TOXINS PACK
A huge diversity of toxins exists in nature, from the well-known venom of snakes and spiders, to the plant poisons collected and stored by animals in their bodies. Just for fun, I decided to make a small 4+1 pack that focuses on toxic wildlife. I have included multiple habitat species options, species for both standard and walkthrough exhibits and things for the accompanying update.
Habitat Animals
Perentie
Recent research suggests that all monitor lizards have some degree of venom in their saliva, which probably helps when hunting. In humans, a bite causes a drop in blood pressure and the wound bleeds freely, as the saliva contains a toxic component that prevents blood from clotting. Fortunately, their venom is of no real danger to people.
This is the largest species of lizard in Australia, and is frequently kept in zoos there – there are a few zoos in America that still keep them, and they lived at Zurich Zoo until earlier this year. At Zurich, they had access to a large outdoor enclosure. They would be the pack’s simpler reskin, being essentially a resized, recoloured Nile monitor.
Slow loris
The slow lorises are unusual in potentially being both venomous and poisonous. When frightened, a loris gathers toxin from a gland in its armpit and froths it in its saliva to give it a venomous bite. It may serve some use as defence against predators (people bitten by lorises have gone into anaphylactic shock and some have even died), but it is mainly used in fights with other lorises. Alternatively, a mother may lick her toxin into the fur of her young when she leaves it ‘parked’ in a tree while she forages – experiments have shown large predators such as tigers and sun bears will rapidly retreat from the smell of a slow loris.
Lorises are fairly common in American and European zoos, with many also in Asian zoos and a singleton still living at Perth Zoo in Australia. While they are mainly kept in nocturnal houses, they can and are kept in outdoor enclosures, sometimes very large ones with access to live trees. I would choose the Bengal slow loris as the exact species, because it is the largest – it is about the same size and weight as a ring-tailed lemur, without including the tail.
Brush-tailed bettong or woylie
This is definitely the most surprising addition to my toxic animals list – in a review of historical accounts, it was found that in southeast Australia there were many occasions where cats and dogs had died after feeding on the native wildlife. The most common toxic animals were bronzewing pigeons, but the brush-tailed bettong was also said to be toxic along with burrowing bettongs, brushtail possums, parrots and possibly tammar wallabies and malleefowl. In at least one case, a brush-tailed bettong accidentally killed in a rabbit trap was eaten by a pig, that later died. The poison originated from Gastrolobium plants, which the native wildlife can eat without harm but is so toxic to introduced species that it has been used in pest control. It is even said that these toxic plants, and the animals that became poisonous by eating them, are what allowed many of Australia’s endemic small mammals such as woylie, numbat and chuditch to survive in southeast Australia.
The brush-tailed bettong is said to be kept in between 5 and 10 zoos in its native Australia, but is kept in 34 zoos in Europe, 2 in Israel, 1 in Singapore and at least 24 zoos in the USA. While, like the loris, they often live in nocturnal houses, this is by no means entirely the case – at San Diego they live in a large outdoor enclosure and they are also able to live in mixed enclosures with species such as koalas. At Toronto Zoo, there is/was a rather interesting mix of brush-tailed bettong, both Bennett’s and swamp wallabies, hairy-nosed wombats and short-beaked echidnas. They can also live in walkthrough enclosures. This species would use the hopping animations of the macropods, but would be a significantly smaller species, which is critically endangered and would represent a new family of marsupials, the Potoroidae.
Ocellate river stingray
Unlike the bettong, the stingray needs little introduction as a venomous animal. Almost all stingrays have a barbed spine on their tails which they drive deep into the flesh of an attacking animal. The ancient Greeks and Romans were more afraid of stingrays than any other venomous animal – they believed a single cut from a stingray spine could make a tree instantly wilt, and a single drop of its venom could melt rock. Fortunately, stingrays do not seek out humans to attack and are often fairly benign or even friendly creatures.
I would use this pack as a way of introducing the first official fully aquatic species to the game. This is one of the most common of any stingray species in captivity, with Zootierliste recording 125 places holding the species in Europe, Israel, Singapore and the UAE. They are also frequently-kept in North America. While they can be held in standard tanks, they also do well in large ponds, and have been successfully mixed with dwarf caiman. I have also chosen this as another South American representative.
Possible additional options:
African maned rat
This species is not kept in captivity, but is about the same size as the prairie dog and is a very charismatic rodent with fluffy fur and bright colouration. They chew the leaves and bark of the poison-arrow tree and spread it into a patch of absorbent brown fur on their flanks – the quill-like fur pierces the mouths of attacking predators and can cause a heart attack. Dogs which survive biting a maned rat are said to flee at the sight of one and it is said to be able to kill a lion – perhaps not surprising, as the tree’s poison is also used by local people to tip arrows when hunting elephants. If the two species ever came to the game, this rat should have an interspecies bonus with rock hyraxes as they naturally associate closely in the wild.
Spur-winged goose OR malleefowl
The malleefowl has already been mentioned further up, as one possible species to absorb poison from Gastrolobium plants. The other option for a toxic habitat bird is the African spur-winged goose. Despite its name, it is not a true goose but more closely-related to shelducks. In parts of West Africa, these birds feed on toxic blister beetles and store the poison in their flesh – it can result in poisoning of those who eat it, with just 10mg of the poison sufficient to kill a man. I haven’t chosen this as one of my favoured species because I would prefer a more commonly-kept goose species.
Hawksbill sea turtle
In 2010, a hawksbill sea turtle that was eaten in Micronesia caused the death of 3 people and the sickening of 20 others. It is thought that the turtle gains its poison by eating highly toxic sea sponges, which have glass-like spines with toxins that can kill a man in minutes. These are among the most beautiful of all sea turtles, are listed as critically endangered and are kept in a few zoos across North America, Europe and Asia. They are also subject to a breed-and-release programme in Israel. I didn’t choose this species as I didn’t want the pack to end up being filled with too many aquatic species.
Northern giraffe
Perhaps the oddest story of the lot. In the 1950s, a researcher cataloguing the hunting cultures of tribes in Sudan reported that men would prepare a drink from the liver and bone marrow of the local giraffes, which caused a drunkenness-like affect and resulted in hallucinations. The compounds originate from the leaves of the trees that giraffes browse on and are condensed in the giraffe’s organs. The Northern giraffe, as a species, combines two of the three most commonly-kept giraffe subspecies/types in European zoos – the Rothschild and Kordofan. They have perhaps the widest range of all four species of giraffe, but are now critically endangered.
Exhibit species:
Western honeybee
If a standard exhibit were the preference, I would choose this social insect. Regularly kept, these insects could fit in many sections – from farm areas, to European woodland displays or even by elephant enclosures (showcasing the beehives used by African farmers to protect their crops from elephants). I would have bees appear as a single organism, namely the queen, as many scientists regard a bee colony as a superorganism. A fun little feature would be that this exhibit comes with a little access tube, by which bees can be seen leaving the exhibit to search for nectar. It is important that this access tube does not point directly to a nearby visitor path. Also, for the first time, this species would come with two different exhibit types – a traditional glass-sided beehive where the bees are on man-made wooden combs, or a naturalistic hollow tree display, as used in the bee exhibition at Vienna Zoo. This would come with an update that allows exhibit species with multiple biomes to be kept in different exhibit types, in turn helping make the exhibits slightly more customisable.
The walkthrough exhibit could have some alternative options as well. These are some choices I thought of:
Eurasian hoopoe
Almost all poisonous birds get their toxins from their diet, but the hoopoe is the sole exception. It cultivates bacteria in a special gland beneath its tail and, if a predator tries to attack a hoopoe at the nest, the bird sprays a toxic oil. The oil contains dimethyl sulfide, which smells strongly of rotting cabbage, is irritating to the eyes and skin, is dangerous if swallowed and is highly flammable. Eurasian hoopoes would represent many regions in the game, being a breeding species across Europe and Asia, and also breeding across much of northern Africa. This beautiful small bird is able to be kept in walkthrough aviaries, and is becoming increasingly common in European zoos.
Southeast Asian butterflies
Again, South and Southeast Asia has been shafted with exhibit species. So far it has only two species, one of which came in the base game. There are several species of toxic lepidopteran from the region that are kept in butterfly walkthroughs that I wanted to consider. The most obvious choice is the paper kite butterfly Idea leuconoe, a common species well-known from tropical butterfly houses worldwide. They are mainly Southeast Asian, but do spread as far north as Taiwan and as far south as northern Australia. A second option is the great orange-tip Hebomoia glaucippe, a white-and-orange rainforest butterfly that ranges as far north as China and Japan. These butterflies have a remarkably strong poison in their wings, the same type of toxin found in the venom of the notorious cone shells. The third option is the false tiger moth Dysphania militaris. This is a day-flying species, with bright yellow and blue patterns that warn birds of its awful taste. I would appreciate this species, just so we get a fascinating species of moth, a group with over 14 times as many species as the butterflies.
Free update:
I personally do not think that we should expect a snake or spider to come with paid DLC – nearly a third of the world’s population may have a fear of snakes, and up to a third may also be anxious of spiders. Putting such animals in a paid pack may be the difference between someone buying a pack or passing on it. So instead of putting a snake or spider in the pack itself, I would make one for the free update.
My choice is perhaps an obvious one, the most-wanted type of snake missing from the game. Cobras exist as a game ornament, but have not yet appeared as animals. I wanted a true cobra, so have ruled out the king cobra (which is actually in a little group of its own) – also, the taxonomy of the king cobra is still in flux at the moment, with suggestions it may consist of multiple different species. Instead, I have narrowed my preference to two species. One, the red spitting cobra, is one of the more commonly-kept species of cobra in zoos and is also an extremely beautiful species. It would be the second species of African snake in the game. The second option is the monocled cobra. In Europe, it is the most commonly-kept species of cobra. They have a wide range, occurring from parts of India to large parts of continental southeast Asia. This would also be the second Asian snake (with the puff adder marginally reaching this continent), but would be the first exhibit reptile from tropical south or southeast Asia. Ultimately, I have difficulty choosing between either species.
One feature I would like to see included is an antivenom centre. In real zoos, access to antivenom is mandatory for the housing of venomous snakes especially. This feature would require a small refrigerated room (that fits in a single square) to be placed within a certain distance of any venomous snake exhibit. This building requires powering, and the antivenom must be regularly replaced, so it is an expensive thing to run. This is a realistic thing for many zoos – here in Europe, lots of places have slimmed down or removed their venomous snake collections because of the high costs involved. Obviously, in sandbox mode the requirement for this feature can be toggled on or off, depending on preference.
A huge diversity of toxins exists in nature, from the well-known venom of snakes and spiders, to the plant poisons collected and stored by animals in their bodies. Just for fun, I decided to make a small 4+1 pack that focuses on toxic wildlife. I have included multiple habitat species options, species for both standard and walkthrough exhibits and things for the accompanying update.
Habitat Animals
Perentie
Recent research suggests that all monitor lizards have some degree of venom in their saliva, which probably helps when hunting. In humans, a bite causes a drop in blood pressure and the wound bleeds freely, as the saliva contains a toxic component that prevents blood from clotting. Fortunately, their venom is of no real danger to people.
This is the largest species of lizard in Australia, and is frequently kept in zoos there – there are a few zoos in America that still keep them, and they lived at Zurich Zoo until earlier this year. At Zurich, they had access to a large outdoor enclosure. They would be the pack’s simpler reskin, being essentially a resized, recoloured Nile monitor.
Slow loris
The slow lorises are unusual in potentially being both venomous and poisonous. When frightened, a loris gathers toxin from a gland in its armpit and froths it in its saliva to give it a venomous bite. It may serve some use as defence against predators (people bitten by lorises have gone into anaphylactic shock and some have even died), but it is mainly used in fights with other lorises. Alternatively, a mother may lick her toxin into the fur of her young when she leaves it ‘parked’ in a tree while she forages – experiments have shown large predators such as tigers and sun bears will rapidly retreat from the smell of a slow loris.
Lorises are fairly common in American and European zoos, with many also in Asian zoos and a singleton still living at Perth Zoo in Australia. While they are mainly kept in nocturnal houses, they can and are kept in outdoor enclosures, sometimes very large ones with access to live trees. I would choose the Bengal slow loris as the exact species, because it is the largest – it is about the same size and weight as a ring-tailed lemur, without including the tail.
Brush-tailed bettong or woylie
This is definitely the most surprising addition to my toxic animals list – in a review of historical accounts, it was found that in southeast Australia there were many occasions where cats and dogs had died after feeding on the native wildlife. The most common toxic animals were bronzewing pigeons, but the brush-tailed bettong was also said to be toxic along with burrowing bettongs, brushtail possums, parrots and possibly tammar wallabies and malleefowl. In at least one case, a brush-tailed bettong accidentally killed in a rabbit trap was eaten by a pig, that later died. The poison originated from Gastrolobium plants, which the native wildlife can eat without harm but is so toxic to introduced species that it has been used in pest control. It is even said that these toxic plants, and the animals that became poisonous by eating them, are what allowed many of Australia’s endemic small mammals such as woylie, numbat and chuditch to survive in southeast Australia.
The brush-tailed bettong is said to be kept in between 5 and 10 zoos in its native Australia, but is kept in 34 zoos in Europe, 2 in Israel, 1 in Singapore and at least 24 zoos in the USA. While, like the loris, they often live in nocturnal houses, this is by no means entirely the case – at San Diego they live in a large outdoor enclosure and they are also able to live in mixed enclosures with species such as koalas. At Toronto Zoo, there is/was a rather interesting mix of brush-tailed bettong, both Bennett’s and swamp wallabies, hairy-nosed wombats and short-beaked echidnas. They can also live in walkthrough enclosures. This species would use the hopping animations of the macropods, but would be a significantly smaller species, which is critically endangered and would represent a new family of marsupials, the Potoroidae.
Ocellate river stingray
Unlike the bettong, the stingray needs little introduction as a venomous animal. Almost all stingrays have a barbed spine on their tails which they drive deep into the flesh of an attacking animal. The ancient Greeks and Romans were more afraid of stingrays than any other venomous animal – they believed a single cut from a stingray spine could make a tree instantly wilt, and a single drop of its venom could melt rock. Fortunately, stingrays do not seek out humans to attack and are often fairly benign or even friendly creatures.
I would use this pack as a way of introducing the first official fully aquatic species to the game. This is one of the most common of any stingray species in captivity, with Zootierliste recording 125 places holding the species in Europe, Israel, Singapore and the UAE. They are also frequently-kept in North America. While they can be held in standard tanks, they also do well in large ponds, and have been successfully mixed with dwarf caiman. I have also chosen this as another South American representative.
Possible additional options:
African maned rat
This species is not kept in captivity, but is about the same size as the prairie dog and is a very charismatic rodent with fluffy fur and bright colouration. They chew the leaves and bark of the poison-arrow tree and spread it into a patch of absorbent brown fur on their flanks – the quill-like fur pierces the mouths of attacking predators and can cause a heart attack. Dogs which survive biting a maned rat are said to flee at the sight of one and it is said to be able to kill a lion – perhaps not surprising, as the tree’s poison is also used by local people to tip arrows when hunting elephants. If the two species ever came to the game, this rat should have an interspecies bonus with rock hyraxes as they naturally associate closely in the wild.
Spur-winged goose OR malleefowl
The malleefowl has already been mentioned further up, as one possible species to absorb poison from Gastrolobium plants. The other option for a toxic habitat bird is the African spur-winged goose. Despite its name, it is not a true goose but more closely-related to shelducks. In parts of West Africa, these birds feed on toxic blister beetles and store the poison in their flesh – it can result in poisoning of those who eat it, with just 10mg of the poison sufficient to kill a man. I haven’t chosen this as one of my favoured species because I would prefer a more commonly-kept goose species.
Hawksbill sea turtle
In 2010, a hawksbill sea turtle that was eaten in Micronesia caused the death of 3 people and the sickening of 20 others. It is thought that the turtle gains its poison by eating highly toxic sea sponges, which have glass-like spines with toxins that can kill a man in minutes. These are among the most beautiful of all sea turtles, are listed as critically endangered and are kept in a few zoos across North America, Europe and Asia. They are also subject to a breed-and-release programme in Israel. I didn’t choose this species as I didn’t want the pack to end up being filled with too many aquatic species.
Northern giraffe
Perhaps the oddest story of the lot. In the 1950s, a researcher cataloguing the hunting cultures of tribes in Sudan reported that men would prepare a drink from the liver and bone marrow of the local giraffes, which caused a drunkenness-like affect and resulted in hallucinations. The compounds originate from the leaves of the trees that giraffes browse on and are condensed in the giraffe’s organs. The Northern giraffe, as a species, combines two of the three most commonly-kept giraffe subspecies/types in European zoos – the Rothschild and Kordofan. They have perhaps the widest range of all four species of giraffe, but are now critically endangered.
Exhibit species:
Western honeybee
If a standard exhibit were the preference, I would choose this social insect. Regularly kept, these insects could fit in many sections – from farm areas, to European woodland displays or even by elephant enclosures (showcasing the beehives used by African farmers to protect their crops from elephants). I would have bees appear as a single organism, namely the queen, as many scientists regard a bee colony as a superorganism. A fun little feature would be that this exhibit comes with a little access tube, by which bees can be seen leaving the exhibit to search for nectar. It is important that this access tube does not point directly to a nearby visitor path. Also, for the first time, this species would come with two different exhibit types – a traditional glass-sided beehive where the bees are on man-made wooden combs, or a naturalistic hollow tree display, as used in the bee exhibition at Vienna Zoo. This would come with an update that allows exhibit species with multiple biomes to be kept in different exhibit types, in turn helping make the exhibits slightly more customisable.
The walkthrough exhibit could have some alternative options as well. These are some choices I thought of:
Eurasian hoopoe
Almost all poisonous birds get their toxins from their diet, but the hoopoe is the sole exception. It cultivates bacteria in a special gland beneath its tail and, if a predator tries to attack a hoopoe at the nest, the bird sprays a toxic oil. The oil contains dimethyl sulfide, which smells strongly of rotting cabbage, is irritating to the eyes and skin, is dangerous if swallowed and is highly flammable. Eurasian hoopoes would represent many regions in the game, being a breeding species across Europe and Asia, and also breeding across much of northern Africa. This beautiful small bird is able to be kept in walkthrough aviaries, and is becoming increasingly common in European zoos.
Southeast Asian butterflies
Again, South and Southeast Asia has been shafted with exhibit species. So far it has only two species, one of which came in the base game. There are several species of toxic lepidopteran from the region that are kept in butterfly walkthroughs that I wanted to consider. The most obvious choice is the paper kite butterfly Idea leuconoe, a common species well-known from tropical butterfly houses worldwide. They are mainly Southeast Asian, but do spread as far north as Taiwan and as far south as northern Australia. A second option is the great orange-tip Hebomoia glaucippe, a white-and-orange rainforest butterfly that ranges as far north as China and Japan. These butterflies have a remarkably strong poison in their wings, the same type of toxin found in the venom of the notorious cone shells. The third option is the false tiger moth Dysphania militaris. This is a day-flying species, with bright yellow and blue patterns that warn birds of its awful taste. I would appreciate this species, just so we get a fascinating species of moth, a group with over 14 times as many species as the butterflies.
Free update:
I personally do not think that we should expect a snake or spider to come with paid DLC – nearly a third of the world’s population may have a fear of snakes, and up to a third may also be anxious of spiders. Putting such animals in a paid pack may be the difference between someone buying a pack or passing on it. So instead of putting a snake or spider in the pack itself, I would make one for the free update.
My choice is perhaps an obvious one, the most-wanted type of snake missing from the game. Cobras exist as a game ornament, but have not yet appeared as animals. I wanted a true cobra, so have ruled out the king cobra (which is actually in a little group of its own) – also, the taxonomy of the king cobra is still in flux at the moment, with suggestions it may consist of multiple different species. Instead, I have narrowed my preference to two species. One, the red spitting cobra, is one of the more commonly-kept species of cobra in zoos and is also an extremely beautiful species. It would be the second species of African snake in the game. The second option is the monocled cobra. In Europe, it is the most commonly-kept species of cobra. They have a wide range, occurring from parts of India to large parts of continental southeast Asia. This would also be the second Asian snake (with the puff adder marginally reaching this continent), but would be the first exhibit reptile from tropical south or southeast Asia. Ultimately, I have difficulty choosing between either species.
One feature I would like to see included is an antivenom centre. In real zoos, access to antivenom is mandatory for the housing of venomous snakes especially. This feature would require a small refrigerated room (that fits in a single square) to be placed within a certain distance of any venomous snake exhibit. This building requires powering, and the antivenom must be regularly replaced, so it is an expensive thing to run. This is a realistic thing for many zoos – here in Europe, lots of places have slimmed down or removed their venomous snake collections because of the high costs involved. Obviously, in sandbox mode the requirement for this feature can be toggled on or off, depending on preference.