The Zoolympic Games

The Africa pack added the meerkat, white rhino, African penguin and fennec fox. Based on the rule clarification for 'herd', I guess this now permits meerkats and African penguins as well as the rhinos for 'mixed African herd' species! Although given their need for a very rocky environment and such a specific real-world locale, the penguins are a tricky one to combine. Meerkats though...I am sure someone could do something interesting combining them with an ungulate species - giraffes and meerkats ha! I like how these themes are going to stretch us to think in new ways...

The scenery in the Africa pack was great in my opinion because it added lots of flexicolour plaster pieces, which I absolutely love using. I don't like the themed stuff too much in any of the packs, but the more neutral plaster wall set and off-grid plaster bricks and blocks are some of my most-used construction pieces. The texture seems really soft somehow while also being very plain and smooth. They're just very appealing somehow. Set to white, they make a nice plain white stone wall with just enough texture to feel tactile without anything distracting or repetitive in terms of pattern. Set to a block colour, really fun to play with. Plaster is such a versatile material and used in almost every culture and time period, so they can go with anything really. I guess the "little plaster brick" is the PZ equivalent of the LBD 😂

All this raving about plaster and now someone is going to tell me that the plaster pieces came with the free update for sure
Haha I loved reading that. you have totally sold these plaster walls to me, that kind of stuff matters so much to us PZ building enthusiasts! the africa pack just got a whole lot more interesting. one of my main wall issues is the rough texture on the plaster walls I do have access to, so I totally appreciate your review! Thankyou for that! 🙏
 
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Alas, cannot go through glass habitat walls but .. can go through glass construction walls. But I will definitely have to widen the river before extending the enclosure seeing as this ride has to be a complete loop. Or have a lake at the end that has access to another river that works it's way back and connects that way. But looking like my plan will be fine ( money permitting ).

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Oh how strange, I used this idea in a Franchise I was building just in March. I don't know if placing habitat barriers first or last makes a difference? I'd be surprised if they changed it since then but perhaps they did, if I find the time I'll go back and look at what I did and see if I can figure it out again
 
Okay i think my build is a very big stretch on the theme, but i like the idea to much to not do it :D
Brilliant, I really feel like the theme should just be taken as a prompt for inspiration and not a rule set :) the stretchier the better! Can't wait to see
 
Brilliant, I really feel like the theme should just be taken as a prompt for inspiration and not a rule set :) the stretchier the better! Can't wait to see
Good. Because i think if i asked a 100 people to describe it "african mixed herd enclosure" would come up once 😂
 
Good. Because i think if i asked a 100 people to describe it "african mixed herd enclosure" would come up once 😂
Well lucky for you, there's no judging category for "fit the brief" 🤣

Honestly I think the variety will make it all more fun and interesting. Comparing 5+ savannah plains could be tricky!

If I get time to build I'm gonna use my pics from my South Africa trip for inspo :) hope I find time, I have to be in the right mindset for PZ and if my day is very full I don't have the creative energy avaialable for it
 
Well lucky for you, there's no judging category for "fit the brief" 🤣

Honestly I think the variety will make it all more fun and interesting. Comparing 5+ savannah plains could be tricky!

If I get time to build I'm gonna use my pics from my South Africa trip for inspo :) hope I find time, I have to be in the right mindset for PZ and if my day is very full I don't have the creative energy avaialable for it
you're right comparing loads of plains would be tricky and perhaps too repetitive! I'm looking forward to seeing the other biomes people have explored. cool you went to south africa ! what was a highlight of your trip?!
 
you're right comparing loads of plains would be tricky and perhaps too repetitive! I'm looking forward to seeing the other biomes people have explored. cool you went to south africa ! what was a highlight of your trip?!
Oh my gosh where do I start?! It was the trip of a lifetime! It was a delayed honeymoon - we were meant to go to Costa Rica in April 2020 and uh, that obviously didn't happen :) but we did this instead and it was more than worth the wait!

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(chemical free pool, just hose water so safe for them to drink. A full natural watering hole right behind them but they preferred this! These were wild elephants, one of the best moments of my life for sure!)

All these animals were wild and at a place that doesnt allow many tourists so very well protected and non-stressed (well, apart from predating each other...):
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I have like 1000 more pics but I'll stop there :) didn't crop the screenshots, sorry! The forum can't upload full res photos so I usually screenshot and crop ...but laziness took hold :)
 

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These guys were great too!
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That face 🤣

I filled up my wildlife book with bookmarks for every sighting :)
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I met lots of other travellers who were like, "are you doing a wine tour?" "Have you done X cultural thing?" And we were there for two whole weeks and were like, "No, just animals!" I mean I can drink wine anywhere, who cares? I just wanna meet my zoological kindred spirits!

Something interesting I learned is that zebra and blue wildebeest are almost always found together. They're BFFs because zebra can't see well but they can smell and hear really well, and wildebeest have better vision and worse hearing/smell. Also the zebra eat the long grass and the wildebeast like the short grass so it's a totally symbiotic relationship. Often you'll see a young male zebra, kicked out from the herd, hanging out with a wildebeest gang until they become a full stallion and form their own herd:

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@Villanelle beautiful sketch of the zebra
amazing photos that you took. I really love that last photo of the zebra and wildebeest in the grass, stunning photo. and a gorgeous zebra with such thick dark bands! very atmospheric photo. elephants by the pool also great that must have been so incredible. also love the lionesses on the road. What an incredible trip!!
 
Thought I'd post a little update on my creation ! I'm building a plains/savannah, species likely to be included are giraffe, ostrich, a mixture of antelope and warthog, though no animals have been added yet! Haven't started on the paddock/habitat yet, still building the main viewing area. My main issue that I come up against when building in general is my paths and buildings end up too large in scale and then the props look too small, so I've spent the past few days just trying to get the scale right and teaching myself to downsize things. Q. Do habitat shelters count as blue prints and therefore not allowed?
 
Thought I'd post a little update on my creation ! I'm building a plains/savannah, species likely to be included are giraffe, ostrich, a mixture of antelope and warthog, though no animals have been added yet! Haven't started on the paddock/habitat yet, still building the main viewing area. My main issue that I come up against when building in general is my paths and buildings end up too large in scale and then the props look too small, so I've spent the past few days just trying to get the scale right and teaching myself to downsize things. Q. Do habitat shelters count as blue prints and therefore not allowed?
Id recommend placing the animals down first so you always have a point of reference :)
 
Thought I'd post a little update on my creation ! I'm building a plains/savannah, species likely to be included are giraffe, ostrich, a mixture of antelope and warthog, though no animals have been added yet! Haven't started on the paddock/habitat yet, still building the main viewing area. My main issue that I come up against when building in general is my paths and buildings end up too large in scale and then the props look too small, so I've spent the past few days just trying to get the scale right and teaching myself to downsize things. Q. Do habitat shelters count as blue prints and therefore not allowed?
Firstly re shelters - no go ahead, I don't think those should count as blueprints :)

Secondly - I have exactly the same issue! I always make everything wayyyy to big. Even now that I've really scaled things down as much as I feel I can manage, I still go way overboard! I've decided it's just my style. I like it and I'm sure the animals like it, so everyone else can stuff it and the guests will just have to get thirsty 😂
 
My main issue that I come up against when building in general is my paths and buildings end up too large in scale and then the props look too small

I always make everything wayyyy to big.
Oh but I did make this weird little thing in case it helps. It's a blueprint person made to the same size as guests to help with scaling (yes it's a blueprint, but feel free to use it and then delete it)

 
Id recommend placing the animals down first so you always have a point of reference :)
wow I've never thought to do this.. I will give this a go when I next build something smaller. What order do you usually build in? I should take all your advice considering how skilled you are at building
 
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