupine sorry aardvark habitat which sort of works as a rainforest species i guuess. Heavy use of bamboo walls can be seen throughout this section to give the feel of a dense rainforest.

Head inside the rainforest swamp building and the first thing we see is a static red bellied piranha tank, on the other side is a small giant tortoise habitat.

An indoor gharial habitat serves as the crocodile habitat with 3 of these with an underwater viewing along with the top of the path allowing some nice views. I just wish the skylights would actually light up my habitat.

Exit the building and enter the flamingo aviary, we are inside the mesh netting here and the fence actually works deterring the flamingos from jumping up here. A group of 15 birds are present here although they love to spread out.

A giant otter habitat is a favourite in the zoo in terms of lively animals with some fantastic nature. The giant otter replaces the irl spotted neck otter which despite being bigger - the giant otter works well due to its spotted neck. This habitat has a lower and upper viewing area.

And lastly we have the static straw colored fruit bat habitat? Like all my references these guys hang on the mesh roof panels all the time.

 

[Captain Callum]

The thought of making own signs from the new calgary zoo means all new signs for the oregon zoo!
Heres a couple of sample signs - follows the style of the african savanna signs. (if anyone is wondering, im using the free Canva website because im cheap )

 

[Ounze]

Wow, gotta admit, this is awesome. A super faithful rendition of my own local zoo!

If you want more ref pics, I basically did a whole pic documentation of a walk through of the zoo a year ago.

Your zoo visits

Lately we saw some Talk about real Zoos and i thought, why not expand it to just visits in particular? The reason is that i traveld across germany to berlin and ended my trip by visiting the zoo Berlin today. And it was great! I havent even Seen everything, some things were Not viewable because...

forums.frontier.co.uk

Only thing it doesn't really include is the Rhino, since that finished up after, and I just got a new phone.

But to answer a few things, yes, the Red Panda exhibit use to be an Amur Leopard. And a good chunk of the reason the elephant exhibit is sand is due to reducing hoof rot. Unlike in the game, elephants in captivity can have a horde of health issues, and the sand helps with hoof rot in particular.
In addition, the Oregon Zoo was known in 70's for it's chimp breeding program, so much so that Jane Goodall visited the zoo several times for various studies on captive chimps. They are looking at reviving it, and their Asian Elephant program is up in the air after Lily and Packy died. Beyond that, the Oregon zoo is also known for it's geriatric care. Our Amur leopards, and tigers were retired from breeding programs, In particular, the last Amur leopard we had, Kia, was retired early due to her success. She successfully gave birth to and raised 12 cubs. At that time, about 3% of the Amur Leopard population.

 

[Captain Callum]

Wow, gotta admit, this is awesome. A super faithful rendition of my own local zoo!

If you want more ref pics, I basically did a whole pic documentation of a walk through of the zoo a year ago.

Your zoo visits

Lately we saw some Talk about real Zoos and i thought, why not expand it to just visits in particular? The reason is that i traveld across germany to berlin and ended my trip by visiting the zoo Berlin today. And it was great! I havent even Seen everything, some things were Not viewable because...

forums.frontier.co.uk

Only thing it doesn't really include is the Rhino, since that finished up after, and I just got a new phone.

But to answer a few things, yes, the Red Panda exhibit use to be an Amur Leopard. And a good chunk of the reason the elephant exhibit is sand is due to reducing hoof rot. Unlike in the game, elephants in captivity can have a horde of health issues, and the sand helps with hoof rot in particular.
In addition, the Oregon Zoo was known in 70's for it's chimp breeding program, so much so that Jane Goodall visited the zoo several times for various studies on captive chimps. They are looking at reviving it, and their Asian Elephant program is up in the air after Lily and Packy died. Beyond that, the Oregon zoo is also known for it's geriatric care. Our Amur leopards, and tigers were retired from breeding programs, In particular, the last Amur leopard we had, Kia, was retired early due to her success. She successfully gave birth to and raised 12 cubs. At that time, about 3% of the Amur Leopard population.

Great to hear my recreation pleases a local
Nice pictures of the zoo, these could of been some help if I found those a couple months ago. Ah well, the zoo recreation looks very familiar to the pictures which means a success. Always interesting to learn more about the zoo, I did find out some of the breeding programs but great to hear new info

 

[Ounze]

Great to hear my recreation pleases a local
Nice pictures of the zoo, these could of been some help if I found those a couple months ago. Ah well, the zoo recreation looks very familiar to the pictures which means a success. Always interesting to learn more about the zoo, I did find out some of the breeding programs but great to hear new info

Haha, wish I had seen your creation a bit earlier than just today! Ah well. Definitely downloading from the workshop.