Capybara - I'm still surprised by the overwhelming popularity of this giant rodent in this community. But its common in zoos, and adds a unique animal to the game, so I'm happy to see it join the roster. The model looks spot on. But the hot water baths? For the capybara its an unnatural behavior limited to a few Japanese zoos as far as I am aware. Seems like a cop out on Frontier's part, in lieu of providing any meaningful new game feature. How is "bathing" any different than all the animals that can already wade, splash, play, etc. in the water?
Platypus - How awesome is this! Totally unexpected. Fun to see Frontier get a surprise over on everyone, even after yesterday's hints. Also a pleasant surprise that they correctly included its burrowing behavior. Hopefully we can put the burrow entrance in vertical creek banks.
Asian Small-clawed otter - Finally a cute otter! Unfortunately this probably means I'll never get my sea otter, but I didn't really expect to anyway. I was worried it was too much to hope for a second otter at all. I really hope that Frontier has some amazing animation to go with these critters, and that there water depth requirements aren't too ridiculous. Think of all the awesome opportunities for enrichment. With PZ's modular building system otter tubes would be so incredibly awesome!
Unfortunately given that Frontier already announced their enrichment pieces, were unlikely to get anything additional or fun. A smaller version of the same feeder already in the game. Um, yeah?
Wild Water Buffalo - Number of wild water buffalo in zoos: 0. This is bizarre as the choice of pretending to include Camelus ferus in the game. Just enter the realm of reality and call it Bubalus bubalis. Its still exotic to most of the world.
Spectacled Caiman - Huge miss for me. Another south american caiman. Really? Who thought that was a good choice. Sure we need more SA diversity. I was really excited about the idea of a Spectacled bear, but another caiman doesn't add diversity to the game. Another crocodilian would have been fine, if they had put some though into the choice. The Chinese alligator would have been great. Hailing from another unrepresented region in PZ, its cute short snout is visually distinct from other crocodilians, and its critically endangered, with a large breeding and conservation effort in real-life zoos, plus it fits the exact same size niche as the spectacled caiman.
Red-crowned Crane - YES! Finally a bird. And what a gorgeous bird. But even more importantly it provides a model for a ton of bird mods so we can finally start adding some realistic biodiversity to the game. Cranes are very well represented in zoo collections, and are often utilized in mixed species exhibits.
Nile Lechwe - Wouldn't have been my first choice for next antelope to be included, but my picks wouldn't have fit in an aquatic pack. An ungulate is a clever way to add diversity to this pack, but I probably would have picked an aquatic cervid (PĆØre David's deer, brow antlered deer, barasingha, marsh deer, or the related water chevrotain). But the Nile lechwe has striking colors and I'm sure it will look good in the game.
new exhibit animal, the smallest of its species - the Danube Crested Newt
Huh? How can an entire species be the smallest of its species? Looks like Frontier is still struggling with 9th grade taxonomy. And why would you choose the smallest of anything for an exhibit animal? The animals are already so miniscule and hard to find in those giant static boxes as to be pointless. For me Frontier usually misses the mark with their exhibit animal choices. Sticking with fully aquatic amphibians this would have been a perfect opportunity for the highly requested axolotl. Personally I would have been over the moon to see the caiman I vetoed earlier pop up here; the caiman lizard that is! How gorgeous is he! Big enough to be seen, and a whole rainbow of colors.
thank you so much for them 
Also excited to see a possible shift towards packs that arenāt geographically-limited! There are so many species that deserve representation in PZ, and many from places that arenāt likely to see a dedicated regional DLC. Additionally, the shift to biomes/environments make me hopeful we may see a greater amount of future DLC than what is currently assumed. Hereās to hoping PZ continues growing well past 2022!
