Ranking the areas still requiring animals

What's your priorities amongst the regions which are not yet green/blue?
For India it’s mostly a couple options, I’ll say of all regions India actually has some good base game stuff. The problem, like all regions is still lack of birds/ filler animals.

India
  1. Blackbuck (big shock, I know)
  2. Lion tailed macaque
  3. Indian cobra (another shocker)
  4. Maybe the demoiselle crane? I think that would be a pretty option. Likewise, the Himalayan monal can also work! So maybe the two birds?
For Indonesia/ that last remaining island in Indonesia/ the Pacific islands I really think birds would just do it for me. So here would be the picks I can recommend, or any non-birds I can think of.

Papa New Guinea/ Indonesia/ Pacific Islands
  1. Victoria crowned pigeon is an obvious pick, and it really is the bird for the job.
  2. The nene would be the perfect waterfowl.
  3. The Kagu and the Guam rail would also work as endangered pacific island birds.
  4. Likewise, a tree kangaroo. Otherwise I think that’s it.
Otherwise, that leaves what we all expect. Latin America/Caribbean and South America. I’ll separate this into four regions. Central America, the Caribbean, Tropical South America, and Patagonia.

Central America
  1. Black howler monkey for the obvious #1 pick
  2. Ocellated Turkey is my oddball, and to be frank, probably the one animal here with no crossover into South America
  3. White nosed coati
  4. Roseate spoonbill
The Caribbean
  1. This is pretty easy, the American flamingo and the brown Pelican.
  2. Otherwise, the Cuban crocodile may be cool.
  3. For an exhibit animal, either the mountain chicken, cayman blue iguana, or maybe something like the Caribbean hermit crab?
Tropical South America (I was basically thinking the Amazon, but there will still be cross over with Central America)
  1. Golden lion tamarin
  2. Either the white faced saki or the squirrel monkey
  3. Scarlet ibis
  4. Red footed tortoise
  5. Red rumped agouti
  6. White faced whistling duck, or fulvous whistling duck, or Brazilian teal. Basically if it’s a “tropical house” I need a waterfowl
  7. For an exhibit animal, the green anaconda would be nice. Or if we are ever gonna have the chance, pirhana.
Patagonia
  1. Greater Rhea
  2. Patagonian mara
  3. The tegu as a “not monitor” habitat lizard
  4. Maybe the seriema? This would be a big oddball, but I like it!
Otherwise I think that’s it for me. The best part of the Caribbean/ Latin America/ Tropical South America is all the animals that crossover from one region to another. But I forgot Antarctica, so I guess here we go again.

Bonus: Antarctica
  1. Either the gentoo or rockhopper penguin. Then we can bump Antarctica into easily represented territory. All it takes is the two penguin species, but we need two!
Surprise, surprise, it’s a list of a lot of birds!!!!! Who could have seen that coming!!!!!
 
What's your priorities amongst the regions which are not yet green/blue?
Region wise my biggest priority is South America mainly the Amazon, but I don’t need any more animals from the Middle East

South and Central America:
1. Another monkey my biggest want being the spider monkey because some zoos near me have them and their locomotion is cool
2. A Coati, I don’t mind which one but South American is prettier so I guess that one
3. Mara because Patagonia needs some love plus we could always do with more rodents, also pretty common in my area so it’s above no.4
4. Rhea because we need more birds and more Patagonian animals
5. Roseate Spoonbill because it’s a bird and has a huge range
6. Another Monkey, either a tamarin or the squirrel monkey so that there is more size variety plus they are common, I don’t know if tamarins will work as habitat animals, if they do then the Golden Lion Tamarin if not then the Squirrel Monkey
7. Bush Dog is pretty common and I thinks he’s a pretty cool dude although he is another carnivore
8. Agouti is super common and another rodent
9. Southern Tamandua is quite unique so a pretty good oddball
10. White Faced Whistling Duck, huge range plus a waterfowl, but I’ve never seen one so it’s a bit lower on the list
11. Third Monkey don’t really care which
12. Spectacled Bear because he’s another bear which we have a lot of but he is pretty interesting and gives more love to the Andes
13. Southern Pudu is a small ungulate which we do need but is less unique than many other animals

India:
1. Indian Monkey either Lion Tailed Macaque or Langur, I’d choose Langur but I don’t mind which monkey we get
2. Indian antelope either the blackbuck or Nilgai I don’t really mind which
3. Bird, Himalayan monal is pretty

Pacific Islands:
1. Victoria Crowned Pigeon because I need it for tropical houses and it’s a pretty common bird
2. Tree Kangaroo because it’s unique
3. Hawaiian Goose because we need waterfowl
 
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I’m a bit worn out from animals from Southeast Asia. I am down for Indian, Middle East and Himalayan animals but as a “greater Asia” as opposed to one per region.
Yes Latin America needs some important love.
Idc about Antarctica. Can anyone educate me as to how many antartica animals are found in captivity? Except penguins
 
I’m a bit worn out from animals from Southeast Asia. I am down for Indian, Middle East and Himalayan animals but as a “greater Asia” as opposed to one per region.
Yes Latin America needs some important love.
Idc about Antarctica. Can anyone educate me as to how many antartica animals are found in captivity? Except penguins
I think there are like 2 zoos in SA that keep southern elephant seals, otherwise i dont think there are any antarctic seals in captivity anymore, atleast from what i could find.
 
For the good part, most areas that arnt green yet lack arguably just one or 2 animals that are popular on their own and so are highly likly to get to green "by accident" with for example arabia going to green with the hamadryas baboon, which coincidentally among the most popular picks left

For my 3 highest priority regions i wanna start top to bottom with argentina/southern south america as theirs only one animal from the other sides of the andes id consider important.
This is the last red region in the game and imo no region should have nothing with only the cougar currently contributing to the wild life together with the 2 domestic camelids and if you wanna stretch a little the african penguin and californian sealion as stand ins for the humbolt penguin and south american sealion.
Thankfully this region doesnt need much with only 2 very important animals and 5 more that would be neat to have:

Essential Tier (Animals that are needed to get past yellow):
1. Arguably the most important addition when looking from a regional perspective not just for southern south america but in general is the patagonian Mara. Its a unique rodent that fills the role of an ungulate, is omnipresent in zoos and is arguably the most iconic animal from the region. It also fills south americas biggest hole structure wise, as our current selection lacks any real filler animals to dedicate a large space to that isnt a camel. It also would work well as a habitat mate to the other herbivores of the region like the tapir, camelids and capybara so its just all around an amazing addition that aces every category.

2. Less exciting but still important, the rhea compliments the mara greatly aswell as finally bringing a non camelid filler animal for south american areas. It would sadly be the americas first bird, but still bird is a bird and even if it looks mostly like a female ostrich it still deserves to be in the game for the value of filling actual space in south america and being just like the mara able to be mixed with more or less everything that wouldnt try to snack on it.

Great Tier (Animals from this region that add something new and desireable for the entire game):
3. As the outlier from the otherside of the andes, the Southern Pudu would be the games only representation of the temperate rainforest of south western south america and add a small deer, being something new for the whole roster. The Pudu has more or less all the same qualitys of the mara but just less good. Its a small filler animal, the most iconic from its region and a great habitat mate, but it does all the jobs less good then the mara, is less iconic, from a region many people most likly wont care if it isnt represented at all and is an ungulate instead of a rodent. Still this is a solid A Tier animal that would greatly enritch any pack its featured in.

4. An animal that people often forget as a possible habitat animal is the black and white tegu and while its actual range into the southern pampa of south america isnt that large if we look at a map its still part of the animals listed for that category so it felt wrong to not include it. Theyd fill the important niche of finally another habitat reptile that isnt apar of any of the 3 groups we allready have and would be the first lizard for the americas. As the largest tegu with a lenght of 70 cm to 140 cm, making them on the smaller side of animals in general but still completly in the range of potential habitat animal, which would be very usefull for indoor terrariums that arnt exhibits, while also being reasonable outdoor creatures.

Good Tier (Animals that are very neat for the region to get it from green to blue but not much more):
5. A duck. Yeah we gotta have those and like any other region on the planet there are a few common in zoos, most notably the white faced whistling duck, white cheeked pintail, rosy billed pochard, red shoveler and cinnamon teal but this list could easily be continued for atleast 5 more ducks. A duck wouldnt make or break this region but it certanly would be a nice addition. The reason they arnt higher on the tiers is that a duck would improve any region in the game but only some ducks would qualify to be sensible "first ducks". Sure the rosy billed pochard is extremly common in captivity and a beautiful bird and any duck would still be a massive improvement but there are quite a few ducks id choose over them if i had to choose just one. The only one here qualifying for a first duck would be the white faced whistling but its also the one that is the least based in southern south america so id felt wrong to put them as important to the region when there are defenetly better ducks to represent this region in particular.

6. We might allready have its domestic version, but the guanaco still got some things to offer to us. Besides it being neat to have both wild and domestic for specific or even interconnected displays as a demonstration of domestication it also would neatly tie up most of the southern tip of south america, but as it would be our 3. camelid i cant say its that exciting or even important for the region as substituting with a lama is just that easy of a solution.

7. While i mentioed before that the californian Sealion is a decent stand in for the south american its also not a unreasonable addition. Unlike the humbold and the african penguin the south american and californian sealion are instantly able to be differentiated by the glance due to different size, color and the males quite prominent mane. They are also the third most commonly held piniped in captivity so thats also something neat. Overall i wouldnt call it needed but if we get an animal pack id rather get them as a clone as most other non birds or monkeys. Still as they are able to be substituted reasonably they are stuck down here as the "least important" addition in my eyes. Still neat though.

If wed get all 6 it would be hard to argue that southern south america is anything but blue but even just the two essentials would bring it up to a reasonable good ranking, which is why im still optimistic about reaching it. Overall a southern south america animal pack would work out surprisingly well, add in the ornated horned frog (pacman frog) and we got a full and not to unreasonable pack to represent the non tropical parts of south america, which currently got essentially the cougar and the two domestics as their only representation. Ofcourse that pack wont and propaply shouldnt happen as it completly ignores south americas biggest sore spot known as monkeys but its still fun to think about how much this area still has to offer.

On the other end of the spectrum is tropical south and central america.
To keep it short whatever animals they add, if there arnt 3 more monkeys this area will never be green. This might sound harsh but with monkeys and parrots being the most important zoo animals from this area by far and often appearing in zoos high both in number and species and parrots being pretty much of the table monkeys need to carry their weight. The area needs atleast one monkey larger and one smaller then the capuchin aswell as a 4. extra to even scratch at the diversity of south american primates. A set up of capuchin, howler, spider and tamarin would most likly be the best, but especally the white faced saki and a titi would also be great candidates, not to mention the fact that theres not one but 3 fan favorite tamarins that all 3 deserve to be in the game. Besides monkeys this area needs some birds with the holy trinity of scarlet ibis, roseate spoonbill and white faced whistling duck being a good start to represent south americas tropical wetlands with birds that fit the way habitat animals currently work, the coati is a must as another omnipresent animal and our first not cat or capuchin south american climber and there are also good arguments for the agouti and ocelot as nice filler fluff, but the general reality is that its to late for this region. This region simply will not be green because the lack of monkeys is that crucial so it also doesnt make sense to lay all the animals out imo as 3 monkeys on their own will make this area green and while atleast the coati is nessecary for blue you could reasonably argue that wed reach blue handily once we got another 3 monkeys. Monkeys are just that important to the zoo identity of this region and im just not seeing it happening, especally as frontier will most likly waste slots on animals like the bush dog where its like neat, another dog, hurray, but what about the animals i actually build a south america area for?
No matter how you slice it, every other animal is just extra fluff compared to the monkey issue and while some are better then others with the coati and the holy trinity being all S tier additions, they wont be what this region is fundamentally missing, just very amazing extras.

Lastly and least i wanna touch up on india.
Of all the regions besides the 2 mentioned before its the only one that isnt incredibly niche, but it still got its issues called "filler animals". Since the base game india allready had most of its biggest hitters but was lacking in small animals, monkeys and filler ungulates and as everywhere birds, but with greater flamingos and peafowl living here its not that bad. Its issues where gently and indirectly adressed over time with the dhole, small clawed otter, striped hyena, caracal, sloth bear, water buffalo, wild boar and takin, but as you can see the animals where all either small to mid size carnivorans or bulkier ungulates.
If you ask me (which i assume you do since your still reading this long post) all of indias issue get solved if we get 1 or 2 of each category, with 2 in total being enough for green and 4-5 for blue so lets look at our candidates:

For Ungulates the represetation of actual grassland ungulates is quite lacking and not because of a lack of choices. Between all the different deers like axis, samba and hog deer to the different indian antelopes there is enough to choose from but imo 2 stick out like a sore thumb. Those 2 are the blackbuck and nilgai. This might be a take as cold as the antarctic winter, but these two in combination would be completly sufficent to fix indias and to a larger extend asias ungulate issues. Two very different looking ungulates, one slim and agile, one large and bulky, both iconic and recogniseable in their own ways, both looking incredibly different from the other antelopes in game, both being commonly held in zoos and both looking great next to another make them a no brainer choice for the indian ungulates. If wed choose just one the blackbuck wins out, cause while the nilgai is more unique looking in general next to the other bulkier ungulates we currently have for india the contrast of the slim and agile black buck just wins out in regional diversity, which afterall is our goal here.

Talking monkeys, there are 3 that immediatly come to mind, the lion tailed macaque, the gray hulman and the rhesus macaque, with the last one directly getting the boot again. The rhesus macaque might be the most iconic and historically important of the 3, they are the most similar to the allready in game japanese macaque and while directly differtiateable from them due to the lighter skin tone, shorter less fuzzy and darker fur, they still are clearly the least "cool" choice here, even if they tend to get more hate then they deserve. They would be a fine addition but with us being so short of monkeys we arnt shooting for fine, we are shooting for atleast good.
Lion tailed macaque and gray hulman meanwhile are completly up to personal preference. Both look unique and would greatly work together to expand the asian monkey diversity but as we know that frontier most likly will just choose one the question is the macaque with a beard, conservation story and a tail with a very limited range or the gray langurs larger range, being a langur that isnt the nose monkey and larger range of biomes.

Lastly birds the choices are easy, to get the most out of two we need a waterfowl and a pheasent. What a good thing that the grey white pelican lives in india. It and the greater flamingo might be far more associated with africa but with both also occuring in southern europe and asia they make for quite the power couple. For a more india specific animal we got the barheaded goose, the most commonly kept exotic goose in captivity and known for migrating over the himalaya between india and the plains of central asia, making them a great rep for all 3 regions. Also as a more "aesthetic" waterfowl then the pelican they fit much better in the classic temple vibe most themed india areas lean in to. For pheasent make your choice and mine is the satyr tragopan. This pheasent is the complete opposite of the blue peafowl in its much smaller size and red orange black color explosion coverd in white spots and iridescent blue around the eyes. This walking rainbow looks not just fantastic but also as different from the peafowl as you can get without loosing any of the flashyness, making for a great addition next to it.
 
For the good part, most areas that arnt green yet lack arguably just one or 2 animals that are popular on their own and so are highly likly to get to green "by accident" with for example arabia going to green with the hamadryas baboon, which coincidentally among the most popular picks left

For my 3 highest priority regions i wanna start top to bottom with argentina/southern south america as theirs only one animal from the other sides of the andes id consider important.
This is the last red region in the game and imo no region should have nothing with only the cougar currently contributing to the wild life together with the 2 domestic camelids and if you wanna stretch a little the african penguin and californian sealion as stand ins for the humbolt penguin and south american sealion.
Thankfully this region doesnt need much with only 2 very important animals and 5 more that would be neat to have:

Essential Tier (Animals that are needed to get past yellow):
1. Arguably the most important addition when looking from a regional perspective not just for southern south america but in general is the patagonian Mara. Its a unique rodent that fills the role of an ungulate, is omnipresent in zoos and is arguably the most iconic animal from the region. It also fills south americas biggest hole structure wise, as our current selection lacks any real filler animals to dedicate a large space to that isnt a camel. It also would work well as a habitat mate to the other herbivores of the region like the tapir, camelids and capybara so its just all around an amazing addition that aces every category.

2. Less exciting but still important, the rhea compliments the mara greatly aswell as finally bringing a non camelid filler animal for south american areas. It would sadly be the americas first bird, but still bird is a bird and even if it looks mostly like a female ostrich it still deserves to be in the game for the value of filling actual space in south america and being just like the mara able to be mixed with more or less everything that wouldnt try to snack on it.

Great Tier (Animals from this region that add something new and desireable for the entire game):
3. As the outlier from the otherside of the andes, the Southern Pudu would be the games only representation of the temperate rainforest of south western south america and add a small deer, being something new for the whole roster. The Pudu has more or less all the same qualitys of the mara but just less good. Its a small filler animal, the most iconic from its region and a great habitat mate, but it does all the jobs less good then the mara, is less iconic, from a region many people most likly wont care if it isnt represented at all and is an ungulate instead of a rodent. Still this is a solid A Tier animal that would greatly enritch any pack its featured in.

4. An animal that people often forget as a possible habitat animal is the black and white tegu and while its actual range into the southern pampa of south america isnt that large if we look at a map its still part of the animals listed for that category so it felt wrong to not include it. Theyd fill the important niche of finally another habitat reptile that isnt apar of any of the 3 groups we allready have and would be the first lizard for the americas. As the largest tegu with a lenght of 70 cm to 140 cm, making them on the smaller side of animals in general but still completly in the range of potential habitat animal, which would be very usefull for indoor terrariums that arnt exhibits, while also being reasonable outdoor creatures.

Good Tier (Animals that are very neat for the region to get it from green to blue but not much more):
5. A duck. Yeah we gotta have those and like any other region on the planet there are a few common in zoos, most notably the white faced whistling duck, white cheeked pintail, rosy billed pochard, red shoveler and cinnamon teal but this list could easily be continued for atleast 5 more ducks. A duck wouldnt make or break this region but it certanly would be a nice addition. The reason they arnt higher on the tiers is that a duck would improve any region in the game but only some ducks would qualify to be sensible "first ducks". Sure the rosy billed pochard is extremly common in captivity and a beautiful bird and any duck would still be a massive improvement but there are quite a few ducks id choose over them if i had to choose just one. The only one here qualifying for a first duck would be the white faced whistling but its also the one that is the least based in southern south america so id felt wrong to put them as important to the region when there are defenetly better ducks to represent this region in particular.

6. We might allready have its domestic version, but the guanaco still got some things to offer to us. Besides it being neat to have both wild and domestic for specific or even interconnected displays as a demonstration of domestication it also would neatly tie up most of the southern tip of south america, but as it would be our 3. camelid i cant say its that exciting or even important for the region as substituting with a lama is just that easy of a solution.

7. While i mentioed before that the californian Sealion is a decent stand in for the south american its also not a unreasonable addition. Unlike the humbold and the african penguin the south american and californian sealion are instantly able to be differentiated by the glance due to different size, color and the males quite prominent mane. They are also the third most commonly held piniped in captivity so thats also something neat. Overall i wouldnt call it needed but if we get an animal pack id rather get them as a clone as most other non birds or monkeys. Still as they are able to be substituted reasonably they are stuck down here as the "least important" addition in my eyes. Still neat though.

If wed get all 6 it would be hard to argue that southern south america is anything but blue but even just the two essentials would bring it up to a reasonable good ranking, which is why im still optimistic about reaching it. Overall a southern south america animal pack would work out surprisingly well, add in the ornated horned frog (pacman frog) and we got a full and not to unreasonable pack to represent the non tropical parts of south america, which currently got essentially the cougar and the two domestics as their only representation. Ofcourse that pack wont and propaply shouldnt happen as it completly ignores south americas biggest sore spot known as monkeys but its still fun to think about how much this area still has to offer.

On the other end of the spectrum is tropical south and central america.
To keep it short whatever animals they add, if there arnt 3 more monkeys this area will never be green. This might sound harsh but with monkeys and parrots being the most important zoo animals from this area by far and often appearing in zoos high both in number and species and parrots being pretty much of the table monkeys need to carry their weight. The area needs atleast one monkey larger and one smaller then the capuchin aswell as a 4. extra to even scratch at the diversity of south american primates. A set up of capuchin, howler, spider and tamarin would most likly be the best, but especally the white faced saki and a titi would also be great candidates, not to mention the fact that theres not one but 3 fan favorite tamarins that all 3 deserve to be in the game. Besides monkeys this area needs some birds with the holy trinity of scarlet ibis, roseate spoonbill and white faced whistling duck being a good start to represent south americas tropical wetlands with birds that fit the way habitat animals currently work, the coati is a must as another omnipresent animal and our first not cat or capuchin south american climber and there are also good arguments for the agouti and ocelot as nice filler fluff, but the general reality is that its to late for this region. This region simply will not be green because the lack of monkeys is that crucial so it also doesnt make sense to lay all the animals out imo as 3 monkeys on their own will make this area green and while atleast the coati is nessecary for blue you could reasonably argue that wed reach blue handily once we got another 3 monkeys. Monkeys are just that important to the zoo identity of this region and im just not seeing it happening, especally as frontier will most likly waste slots on animals like the bush dog where its like neat, another dog, hurray, but what about the animals i actually build a south america area for?
No matter how you slice it, every other animal is just extra fluff compared to the monkey issue and while some are better then others with the coati and the holy trinity being all S tier additions, they wont be what this region is fundamentally missing, just very amazing extras.

Lastly and least i wanna touch up on india.
Of all the regions besides the 2 mentioned before its the only one that isnt incredibly niche, but it still got its issues called "filler animals". Since the base game india allready had most of its biggest hitters but was lacking in small animals, monkeys and filler ungulates and as everywhere birds, but with greater flamingos and peafowl living here its not that bad. Its issues where gently and indirectly adressed over time with the dhole, small clawed otter, striped hyena, caracal, sloth bear, water buffalo, wild boar and takin, but as you can see the animals where all either small to mid size carnivorans or bulkier ungulates.
If you ask me (which i assume you do since your still reading this long post) all of indias issue get solved if we get 1 or 2 of each category, with 2 in total being enough for green and 4-5 for blue so lets look at our candidates:

For Ungulates the represetation of actual grassland ungulates is quite lacking and not because of a lack of choices. Between all the different deers like axis, samba and hog deer to the different indian antelopes there is enough to choose from but imo 2 stick out like a sore thumb. Those 2 are the blackbuck and nilgai. This might be a take as cold as the antarctic winter, but these two in combination would be completly sufficent to fix indias and to a larger extend asias ungulate issues. Two very different looking ungulates, one slim and agile, one large and bulky, both iconic and recogniseable in their own ways, both looking incredibly different from the other antelopes in game, both being commonly held in zoos and both looking great next to another make them a no brainer choice for the indian ungulates. If wed choose just one the blackbuck wins out, cause while the nilgai is more unique looking in general next to the other bulkier ungulates we currently have for india the contrast of the slim and agile black buck just wins out in regional diversity, which afterall is our goal here.

Talking monkeys, there are 3 that immediatly come to mind, the lion tailed macaque, the gray hulman and the rhesus macaque, with the last one directly getting the boot again. The rhesus macaque might be the most iconic and historically important of the 3, they are the most similar to the allready in game japanese macaque and while directly differtiateable from them due to the lighter skin tone, shorter less fuzzy and darker fur, they still are clearly the least "cool" choice here, even if they tend to get more hate then they deserve. They would be a fine addition but with us being so short of monkeys we arnt shooting for fine, we are shooting for atleast good.
Lion tailed macaque and gray hulman meanwhile are completly up to personal preference. Both look unique and would greatly work together to expand the asian monkey diversity but as we know that frontier most likly will just choose one the question is the macaque with a beard, conservation story and a tail with a very limited range or the gray langurs larger range, being a langur that isnt the nose monkey and larger range of biomes.

Lastly birds the choices are easy, to get the most out of two we need a waterfowl and a pheasent. What a good thing that the grey white pelican lives in india. It and the greater flamingo might be far more associated with africa but with both also occuring in southern europe and asia they make for quite the power couple. For a more india specific animal we got the barheaded goose, the most commonly kept exotic goose in captivity and known for migrating over the himalaya between india and the plains of central asia, making them a great rep for all 3 regions. Also as a more "aesthetic" waterfowl then the pelican they fit much better in the classic temple vibe most themed india areas lean in to. For pheasent make your choice and mine is the satyr tragopan. This pheasent is the complete opposite of the blue peafowl in its much smaller size and red orange black color explosion coverd in white spots and iridescent blue around the eyes. This walking rainbow looks not just fantastic but also as different from the peafowl as you can get without loosing any of the flashyness, making for a great addition next to it.
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What's your priorities amongst the regions which are not yet green/blue?

India: I think the blackbuck and perhaps the cobra would be enough to bring the region to green. Asia as a whole is lacking in filler ungulates and exhibit animals. To go blue, we'd get at least one more filler ungulate, and as others have mentioned, the nilgai and a deer would be great. Also, the region would need at least one monkey, with the lion-tailed macaque and grey langur as great options.

Middle East: I think the region could be green at this point. The game needs a baboon, and although the Hamadryas would easily be the best and most popular choice, it is not the only option. To go blue, I'd need the Hamadryas baboon and at least one of the tortoise or honey badger. I'd also want an ungulate, with the Arabian oryx, Nubian ibex, and onager as all decent options.

New Guinea: A tree kangaroo would turn it green. One or two other things would turn it blue, with the pig-nosed turtle, Victoria pigeon, or perhaps an exhibit animal as good options

Patagonia: I think the rhea and mara would be enough to turn it green. A tegu might be enough to make it blue for me.

Andes: The spectacled bear would turn this region green. One more thing after that would turn it blue. The pudu or perhaps a chinchilla/viscacha would be enough.

Tropical Central and South America: This region could be red. There are currently enough animals to make a section for this region, but it's missing several key players to build the most common zoo sections for this highly biodiverse region.
  • Goal #1 Monkeys: As I've said many times, the tamarin/marmoset family (Callitrichidae) needs at least one representative. Collectively, they are extremely common in zoos. I don't mind installing mods to get more tamarins after that, but I would like for them to have a solid base. Ideally, there would be at least two, the popular golden lion and at least one other tamarin, for the people who can't/won't use mods. The spider and howler monkey are also somewhat common in zoos and popular among the community. White-faced sakis, tufted capuchins, and the popular squirrel monkeys are also pretty basic zoo animals. As Konig said, we need three for green, and I think we'd need 6 for blue.
  • Goal #2 Birds: Macaws and toucans are some of the most iconic and popular birds in zoo collections. I also agree with Konig about the birds, with the scarlet ibis, roseate spoonbill, and white-faced whistling duck as pretty essential. They are popular zoo staples, and they could also be used to make mods for similar birds if the number of bird slots is limited.
  • Goal #3 Tropical Houses: Tamarins/marmosets and some habitat birds already get us most of the way for what we'd need to build a good tropical house. I might add a curassow or a trumpeter as a variety pick. The less popular agouti is actually really essential for this section. Ideally, we'd also have at least one aquatic habitat animal to work with. The catfish, Arowana, arapaima, and pacu are probably out, but the Arrau river turtle could work. At the very least, they could shrink the habitat requirements of the dwarf caiman so we could get it to fit into the houses.
  • Goal #4 Non-primate Arboreal Animals/Small Mammals/Oddballs: The coati is a common and popular zoo star here. The ocelot is a popular cat that would probably go over well with casual players. I'd also really want to see a tamandua as an oddball, but the bush dog, porcupine, and perhaps kinkajou are also pretty good.
  • Goal #5 Exhibit Animals: The popular green anaconda, emerald tree boa, blue poison frog, and mata-mata turtle are still missing. I see all of them often in zoos. The region also has some colorful, poisonous snakes, including the coral snake and eyelash viper. There are already a lot of exhibit animals from this region, but it still needs more.
To go green, I'd need 3 monkeys, 2 birds, a coati, and 1-2 more things. For Tropical Central and South America go blue, I'd need 6 monkeys, 4 birds, a coati, an agouti, an ocelot, and 3-4 other things (exhibit animals, river turtle, oddballs, etc.)
 
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I pretty much agree with everything said here. Still wanna add my two cents tho.

India: Honestly an India animal pack is one of the imo underated themes and could easily elevate this area to an really good statuts, aswell as having the potential to just being a nice pack in general. Overall the region has a very strong roster of star animals in place but is severly lacking in filler animals.

And just for funsies im gotta suggest an india animal pack:
1. A Monkey: Honestly any of grey langur, lion tailed macaque and rhesus macaque would do. They all have their own perks and i dont have any strong preference for any of them. The grey has its very varied range making it probably the most multipurpose of them, also due to their tendency to dwell in urban areas it definetly has some cool options for habitat design. The lion tailed is probably the most intersting looking and has a big conservational value. And lastly the rhesus is the most common and geographically wide spread of the trio, aswell probably as basic of OW monkey as you can get, which honestly i think is a pro here and like the langur it also commonly lives in urban areas which paired with its long historic in the field of medizin would make for some intersting educational options. The downside is thats its rather similar to the japanese macaque, but i feel like the different color and it having a tail is enough to set it apart. Honestly the more i think about it the more i favor the rhesus, eventhough i went in here with the langur as my favorite.
2. and 3. Filler Hoofstock: Nilgai, black buck, axis, sambar and hog deer, there are alot of good options. If i had to choose i would go with the combination of nilgai and hog deer. Reasons being they form a cool pair as a big and a small ungulate, also they both look very different from any other deer and antelope we got.
4. Bar Headed Goose: A very common and very pretty waterfowl. Which due to their migration offer some neat options in how to incorporate them into your zoos. For everyone not aware, these birds nest and breed in central asia and migrate anually over the himalayas to southern asia including india. So you could easily fit them into any india section, have them in a satelite enclosure to wild horses and camels aswell as arguably also fitting into himalayan areas, in addtion to just generel waterfowl ponds.
5. Small Oddball: Small animals is also something india could use more of. Yellow throated marten definetly is my favorite here but you also can make a very good argument for the honey badger and to a lesser extent the palm civet and fishing cat
6. and 7. Wildcard:
Honestly could be many things and you can in my opinion make a good argument for any of these: Markhor as a highly requested animal. Himalayan monal/ satyr tragopan/ jungle fowl as colorfull ground birds, Zebu for being an animal of high cultural significance. Asiatic lion as pretty much a replacement of the funky looking basegame lion. Star tortoise as a small habitat tortoise
8. Cobra: Self explainatory really. Most requested exhibit animal and one of the most famous animals from india

Honestly im pretty burned out of talking about SA so im just gonna throw out a couple of animals i think would be very beneficial to the game that arent talked about much.
-Southern screamer: This is easily one of the most underated birds for this region good potential habitat mate for the usual SA suspects like tapir and capybara
-Red footed tortoise: Amazing inclusion in tropical houses both big and small
-Arrau river turtle: Huge semi aquatic turtle for tropical houses and for some cool mixed species exhibits with the caimans
-Muscovy duck: Cool alternative to the whistling duck and doubles as a domestic animal
 
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For another angle to this question, what would be the pack that gets the most different areas to green and maybe even some green ones to blue?
And as a preface tropical south and central america will get next to nothing here for the simple fact that it would either be the south american monkey show or not enough to get it to green .

Starting of we got 3 animals from south america:
  • the patagonian mara (key animal south american Pampa)
  • Black Howler (Tropical South America, South American Savannah)
and either Greater Rhea (Pampa + South American Savannah) or Lesser Rhea (Pampa + Andes)
Both rheas are valid, but id argue that the lesser is better for our purposes.
Mara + any Rhea fullfill our need for patagonia and boost it up from red straight to green and id argue that 1 extra monkey can be seen as good enough to boost tropical south america from orange to yellow, but i can completly understand keeping it at orange. Depending on rhea choice either the andes moves from orange to yellow with the lesser or tropical grassland moves to green together with the black howler, but as they arnt even listed there id say its fair game to take the lesser and move both up.

Moving to Asia, lets start by getting the middle east to green with the hamadryas baboon (key animal middle east), id say quite the uncontroversial choice both in animal and the green status. Also finally a baboon hooray.
For India we all agree that we need an ungulate so blackbuck (key animal india) it is but for a second id actually choose the barheaded goose (key animal india, extra himalaya and central asia) as it also covers central asia and id argue would be enough to turn it blue.

For New guinea the one and only tree kangaroo (key animal new guinea) should confortably turn it green for most people. Id personally would want the pidgeon aswell, but beggars cant be choosers. And lastly for Newzealand the Tuatara (Key Animal New Zealand) fits well as the exhibit with the largest impact.

So in total we got:
  • SA Pampa from red to green
  • SA Savannah from yellow to green
  • Andes from orange to yellow
  • SA rainforest arguably from orange to yellow (even though its a little bit of a stretch)
  • Middle East from Yellow to green
- India from yellow to green
  • Central Asia from green to blue
  • New Guinea from yellow to green
- New Zealand from green to blue

And we achieved this with a pack of:
  • Patagonian Mara (key animal south american Pampa)
  • Black Howler (Tropical South America, South American Savannah)
  • Lesser Rhea (Pampa + Andes)
  • Hamadryas Baboon (key animal middle east)
  • Blackbuck (key animal india)
  • Barheaded Goose (key animal india, extra himalaya and central asia)
  • Tree Kangaroo (key animal new guinea)
  • Tuatara (Key Animal New Zealand)

But as i looked at more animals here are some honorable mentions:
  • Shortbeaked Echidna (New guinea, Arid Australia, Temperate Australia, Tropical Australia): As an animal living literally anywhere in australia and on new guinea and tasmania its lowkey perfect for this. Id say it would push temperate and tropical Australia to blue and arid australia close to blue with imo a monitor also being needed. Together with the tree kangaroo blue for new guinea could be argued, but id personally would want atleast the victoria crowned pidgeon for that aswell.
  • White Stork (Temperate Europe, Mediteranian, India, South African Scrubland, African Savannah): Lots of places it adds to, but id argue it would only be enough to push temperate europe into blue. Still it would be remarkedly usefull due to its large area coverage to push most of these regions a good bit closer to blue.

If we would get a south american pack with the mara and rhea these two would be the animals id replace them with for a final pack to improve the most regions.
Id assume that even if a south american pack would bring the black howler that the only reasonable reaction would be to put another south american monkey in its place as we never have enough of them
 
What's your priorities amongst the regions which are not yet green/blue?
New Guinea
Tree kangaroo
Echidna

India, Pakistan and Arabian Pennisula
Blackbuck
Lion tailed macaque
Pallas cat
Markhor
Baboon
Honey badger
Arabian oryx

Central and South America
Coati
Howler
Spider monkey
Spectacled bear
Rhea
Mara
Vicuña or Guanaco
Ocelot

And the most important to me China:
Père David’s deer
Golden snub nosed monkey
Yak
Chinese alligator
Chinese Giant salamander
 
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What's your priorities amongst the regions which are not yet green/blue?
Highest priorities due to the near lack of anything from the area:

Central America - Compared to Central America, South America is rife with choices. There can be some overlap to SA here, but it's critical to get some more CA species.
South America - Patagonia (just two species really, but it is the area of the map with the least representation, so it gets put up to the highest priority section)

Priorities are three to five species:

South America Amazon/Amazon basin
India
Middle East

Priorities are one or two more species for me at most:

South America Andean range - really, just the Spectacled Bear here, but it's a major want.
Oceania - really just the Tree Kangaroo but I'd also definitely love the Sulawesi Bear Cuscus
Caribbean - I realize there's not much, but a species or two would be nice.
 
What's your priorities amongst the regions which are not yet green/blue?
Patagonia is my top one priority at the moment needing both rhea and mara to make it to Green. Pudu and guanaco and another penguin would.make it blue.

Tropical South América follows close with howler, coati and ocelot for green and maybe the anaconda,Tamandua, GLT and squirrel monkey being the most important animals to get from that region to make it to blue. And imo would still be missing the Brazilian tapir as a key animal.

Caribbean and Central América goes next and needs mostly birds with Brown pelican, Scarlet ibis, roseatte spoonbill and spider monkey.

Then India needs the blackbuck, a muntjac and a monkey to be close to perfect. Cobra would elevated to blue. Honey badger would add a lot as well since would be covering both middle east and África as well. The Hamadryas baboon would be enough to elevate the middle east to Green.

New guinea would be Green with tree kangaroo and blue with an echidna and the Victoria crowned pigeon.
 
Your highest priority regions is what I meant but both are interesting questions.
At this point (as unoriginal of a statement as this is) I want Central and South America into the green if not at least yellow. Then I want the Caribbean at least into a semi-possible state of existence.

This would probably be the smallest pack I can make to do that:

  1. Black howler monkey
  2. Squirrel monkey
  3. White nosed coati
  4. Patagonian mara
  5. Greater Rhea
  6. Roseate spoonbill
  7. Caribbean flamingo
The flamingo alone can basically create a designated Caribbean area, and yeah while we might miss out on some other cool things, outside of also getting a pelican it’s not a bad place to be.
 
The main gaps outside Central America, South America and the Caribbean:
  • New Guinea - Crocodile monitor; Goodfellow’s tree-kangaroo (or alt species); Victoria crowned pigeon
  • Australia and New Zealand - exhibit animals (Frilled lizard; Tuatara; Weta species, etc.)
  • East Asia - Deer species; Golden snub-nosed monkey; Pheasant species; Raccoon-dog species; Serow species
  • South Asia - Blackbuck; Chital; Indian giant squirrel; Mongoose species; Rhesus macaque
  • West Africa - Cusimanse; Diana monkey; Dwarf crocodile; Mongoose species
  • Sub-Saharan Africa - Baboon/Gelada species; Grey crowned crane; Kirk’s dik-dik; Marabou stork; Mongoose species; Secretary bird
Other animals like European wildcat; North American porcupine; Short-beaked echidna; Wild turkey would be wonderful to have and useful for their regions
 
The main gaps outside Central America, South America and the Caribbean:
  • New Guinea - Crocodile monitor; Goodfellow’s tree-kangaroo (or alt species); Victoria crowned pigeon
  • Australia and New Zealand - exhibit animals (Frilled lizard; Tuatara; Weta species, etc.)
  • East Asia - Deer species; Golden snub-nosed monkey; Pheasant species; Raccoon-dog species; Serow species
  • South Asia - Blackbuck; Chital; Indian giant squirrel; Mongoose species; Rhesus macaque
  • West Africa - Cusimanse; Diana monkey; Dwarf crocodile; Mongoose species
  • Sub-Saharan Africa - Baboon/Gelada species; Grey crowned crane; Kirk’s dik-dik; Marabou stork; Mongoose species; Secretary bird
Other animals like European wildcat; North American porcupine; Short-beaked echidna; Wild turkey would be wonderful to have and useful for their regions
I have a feeling you want a mongoose.
 
What's in bold would make these regions green for me, the others would make them blue.

Desert Middle East:
Hamadryas Baboon
Rock Hyrax

Indian Savannah:
Blackbuck
Gaur (technically lives in forests but whatever)
Lion-Tailed Macaque

South American Savannah:
Black Howler

New Guinea Rainforest:
Matschie's Tree Kangaroo
Short-Beaked Echidna

South/Central American Rainforest:
Geoffory's Spider Monkey
Golden Lion Tamarin

Ocelot
Prehensile-Tailed Porcupine
Red-Rumped Agouti
Red-Footed Tortoise
Southern Tamandua
White-Nosed Coatimundi
White-Faced Saki

Andes:
Spectacled Bear

Patagonian Plains/Pampas:
Greater Rhea
Humboldt/Magellanic Penguin
Patagonian Mara
Southern Pudu
 
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