Reintegration in nature

Hello everyone !

Excuse in advance my spelling and my grammar, I'm French is using a translator to express myself here, please be indulgent.

Not speaking English, I did not have fun searching the forum to see if this topic had already been addressed. I therefore allow myself to open the discussion on the reintegration of planet zoo animals into the wild.

Having been underlined by Frontier there will be a system so that animals can be released into the wild for the sake of the species, which is the primary purpose of zoos in normal times.

How do you imagine that?
Do you think that during transport to other continents, countries and other reserves of the world our animal will have his passport that will follow him, followed by a chip or a tracer to study the animal behavior, its travel ...?

Will there be any animal exchanges between zoo to create new lines?

Your keyboards !
 
I agree with WingardiumLevicoaster that the "reintegration feature" will be quite limited in scope. I guess, we will have dedicated enclosures in our zoos in order to prepare the animals to their live in the wilderness. Possibly, there could be a "readiness" indicator, too - and a feed-back, whether or not the release was succesfull.
But there certainly won't be any real "wildlife gameplay" implemented.

Animal exchange will definetly be in the game. After all, in-breeding was already revealed as possible danger. Being able to aquire new genes through animal exchange is a neccesity, in this case.
 
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Do you think that during transport to other continents, countries and other reserves of the world our animal will have his passport that will follow him, followed by a chip or a tracer to study the animal behavior, its travel ...?
Will there be any animal exchanges between zoo to create new lines?
I would love that in the Game 🐘🔄🐘
 
WingardiumLevico aster :
It would be a pity to '' just '' to send them back, as if they then no longer exist at all, it would be nice to have a booklet or something so that we can follow our animals (know their meal numbers) , their numbers of litters / small, number of km to perform, fight between males for a troop, then their deaths). Otherwise it does not matter if we can not be motivated by something that will show us that our business will have served. The players will keep them and this will become a big traffic between zoo rather than saving the species in the wild.

Deggial :
Why pens to prepare our animals? The enclosures in which they will be raised are normally made so that the animal is already a place of semi wild life, with enrichments which will stimulate it just as in the nature. It will be stupid to make duplicate pens for each species, and especially will take a huge place. I do not know if it was his that you think but personally I think of a huge enclosure of several hectares, forbidden to visitors, hidden behind the zoo where we can train our wild beasts (obviously without mixing the species) a few weeks before their departures. Since in nature wild animals hunt, and zoo we give them to eat chickens or meat already ready, why not make them chase real prey (zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, rabbit ...). Of course, I know that we are here to save endangered species, but in nature the weakest dies, and in the zoo risk 0 does not exist, we will have animals with more or less problems (diseases via genetics, consanguinity or any other problem), and well these animals that will not give a offspring a safe minimum, put them in this huge pen with wild beasts, so that it awakens their hunting instincts and their wild behavior, will teach them to kill. It is only an idea like any other, but since some will not know what to do with these individuals, as much to use '' '' to do good in other animals.

A bad for a good after all. What do you think ?

Urufu1997 :
As Deggia said, it is a necessity to acquire new genes, and therefore new lineages.

Speaking of genetics, it will not hurt to have an idea of the percentage of consanguinity that the small will acquire, before mating the parents, since it is not something easy to calculate.
 
I think the 'realism' factor of realising animals into the wild will be quite limited. In reality it's an incredibly lengthy process to prepare an animal for release into the wild and much of it doesn't even happen in the zoo itself, but in a soft-release facility somewhere else. I'd like a feature like there was in Zoo Tycoon 2013 where there was a 'zoonews' area which contained information about the animals release, like where they went, how well they're doing, when they found a mate, having babies. These were the same for every animal in that game, though. To be fair - I doubt there'd be any possibility for an animal to 'fail' being released into the wild in this game. I don't think that would fit into the general tone of the franchise, which has always been humorous and light-hearted. I suspect every animal we release will become a perfect example of a wild animal and have lots of wild-born babies ;-)
 
I bet it will just be: "Click here to release animal into the wild" and then you never hear of the animal again. But you will probably do gain better ratings for releasing the animal.
 
Deggial :
Why pens to prepare our animals? The enclosures in which they will be raised are normally made so that the animal is already a place of semi wild life, with enrichments which will stimulate it just as in the nature. It will be stupid to make duplicate pens for each species, and especially will take a huge place. I do not know if it was his that you think but personally I think of a huge enclosure of several hectares, forbidden to visitors, hidden behind the zoo where we can train our wild beasts (obviously without mixing the species) a few weeks before their departures. Since in nature wild animals hunt, and zoo we give them to eat chickens or meat already ready, why not make them chase real prey (zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, rabbit ...). Of course, I know that we are here to save endangered species, but in nature the weakest dies, and in the zoo risk 0 does not exist, we will have animals with more or less problems (diseases via genetics, consanguinity or any other problem), and well these animals that will not give a offspring a safe minimum, put them in this huge pen with wild beasts, so that it awakens their hunting instincts and their wild behavior, will teach them to kill. It is only an idea like any other, but since some will not know what to do with these individuals, as much to use '' '' to do good in other animals.

A bad for a good after all. What do you think ?

Well, I didn't say, the dedicated enclousures will be an actual thing. What I meant is, that they will (hypotetically) the best we can hope for in regards to "release gameplay" (in contrast to actual "wildlife mechanics".

Having said this, the requirements for release-preparation are quite different to the usual zoo routines.
You've said it yourself: huge enclousures forbidden for visitors would be neccesary, as interactions (and therefore habituation) with humans has to be as limited as possible. A commercial zoo with paying guests will not want this (or at least: not this alone).

Feeding living prey is forbidden in zoos, by the way (for most animals, that is. Some snakes only take living food and exceptions are made for them). As it is prohibited even in the real world, it certainly will not appear in a "feel-good" computer game with age clearance for minors!
 
Excuse me, I misunderstood.
I did not know that this was forbidden, in some reserve, I heard they release small prey such as chickens or rabbits to awaken a natural hunting behavior in big cats.
 
I can certainly imagine this for specialized reserves in the "target country".

The restrictions do, at least, applay to German zoos. At this juncture, I am sure. Other countries may have other rules. I am quite certain though, that zoos have an international code of conduct.
 
If I understand correctly, when they talk about the weather, we choose the country where our zoo will be implanted, so no doubt that depending on the country the rules will not be the same, but I doubt they will break the head with a bunch of regulations depending on the country.
 
I can certainly imagine this for specialized reserves in the "target country".

The restrictions do, at least, applay to German zoos. At this juncture, I am sure. Other countries may have other rules. I am quite certain though, that zoos have an international code of conduct.
The exact legislation in the UK for licensed zoos is as follows:
1.6 Live feeding of vertebrate prey is to be discouraged (see Section 5). Although the Animal Welfare Act 2006 does not prohibit the feeding of animals with live prey, the live feeding of vertebrate prey should be avoided save under exceptional circumstances, and only under veterinary advice. Where it has to be undertaken, a written justification and ethical review process must have been undertaken and agreed by senior staff weighing up the welfare of predator and prey; feeding must be observed and live prey not left in the enclosure. Such feeding should not take place in the presence of the public.

I don't know how it is elsewhere, but I believe the EU's animal welfare laws were based largely on the UK's Animal Welfare Act which essentially states you can't intentionally cause suffering to any vertebrate animal. Since Frontier is based in the UK and likely took much of it's inspiration from European zoos, I don't doubt that live feeding won't be included with the exception of perhaps insects for reptiles and other insectivores. To my knowledge the only zoos that still live feed are in countries where there are no animal welfare laws to base prosecution on, but even then it's discouraged by pretty much every zoo and aquarium regulatory body that I know of.

Of course there is nothing stopping our lions from killing a gazelle we intentionally placed in their enclosure but I'm sure that will have negative outcomes, at least in the form of zoo rating loss/drop in visitor numbers/decreased guest happiness etc etc.
 
Where without doubt that since the developers have to think about the non-living food, prepare part our carers to the zoo, if we intensionally put a gazelle in the enclosure of a carnivore it will do nothing to him, since the prey hunt n is not something that will have been programmed on Planet Zoo. But as they said some animals can not cohabit there will be only worries of understanding, health and welfare of animals, but no deaths cause the predator.
 

WingardiumLevicoaster

Volunteer Moderator
The exact legislation in the UK for licensed zoos is as follows:
1.6 Live feeding of vertebrate prey is to be discouraged (see Section 5). Although the Animal Welfare Act 2006 does not prohibit the feeding of animals with live prey, the live feeding of vertebrate prey should be avoided save under exceptional circumstances, and only under veterinary advice. Where it has to be undertaken, a written justification and ethical review process must have been undertaken and agreed by senior staff weighing up the welfare of predator and prey; feeding must be observed and live prey not left in the enclosure. Such feeding should not take place in the presence of the public.

I don't know how it is elsewhere, but I believe the EU's animal welfare laws were based largely on the UK's Animal Welfare Act which essentially states you can't intentionally cause suffering to any vertebrate animal. Since Frontier is based in the UK and likely took much of it's inspiration from European zoos, I don't doubt that live feeding won't be included with the exception of perhaps insects for reptiles and other insectivores. To my knowledge the only zoos that still live feed are in countries where there are no animal welfare laws to base prosecution on, but even then it's discouraged by pretty much every zoo and aquarium regulatory body that I know of.

Of course there is nothing stopping our lions from killing a gazelle we intentionally placed in their enclosure but I'm sure that will have negative outcomes, at least in the form of zoo rating loss/drop in visitor numbers/decreased guest happiness etc etc.

While obviously you want animals to enjoy life as if they were in the wild, I believe the human intervention of purposely choosing live prey to be given to an animal is a different thing ethically than a wild animal choosing their own wild prey. The prey has the opportunity for escape, which they do not in the zoo environment. I suspect this is why such laws are in place.
 
While obviously you want animals to enjoy life as if they were in the wild, I believe the human intervention of purposely choosing live prey to be given to an animal is a different thing ethically than a wild animal choosing their own wild prey. The prey has the opportunity for escape, which they do not in the zoo environment. I suspect this is why such laws are in place.
Yes, this is exactly it! You're also putting the predator at risk, since while the prey doesn't have the chance to escape as such, there is nothing stopping it from fighting back and seriously hurting them. It has the potential to be a stressful and painful experience for both animals involved. The key is in the wording of the law, "intentionally causing suffering". By making the choice to put that prey animal in with a predator, you are knowingly causing potential pain and stress to both animals - which makes it illegal and an offence under the law. In the UK, at least. I believe the law is worded in very similar ways across Europe, I don't know about elsewhere unfortunately.

I think maybe people have this thought that the animal would be happier if it was allowed to catch the food itself, but I don't see any zoo lion unhappy to see a carcass :p

In the context of soft release programmes, in the nature reserve environment there are wild prey items, so that element of human choice is completely removed from the equation. The animal is choosing to hunt and prey has a better chance of escaping. As you said, that's the key difference :)
 
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I'd imagine the release feature will be like in zoo tycoon 2, where you press the button and never hear from the animal again. However, I hope its like Zoo Tycoon for xbox one, where you release the animal, and you get reports back on how the animal is doing in the wild.
 
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