Representatives of South America

Chris1983

C
Now with the Wetlands DLC announcement we all now, there won't be a South America or Amazon Animal Pack, which was very much predicted (and in my perception with a lot of enthusiasm).

Switching the DLC pattern from continents to biomes we won't probably ever see a pack like this for Planet Zoo, which I think is a pity. My only hope is that Frontier will do many more biomes packs than it would have done continent packs and will at least include two South American animals in every DLC. The Capybara was a great choice for the Wetlands Animal Pack. We also get the Spectacled caiman, which I am not so entusiastic about, but I won't complain about it here.

What I wanna know is: Which South American animals would you like to see in the coming biomes packs? Maybe by a threat like this we can at least get some of the developer's attention on which representatives of the South American fauna we really wanna see in game.

For me in an possibly rainforest/temperate forest pack it would be the following:
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For a grassland/desert pack it would be those:
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I'm curious about what your picks would be!
 

becks474

B
I would definetly not say that regional packs are away from the list. There is still the possibility to switch between biome packs (animal) and regional packs (standard). But yes, there are a lot of standard zoo animals lackiert from South America and for sure more than 4 Habitat animals. But in my opinion there are still more than 10 animals missing which are common in Zoos. So even an South America animal pack would have had controversies.

Ocelot
Sloth
Maned Wolf
Patagonian Mara
Spectacled Bear
Any Armadillo
Howler Monkey
Spider Monkey
Agouti
Greater Rhea
Coati
...
 
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SpookDoc

SpookDoc
Three extremely popular, common-in-captivity, CA/SA mammal groups come to my mind as needing better representation in PZ— primates, xenarthrans, and procyonids. There are so many popular species in each group too. For primates, there’s spider monkeys, tamarins, marmosets, and howler monkeys just to name a few requested varieties. For xenarthrans, there’s sloths, armadillos, silky anteaters, and tamanduas. And for procyonids, there’s coatis, kinkajous, and raccoons.

CA/SA is also home to some other popular mammal species that’d be the first representatives for their taxonomic families, such as SA’s various Prehensile-tailed Porcupines, Chinchillas and Viscachas, both the West Indian Manatee and Amazonian Manatee, the Amazon River Dolphin, Agoutis and Acouchis, Peccaries, and the Pacarana.

Of course, there are also hundreds of unique birds, reptiles, amphibians, and freshwater fish native to CA/SA that’d be perfect candidates for PZ. Some iconic reptiles ideal for habitats include the Argentine B&W Tegu, Giant South American Turtle, Red-Footed, Yellow-Footed, and Argentine Tortoises, Rhinoceros and Marine Iguanas, Caiman Lizard, and Green Anaconda. Even if PZ never implements flight mechanics, there are still plenty of birds that could function perfectly fine as ground-dwelling. Some SA “ground bird” families that currently have no representation in PZ at all include, ibises, spoonbills, ducks, geese, swans, plovers, guans, boobys, quails, screamers, tinamous, rheas, herons, currasows, pelicans, seriemas, stilts, jacanas, cormorants, oystercatchers, lapwings, grebes, egrets, and storks just to name a few. It’s also worth noting that all these bird families have numerous species found in SA.

If PZ’s mechanics are expanded upon, that opens the door to a plethora of SA-native, flying bird families and hundreds of fish families. Popular example varieties include parrots, eagles, new world vultures, owls, songbirds, toucans, pigeons, condors, hawks, falcons, trogons, kingfishers, caracaras, hummingbirds, gulls, terns, potoos, nightjars, woodpeckers, frigatebirds, hoatzins, catfish, eels, piranhas, arapaimas, pacu, lungfishes, stingrays, sharks, bass, discus, and cichlids.

This all said, SA is far from well-represented and the continent is home to hundreds of species that’d fill niches currently empty in PZ. If Frontier wants to finish with an animal roster that feels more whole, they will have to revisit this region via future DLC selections.
 
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NZFanatic

NZFanatic
More monkeys. More monkeys than I know what to do with.

For starters, the common or Bolivian squirrel monkey. That's a must-have for me.

Then the Mexican spider monkey, a critically endangered common-in-captivity subspecies of Geoffroy's spider monkey.

Of course the little guys; cotton top tamarin, emperor tamarin, golden lion tamarin. All three would be perfect.

Finally, one of the night monkeys. Saw them in Edinburgh Zoo, absolutely loved it.
 

Fabian

Fabian
I wouldn't say a Central America, or even an Amazon Animal Pack is completely out of the realm of possibility, but I agree it's unlikely at this point.
If we only get biome packs or non-regional packs in the future, I also hope that those will be used to flesh out the South American roster quite significantly.

Animals I think are still very much needed to give more representation to the continent include:
  • Coati (this is a must-have)
  • Sloth (again, such an iconic zoo animal that even considering the possible limitations to the in-game behavior, they are very much needed)
  • more primates (we currently only have the Colombian White-Faced Capuchin, and at the very least a Tamarin, a Howler Monkey and a Spider Monkey (preferrably with the corresponding brachiation animations) are still notably missing. Marmosets, White-Faced Sakis and Squirrel Monkeys would also be very nice to have.)
  • Maned Wolf (the most highly requested canid from the continent, and a truly unique carnivore)
  • Spectacled Bear
  • Patagonian Mara (we need more grassland species from SA!)
  • Any armadillo
That would be my "starter list" of animals that I think are absolutely mandatory, and if those make it into the game, anything else would be additional to make things even greater, but could be left out of the game without making it feel too lacking. Animals such as more non-crocodilian reptiles, kinkajous, tamanduas, ocelots, peccaries, even bush dogs or guanacos are among those I would love to see in the game, but they don't feel absolutely necessary. Also, birds of course. There are so many iconic birds from South America that I can't even begin to list here, but macaws and toucans are probably the most notable ones.
 

Markiz

Markiz
So in my mind it would work best in combination of CA scenery pack in combination with SA animal pack

A lot of people shared here and on YouTube the scenery that could accompany CA pack, I'll focus on animals:

1. Collared Peccary (I think fairly requested animal. Bumps up our pig representation and helps in strengthening all kinds of biome and region representations due to its distribution)
2. White Nosed Coati (Very popular zoo animal and with that very popular here. First raccoon, amazing distribution)
3. Mexican Spider Monkey (I said it before, and I'll repeat it. I wouldn't mind getting this one without brachiation. I think they can bring a lot even without it. Like Orangutan)
4. Ocelot (I know how a lot of people here feel about carnivores and felines but Ocelots are too iconic to be left out)
5. Axolotl (Could make great use of our new newt tank )

So this pack helps pad out CA roster, but it also help the possible SA animal pack with its tropical load. With this one implemented SA can fit more Grassland or Mountain animals without damaging rainforest fauna too much. With that said, SA animal pack:

1. Maned Wolf (Requested, popular, very unique, I don't need a lot of words here)
2. Andean Bear (Despite unwillingness for more bears here this one is still going strong on wishlists. It's unique in many ways, and helps with biome diversity when it comes to SA)
3. Howler Monkey (When we talk about SA, there's never enough monkeys. )
4. Linneaus Two Toed Sloth (As I follow work of Frontier longer and longer, the more I am sure they can make this work)
5. Big Hairy Armadillo (Choice of species came down to personal preference. First armadillo and another grassland animal)
6. Squirrel Monkey (I am that one killjoy that says Marmosets and Tamarins are too small. So I concede here)
7. Greater Rhea (Maybe not that popular of a choice, but it is another bird, a grassland animal, crazy popular irl zoos, and goes well with that one "clone" in animal packs)
8. Emerald Tree Boa (Very beautiful, very iconic for amazon, I said before I was sure we're getting it in base game)

Edit: I just remembered Brazilian Porcupine is a thing that exists. It could be interchangeable with Squirrel Monkey or Rhea
 
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coatifan

coatifan
Markiz said:
6. Squirrel Monkey (I am that one killjoy that says Marmosets and Tamarins are too small. So I concede here) )
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I’d disagree, though I respect that you may be right. The Golden Lion Tamarin is a mere .03 pounds lighter than the meerkat, and just as active, plus it lives Ik large troops. It’s not likely by any means but I don’t think outside of the realm of possibility.
 

Markiz

Markiz
coatifan said:
I’d disagree, though I respect that you may be right. The Golden Lion Tamarin is a mere .03 pounds lighter than the meerkat, and just as active, plus it lives Ik large troops. It’s not likely by any means but I don’t think outside of the realm of possibility.
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I gotta be honest I did not know they were so close in weight.

The main problem I guess for me and Tamarins is climbing structures and tropical foliage with would make them harder to see. In comparison to Meerkat whose habitat is often on the ground, below visitor waist, and is also usually in shrubland or desert environment.

But I guess GL Tamarin specifically counters my first argument with his bright colors. So idk, can be possible
 

coatifan

coatifan
Markiz said:
I gotta be honest I did not know they were so close in weight.

The main problem I guess for me and Tamarins is climbing structures and tropical foliage with would make them harder to see. In comparison to Meerkat whose habitat is often on the ground, below visitor waist, and is also usually in shrubland or desert environment.

But I guess GL Tamarin specifically counters my first argument with his bright colors. So idk, can be possible
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all good points. Fingers crossed for my favorite little monkeys nonetheless!
 

DarthQuell

DarthQuell
I'd combine Central and South America. I'd do an animal pack, though (and I'm gonna include Mexico into the mix):
  1. Collared peccary - would be a great choice, found in Central and South America, I believe
  2. Greater rhea - a solid bird that can coinhabit a home with anteaters, tapirs, and capybara
  3. Howler monkey - a loud monkey that'll be fun to have
  4. Ocelot - honestly, this is essential, whether you want another cat or not, it is. They can also be a cheaper alternative to the jaguar
  5. Screamer (any) - I've seen these sharing enclosures with the same species the rhea does. Plus, it's open, so they'd work as they are
  6. Agouti - a mini-capybara, basically, but more terrestrial
  7. Nine-banded armadillo - tough between this and the three-banded armadillo, but in the end this is the better choice, found far north into Texas and Louisiana all the way to Argentina
  8. Axolotl (E) - popular pets, gaining popularity because of Minecraft, and interesting. Plus, it's endangered
 

Chris1983

C
Markiz said:
The main problem I guess for me and Tamarins is climbing structures and tropical foliage with would make them harder to see. In comparison to Meerkat whose habitat is often on the ground, below visitor waist, and is also usually in shrubland or desert environment.
Click to expand...
I really hope we will see the Golden Lion Tamarin in PZ one day, not only because it is such a beautiful and unique species, but also because its endangered status. And as I remember, Frontier wants PZ to be a game that also focusses on conservation.

I don't really think, size is the main problem that makes it difficult to bring this little monkey to game, but agree on the fact that its high activity and quick movements are more of an issue. This little fellas jump from tree to tree so quickly or use little branches to sit on and I can hardly identify any foliage we have in game already, that would be perfect for that behaviour. Besides that, we all know, that Frontier didn't even manage yet to make the Koala spend more times in the trees than walking on the ground.
But I really really hope they are already working on a Tamarin and I am happy to see, that a lot of you would like to see them in Planet Zoo aswell.
Hopefully it will climb up the wishlists a bit more so that the developer's get more motivation to work on this animal :)
 
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Bearcat9948

Bearcat9948
In a perfect world I would get to include some aviary birds in this, but alas....
  • White-nosed coatimundi
    • A bit more versatile than the strictly South American coatimundi species
  • Collared peccary
    • For a similar reason to the chosen coatimundi species, this is more versatile than any of the other peccary species
  • Howler monkey
    • The specific species doesn't really matter to me here, any of them are fine. Just need to make sure it's one that's actually found in South America this time Frontier...
  • Southern tamandua
    • I'm personally very fond of this little, vest-wearing fellows, and I'd love to have them in the game as another small mammal.
  • Sloth
    • Again I'm not really pressed about the specific species here. The three-toed has the most wishlist votes but the two-toed is more common in captivity. Either is good.
  • Golden lion tamarin
    • This would give us a third New World monkey species, which frankly still leaves that niche a little underrepresented compared to irl zoos, but it would be good enough.
  • Curassow
    • The specific species doesn't matter, though the Great curassow or Black curassow likely make the most sense. It would be a sin not to have a bird in this pack, and with the emu almost assuredly coming at some point the rhea is a poor choice, albeit one Frontier would likely make.
The maned wolf and spectacled bear are cool animals, but I'm not willing to sacrifice a single one of the above species for another bear or another canine, not even the bush dog. And this still leaves us without an armadillo or kinkajou.
 

becks474

B
I went through the meta wishlist and the top 7 would of South America would be:
Maned Wolf
Sloth
Coati
Howler Monkey
Golden Lion Tamarin
Spectacled Bear
Ocelot

So in the top 7 there is a bear, a cat and a dog which is even the most wanted animal of this continent. Even if there are always the shouts within the Forum with "not another... " even here with us animal nerds these groups still belong to the more popular animals. And I must say the maned wolf is so popular and also unique in its behaviour that he would deserve a place. And a small cat would also very welcome to me. Spectacled bear is a bit different but it is also a very unique bear and in my case the standard Zoo bear. Summarized there should be a 12 animal DLC pack and there still would be missing animals.
 

jcp011c

jcp011c
If there's tropical packs, the Coatimundi, Howler Monkey, and Sloth would be good choices and there's plenty of others, those are just my picks here.
If it's Grassland type of packs the Maned Wolf (the Rhea and Patagonian Mara could also work)
If there's a pack centered around temperate or mountains/Taiga the Andean Bear would be a good pick.
 
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