Yeah the goliath frog is easily the weirdest one, since they dont breed in captivity and had a perfect alternative right there. That alternative would be the african bullfrog, which is also an enormous african frog, but is common in captivity and since its an stationary ambush predator it barely moves, making it a perfect fit for the exhibit
I think that if you look at the exhibit roster it's not hard to see that regarding mostly arthropods their criteria was the size.
We got the largest spider, the largest frog, the largest centipede, the largest scorpion, the largest cockroach, the largest beetle. Basically they just made a list of what species were the largest in the world. Otherwise there is no reason why they would pick the titan beetle or the goliath frog, both of which have never been bred in captivity (we have never seen titan beetle larvae).
Meanwhile for the snakes I am almost certainly sure they just picked the deadliest. Like the rattlesnake, the puff adder and the brown snake are the deadliest/most agressive species in NA, Africa and Australia respectively.
In terms of overall exhibit representation I think the following species would be great to have: (gonna group per continent)
Africa. The dryer regions of Africa are a bit lacking, but the most iconic critters come from the rainforests.
- A chameleon. Literally the second most requested exhibit animal after the cobra, it's so absurd we haven't got one yet.
- Madagascar hissing cockroach. Super iconic bug, and we already have a cockroach as base.
- Gaboon viper. Idk if it's just me, but I think the Gaboon viper is like the second most known snake in Africa after the black mamba.
Asia. The region that is lacking the most is India, with only the forest scorpion, an animal from China/Japan is definitely needed as well.
- Spectacled cobra. Everyone constantly asks for the king cobra and I get it, it's a really cool animal, but I find the spectacled cobra to be more charming and way more fitting for the exhibit format.
- A stag beetle. Call me a nerd but I know stag beetles and horned beetles have a lot of cultural significance in Japan, I think getting one of these would be great to have an exhibit representative for Asian themed sections.
- Atlas beetle. A very impressive species from SEA, while the Japanese horned beetle is also cool, the Atlas beetle is much more impressive and cool looking.
- A softshell turtle. Softshell turtles are strange looking creatures, they look cool, and they are heavily threatened by hunting.
Europe. I personally don't think that Europe needs that much exhibit representation, while we definitely have some charismatic critters I do think that the salamander, the tortoise and the newt are enough. I will mention some cool species though:
European tree frog, Olm, European pond turtle, and praying mantis.
North America. Same as Europe. Although....
Crayfish of the Mississipi...........
Oceania. Oceania still has a lot of small critters I would like to see.
- Frilled lizard. Definitely the animal I'm missing the most when I'm making exhibit sections from Australia.
- Spiny devil. The second lizard I'm missing the most.
- Weta. A giant weta from NZ would be really nice to have, it also brings grasshopper representation.
- Lord Howe stick insect. Stick insect + an amazing conservation tale.
South America. Always found interesting how the vanilla exhibit roster is so heavily SA oriented... Were they trying to compensate the lack of SA habitat animals? We will never know, what we know is that there are still a lot of cool exhibit animals from SA.
- Emerald tree boa. Super iconic and beautiful green snek.
- Mata-mata turtle. This weird looking fellow is definitely something I would love to have in the game, they are just so funky.
- More poison frogs. Why don't we have more? I literally had to make a mod to have the yellow-banded, strawberry and azure poison frogs which are literally reskins.
- Argentinian horned frog. This frog.... It's like. THE FROG. we need it they are so derpy looking.
I will also mention that in general more lizards like a gecko and a basilisk are reaaaaaaaaally needed.
Not only do I think PZ is the best zoo game of all time(and has been that way for over 2 years), at least for me, but it's very possible it's the best game of any kind of all time, again at least for me.