Thank you guys, great advice.
@Hugo98 I'm using Canva draw - it's fantastic. Free and easy to use. I love that I can zoom right out so I can collect all my inspo and ideas in one place - do quick little sketches, copy photos, add text etc (see second pic).
@Marvinb I did put the tapir and anteater together, then decided I wanted to use the anteater to go with the new rhea for a cerrado habitat. Hopefully a mara will be able to join them! I can't wait to see what the other LA pack animals are and add them to my plan - if one of them is a coati it will get centre stage out front of the rainforest lodge.
Doing this I still feel there is room for so many more American (N&S) animals - I find myself especially wanting a small Amazonian cat, a tamandua, more monkeys, a horse, a deer, and obviously birds like ducks and pelicans. I know that it's been said too many times already but it's really sad and crazy we don't have any rainforest birds like toucans or macaws. Yay for the flamingos though, I'm looking forward to building them a gorgeous pond.
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Now to start the parking lot...
[sense of impending doom ensues]
J/k! I've been around long enough now to know
never to start with the entrance! Pah what a trap that would be.
I think I'll start with the centerpiece - the viewing tower. That will give a sense of scale to everything else, as I want it to be the highest point on the map.
@Marvinb I also really liked your advice about a month ago, when I wasn't building, to try something smaller scale / lower budget. This is...uhhh not that...but not the ultra-modern impossible budget end of the scale that I was stuck in before either. It will have a more rustic, less polished feel. A lot more handmade and homegrown.
The story is of a North American range-turned-wildlife park that got a bit out of hand due to an eccentric ex-ranching cowgirl that fell on some good times and blew it all on this. It's about 15 years old and doing okay. Think less Tiger King and more Pig Queen, as she has collected almost all the piggies the game has to offer. Hello all you sweet swine and piglets! Maybe she can even find room for the babirusa, as long as she can afford to feed her Jaguars. In the process of setting all this up and learning about animals and conservation, she has turned vegetarian! All the animals she used to farm for food, she now keeps just for display and as lovely, well-cared-for pets. She loves her native American wildlife and also Australian wildlife, and she recently visited SE Asia, so has started collecting a few smaller species from there. She has some African sections of her park as well to mix things up and bring in more custom. She recently acquired a pair of cougars and hopes to contribute to conservation by breeding them. The wolves, boar and foxes in the dark woods are wildlife rescues that she rehabilitates back to the wild. The raccoons, skunks and meercats (and a few others) are rescued pets or hand-reared individuals that can't survive in the wild. Her favourite animal is an old donkey called Chef, who loves bursting balloons. She rides horses bareback and if you listen closely you can hear her yee-hawing on the range behind the prairie at sunset.
true animal lover 
