After the oceania pack i felt an odd sense of excitement to redo an island pack, but while i was at it, i noticed how the new door opened the door to some new speculation, as regional packs are now offically back, so to flex my creativity while trying to stay realisitic. Im propapply gonna split this in one post for each quarter of the year to not have to write the whole thing in one go, so here we go:
Anniversary 1: After the second and thrid anniversary gave us a new lemure and a new deer, we keep it low key and complete the ratites with dawins rhea.
I chose a rhea to complete the package without "wasting" a dlc bird slot for it (you will see why later) and their prominence in south american mixed species habitat.
I also choose the Darwins Rhea over the greater, because 1. Darwins Rhea is smaller then the other rhatites in the game (well besides the fruit) and will have a more significant gameplay difference, 2. is from the andes and southern tip of south america, a so far badly underrepresented region and 3. they are currently being very successfully phased in for greater rheas in the EAZA, where the larger plan is that over time more zoos will keep the more vulnerable darwins rhea.
This would be a nice boost for South America for all players, most notably for the base game and while not good, having 3 very different animals makes for an a little better foundation for the region. Not the miracle worker that the red deer was for europes basegame representation, but still something meaningfull for "just" a different looking ostritch.
Winter 2023 Mountain Animal Pack: For the end of the year, id like to see another biome pack with mountains being the most interesting still left out.
There are many different ways to do this, equal chare for as many different mountain ranges as possible, going all in on one in particular cough cough himalaya cough cough
+ maybe a few stranglers. Personally i prefer the former approach, so we will see 1 animal from the andes, 1 from the alps, 2 from the himalaya, 1 from the atlas mountains, 1 from the ethyopian highlands, 1 from australia and 1 from the dinaric alps, giving us a wide array from all over the world. I will also take into account that typically frontier does not introduce more then 3 riggs in a pack, so i will try to keep that in mind.
Starting of, we got the spectacle Bear, the propaply most interesting bear left to add and the only one from south america.
The spectacle bear has a few things going for it, for example its heritage. Its the last remaining short faced bear and therefor geneticly by far the most unique bear. Its also quite unique as its a herbivore, with over 95% of its diet consisting of cactus, fruit, differnet plants and even bamboo, being the second most herbivorous bear after the panda. Its also the heaviest non tapir creature in south america, but still its partially arboreal, often making their nests in trees and climbing away from danger, making them a fun spin on usual bear habitats. You might think that would make them dependend on trees but as you might have allready guessed from the cactus in their diet, they are actually found in lots of different biomes in the andes, inhabiting not just the magical cloud forests full of life and fruits, but also alpine grasslands, dry forests and scrub deserts and even up to the snow line, making them easily the bear that covers the largest range of biomes.
Another rare thing in bears is that while solitary, they also arnt agressive to their own kind or most things above a certain size, as they mostly only hunt for rodent size prey, but there have been reports of them successfully hunting guanacos, lamas, cattle and even mountain tapirs. When enough food is available they often find themself in small groups eating, sleeping and traveling together.
So a herbivorous, arboreal, somewhat social bear that covers a vast range of biomes for south america?
Sounds wonderful to me!
Traveling to the alps, we find our next animal, the alpine marmot and starting with a little funfact, did you know that the alpine marmot is among the least genetically diverse wild animals?
This is due to an bottle neck effect, because the animal that we now know from the alps has once ranged across most of northern eurasia, living in cold grasslands during the pleistocene like giant prarie dogs, but as we all know the pleistocene is no more and so are the cold grasslands of the iceage, meaning they only survived barely in a pocket that still resembles somewhat their old habitat, that being the alps. These relics of the ice age are among the heaviest squirrels, partly due to the fact that they can reach allmost 10 kilos just before hibernating, roughly quintupling their weight from the ~2 kg they have after hibernation. Ironically they are surpisingly tough, only showing a 5% death ratio between the ages of 2 and 8, which comes down to multiple reasons. For one they are allways in a colony around their vast network of burrows, with allways atleast one standing guard like in the picture, chirping if they spot any predators. They also are just very large, being on an even playing field with the most common predators, being more then able to stand their ground against red foxes, beech marten and ravens, who only consistently manage to pick of younger individuals. Not just their teeth but also their claws are quite dangerous, as they evolved very muscular arms and shoulders to dig through frozen soil. The only predator that consistently can hunt adult marmots is the golden eagle, which is quite the impressive feat id say. Who would have thought that these cute furry friends actually pack a punch?
In game theyd be an upsized prarie dog, reusing that rigg and being the third and by far largest burrowing animal in the game. They obviously could sue burrows, but i see their main merrit in 2 things:
1. Support the Alpine Ibex to make themed mini alp regions possible
2. Be a larger prariedog
Nr 2 might sound weird, but there have consistently be complaints over small animals being a hassle to spot, especally from a far and while i personally cant relate im sure this quite more thicc rodent will make them pretty happy.
This is not all for the alps though as the dinaric alps, the part of them along the adriatic sea and through the balkans.
From here we are joined by our exhibit animal, a classic one this time but with a new twist, a new aquatic cave exhibit, featuring the olm, a cave salamander endemic to the subterranian water ways of those mountains. With their around 30 cm long body these blind dragons are considerd the apex predator of their realm, feasting on small insects, crustaceans and other invertebrates deep beneath the mountains. They are a rariety in zoos, only held in 3 in the EAZA, with the major one being Zoo Zagreb in Croatia, but they are unique and weird enough to be my inclusion for the exhibit of this pack.
Nothing mind blowing but id rather get a completly new cave exhibit then just another frog or something.
They have been notably hard to breed though, with the german holding in an actual cave and are studying them since 1932, trying to get them to breed successfully, so far with mixed results. After over 85 years they tweaked everything good enough to get them to lay eggs, but so far no eggs have been hatched, but there seem to be plans to bring some to german zoos and aquariums once they finally manage to hatch some and breed them consistently.
Moving South Towards the Atlas Mountains, we are greated by the goat of the pack, the barbary sheep. While the spectacle bear partially lives in deserts, this is a true desert creature, found not just at the mostly temperate atlas mountains but all over north africa. Extremly common with over 130 EAZA zoos keeping them, they are a staple in african areas and often found mixed with other animals, most interstingly geladas and other baboons (foreshadowing?). Of all the basic new goats, of whom this pack is legally obligated to include one, i find this to be the most interesting one, not nessecarly in appearance, but by the new options it brings and niches it fills. North africa to me is defined by two different kinds of habitats the most, the desert and the dry rocks and highlands, but sadly eventhough we got a staggering amount of north african animals now, none really embrace the rocky mountainous parts, so the aoudad will finally fill that hole and atleast to me truly complete the north african ungulate roster, which the arid pack somehow did not manage. Theyd also give some variance in biome, with only the first 4 animals covering rainforests, alpine grasslands, caves and dry rocks.
Another fun bit, its main predator for large parts of its range its main remaining predator is the caracal, giving another fun prey predator relatshionship for the game.
Speaking of forshadowing, the barbary sheep will have interspecies enritchment with one other new animal from the pack, to inspire the players to build for these fun fellows together.
From the ethiopian highlands, the bleading heart baboon, or a little less metall, gelada joins this pack as our baboon. I choose it over the hamadryas for a few reasons, but mainly that unlike the hamadryas the gelada is completly endemic to mountain ranges, only found atleast 1,800 meters over sealevel. But while most baboons are omnivores the gelada for the most part is a grazer, something completly unique for primates. They have been slowly but surly expanding in the EAZA, especally after they agreed to phase out animals like the hamadryas baboons who dont need the protection in favor of more vulnerable species, like the endemic gelada.
For the game, theyd finally fill the open baboon role with a very visually distinct member, leaving the door open for others to join at a later point. Theyd also help to fill the east african gap, which has quite a few endemic species but only the wild donkey currently in the game, which would be a nice treat. They also just look really cool
From australia, we are joined by the yellow footed rock wallaby, which is here for 3 main reasons:
1. Its a visually distinct, threatend macropod that currently is phased into the EAZA to replace some of the 500+ red necked wallaby holdings
2. Oceania allways deserves a treat, we should get another wallaby imo and this is the most visually distinct and pleasent to look at
3. If they manage to make a kangaroo thats good at climbing rocks in the game that would open up alot of new opportunitys for habitat designs, making this a similar case to the lar gibbon where the update associated with it is as appealing as the animal itself.
Its a nice filler pick for this kind of pack that can with only little achieve alot, so eventhough its not in my must have list it just slots into this pack very nicly.
Lastly, the end boss of mountains, the himalaya. First we start in its lower, eastern areas, where in the chinese highlands most pheasent species are found, most notably for our case the golden pheasent.
While a pheasent for a mountain pack is for most people a no brainer, the choice of pheasent is an entirly different topic. While i personally prefer someother pheasents like the satyr targopan in their appearance, the golden pheasent trumps them all with its cultural importance. A sign of wealth, luck and beauty, it has been the signature animal of the position of the empress in ancient china and a sign of rank among high ranking civil servants. As such they have been partally domesticated and bred for a long time, spawning many different and beautiful colormorphs and being exported all throughout europe to be kept by the wealthy and of higher standing. This also lead to them being invasive all over europe.
Regarding gameplay, they fit perfectly in the game. Due to the lack of some deeptissue wing muscles, their flight is only very unstable, only used in short burst. Instead they prefer to run around, both as locomotion and to get away from predators. They would function as a smaller peafowl, complementing their beautiful blue and green with its gold and red, giving us two very distinct yet similar options for beautiful colorfull galliforms to liven up the colorpalete of our zoos, while also boosting the roster of culturally distinct chinese animals, which would be a big + as thats ironically the emptiest area of asia currently in the game.
And now from the southern and eastern parts of the himalaya, more preciscly the Quinling Mountains, a second golden fellow from china joins us.
How could i do a mountain pack without a takin? These delightfully derpy looking cow goats are a real treat for zoo nerds and still eyecatching enough with their golden coat for non zoo nerds who hear of them the first time, as a golden mountain cow from deep within the chinese highlands does sound like a fairy tail creature.
But why have i actually choosen the golden takin?
Recency bias, which may sound weird but lets explain. In the EAZA there are 20 holders of golden takin, 37 of mishimi takin the brown and wider spread one and 10 with shichuan takins which are pretty much in the middle between gold and brown, BUT of the golden takins 20 holding 15 have aquired them in the last 5 years. 15! Thats a lot!
I dont know about you guys, but if checking the phase in rate of creatures in the EAZA has told me anything that normally these take ages, and infact the takins did aswell, but just recently finally exploded and spread out like crazy. A short history. In 2002 the Zoo Liberec in Czechia got their hands on a pair from china in exchange for an indian rhino and managed the first succesfully birth of a calf in 2004. In 2010, Tierpark Berlin was the second zoo outside of Czechia who got them via animals born in liberec who then also successfully breed them and gave animals to zoo dresden in 2013. Now these 3 zoos managed to breed a lot of golden takin so many zoos across the EAZA noted that they were interested and started building taking enclosures, leading to a bunch more himalayan themed areas in zoos with other animals that can be kept with takin like himalayan thars, tufted deer and bharal, raising all of their holdings aswell. So we have here one charismatic large animal that has brough himalayan animals and themed areas through europe, bringing us some of the most modern and beautiful themed areas in europe, for the price of one indian rhino in 2002. Thats a hella trade deal i want to dip in on ingame.
Doesnt hurt that its arguably the most striking looking of the 3, eventhough i personally find the mishimis dark brown with gold accents even more beautiful.
But enough history, what about the animal itself?
The golden takin is a very versatile animal, migrating each year up and down the valleys and peaks of the Quinling mountains.
Depending on the time of year, they can be found in lush temperate mixed forests, dense bamboo woods, the habitat pandas prefer, alpine conifer forests up to alpine meadows above the treeline, migrating in similar patters as farmers in the alps lead their cattle up and down the mountains from the valleys to the lush meadows in the summer and back down in the harsher winter just that the takins do it in reverse, staying in the valleys for spring and spending the winter in high altitude bamboo forests. They are actually really well studied in the wild, something sadly not reflected in their englisch wikipedia page. In the wild they have a very complex social structure, with the females living in close family structures of around 3 animals, which then group together into lose herds with up to 8 of such family units, often with a few males joining aswell. Males are mostly solitary and only rarely group together, but also dont seem to be activly agressive towards each other. The different genders also seem to prefer differnet biomes with males being observed to prefer open shrublands in the winter, while females tend to stick to the forest.
Due to the extermination of the tiger in their range, they only contend with two predators, the leopard and the dhole. When threatend they rise their ears, listening for the danger and warning each other with a bark sound, before either fleeing and spreading out their herd into their smaller family group or rushing together, protecting the young in the middle, eventhough the former is the more prefered option, generally taken when they could detect the predator early, while the second is a large resort when they are allready to close.
To wrap things up, in my opinion the golden takin, an animal that literally has kick started an european trend for himalayan themed areas, deserves to be the headliner of the pack, as eventhough their history in modern zoo EAZA is just 21 years old, they still managed to shape it more then most other species could in a away longer time, as the literal headliner and main piece in many different mountain themed areas all over the continent.
+ they also look darn cute!
I also want to thank all you people for you allready strong engagement with this thread, even before the first post was even finished. I put alot of time in this, roughly 2,5 hours just for this one and i had a lot of fun learning and researching about these animals and the mountain rages of the world and its great to see with how much enthusiam its greeted.
Really motivates me to keep this thread going and show you all how i would shape this game, trying to sell you on animals the way i want to be convinced, not by just showing cute pictures and mentioning them in a list but actually learning about them and hearing the reasoning why i want to see them in the game.
See you all next time ^^
Anniversary 1: After the second and thrid anniversary gave us a new lemure and a new deer, we keep it low key and complete the ratites with dawins rhea.
I chose a rhea to complete the package without "wasting" a dlc bird slot for it (you will see why later) and their prominence in south american mixed species habitat.
I also choose the Darwins Rhea over the greater, because 1. Darwins Rhea is smaller then the other rhatites in the game (well besides the fruit) and will have a more significant gameplay difference, 2. is from the andes and southern tip of south america, a so far badly underrepresented region and 3. they are currently being very successfully phased in for greater rheas in the EAZA, where the larger plan is that over time more zoos will keep the more vulnerable darwins rhea.
This would be a nice boost for South America for all players, most notably for the base game and while not good, having 3 very different animals makes for an a little better foundation for the region. Not the miracle worker that the red deer was for europes basegame representation, but still something meaningfull for "just" a different looking ostritch.
Winter 2023 Mountain Animal Pack: For the end of the year, id like to see another biome pack with mountains being the most interesting still left out.
There are many different ways to do this, equal chare for as many different mountain ranges as possible, going all in on one in particular cough cough himalaya cough cough
+ maybe a few stranglers. Personally i prefer the former approach, so we will see 1 animal from the andes, 1 from the alps, 2 from the himalaya, 1 from the atlas mountains, 1 from the ethyopian highlands, 1 from australia and 1 from the dinaric alps, giving us a wide array from all over the world. I will also take into account that typically frontier does not introduce more then 3 riggs in a pack, so i will try to keep that in mind.
Starting of, we got the spectacle Bear, the propaply most interesting bear left to add and the only one from south america.
The spectacle bear has a few things going for it, for example its heritage. Its the last remaining short faced bear and therefor geneticly by far the most unique bear. Its also quite unique as its a herbivore, with over 95% of its diet consisting of cactus, fruit, differnet plants and even bamboo, being the second most herbivorous bear after the panda. Its also the heaviest non tapir creature in south america, but still its partially arboreal, often making their nests in trees and climbing away from danger, making them a fun spin on usual bear habitats. You might think that would make them dependend on trees but as you might have allready guessed from the cactus in their diet, they are actually found in lots of different biomes in the andes, inhabiting not just the magical cloud forests full of life and fruits, but also alpine grasslands, dry forests and scrub deserts and even up to the snow line, making them easily the bear that covers the largest range of biomes.
Another rare thing in bears is that while solitary, they also arnt agressive to their own kind or most things above a certain size, as they mostly only hunt for rodent size prey, but there have been reports of them successfully hunting guanacos, lamas, cattle and even mountain tapirs. When enough food is available they often find themself in small groups eating, sleeping and traveling together.
So a herbivorous, arboreal, somewhat social bear that covers a vast range of biomes for south america?
Sounds wonderful to me!
Traveling to the alps, we find our next animal, the alpine marmot and starting with a little funfact, did you know that the alpine marmot is among the least genetically diverse wild animals?
This is due to an bottle neck effect, because the animal that we now know from the alps has once ranged across most of northern eurasia, living in cold grasslands during the pleistocene like giant prarie dogs, but as we all know the pleistocene is no more and so are the cold grasslands of the iceage, meaning they only survived barely in a pocket that still resembles somewhat their old habitat, that being the alps. These relics of the ice age are among the heaviest squirrels, partly due to the fact that they can reach allmost 10 kilos just before hibernating, roughly quintupling their weight from the ~2 kg they have after hibernation. Ironically they are surpisingly tough, only showing a 5% death ratio between the ages of 2 and 8, which comes down to multiple reasons. For one they are allways in a colony around their vast network of burrows, with allways atleast one standing guard like in the picture, chirping if they spot any predators. They also are just very large, being on an even playing field with the most common predators, being more then able to stand their ground against red foxes, beech marten and ravens, who only consistently manage to pick of younger individuals. Not just their teeth but also their claws are quite dangerous, as they evolved very muscular arms and shoulders to dig through frozen soil. The only predator that consistently can hunt adult marmots is the golden eagle, which is quite the impressive feat id say. Who would have thought that these cute furry friends actually pack a punch?
In game theyd be an upsized prarie dog, reusing that rigg and being the third and by far largest burrowing animal in the game. They obviously could sue burrows, but i see their main merrit in 2 things:
1. Support the Alpine Ibex to make themed mini alp regions possible
2. Be a larger prariedog
Nr 2 might sound weird, but there have consistently be complaints over small animals being a hassle to spot, especally from a far and while i personally cant relate im sure this quite more thicc rodent will make them pretty happy.
This is not all for the alps though as the dinaric alps, the part of them along the adriatic sea and through the balkans.
From here we are joined by our exhibit animal, a classic one this time but with a new twist, a new aquatic cave exhibit, featuring the olm, a cave salamander endemic to the subterranian water ways of those mountains. With their around 30 cm long body these blind dragons are considerd the apex predator of their realm, feasting on small insects, crustaceans and other invertebrates deep beneath the mountains. They are a rariety in zoos, only held in 3 in the EAZA, with the major one being Zoo Zagreb in Croatia, but they are unique and weird enough to be my inclusion for the exhibit of this pack.
Nothing mind blowing but id rather get a completly new cave exhibit then just another frog or something.
They have been notably hard to breed though, with the german holding in an actual cave and are studying them since 1932, trying to get them to breed successfully, so far with mixed results. After over 85 years they tweaked everything good enough to get them to lay eggs, but so far no eggs have been hatched, but there seem to be plans to bring some to german zoos and aquariums once they finally manage to hatch some and breed them consistently.
Moving South Towards the Atlas Mountains, we are greated by the goat of the pack, the barbary sheep. While the spectacle bear partially lives in deserts, this is a true desert creature, found not just at the mostly temperate atlas mountains but all over north africa. Extremly common with over 130 EAZA zoos keeping them, they are a staple in african areas and often found mixed with other animals, most interstingly geladas and other baboons (foreshadowing?). Of all the basic new goats, of whom this pack is legally obligated to include one, i find this to be the most interesting one, not nessecarly in appearance, but by the new options it brings and niches it fills. North africa to me is defined by two different kinds of habitats the most, the desert and the dry rocks and highlands, but sadly eventhough we got a staggering amount of north african animals now, none really embrace the rocky mountainous parts, so the aoudad will finally fill that hole and atleast to me truly complete the north african ungulate roster, which the arid pack somehow did not manage. Theyd also give some variance in biome, with only the first 4 animals covering rainforests, alpine grasslands, caves and dry rocks.
Another fun bit, its main predator for large parts of its range its main remaining predator is the caracal, giving another fun prey predator relatshionship for the game.
Speaking of forshadowing, the barbary sheep will have interspecies enritchment with one other new animal from the pack, to inspire the players to build for these fun fellows together.
From the ethiopian highlands, the bleading heart baboon, or a little less metall, gelada joins this pack as our baboon. I choose it over the hamadryas for a few reasons, but mainly that unlike the hamadryas the gelada is completly endemic to mountain ranges, only found atleast 1,800 meters over sealevel. But while most baboons are omnivores the gelada for the most part is a grazer, something completly unique for primates. They have been slowly but surly expanding in the EAZA, especally after they agreed to phase out animals like the hamadryas baboons who dont need the protection in favor of more vulnerable species, like the endemic gelada.
For the game, theyd finally fill the open baboon role with a very visually distinct member, leaving the door open for others to join at a later point. Theyd also help to fill the east african gap, which has quite a few endemic species but only the wild donkey currently in the game, which would be a nice treat. They also just look really cool
From australia, we are joined by the yellow footed rock wallaby, which is here for 3 main reasons:
1. Its a visually distinct, threatend macropod that currently is phased into the EAZA to replace some of the 500+ red necked wallaby holdings
2. Oceania allways deserves a treat, we should get another wallaby imo and this is the most visually distinct and pleasent to look at
3. If they manage to make a kangaroo thats good at climbing rocks in the game that would open up alot of new opportunitys for habitat designs, making this a similar case to the lar gibbon where the update associated with it is as appealing as the animal itself.
Its a nice filler pick for this kind of pack that can with only little achieve alot, so eventhough its not in my must have list it just slots into this pack very nicly.
Lastly, the end boss of mountains, the himalaya. First we start in its lower, eastern areas, where in the chinese highlands most pheasent species are found, most notably for our case the golden pheasent.
While a pheasent for a mountain pack is for most people a no brainer, the choice of pheasent is an entirly different topic. While i personally prefer someother pheasents like the satyr targopan in their appearance, the golden pheasent trumps them all with its cultural importance. A sign of wealth, luck and beauty, it has been the signature animal of the position of the empress in ancient china and a sign of rank among high ranking civil servants. As such they have been partally domesticated and bred for a long time, spawning many different and beautiful colormorphs and being exported all throughout europe to be kept by the wealthy and of higher standing. This also lead to them being invasive all over europe.
Regarding gameplay, they fit perfectly in the game. Due to the lack of some deeptissue wing muscles, their flight is only very unstable, only used in short burst. Instead they prefer to run around, both as locomotion and to get away from predators. They would function as a smaller peafowl, complementing their beautiful blue and green with its gold and red, giving us two very distinct yet similar options for beautiful colorfull galliforms to liven up the colorpalete of our zoos, while also boosting the roster of culturally distinct chinese animals, which would be a big + as thats ironically the emptiest area of asia currently in the game.
And now from the southern and eastern parts of the himalaya, more preciscly the Quinling Mountains, a second golden fellow from china joins us.
How could i do a mountain pack without a takin? These delightfully derpy looking cow goats are a real treat for zoo nerds and still eyecatching enough with their golden coat for non zoo nerds who hear of them the first time, as a golden mountain cow from deep within the chinese highlands does sound like a fairy tail creature.
But why have i actually choosen the golden takin?
Recency bias, which may sound weird but lets explain. In the EAZA there are 20 holders of golden takin, 37 of mishimi takin the brown and wider spread one and 10 with shichuan takins which are pretty much in the middle between gold and brown, BUT of the golden takins 20 holding 15 have aquired them in the last 5 years. 15! Thats a lot!
I dont know about you guys, but if checking the phase in rate of creatures in the EAZA has told me anything that normally these take ages, and infact the takins did aswell, but just recently finally exploded and spread out like crazy. A short history. In 2002 the Zoo Liberec in Czechia got their hands on a pair from china in exchange for an indian rhino and managed the first succesfully birth of a calf in 2004. In 2010, Tierpark Berlin was the second zoo outside of Czechia who got them via animals born in liberec who then also successfully breed them and gave animals to zoo dresden in 2013. Now these 3 zoos managed to breed a lot of golden takin so many zoos across the EAZA noted that they were interested and started building taking enclosures, leading to a bunch more himalayan themed areas in zoos with other animals that can be kept with takin like himalayan thars, tufted deer and bharal, raising all of their holdings aswell. So we have here one charismatic large animal that has brough himalayan animals and themed areas through europe, bringing us some of the most modern and beautiful themed areas in europe, for the price of one indian rhino in 2002. Thats a hella trade deal i want to dip in on ingame.
Doesnt hurt that its arguably the most striking looking of the 3, eventhough i personally find the mishimis dark brown with gold accents even more beautiful.
But enough history, what about the animal itself?
The golden takin is a very versatile animal, migrating each year up and down the valleys and peaks of the Quinling mountains.
Depending on the time of year, they can be found in lush temperate mixed forests, dense bamboo woods, the habitat pandas prefer, alpine conifer forests up to alpine meadows above the treeline, migrating in similar patters as farmers in the alps lead their cattle up and down the mountains from the valleys to the lush meadows in the summer and back down in the harsher winter just that the takins do it in reverse, staying in the valleys for spring and spending the winter in high altitude bamboo forests. They are actually really well studied in the wild, something sadly not reflected in their englisch wikipedia page. In the wild they have a very complex social structure, with the females living in close family structures of around 3 animals, which then group together into lose herds with up to 8 of such family units, often with a few males joining aswell. Males are mostly solitary and only rarely group together, but also dont seem to be activly agressive towards each other. The different genders also seem to prefer differnet biomes with males being observed to prefer open shrublands in the winter, while females tend to stick to the forest.
Due to the extermination of the tiger in their range, they only contend with two predators, the leopard and the dhole. When threatend they rise their ears, listening for the danger and warning each other with a bark sound, before either fleeing and spreading out their herd into their smaller family group or rushing together, protecting the young in the middle, eventhough the former is the more prefered option, generally taken when they could detect the predator early, while the second is a large resort when they are allready to close.
To wrap things up, in my opinion the golden takin, an animal that literally has kick started an european trend for himalayan themed areas, deserves to be the headliner of the pack, as eventhough their history in modern zoo EAZA is just 21 years old, they still managed to shape it more then most other species could in a away longer time, as the literal headliner and main piece in many different mountain themed areas all over the continent.
+ they also look darn cute!
I also want to thank all you people for you allready strong engagement with this thread, even before the first post was even finished. I put alot of time in this, roughly 2,5 hours just for this one and i had a lot of fun learning and researching about these animals and the mountain rages of the world and its great to see with how much enthusiam its greeted.
Really motivates me to keep this thread going and show you all how i would shape this game, trying to sell you on animals the way i want to be convinced, not by just showing cute pictures and mentioning them in a list but actually learning about them and hearing the reasoning why i want to see them in the game.
See you all next time ^^
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