I built myself a mid sized Research habitat specifically for the ability to fully research an animal in advance. I would typically buy one female and one male of the absolutely lowest cost CCs. I would go ahead and upgrade the research habitat as I went and once my two poor quality animals had an infant, I would release them to the wild. I would often wind up buying original CC animals with 0% fertility and very low other stats, but their offspring would typically be much better quality. I would pay attention to the marketplace as well and I would hold onto the offspring that was in the highest demand. While I did this, I would take my time and build their public habitat and when the time came, I would buy a male or female from the market again for the lowest amount of CCs that I could, release the parents into the wild and recoup some of my original CCs and then put my new critters into their public habitat. Rince and repeat with different animals. This enabled me to get instant wow factors for my public animals with the best education credits as people viewed and read my signs and listened to my audio. It also let me take my time making a really nice public habitat. In addition, I have used my research habitat on occasion to de-stress some of my animals if that happened. It also can make a good "nursery" so that my public exhibits never have overcrowding.
