Tiergarten Wesselfell

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Hello there, fans of zoos that force me to not use massive amounts of ungulates, welcome to Wesselfell, a zoo in the Eifel, a hilly area in germany where my grandparents come from. Inspired mainly by the Eifel zoo, i wanted to do a zoo in a hilly enviroment, a bit of a valley with a river flowing through it. The Eifel zoo is a bitter sweet story, because a few years ago it was wrecked by a flood, with multiple animals drowning or having to be shot. I was there both before and after the flood, and especally the time before was and still is very important to me, because its some of the last memories of my grandpa before his illness got worse.
Today, the eifelzoo is an example of making the best from the worst, renovating to make it better for everything that survived the flood. For example, the old large cat house was really old and had only small cages for the leopards, tigers and lions. They wanted to renovate it anyways, but after the leopards and tigers drowned in the flood, they are now aiming for it to be the best place the lions could have, combining the habitats and renovating them.

But enough of the inspiration, lets get into the plan for the first stage of the zoo.
Instead of starting out with a finished habitat, this time im gonna show the plan i have made for myself, both to hear your thoughts and to maybe motivate some more people to choose some animals.

This is a rough and absolutly not set in stone plan of the lower parts of my zoo. Something you cant see here is the entrance area, which will be featured later down the line when its actually worth showing here, but whats important is, that it has a way to the right, leading to the bridge in the bottom of the pic, aswell as to the side, onto those hils on the left. Theres also a viewpoint for the bisons on the other side of the river right at the entrance, making them our more or less entrance animal, hopefully helping to ease the guest flow if they should ever be allowed here.
The bison habitat is the only one i started to build for so far, being what i hope to be the heart of my zoo, being visible from multiple points and angles as a nice panorama shot.
Next to them will be a smaller habitat for prariedogs, for the nice prarie panorama. Afterwards we will go around a yet not decided habitat for a medium size animal towards the carnivore house (black), where we can find both indoor and outdoor habitats for meerkats, arctic foxes and jaguars, because we do not region lock ourself. We also pass the gemsbock, sadly the only not bison ungulate in the zoo, that will propapply be shelterd in a extension of the bison stable. Between the red, blue and darkgreen habitats you can also see a staff path, that will go along behind the scenes and connect to all 4 habitats. On the right will be more habitats, depending on how many animals i will still get, but one thats for sure will be the elephant house.

But just planing is a bit dry, so look! I build a bridge today! Isnt it pretty? Now thats what really counts, not that half the detail work isnt even remotly on show in this picture, curse you bigger objects swallowing smaller objects

But thats it for today, i hope you liked this introduction and if you have any idears, sugestions, feedback or what ever you wanna chare, im allways happy to hear it.
See you next time ^^

 

[DarthQuell]

Well, guests will be arriving soon. How about a picnic area past the bridge. Maybe set in like a Japanese garden?

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Well, guests will be arriving soon. How about a picnic area past the bridge. Maybe set in like a Japanese garden?

Thats actually quite the cool idear. Most of the time i more or less ignore foodcourts, as they arnt really prominent in most zoos, with mostly just 1 or 2 in even bigger zoos, but especally unitl i get more animals its a nice idear to keep in the back of my head. But japanese garden? Oh boy, if i ever try that that sure will be a giant headache, but we will see

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Okay so, this thread is old and progress large, but because i have only one very tiny semi finished habitat and kinda loved seeing the documentation of how the zoo progressed, i made some photos for a little work in progress zoo tour so you see what i have been up to and what i am planning to do and spoiler, its kinda like my plans but also kinda very different. But see for yourself as we start our little tour through the first 7 work in progress habitats in Tiergarten Wesselfell!

A view from the Entrance allready tells us what the 3 highlight animals should be, a pride of lions, a group of king penguins and a small herd of elephants. Behind the Entrance the path splits into two, to the left hilly path on one side of the river and a bridge on the right crossing it, aswell as a little hill in the center, which will be our first look out point and major point of interest.

From the hill we have a peak view across the bison habitat, one of the core pieces of the zoo, but also bejond it.You can see the path way from here, aswell as from the other side back, creating some nice direct points of interest for natural dinorama shots, which just get better the more i build in the distance. So i cant wait to see how this will look in two months from now on

If we look towards the left, we can see the vast hills in the background, which oneday will hopefully be fully with live, but for now we can see the bisons and on our side of the river little asia, a little (with little i mean for now just 2 habitats are planned) japanese or chinese garden inspired area, thank you mr quell. It will feature the new red crowned crane, which for now has a high star actor posing in his place, aswell as two red pandas, my beloved fun bears.

Speaking of which, they will live in this little habitat once the dlc drops. They share their asian inspired but still rather tame shelter with the red pandas, but in game it doesnt really work because of the way that habitat doors hate each other like the kings in chess, so only the red pandas can actually go inside.

Another shot from the other side also reveals an implied connection to the bison habitat, where the staff can go across large stepping stones in the water across the river, but they arnt the only one as surprise surprise the on time i counted on the traversable area to not let the bisons cross, they did, also using the rocks as stepping stone or just walking besides them, which honestly is pretty cool. Sadly this area isnt really viewable as a guest, but hey i know its here and i like it so thats good enough for me.

Following across the bridge, wefind the prariedogs, the one rather finished habitat. Small and nice it fits perfectly between the guest path, the bisons and the staff path connecting to the shelters of the gemsbock, bisons, prariedogs, lynx and badger. If you ask yourself "wow König, how did you hide the ugly staffgate?" the answer is simple, i didnt. This habitat is part of the bison ones null barrier and i just put all of the prariedogs manually in this little paddock. They even get fed in here and because they can only dig to places inside the traversable area they cant escape. I remember people being disappointed about that when the pack launched but god am i thankfull they cant, or builds like this wouldnt really be possible.

Behind the Prariedogs we fine the first mixed habitat of the zoo, a rather large habitat for a pair of badgers and one male lynx. So far they seem to like each other and while i allready like the look of the habitat, im sure i will love it even more once im finnaly finished detailing, cause damn i havent even put stuff all around the edges. Like the other habitats, i will show it off in more detail when im done, as this is just supposed to be an overview of what ihave been up to since the first post.

Next to them is the gemsbock habitat, as wished for by fini in my old thread about choosing animals for me. I dont think i will keep super closly to it this time, premarly because i feel like i want to do how i feel rn till im more into the game again and not coming of a zoo where i squeezed in like half the animals in the game like last time. But i will atleast add some of them, and this is one of them. I wanted a second habitat of hoofstock anyways, so the gemsbock fit perfectly and also solved the great purpose to shake up the till now quite temperate animal selection.

Last but not least, i have been adding lions today into the zoo. I personally dont really like when you have animals on both sides of the path as it feels kinda distracting, so seperated their viewing area from the ones for the badgers and lynx with some trees and a little seating area with benches, which honestly not just enhances both viewing gallerys, but also should help alot with guest flow if they should ever be let into the zoo! So im quite happy with it.

And for the end, i have my traditional view from birds eye view and i gotta say, im really happy with how it looks so far and very motivated to continue! For now i think i want to finish of atleast the crane and badgers before i start work on the carnivore house that will have the shelter of the lions and probs meerkats, polarfox and binturong which is not only a cool multi continental and biome selection, but also some animals from the wishlist, but i really can say im having a blast so far and that im quite thrilled to work on this zoo. I hope you all liked it, i would love to hear your idears and feedback and lets hope that it wont be half a year till the next post, see ya!

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Also just for you guys, i did a little planning and detailing the overview map. Rn i dont really feel like working on the hilly side besides Little asia in red down there, but we will see. The lion habitat is actually planned to be quite big and seperateable in two parts, as big cat habitats in zoos often are to give the females with cubs a place to retreat to and or put the male away to horny jail. Between the two sections will be a little disconnect in the viewing areas and style, as the front part is planned as somewhat of an original habitat while the part to the right is a more modern expansion, using more glass instead of the water trench the original has as well as smaller habitats in between, but we will see. I thought about maybe putting a pond for flamingos in front of it, but i would defenetly wait for the new tool there. rn im thinking about what i want to put in the pink and orange, currently tending to put either foliage or a little foodcourt or something or a small habitat into the pink and either a habitat or a viewing platform into the orange, but we will see

 

[DarthQuell]

japanese or chinese garden inspired area, thank you mr quell

You're very welcome

This habitat is part of the bison ones null barrier and i just put all of the prariedogs manually in this little paddock. They even get fed in here and because they can only dig to places inside the traversable area they cant escape. I remember people being disappointed about that when the pack launched but god am i thankfull they cant, or builds like this wouldnt really be possible.

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Its quite easy actually.
You can try it out yourself by makikg a nullbarrier habitat but building an actual barrier the animals cant cross inside.
You just have to manually move them over once the animal arrived.
This works like a charm for smaller habitats, but theoretically you could also put your zoo into a nullbarrier, allowing free roaming animals to go anywhere they please while everybody else needs to stay inside their fences

 

[DarthQuell]

Its quite easy actually.
You can try it out yourself by makikg a nullbarrier habitat but building an actual barrier the animals cant cross inside.
You just have to manually move them over once the animal arrived.
This works like a charm for smaller habitats, but theoretically you could also put your zoo into a nullbarrier, allowing free roaming animals to go anywhere they please while everybody else needs to stay inside their fences

Ok. What about getting keepers to feed them?

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Ok. What about getting keepers to feed them?

The trick is putting in a spot where the keeper can reach over the barrier. As far as i saw, they just dump it on the ground nesr the animals if there is no feeder, so they walk up to a spot where they reach over and dump it in. Mind you i have only done this with very low barriers for prariedogs, meerkats and free roaming peafowls for now, so idk about higher barriers

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Hello there everybody, i finally finsihed the first habitat to a presentable state that im happy with

We are following the path to the left, entering the "Kranichgarten", Crane garden" for my non german speaking friends.
This small, rather themed area was build with the help of the Japanese Community in our fictional town of Wesselfell as a sign of good will and to respect the history of the Japanese immigrants, with signs both educating about the Animals, as well as their relations to Japanese culture and metaphorical connections to the history of the group.
The cranes them self represent the far way they have come from Japan to Germany, but also their strenght and loyalty they displayed towards each other.
Being build with the help of Japanese Architects and Gardeners to obtain a true, Japanese feel (that i hopefully have come close to in anyway as im none of these three things) this little garden is a popular place for all kinds of traditional Japanese celebrations, including a little restaurant and hall for them (which still have to be build).
But not only Japanese people like this Location, as marrying in the sight of these beautiful birds, known for their loyality to their live long mates, strenght and being regarded as signs of luck, is something many young couples in this Area like to do, making it a good secondary base of income for the zoo.

The habitat is both viewable from the front and the hill, but because of the long sight lines you can see them with some good eyes even from as far back as the lynx and badger enclosure. Bordering in the river to the bisons, they are allmost allways in view aswell, sometimes even swimming side by side with them.

There even is a second staff entry into the bison habitat from the shelter of the cranes, allowing the keepers to cross the river with some big stepping stones.
Maybe a bit to big, as the bisons are known to walk or swim across to the other side from time to time, which wasnt expected but after non of them actually did any damage to the other side and just chose to lay in the shade, the zoo decided to just let them be.

From the guest path, you can see far back into the zoo, with a great view on the bisons.
The habitat itself is decorated with traditional japanese stone lanterns, flowers and trees, with the central tree allready been growing there since over 30 years.

Also, can we take a moment to just appreciate the fact that these birds are not just in the game, but beautiful aswell?
I would have never expected to see them, especally not that soon and its a small dream come true that i can greet this fine gentleman and welcome him in my zoo.
Thanks frontier! Amazing work

Finally to finish it, weve got the view from birds eye view. Not much has changed this time and propaply there wont be a lot of drastic changes in the near future, as im mostly just busy finishing of and decorating the allready existing habitats and paths. Anything in particular you want to see next?
Prariedogs are pretty much finished and both the lynx and badgers, aswell as the gemsbock are prime candidates to get some more work in. Same would go for the red pandas, if i wasnt really unsure if i want to actually keep them there. If you have better idears for my japanese garden, pls tell me or else i might just make it two habitats for the red crowned cranes. Anyways, enough talking, see ya later aligator, have a great day everyone

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Last update of the thread was 1,5 years ago and its staggering to see how much my building style changed and how much better i got .
I thought up a fun little game to see how good you guys know my zoo from all my posts in what did you do in planet zoo today.
Below theres a current "map" of my zoo, can you guys guess/remember what animals are where?
And to spice it up a little why not make some suggestions how you would expand the zoo, maybe i even listen to you