Somali Wild donkey/ African Wild donkey is probably my most wanted equid now
Ungulate Talk
- Thread starter SanRazo618
- Start date
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Black rhino
Dama gazelle
Dromedary
Addax
Somali Wild ass
Black rhino
Dama gazelle
Dromedary
Addax
Somali Wild ass
Good lineup 10/10
So what's left?
Non african antelopes, small deers, gerenuk, musk deer/ fanged deer, some more caprines, probably one more bovine
Markhor? Takin? Musk Ox? Saiga? Perhaps another bovine like the African forest buffalo/gaur/banteng/Anoa? Or perhaps more suids? Peccary? Wild boar? I would still love to see those!
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2 2 stars, 3 3 stars. Ironic but im not complainingIm honest by now we are quite close to total satisfaction regarding ungulates.
Sure there are atleast 50 more ungulates that got really great arguments for their inclusion, but we finally are at a point where we for one got every major group of ungulates atleast twice, but also have most of the key species.
But when i say most theres still some missing, so lets highlight some by groupings shall we?
All of these animals will be assigned a number from 1-3, going from a nice addition in a coverd niche for a 1 (see random south african antelope without a big specific reason, the new blue wilderbeast would go here, but also animals like a new basic gazelle, because while its defenetly a neat animal that i for sure wouldnt mind seeing its role can be coverd by multiple animals allready in the game, namly springbock and thompson gazelle), 2 for animals in a coverd niche but some unique feature to differentiate (an example would be the common eland with its size or the gerenuk with its weird neck, those animals arnt needed but would defently add something quite different to the game) and lastly an animal with an open niche for a 3 (an african duiker or dik dik would fit the bill, because while they are african antelopes, their habitats, appearance and requirements would be vastly different). Predictably most animals i will mention will have either a 2 or 3, as these are the most interesting additions. Also if this wasnt clear, an open niche does not only refer to for example no antelope for india (eventhough this is a big part of it obviously) but also how unique in apperance the animal is. For example if we got an hypothetical antelope from india that looked just like a thompsons gazelle, it wouldnt be more then a 2 because it might be an antelope for india, but looks like an animal we allready have. All the animals will also have a captive presence and will be called out if not.
Starting of we got the group with the most important missing species, featuring 2 key species for their regions and one thats just really neat.
Ofcourse im talking about our all favorite piggies and the collared peccary, red river hog and wild boar in particular.
All suids take the role of a medium sized ungulate, with the peccary and red edging on small and the boar on large.
This alone makes them very unique among most animals in the game, as they are simply smaller then them and look quite different, making them an unique and important addition to all of their ranges. All 3 of them also live in regions that could really need a boost, namly europe being mostly hold back by the lack of the wild boar, south america and the american deserts both lacking a smaller to medium terrestrial social animal like the peccary and tropical africa in general being a bit lacking with only the pigmy hippo and bongo as other ungulates, both of them filling vastly difference niches while also presenting potential habitat mates for the red river hog.
Predictably, all of them are graded with a 3.
A Rating Lower, we got the Visayan warty pig, an upstart regarding breeding programs. Being found on the phillipeans, these pigs are critically endangerd with both the AZA and EAZA having started a larger breeding program, one for each of its subspecies. They also have been featured as the "zoo animal of the year" a german conservation campagne where zoos in germany collect money and spread awareness of highly endandgerd animals, which where the warty pigs for this year.
Overall id gave it a 2, because of its conservation story and its rising captive numbers, but allready having the niche of an south east asian tropical pig being filled by the Babirusa.
Similary i want to mention the bornean bearded pig, which sadly got dropped out of captive international breeding programms inspite of its endangerd status. 1 for the bearded pig eventhough its a wonderfull animal and i really hope for their sake that they also will have a captive breeding population in the future.
The last pig deserving to be mentionted is the chacoan peccary. Bigger and more endangerd then the collared peccarys they live in the chacao region in Argentinia.
Zoos are currently encouraged to swap out their collared peccarys for chacoans, but the change is slow and the collared has a massivly larger and more diverse range, which is why i gave the chacoan a 2, as its still a peccary which is great but the collared is simply the better addition for usability.
Next up, we got propaply the second most needed group, goats.
Goats are great, but not as groupeable as the pigs, so lets start with:
- The very visually distinct goats: These are mainly the muskox and takins. The fact that they also live in areas without any animal like them in the game and even not many animals at all makes them easy an easy 3.
Next up, goats for where we allready got goats, mainly the chamois for europe and the rocky mountain sheep for north america. Both of them look visually unique but would share the same kinds of habitats as the dall sheep and alpine ibex, but do to their clear visual differences and the difference in range for the rocky, both of them would be a high 2. Defenetly a nice addition, but not super needed.
Next up we got the special case of the bighorn sheep and the european mufflon. Both are visually distinct from the goats in the game, but very similar to each other, with both having a trump card each, the bighorn sheep having it large ranged that covers many biomes including the underrepresented north american deserts, while the mufflon is among the most common EAZA animals and a wildpark staple. Both of them individually would be a 3, but as soon as one of them is added the other immediatly becomes a 1.
Last but not least we got goats from areas we do not have a goat from yet while also looking distinct from other goats.
If im honest, there are only 4 goats in this category worthy of inclusion, those being the markhor with its twisted horns from western asia, the barbary sheep with its orange fur from north africa, the himalayan thar and its fluffy main from the himalaya and the only found in japanese zoos japanese serow from japan. Do to its captive absence from most of the world, i would give the serow a 2 and the others a 3, as they simply bring new visually unique goats to the table. As an alternative to the serow, the chinese goral is a close relative that actually has a captive EAZA population with 14 holdings.
For 2s, we got the Bharal, a blueish colored sheep from the himalaya, who look pretty and unique with a decent holding of 37 EAZA Zoos, but being outshined by the himalayan thar who is more unique looking and only a little common in zoos with 33 holdings. Another 2 would be the Bezoar Ibex, a subspecies of the wild goat and regarded as one of the ancestors of our domesticated one. They look quite beautiful and unique with their black and cream collering, aswell as the long beards, but they could also be just a coat variation for a domestic goat (makes sense that the wild goats beautiful coat variation still is common in domestic ones), while charing a niche with the mouflon as a mediteranian pre domestic goat, while also living in the zagros mountains in the middle east as its distinguishing factor. It would be a nice addition, but of all the goats its the one where it would feel the most like "man couldnt we just have gotten the domestic instead?".
Lastly their are the Urials. None of them are particullary common in zoos, but their range eastwards of the caspian sea also isnt really coverd by anything else and they do look unique with their pale collors. They are okay, but really my question would be why these guys over all the other goats and sheeps, so they recieve a 1.
Our third group today are the bovines, where if im honest we are pretty well coverd allready.
Only domestics which i have so far reserved for the end of the post really hit all the criteria for a 3, so as a sneak peak, here are the 4 domestic bovines that i believe would add the most to the game.
As you might have allready guessed, those four are the scottish highland cattle, the oldest cattle breed in the world, with its charming red fluff and docile nature, ideal for petting zoos, watusi cattle, often mixed into african sections, with their impressive horns, the heck cattle, a black and muscular attempt to rebreed the extinct aurox and the domestic yak, arguably the most iconic animal for the himalaya together with the snow leopard and quite the needed addition, as the himalaya is lacking any ungulates so far.
All of these 4 look vastly different from any other bovid in the game, all look vastly different from each other and would all play quite different roles overall in the game.
The scottish highland is the most suited for actual petting zoos, while the heck, yak and watusi can all 3 be treated like wild animals in the form or display, while coming with the flexibility of being a domestic. All 3 of them would make sense and feel right at home next to wild animals from their continents, but also in a domestics area, which simply makes them more flexible for more uses, which imo is one of the most important criterias for any animal.
For actual wild bovines, we only got 1 3. Correct, i lied for dramatic effect. Shocking.
That would be the lowland anoa, the smallest bovine that lives on the island of sulawesi. It would make a great partner for the babirusa and its status as a very visually distinct, smaller island animals secure it the 3 rating.
I would also like to mention the banteng and gaur as 2s, both of them treading on the same niche as the water buffalo and while visually distinct enough to not be a 1, that reason alone keeps them out of the 3.
Similar reasoning with the red forrest bufallo, which i might personally really love, but its in the end just a red, smaller buffalo. I can see an argument for a 3 and while it would be great to see them alongside the bongo and red river hog, their niche is allready partially filled by both of them, the african buffalo and the okapi at the same time. Would love to see them in the game anyways though, a man can dream.
For a 1, i got the wisent or european bison. While they have an impressive conservation history they dont look as different from the american bison with a niche allready filled by the moose. Sorry european bison, but while you are cool its a 1 for you.
Next up, equines!
This ones easy, as its really just wild donkeys that need to be talked about.
The closest to a 3 would be the somali wild donkey with the iconic grey and its habitat in somalia, but their habitats and requirements would still not be too different from the zebra, but still different enough to warrant a 2.
Onager, Kulan and Kiang all just look very similar to the prez wild horse and would fill pretty much the same niche as well, so sadly i would also give them a 1.
Also a special shoutout to the Konik and the Heck Horse, two domestic breeds that are as close to wild horses as we can get.
The Konik has been released across europe to play the role of the now extinct wild horse of europe, the tarpan, while the heckhorse was bred to be as close to the tarpan as possible. While they also look similar to the Prez wild horse like the wild donkeys, which is also kind of the point of the breed, they are also much more grayish in color.
Overall id think that the versatility of them being domestic animals resembling extinct wild ones, they got an edge and unique factor about them that puts them at a 2.
Number 5, its deer time!
This one guys, this is where the going gets though.
Unlike the groups before, deer tend to look quite similar, so if it isnt mentioned i either deemed it simply to similar or forget it.
So for 3 stars, we got the tiny deer, muntjac and pudu for the obvious reason of being tiny, making them very unique compared to other deer while also straight up looking like a weirdo in the muntjacs case. Also while i personally think that they look quite off putting, chevrotains certanly do look uniqe. The lesser mouse deer has the most eaza holdings with 21 and a really cursed german name. "Kleinkantschil" no this does not have any meaning its just weird and cursed
For 2 stars we got all the clearly recognisably different deer species, for example the musk deer with its fangs, roe deer with its short snout and stocky proportions, white tailed deer not for their appearence but their abundance in north american zoos and far range, aswell as the fact that it doesnt look similar to either the red or fallow deer besides the being a deer part, peere davids deer for looking like a weirdo, samba deer for the large range, being really large and having colors from yellow to black, a species of wapitit for looking like the lovechild of a moose and a deer, visayan spotted deer because island small black deer with weird spot patterns, indian hog deer for being small and weird stunty looking and ive been looking for allmost half an hour at deer at this point my head hurts.
Everything else either looked to similiar to one of the above mentioned deer while looking less different in general, for example the bazazinga and elds deer look different to the red and fallow deer, but most of their unique traits are on display stronger in the samba with the samba also having a farther range and more unique traits like the range of colors, stronger pronounced manes, large size, etc.
2 deer that i feel like i should mention are the chital and the sika deer. Short version, Samba is better then them, long version is that the chital look very similar to the fallow deer and the sika to both the fallow and the red deer at the same time, while the samba doesnt and has all its bonusses.
Now that my head hurts, an easy one. Camels
Dromedary 3 lets move on
To South America!
Funfact: According to Zootierliste the only wild camelids ever held in the EAZA where the 2 south american species with all bactrian camels and dromedarys ever being domestics.
so we got the Guanaco and the Vicunja and to be real, both of them would be great picks individually, but one would strongly deminish the need for the other even if it would be really nice to choose between the two and their domestic options, so for now, both of them get a 3, with the other dropping down to a 2 for the catch it all factor of literally only one other wild camelid missing from the game.
We got one last tapir to talk about, which is the southamerican tapir. Being mostly just greyish with a bit of brown, these largest south american tapirs are found all over tropical south america. Its the largest terrestrial animal remaining and is currently classified vulnerable, being allready extinct in parts of its historical range.
While technically being "just" a third tapir, they are by far the most common in captivity and have the farthest distribution, making them a great lower effort animal (if i say clone they might do it again) for an up coming pack, giving it a 2 of a nice new option thats both visually different and fills the niche of an actual south american tapir we do not have so far.
Honorable mention to the mountain tapir, which shortly has died out in one of the last american zoos holding it, meaning its propaply only held in south american rescue facilitys. So yeah, 1.
For the third and last group of odd toed ungulates, we got the rhinos.
With the criteria of only animals actually kept in zoos in mind only the black rhino fits the bill. While i personally dont need it, as its quite uncommon in the EAZA with only 23 holdings, i can recognise the visual differences and just simply the desire of being able to choose what african rhino will be in your zoo, so it gets a 2 on the merrit of that being exactly what i appreciate about the arctic wolf and other "clone" animals.
But this isnt the end because i know people would remind me of the sumatran rhino and for completion sake also the javan rhino.
And what shall i say, both get the 1. They simply arnt kept in zoos anymore and the javan also isnt even particulary unique looking. I understand the love for the sumatran though and if it would be in even just 2 or 3 zoos it would be a 2 for its unique niche and looks, but like other animals here it drops down 1 slots for being not found in zoos.
And now the time of stalling is over, its antelope time.
So starting of easy, black buck and nilgai are obvious 3s. Visually distinct from both all the antelopes in the game and each other these two would be the perfect asian antelopes.
Similar the saiga has a 2, as it fullfills the same criteria but isnt held in zoos anymore.
From africa, the addax and the dama gazelle are the only full size antelope that i would consider a 3, simply because while their niche might be somewhat coverd by the SHO, all 3 look very distinct from each other and the sahara is that underrepresented anyways.
For smaller ones, kirks dik dik, the red duiker and blue duiker are all great as smaller antelopes with unique requirements, with the kirks dik dik being the most desireable of the bunch with by far the most holdings and its unique monogamous behaviour. An antelope thats really small and wants to be just with its partner would be quite different from not just all other antelopes but herbivores in general in the game.
While not as small or common as the smaller ones, the giant duiker would be a great middle ground and add a very unique animal to the congo baisin in size and color, so it also gets a 3. They are also on the rize, with the 4. eaza zoo getting theres this year.
Until recently kippspringer had a decent captive presence before it just dropped of a cliff, so they have a 2 instead of a 3.
As mentioned before, the gerenuk and common eland might be african antelopes, but very visually unique, so they get a 2. The same criteria goes for the blessbok (bontebok might be the name you know, but the bless bock is the animal you actually see in zoos), sitatunga, roan antelope, Imapala, red leechwe, waterbuck (most notably both the ellipsen and defasa subspecies for their large zoo presence and quite different appearences of grey bluish and red) and arabian oryx.
The Haartebeest would also be a 2 from appearance, but sadly there are only 2 captive individuals left in europe and north america combined, with 1 in each, so they sadly are a 1.
Another inconic african Antelope that i would give an 1 is the kudu, as the nyala looks very similar to it.
And for a big grouping, gazelles look all the same to me if the differences arnt obvious like the dhamas, so have an 1 for all.
Lastly domestics.
Hands down, for a true complete domestics section we need atleast a donkey, a pony, a sheep, a goat, a pig and atleast one of the before mentioned cows, so all of them come into the 3, with the alpaca joining in the 2 stars for being similiar to the alpaca.
For breeds, the african pigmy goat easily wins the slot as most common anything in a zoo, so that should obviously be the breed, and both the just common domestic donkey and shetland pony clearly win out in their categorys but the other three have atleast 2 good options, like the oussant and kamerun sheeps, the vitnamese pot bellied pig vs the kuneku pig and all the possibilitys for a domestic bovine, with the zebu being ranked as a 2 because the water buffallo exists.
Okay so, finall run down!
1 Star: While an okay addition, these dont add much unqiue things other animals cant
Pigs:
- Bornean Bearded Pig
Caprines:
- Urials
Bovids:
- Wisent
Equids:
Deer:
- Onager
- Kiang
- Kulan
- Axis Deer
- Chital Deer
- Eld Deer
- Barasingha
Tapirs:
- Mountain Tapir
Rhinos:
- Sumatra Rhino
- Jarvan Rhino
Antelopes:
- Haartebeest
- Kudu
- all the gazelles that arnt dhamas <3
2 Stars: Add some unique things, but strong overlap with other animals
Pigs:
- Visayan warty pig
- Chacoan Peccary
Caprines:
- Blue Sheep/Bharal
- Bezoar Ibex
- Japanese Serow / Chinese Goral
- Rocky Mountain Goat
- Chamois
Bovids:
- Gaur
- Banteng
- Zebu
- African Forest Buffalo
Equids:
- Somali Wild Donkey
- Konik
- Heck Horse
Deer:
- Musk Deer
- White Tailed Deer
- Samba Deer
- Hog Deer
- Roe Deer
- Peres Davids Deer
- Wapiti
Camels:
- Alpaca
Tapirs:
- South American Tapir
Rhinos:
- Black Rhino
Antelopes:
- Impala
- Common Eland
- Gerenuk
- Klippspringer
- Blesbok
- Arabian Onix
- Sitatunga
- Roan Antelope
- Red Lechwe
- Ellipsen Water Buck
- Defasa Water Buck
3 Stars: Add something very unique to the game that we dont have something similar to yet
Pigs:
- Kuneku Pig
- Vitnamese Pot Bellied
- Red River Hog
- Collared Peccary
- Wild Boar
Caprines:
- Muskox
- Takins
- European Mufflon/Big Horn Sheep (le epic duell)
- Barbary Sheep
- Himalayan Thar
- Markhor
- African Pigmy Goat
- Ouessant Sheep
- Kamerun Sheep
Bovids:
- Lowland Anoa
- Domestic Yak
- Ankole Watusi
- Scottish Highland Cattle
- Heck Cattle
Equids:
- Shetland pony
- Domestic Donkey
Deer:
- Reeves Muntjac
- Southern Pudu
- Lesser Mouse Deer
Camels:
- Dromedary
- Guanaco/Vicunja
Antelopes:
- Kirks Dik Dik
- Red/Blue Duiker
- Giant Duiker
- Addax
- Dhamas Gazelle
- Blackbuck
- Nilgai
Well and thats it.
Ngl i sat on this for allmost 2 hours, clicking through all species on zootierliste, staring for a very long time at deers and antelopes in particular and i gotta say, if this doesnt cover all the animals you could ask for, i dont know what does.
All in all my personal main takeaway is that the samba is a beast and i want it its so cool, why did nobody tell me that we could cover all of southern asia with a giant beautiful deer that comes in any color imaginable?
I like them now
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Hey man, at least people are getting their predictions. I only predicted the dromedary to come of all these
I wouldnt call the list where i literally ranked all ungulates in captivity but not yet in the game a prediction if im honest
I didn't mean you specifically, just in general
A lot of things actually... and most of them better than what we've been getting. Sadly, Frontier seems to be focusing on the most basic, vanilla, clonish ungulates on Earth...
I will never say no to more ungulates but there are only three I still absolutely want: nilgai, mishmi takin (or another takin) and giant eland. I would also very much appreciate a duiker and a muntjac. Other than that, I'm good.
Can I have this very ungulaty ungulate, please?
Can I have this very ungulaty ungulate, please?
actually laughed out loudAs much as I adore this pack's lineup, I have a couple of things to say in regards of it:
- I'm afraid that the fandom's perception of ungulates will have decreased even on a bigger scale than it already was. In previous packs, be it with the blue wildebeest, scimitar-horned oryx or the water buffalo you always saw negative comments stating that we had too many ungulates and that it was an overrepresented category in the game. I disagree with this statement, but I'm afraid that this pack will enhance that feeling in those who already felt like that and on people who didn't feel that way but because of this pack's huge amount of species will start thinking that way. This worries me because I feel like we are still missing a bunch of very important hoofed animals in the game (Mostly caprids), and I don't like being in a bitter environment when it comes to this stuff.
- Again, I like this pack's lineup, but it is entirely missing the point of what made the most recent animal packs so appealing to me. That is continental diversity, something I hoped the rest of animal packs followed up so we could see animals from diverse continents pleasing loads of players.
I agree there’s still so many ungulates left that we need and I really feel this pack has left a bad taste in the mouth of a lot of the “taxonomy diversity” fanbase and that’s Honestly disheartening for me knowing that when we get more ungulates, no matter how cool or unique, the community will now view it as another ungulate like they did with carnivorans when you mention a Wolverine, badger, otter, seal, bear, or weasel
I wouldn't mind some more mustelids, we only have the badger. I'll be excited for a wolverine for sure! another otter? Sea otter? YES! seal? Elephant seal? YES! Another pinniped? Well how about the Walrus? YES YES!
If this is the only way we will get a duck i take it.Can I have this very ungulaty ungulate, please?