So many times I have seen an Urban Pack requested but I feel we can do so much than focus on North America (I hope this doesn’t sound condescending), so I put a list of animals that are adapting to urban life or struggle because of urbanization, below are the reasons why I picked.
- Red Fox (Flagship): I feel the Red Fox is the most recognizable urban animal in the list that is the perfect balance between familiarity, appeal, and mysterious. In addition, if I am correct they are heavily requested too. There are so many subspecies of the Red Fox so I couldn’t decide what to choose so I just did what Frontier did with the wolves and put “Red Fox”.
- Tokay Gecko (Exhibit): We actually don’t have a gecko species in game, tokay geckos are very pretty and are also at risk because of urbanization, some geckos due adapt to urban life pretty well, like the house geckos.
- Striped Skunk: A generally safe choice, common in zoos as well plus they’re so adorable in my opinion. Originally thought of going for Spotted Skunk but the Striped is much more familiar.
- Giant Indian Squirrel: I personally felt one of the more smaller species of squirrel felt pretty awkward to be in the zoo, so I went toward the bigger ones. It doesn’t have to be the Giant Indian Squirrel, just any of the bigger squirrels and I chose this one because I love their coat color.
- Sika Deer: An urban ungulate found commonly in Japan due to the population migrating there, I feel this animal is not just beautiful but could also inform people about what happens when an animal starts to get too habituated to people and also pushed to the urban jungle for lack of options.
- Nine-Banded Armadillo: An urban xenarthra with a huge range of North America throughout to South America. Not only a highly requested animal but this animal can represent how climate change is affecting animals to march towards more urban settlements for survival, not cities but more rural communities and I feel it’s more devastating for these communities as they are receiving the aftermath of bigger city pollution.
- Sloth Bear: An urban ursidae commonly found in India. Not only another requested bear species, but a rather unique one too, the sloth bear. The sloth bear can represent what happens with the over exploitation of forests, pushing these animals to more urban settlements in order to survive and protect their young.
- Cape Baboon: An urban primate found in Africa. Not only do we not have a true baboon species in the game, this animal could also represent the increasing conflicts emerging from human and animal interactions. Often these baboons are also exploited for numerous industries such as the medicine and exotic pet trade though it’s important to realize that people have the right to live where baboons reside too. The Cape Baboon can represent how we may have to manage these populations better so we can avoid any unneeded conflict.
- Shelter Log (A log for small to medium sized animals like the skunk to take shelter in )
- Foraging Log (A log full of fruit for animals like the sloth bear and baboon to forage in)
- Look Out Tree (A tree for animals that can climb, though this one has a hole to take shelter in from above)
- Boxes (We have boxes but these function different, animals sit in them instead)
- Sugar Glider: For the exotic pet trade but I feel this addition would be awkward without a proper nocturnal house system as they are highly nocturnal. Of course Skunks too but they can actually be out in the day much more than of the possum family.
- Any Raccoon Species: Fills the same role as the skunk but I feel skunks would get people more, simply from my gut.
- Any Rat or Mouse Species: These would be exhibit animals, they would be enriched by pipes, tubes, I can imagine their exhibit being a very urban inspired habitat. Only reason I couldn’t include them was that we haven’t had an exhibit mammal and I can’t see rats or mice being a habitat species.
- Any Rabbit or Hare Species: Felt more in tuned to a theme of a domesticated animals pack than of urban life.
- Bandicoots/ Gophers/ Voles/ Moles/ Shrews: Nearly the same reasons as for the rats and mice.
- Marmoset: Same reasons as the sugar glider plus can be saved for another pack.
- Rhesus Macaque: A true baboon is needed more than another macaque plus I was already having too much animals from India.
- Virginia Possum: Same reason as sugar glider and marmoset, excluding the exotic pet trade reason.
- American Black Bear: A sloth bear brings a more unique model, this could actually be an animal for an anniversary update or such due to it still being requested a fair amount.
- Coyote: Red Fox pretty much makes the slot of the Coyote seem weird to have, especially since we have an abundant amount of canids.
- Leaf Cutter Ants: I was thinking that these animals would only be adopted as Queen Ants and Winged Males. The Male would soon pass after mating and the user only gets informed when a new wing male or queen ant is born. Though I am not sure how Frontier would handle a colony of ants. Would they want to keep every single ant as a separate entity? There are thousands and thousands of ants in a colony, I would love to have an ant farm but I am quite stumped how a feature like this would be implemented while still respecting Frontiers values. Like how they won’t make butterflies enrichment due to them wanting to make butterflies seen as animals and not decorations.
