Hello all!
I'd just like to set the scene by saying that I've never really considered myself a gamer, Planet Zoo is the only game I play, I had the sims / zoo tycoon / some garden design game when I was younger & loved to both build and play, so this modern gaming world is very new to me! I come from a wildlife and zoo background and I'm in Britain. I recently ended up on a total Planet Zoo youtube binge to just listen to player commentary whilst I build, and came across a big debate amongst people about what species should be included in new packs and some of it I thought was interesting conversation. So please forgive me if the specific content of this thread has already been talked about! but why not weigh in again?...
Since I live within the European continent, I can only talk from my experience of European zoos (and the few zoos that I've visited outside of Europe), giving some insight to people outside of Europe what our approach to zoos and zoo species is sort of like over here, in an attempt for us all to perhaps find some common ground when looking to the future of the game- or perhaps accept that Planet Zoo means something different to each of us? -
Please weigh in your thoughts on this! There are random questions throughout....
& I appreciate anyone who took the time to read my thread!
Zoos have commonalities but are very diffrerent across the world - this effects our approach to Planet Zoo
Because I live in Britiain within the continent of Europe, my perspective of zoos is influenced by European zoos and the types of animals we see most often in them here. Also the native wildlife to each country and continent surely has a part to play in how we percieve the differences between exotics and native wildlife.
In the zoo world that I've worked in (in Europe), we have a nickname 'ABC zoos', which is a nickname for zoos that have all the popular animals you expect to see, and are most common across zoos worldwide. In the Planet Zoo game, I would personally consider the 'ABC zoo' species to be lions, penguins, meerkats, asc otters, camel, tiger, lemur, boa, tapir, armadillo, zebra, deer, red panda, wallabies etc. I would be surprised if I didn't see these species at a European zoo. There are other common zoo species in Europe, but it really depends on the size of the zoo, our European zoos are likely to be relatively smaller than in america, with the exceptions of our safari parks, and I think our dangerous animals liscensing is likely to be much stricter in Western Europe than in America, making private collection zoos a lot less common than they are in America.
In the European zoo world, in contrast to 'ABC zoos' I came across the term 'Specialist Zoos', which are more focused on unsual species that either need more urgent efforts of conservation, or are unusual for the visitors to see. In Britain I worked at both an 'ABC zoo' with all the 'popular' 'ABC' animals, and also I worked at a 'Specialist Zoo', which considered its animals such as black leopards, mountain lion, different wild dog species, maned wolf, small more obscure wild cats and mustelidae, etc to be somewhat unsual species to see in Europe, which people in America may find peculiar?
My thoughts are this is probably due to dangerous animal liscensing, I think the exotic wildlife trade is much vaster in America with less strict liscencing, and so players in America may have quite a difference of experience with whats unusual or common? I'd be interested to know, from any American players, - what animals (from the game) do you consider unusual to see in American zoos? and what animals (from the game) do you consider common to see in American zoos?
Theres also the native wildlife side vs exotics of things that influences what we're wanting or not wanting from the game, ...
It seems there is division especially between what American and 'European' animals should be included in future packs and what would be most useful for building our zoos..
I say 'European' because Europe is very vast & diverse in its enviroments, just as diverse in environment (though perhaps not in wildlife!) as North America, Western European wildlife is very different to Southern, Eastern and Northern European wildlife.
In defense of the European content in the game, I personally don't think there are many European animals included, contrary to what I've heard online! From what I can tell, forgive me if I'm missing any, these are the European animals (included in the game): alpine ibex, crested newt, salamander, reindeer, eurasian lynx, european badger, fallow deer, butterflies, grey seal, prezwalskis horse, red deer, red fox....Not many is there?! Though if you weren't fussy you could bend the rules with hogs, scorpions, adders, & terrapins in the Planet Zoo game as we have our own European versions of these.
Though I'll admit, European wildlife as a whole is perhaps not quite as thrilling as wildlife of other continents when it comes to species seen at a zoo.
I heard one person say something about not many bears in European zoos. I think this is somewhat true, native bears aren't as common in Europe as in America, in many parts of Europe bears have long been extinct, and so we have a different approach to bears here. I think there is somewhat of a cultural sadness in the UK of not enjoying seeing bears in captivity in Europe. There are a few other species that in the UK we as a culture don't feel particularly comfortable seeing in captivity, birds and dolphins being another. UK players - would you agree with that? American players - do you have anything like that in America where there is a taboo feeling about a certain species being in captivity?
I saw there was a little division surrounding the inclusion of things like badgers, red fox and racoon (we don't get wild racoons in Europe), I think these are interesting species to add because it sounds a bit like having a racoon in a zoo in America feels just as peculiar if we saw a badger or red fox in a European Zoo. We're more likely to see a European badger or red fox in a rescue/rehab centre in Europe, than in a zoo, much more likely to see meerkats or lions in a zoo, than any native european wildlife. I think with the exception of our native Eurasian Lynx which does appear in European Zoos. I wonder if this is similar to how racoons appear across American zoos? What about mountain lions? How frequently do they appear in American zoos since they are also your native widlife?
I think my point to that, is that to Europe, a lot of the worlds wildlife is exotic to us, if we want to see native wildlife, we go to things like sanctuaries, or maybe a big zoo has a small selection of native wildlife likely to have been rescued and not bred for trade.
Thats just some of my thoughts on the European perspective on Zoos, what animals we often see and what we as a culture might find exotic and unusual, which I think is possibly all animals haha. Our own native wildlife has depleted so much, it's sad to say that is is becoming increasingly Uncommon to see our own native wildlife in the wild. And so a badger in a zoo might be someones only chance to see a badger in real life, I'm lucky to live in an area populated with them, but they're probably a lot less in numbers than racoons (preportionately).
Plus theres only so much generic zoo building I can take with ABC zoos, its fun to expand ideas in planet zoo with native wildlife sanctuaries and various types of specialist centers which Im sure many of you like to create as well. The grey seal for example, one of the less popular captive species, I worked with for many years in this species rehabilitation in real life, and so I love this obscure addition, i don't view this as an aquarium pool animal, I view the grey seal as a rocky shoreline and cold water reef animal.
Welcome all thoughts on how each of you percieve zoos in correlation to where you live in the world, what the exotic trade is like there, and the relationship between your native wildlife and captivity!
Thanks!
Edit: when looking to the future, I'm more than happy with the animals Frontier offers and not particularly fussed about wanting any species in particular since zoos are so diverse! I would like more reptile house stuff! more small exhibit options, species and scenery/items for a reptile house.
I'd just like to set the scene by saying that I've never really considered myself a gamer, Planet Zoo is the only game I play, I had the sims / zoo tycoon / some garden design game when I was younger & loved to both build and play, so this modern gaming world is very new to me! I come from a wildlife and zoo background and I'm in Britain. I recently ended up on a total Planet Zoo youtube binge to just listen to player commentary whilst I build, and came across a big debate amongst people about what species should be included in new packs and some of it I thought was interesting conversation. So please forgive me if the specific content of this thread has already been talked about! but why not weigh in again?...
Since I live within the European continent, I can only talk from my experience of European zoos (and the few zoos that I've visited outside of Europe), giving some insight to people outside of Europe what our approach to zoos and zoo species is sort of like over here, in an attempt for us all to perhaps find some common ground when looking to the future of the game- or perhaps accept that Planet Zoo means something different to each of us? -
Please weigh in your thoughts on this! There are random questions throughout....
& I appreciate anyone who took the time to read my thread!
Zoos have commonalities but are very diffrerent across the world - this effects our approach to Planet Zoo
Because I live in Britiain within the continent of Europe, my perspective of zoos is influenced by European zoos and the types of animals we see most often in them here. Also the native wildlife to each country and continent surely has a part to play in how we percieve the differences between exotics and native wildlife.
In the zoo world that I've worked in (in Europe), we have a nickname 'ABC zoos', which is a nickname for zoos that have all the popular animals you expect to see, and are most common across zoos worldwide. In the Planet Zoo game, I would personally consider the 'ABC zoo' species to be lions, penguins, meerkats, asc otters, camel, tiger, lemur, boa, tapir, armadillo, zebra, deer, red panda, wallabies etc. I would be surprised if I didn't see these species at a European zoo. There are other common zoo species in Europe, but it really depends on the size of the zoo, our European zoos are likely to be relatively smaller than in america, with the exceptions of our safari parks, and I think our dangerous animals liscensing is likely to be much stricter in Western Europe than in America, making private collection zoos a lot less common than they are in America.
In the European zoo world, in contrast to 'ABC zoos' I came across the term 'Specialist Zoos', which are more focused on unsual species that either need more urgent efforts of conservation, or are unusual for the visitors to see. In Britain I worked at both an 'ABC zoo' with all the 'popular' 'ABC' animals, and also I worked at a 'Specialist Zoo', which considered its animals such as black leopards, mountain lion, different wild dog species, maned wolf, small more obscure wild cats and mustelidae, etc to be somewhat unsual species to see in Europe, which people in America may find peculiar?
My thoughts are this is probably due to dangerous animal liscensing, I think the exotic wildlife trade is much vaster in America with less strict liscencing, and so players in America may have quite a difference of experience with whats unusual or common? I'd be interested to know, from any American players, - what animals (from the game) do you consider unusual to see in American zoos? and what animals (from the game) do you consider common to see in American zoos?
Theres also the native wildlife side vs exotics of things that influences what we're wanting or not wanting from the game, ...
It seems there is division especially between what American and 'European' animals should be included in future packs and what would be most useful for building our zoos..
I say 'European' because Europe is very vast & diverse in its enviroments, just as diverse in environment (though perhaps not in wildlife!) as North America, Western European wildlife is very different to Southern, Eastern and Northern European wildlife.
In defense of the European content in the game, I personally don't think there are many European animals included, contrary to what I've heard online! From what I can tell, forgive me if I'm missing any, these are the European animals (included in the game): alpine ibex, crested newt, salamander, reindeer, eurasian lynx, european badger, fallow deer, butterflies, grey seal, prezwalskis horse, red deer, red fox....Not many is there?! Though if you weren't fussy you could bend the rules with hogs, scorpions, adders, & terrapins in the Planet Zoo game as we have our own European versions of these.
Though I'll admit, European wildlife as a whole is perhaps not quite as thrilling as wildlife of other continents when it comes to species seen at a zoo.
I heard one person say something about not many bears in European zoos. I think this is somewhat true, native bears aren't as common in Europe as in America, in many parts of Europe bears have long been extinct, and so we have a different approach to bears here. I think there is somewhat of a cultural sadness in the UK of not enjoying seeing bears in captivity in Europe. There are a few other species that in the UK we as a culture don't feel particularly comfortable seeing in captivity, birds and dolphins being another. UK players - would you agree with that? American players - do you have anything like that in America where there is a taboo feeling about a certain species being in captivity?
I saw there was a little division surrounding the inclusion of things like badgers, red fox and racoon (we don't get wild racoons in Europe), I think these are interesting species to add because it sounds a bit like having a racoon in a zoo in America feels just as peculiar if we saw a badger or red fox in a European Zoo. We're more likely to see a European badger or red fox in a rescue/rehab centre in Europe, than in a zoo, much more likely to see meerkats or lions in a zoo, than any native european wildlife. I think with the exception of our native Eurasian Lynx which does appear in European Zoos. I wonder if this is similar to how racoons appear across American zoos? What about mountain lions? How frequently do they appear in American zoos since they are also your native widlife?
I think my point to that, is that to Europe, a lot of the worlds wildlife is exotic to us, if we want to see native wildlife, we go to things like sanctuaries, or maybe a big zoo has a small selection of native wildlife likely to have been rescued and not bred for trade.
Thats just some of my thoughts on the European perspective on Zoos, what animals we often see and what we as a culture might find exotic and unusual, which I think is possibly all animals haha. Our own native wildlife has depleted so much, it's sad to say that is is becoming increasingly Uncommon to see our own native wildlife in the wild. And so a badger in a zoo might be someones only chance to see a badger in real life, I'm lucky to live in an area populated with them, but they're probably a lot less in numbers than racoons (preportionately).
Plus theres only so much generic zoo building I can take with ABC zoos, its fun to expand ideas in planet zoo with native wildlife sanctuaries and various types of specialist centers which Im sure many of you like to create as well. The grey seal for example, one of the less popular captive species, I worked with for many years in this species rehabilitation in real life, and so I love this obscure addition, i don't view this as an aquarium pool animal, I view the grey seal as a rocky shoreline and cold water reef animal.
Welcome all thoughts on how each of you percieve zoos in correlation to where you live in the world, what the exotic trade is like there, and the relationship between your native wildlife and captivity!
Thanks!
Edit: when looking to the future, I'm more than happy with the animals Frontier offers and not particularly fussed about wanting any species in particular since zoos are so diverse! I would like more reptile house stuff! more small exhibit options, species and scenery/items for a reptile house.
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Bears are typically not seen in every zoo but still a common sight even if its just one bear species per zoo. My experience in north america is vastly different where bears especially black bears can be seen at almost every zoo at every level.
