Releasing animals to the wild is a feature that has already been talked about a lot in this game and seems to be very popular with the fan base. I personally hate that this feature has become a major part of zoo type games. In its predecessor "Zoo Tycoon" players had to release animals to the wild in order to gain zoo fame and this was the only way to get rid of excess animals. I find this gameplay component highly irresponsible, especially when one of Frontier's purported goals of this game is education. We seem to have a very large number of people thinking that zoos breed animals and then release the excess offspring back into the wild "to save the species". Very rarely do captive bred animals get released back into the wild, and these are almost never the large iconic mammal species that people think of. Nor are they exhibit animals that we see in zoos. Even when there are captive breeding programs with the intention of returning animals to the wild they most be raised off exhibit, generally in custom designated reserves (in situ to the animals native habitat), not zoos. Mammals with their complex learned behaviors are almost never amenable to release. In fact a lot of bear species in US zoos these are wild-caught orphans that cannot be released to wild because they never learned the behaviors they need to survive.
Most captive release programs have been with animals that rely predominantly on inborn instincts with little to no parental care. Examples include insects, molluscs, and amphibians. There have been a few high profile successes with bird species e.g. the california condor and whooping crane. The whooping cranes for example were raised in strict isolation to avoid imprinting on people and had to be trained on their migration path with custom made aircraft. These programs require millions of dollars, government permitting, and preservation of wildlife habitat. These programs go well beyond the scope of what a single zoo can accomplish. Most species are not amenable to release programs; in general only species that are extinct in the wild or locally extinct are even considered. It also requires very specific locations and conditions. It is cost prohibitive and ludicrous to imagine that North American zoos are going to ship african elephants back overseas for release. It would be a far better use of the zoos money to invest directly in local conservation efforts.
We have yet to see how "release" will be implemented in the game, but I find it highly irresponsible for Frontier to perpetuate the idea that zoos release animals to the wild and directly help to sustain endangered species populations in the wild.
Most captive release programs have been with animals that rely predominantly on inborn instincts with little to no parental care. Examples include insects, molluscs, and amphibians. There have been a few high profile successes with bird species e.g. the california condor and whooping crane. The whooping cranes for example were raised in strict isolation to avoid imprinting on people and had to be trained on their migration path with custom made aircraft. These programs require millions of dollars, government permitting, and preservation of wildlife habitat. These programs go well beyond the scope of what a single zoo can accomplish. Most species are not amenable to release programs; in general only species that are extinct in the wild or locally extinct are even considered. It also requires very specific locations and conditions. It is cost prohibitive and ludicrous to imagine that North American zoos are going to ship african elephants back overseas for release. It would be a far better use of the zoos money to invest directly in local conservation efforts.
We have yet to see how "release" will be implemented in the game, but I find it highly irresponsible for Frontier to perpetuate the idea that zoos release animals to the wild and directly help to sustain endangered species populations in the wild.
