We Shouldn't be Bound to Animals Only Found in Zoos

[leguminous media]

The quagga de-extinction programme was never taken seriously in conservationist and zoological circles.

do you have sources on that? I think the Conservation people at Karoo National Park didn't get the memo. also NOTHING IS NATURAL anymore...

That actually doesn't take away from my point, it adds to it. What is taught with those "de-extinson" programms is "extinct as much as you like and one day science will bring everything back". Of course there will be always people who will get the impulse to care more for animals that are close to extinson. But some others will not.

As a previous member pointed out with a contradictory statement this is an opinion not a fact. In my opinion de-extinction is a massive waste of money, that is at this point generally unnecessary, unless you can give me a major ecological reason to justify it (which is kind of funny because I think ta mindset similar to this is the actual reason for this opposition to an extinct pack and I will explore that lower in the post). There are those who suggest zoos do nothing but distract and take money away from "real" conservation, they have some interesting points, but that is not a particular opinion I buy into.
Any way who is "teaching" this philosophy; like I know this is a concern that has been raised, but I don't think revive and restore are saying because we can kind of sort of make a passenger pigeon, means we can let all species go extinct, and just bring them back after we run out of resources to strip from the planet.

I guess all this stems from the terrible truth about Planet Zoo, no matter what their will never be enough animals, a pack of extinct animals would take away a pack that could have some modern wild animals, we are not going to just continue to get packs of 4 animals every year for 10 years, if we are really lucky we will get 3 years. The same can be said as to why domestic animals are not top priority, why have a goat when you can have a ibex, why have a cow when you can have a gaur. In reality Small flying birds are never coming (holding out hold for flightless vultures that can roam around savannahs, but that is not going to happen), diving will likely not be implemented, so no sharks, seals, or penguins. Without a modding community that can crack the codding to allow more animals that those already established or officially added, this game will never be like zoo tycoon 2 with literally thousands of mods, and even then people always want more, the way the game was built probably cannot handle that many modded animals if it did allow that sort of user modification. I think frontiers job over the next 3 years is to be very careful with their choices, implementing the more requested and more common zoo animals, but also taking their responsibility as a game that is introducing people to animals and wildlife they may never have heard of and use their position for the promotion of conservation action. For example advocating for the Saola by putting one in this game would spotlight the plight of the mammal, and it would be the 1st exposure to that animal for like 90% of players who would not know that one has never successfully been kept in captivity. All I ask is that each choice for future dlc is chosen very carefully, and the inclusion is justified is it a popular zoo animal that is missing and heavily demanded (meerkat, capybara, and southern white rhinoceros), is it an animal that will add something smaller and interesting to mixed species exhibits (this I think is the main argument for more birds especially large African species that cohabitate with hoofstock like crowned cranes and vultures) and finally does it have a story that can be told that might lead to appreciation and ultimately some kind of conservation action (this ranges from common zoo animals like amur leopards and curassows to animals not present in zoos like kakapo and saola; and yeah maybe recently extinct animals... if they are done right).

Since I guess I am pro-recently extinct animals (particular those, where the last individuals where kept at zoos) with the caveat that the devs really make sure they are really well versed in different options and schools of though on de-extinction so that it just isn't "Hey look I have thylacines and dodos". Also saying some recently extinct species don't belong in planet zoo is sort of amusing, a thylacine has about as much to do with dinosaurs as an elephant, arguably they belong in a modern zoo game more than something that lets you fill a park with T. rex and Triceratops.

 

[Swjosdotschka]

Exactly, time and resources for Planet Zoo are limited, maybe even more limited than in similar titles which had bigger expansion packs. And that is my main reason why I would like Frontier to focus on existing animals.

With de.extinsion, lets agree to disagree. I saw too many parents exclaiming "Look, a pelican!" to their offspring at a flamingo exclosure, to many people taken a capybara for a sloth (I'm not even kidding) and too many 'zoo enthusiasts and animal lover' whining over no penguins in the arctic pack. I just don't buy that a lot of people would make the abstract thinking "Well, if that living animal I see was extinct, I will make sure no animal gets extinct again." To be fair, I'm afraid a good portion of zoo visitors don't learn anything about animals when visiting a zoo.

I am really not that negative of the future of Planet Zoo. I'm pretty optimistic we will see some kind of diving and flying. But yes, that takes time and resources and personally I happily sacrifice a de-extinsion pack to give them said time. If this game would have a life span as long as The Sims and Frontier listens to their fans with every pack beforer the last, well, then we can talk again about niches like de-extinsion and fantasy animals.

 

[leguminous media]

I just don't buy that a lot of people would make the abstract thinking "Well, if that living animal I see was extinct, I will make sure no animal gets extinct again." To be fair, I'm afraid a good portion of zoo visitors don't learn anything about animals when visiting a zoo.

That is precisely why if Frontier decided to do this route I would hope they do the topic justice, and try to promote more abstract thinking, but that is a bit to ask. So yeah if they were not going to focus on questions like "where are de-extinct mammoths going to go?" or "are de-extinct animals the same as the animal that died out?" they probably should not be included. This does get me curious how one would justify prehistoric or fantasy creatures though, like just as a thought exercise.

The primary argument though that should be used for or against the inclusion of extinct and fantasy animals I think is "who is going to play with them?" This depends on what kind of playstyle people are adopting, if you make highly themed areas on a specific region, then you are probably not going to use extinct animals like ever, and are going to be more into having some birds and smaller mammals that can live along megafauna from a particular region. However, if you just put down exhibits with no real theme in mind, then extinct species might be a fun addition. I know that in Zoo Tycoon 2, if I was just building something exhibit by exhibit, I would have my extinct species mixed in, but when building a zoo in sandbox, unless it was specifically about extinct animals than I rarely used them. I feel like planet zoo is built to push people towards the themed area type play, but I don't know the actual stats and I am not sure if frontier knows how people are playing the game. I probably would be cautious about using this forum as the pulse of the community, because it is a minority of players, and may overrepresent a smaller niche in the community (people building very elaborate and detailed themed areas with multiple exhibits). I think this is the reason they need to have a petting zoo/domestic pack (yes, I would want some unusual exotic breeds like red maasai sheep and Ankole-Watusi that could theoretically be housed with african game, so they are multi purpose) because that would likely be a feature I would use in most zoos I build.

 

[shirandhak]

Best thing ever I listened to in a zoo, was a mother answering the question of "Why is the icebear called icebear?" from her little daughter with "I don't know, perhaps it likes to eat ice?"

So much for education...

 

[starman]

Yeah more unicorns

 

[NL_Mutso]

As a previous member pointed out with a contradictory statement this is an opinion not a fact. In my opinion de-extinction is a massive waste of money, that is at this point generally unnecessary, unless you can give me a major ecological reason to justify it (which is kind of funny because I think ta mindset similar to this is the actual reason for this opposition to an extinct pack and I will explore that lower in the post). There are those who suggest zoos do nothing but distract and take money away from "real" conservation, they have some interesting points, but that is not a particular opinion I buy into

Long time ago I heard some pro-arguments for this. The techniques they discover when trying to de-extinct a species could be used to preserve dna or the actual species from future extinction risks. All in all this whole extinct thing is highly debatable - even among scientists.
Some claim they can bring back a species while others claim it will just be "close relative" species with some traits from that extinct species.

Personally I think it's a lot of money going into something that could be used for better things to try save those nearly-extinct species.

From a +20 years old article, it think the overall idea still applies to the situation:

Basic questions about the quagga may never be answered. "We will never know how genetically similar the quagga is to the plains zebra because the entire genome of the quagga is not known," Rau says. "We are selectively breeding the plains zebras to concentrate the characteristics so that we at least have the appearance of the quagga."
Indeed, the Quagga Project is strictly about appearances. The physical traits of new foals are the only measure of the project's success. This has drawn criticism from conservation biologists who argue that the quagga was unique in many respects beyond its physical traits.

Also saying some recently extinct species don't belong in planet zoo is sort of amusing, a thylacine has about as much to do with dinosaurs as an elephant, arguably they belong in a modern zoo game more than something that lets you fill a park with T. rex and Triceratops

I think most people don't make that argument or that comparison (didn't see that comment before). I think most people go with the logic : species are gone - having them in game with a focus on realism is not a good idea. The topic "What animals you don't want in the game" gives insight in what people don't like and extinct is very much mentioned in this topic.
I'm not sure that you understand why people are against this but I think it's just "I really don't like it", a somewhat gut-feeling when you see an idea that conflict with your perception for a game you like/love.

To be fair, I'm afraid a good portion of zoo visitors don't learn anything about animals when visiting a zoo

Some time ago, I had an argument with a user on this one. He said something in the lines of: Zoos are created to educate people, so people want to be educated when they visit it. I really don't think that.
I think most people just go for entertainment - seeing very uncommon animal species, quality time with their family and people don't put much energy in the education part.
Or learn the wrong things in a zoo or at a farm - i like blurting out wrong facts . It's fun to mess with people.

 

[paul78]

@horse14t you are right about zoo tycoon 2013 but zoo tycoon 2013 didn’t require half of the optimization to run as planet zoo does. Hence so many reskins in game. When you take a game like planet zoo and have realistic animals, buildings,objects, ai, ect plus having realistic guests something’s got to give.I’m used to the guests from Planco and honestly don’t really bother as I’d rather focus on animals instead of guests. Either way I doubt frontier will change them.

 

[Firestar97]

They halved the space needs for polar bears, therefore chupacabra should be in the game.

What does this have to do with Chupacabras and I really don't think we'll get a Chupacabra in the Game. At least not so close to the Start of the Games Lifetime

where are de-extinct mammoths going to go?

They do already have a Place on Earth where they can return to

Pleistocene Park

Restore high productive grazing ecosystems in the Arctic and mitigate climate change

pleistocenepark.ru

Pleistocene Park - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I think it was even once mentioned that Wooly Mammoths should be brought there if they should be successfully cloned someday

 

[NZFanatic]

What does this have to do with Chupacabras and I really don't think we'll get a Chupacabra in the Game. At least not so close to the Start of the Games Lifetime

He's being facetious, not serious.

Mjmannella suggested that realism isn't relevant because Frontier halved the polar bear space requirements (which is a nonsense position to hold anyway, because the space requirements were never realistic to begin with - hence why people wanted them changed, to be more realistic, i.e. smaller), therefore we should have unrealistic aspects in the game (such as extinct animals, or, more dramatically, "chupacabra" as 12344321 jokingly pointed out.

 

[Firestar97]

He's being facetious, not serious.

Mjmannella suggested that realism isn't relevant because Frontier halved the polar bear space requirements (which is a nonsense position to hold anyway, because the space requirements were never realistic to begin with - hence why people wanted them changed, to be more realistic, i.e. smaller), therefore we should have unrealistic aspects in the game (such as extinct animals, or, more dramatically, "chupacabra" as 12344321 jokingly pointed out.

I would really like it if they would finally give the Polar Bear realistic Space Requirements. My Polar Bear Enclosure has 3 Floors just because I wanted it to at least look like the Size is realistic. But sadly they've already mentioned that they won't change it again

 

[NZFanatic]

I would really like it if they would finally give the Polar Bear realistic Space Requirements. My Polar Bear Enclosure has 3 Floors just because I wanted it to at least look like the Size is realistic. But sadly they've already mentioned that they won't change it again

Oh sure. I was mostly saying that 12344321 wasn't actually suggesting we should have the chupacabra in game (we absolutely shouldn't).

Regarding the polar bear, it seems like there's a fine line between what is "realistic" and what is "ideal", which is a line Frontier has to be careful with straddling. In the first instance they went with "ideal" - a massive amount of space. They halved it because people were annoyed because it wasn't realistic. The halved space still isn't strictly realistic, but it is still more than ideal for the bears.

 

[Firestar97]

I saw too many parents exclaiming "Look, a pelican!" to their offspring at a flamingo exclosure, to many people taken a capybara for a sloth

Best thing ever I listened to in a zoo, was a mother answering the question of "Why is the icebear called icebear?" from her little daughter with "I don't know, perhaps it likes to eat ice?"

So much for education...

I think someone should make a Thread about this

and too many 'zoo enthusiasts and animal lover' whining over no penguins in the arctic pack

I thought you were going to write about People believing the Penguins they see in the Zoo are no Penguins/not real like the Person in this Video

Source: https://youtu.be/oZavBTa8er8

 

[Markiz]

IDK who guessed that PZ will have three year support, but let's go with that for the sake of the argument. And we're getting four DLCs per year. So that means we're left with 9 DLCs. That's 32 habitat animals.

Let's say we're getting European pack this year(Ibexes, Deers, Lynxes whatnot some of the staple zoo animals)

Year 2 let's say we're getting 2nd packs for both Americas ( Moose, Puma, Wolverine, Capybara, Monkeys, Ocelot...)
and for Africa
( Rhinos,Meerkats,Leopards,Baboons...)
We're left again with one, I say let's go with south east Asia this time to catch up with some of the Zoo Tycoon animals ( Gibbons, Clouded Leopards, Malayan Tapirs...)

Y'all still with me ? That's four packs left. Right of the bat one goes to deserts as we have next to none desert critters
( again zt2 had fennecs, adax, scimitar oryx, dromedary, striped hyena...)
Australia Now has a strong case for the second pack ( Wallabies, Wombats, Tas.Devils...)

Now I hope you agree with me all these packs contain some of the bare essentials and we're still catching up with zoo tycoon. I could say that we can spend last two DLCs on Flying birds and SEMI aquatic animals, just to come itty bitty close to real life zoos ( imagine 4 flying birds in a DLC lol, slaughter)


Now please after all of this tell me where do you see time and place for dinosaurs,cryptids and whales ? Because I believe that's one of the main points. There's not even space for some of the niche modern animals, we're barely filling the game with basics with three year support

P.S. Edit
And I even forgot penguins, we have to fit them on top of all that

 

[NZFanatic]

IDK who guessed that PZ will have three year support, but let's go with that for the sake of the argument. And we're getting four DLCs per year. So that means we're left with 9 DLCs. That's 32 habitat animals.

Let's say we're getting European pack this year(Ibexes, Deers, Lynxes whatnot some of the staple zoo animals)

Year 2 let's say we're getting 2nd packs for both Americas ( Moose, Puma, Wolverine, Capybara, Monkeys, Ocelot...)
and for Africa
( Rhinos,Meerkats,Leopards,Baboons...)
We're left again with one, I say let's go with south east Asia this time to catch up with some of the Zoo Tycoon animals ( Gibbons, Clouded Leopards, Malayan Tapirs...)

Y'all still with me ? That's four packs left. Right of the bat one goes to deserts as we have next to none desert critters
( again zt2 had fennecs, adax, scimitar oryx, dromedary, striped hyena...)
Australia Now has a strong case for the second pack ( Wallabies, Wombats, Tas.Devils...)

Now I hope you agree with me all these packs contain some of the bare essentials and we're still catching up with zoo tycoon. I could say that we can spend last two DLCs on Flying birds and SEMI aquatic animals, just to come itty bitty close to real life zoos ( imagine 4 flying birds in a DLC lol, slaughter)


Now please after all of this tell me where do you see time and place for dinosaurs,cryptids and whales ? Because I believe that's one of the main points. There's not even space for some of the niche modern animals, we're barely filling the game with basics with three year support

P.S. Edit
And I even forgot penguins, we have to fit them on top of all that

The "three years of support" is largely based on Planet Coaster.

I don't think a lot of your assumptions will be correct. I'm absolutely not convinced we will see a general "Europe" pack, for example, though a lot of people seem to be anticipating it. I think with the anniversary coming up we might see something completely different, or at least have something completely different teased.

I also don't see why a "desert pack" is guaranteed - yes, I agree we are lacking in desert animals, but there's no reason to assume this is coming. Many desert animals can slot into different themed packs, after all (fennec fox for Africa, oryx and addax for an endangered species pack, a peccary for North America, and so on). I also don't think we'll see Australia revisited in any meaningful way - perhaps they might throw in an Australian animal if it fits into some other pack.

There's also the underlying notion that the game has to match Zoo Tycoon. That notion isn't really sensible. While it's clear Frontier has taken some cues from Zoo Tycoon, as is natural, they are fundamentally two entirely different games. I doubt it's Frontier's priority to "match" or "catch up to" Zoo Tycoon.

None of us has any idea as to what Frontier has planned for future content. I think a lot of us are assuming it will be "more of the same", when all their other games have shown that this is never the case. PlanCo had "ride only" packs, big theme packs, and content-rich free updates. JWE had expansions and "dinosaur-only" packs. Who knows what's cooking for PlanZo? We can't even be sure that flight and underwater navigation are possible in the Cobra Engine yet we all (myself included) talk about a "bird pack" or the inclusion of penguins and otters as though they're guaranteed.

I agree with you that it's exceedingly unlikely that we will ever see extinct animals, marine-circus animals, or fantasy creatures in the game, as none of these fit into the game's core message or Frontier's beliefs, but beyond those niche categories it's really anyone's guess as to what we might see.

 

[Mjmannella]

The "three years of support" is largely based on Planet Coaster.

I don't think a lot of your assumptions will be correct. I'm absolutely not convinced we will see a general "Europe" pack, for example, though a lot of people seem to be anticipating it. I think with the anniversary coming up we might see something completely different, or at least have something completely different teased.

I also don't see why a "desert pack" is guaranteed - yes, I agree we are lacking in desert animals, but there's no reason to assume this is coming. Many desert animals can slot into different themed packs, after all (fennec fox for Africa, oryx and addax for an endangered species pack, a peccary for North America, and so on). I also don't think we'll see Australia revisited in any meaningful way - perhaps they might throw in an Australian animal if it fits into some other pack.

There's also the underlying notion that the game has to match Zoo Tycoon. That notion isn't really sensible. While it's clear Frontier has taken some cues from Zoo Tycoon, as is natural, they are fundamentally two entirely different games. I doubt it's Frontier's priority to "match" or "catch up to" Zoo Tycoon.

None of us has any idea as to what Frontier has planned for future content. I think a lot of us are assuming it will be "more of the same", when all their other games have shown that this is never the case. PlanCo had "ride only" packs, big theme packs, and content-rich free updates. JWE had expansions and "dinosaur-only" packs. Who knows what's cooking for PlanZo? We can't even be sure that flight and underwater navigation are possible in the Cobra Engine yet we all (myself included) talk about a "bird pack" or the inclusion of penguins and otters as though they're guaranteed.

I agree with you that it's exceedingly unlikely that we will ever see extinct animals, marine-circus animals, or fantasy creatures in the game, as none of these fit into the game's core message or Frontier's beliefs, but beyond those niche categories it's really anyone's guess as to what we might see.

I think Planet Zoo's DLC model will be largely based on Planet Coaster's (it's already doing the 4 major components + 1 theme model). So I think 5 more continent packs (how coincidental that there's 5 continents left for Frontier to do!) and 3 smaller packs (not sure if they'll be construction kits like Planet Coaster or small animal packs).

And to be fair about your last paragraph, I'm not exactly sure how animal mills and floating islands fit Frontier's "message" (unless their message is, "we wanted to make a zoo builder as complacently as possible because we have no major competition in this genre of video games").

 

[RabidOkapi]

And to be fair about your last paragraph, I'm not exactly sure how animal mills and floating islands fit Frontier's "message" (unless their message is, "we wanted to make a zoo builder as complacently as possible because we have no major competition in this genre of video games").

Wanted to add my voice to the no extinct or mythical creatures crowd. You are all more than welcome to wish for them, but those who do not want them added have that right as well. I fall heavily on the side of time to make extinct animals from any era, be it Mesozoic, Pliocene, or a few hundred years ago, would take away from the time spent of completing the modern animal roster.

Some of these arguments are a bit ridiculous, though. Between this and the polar bear argument, there is little to do with extinct creatures, and they serve no point in getting them in the game. The argument is simply I want them. And, that’s okay. Some people just don’t, and that is okay too.

It’s almost as if saying “because a few players use the realistic terrain tools to make unrealistic things and some abuse the amount of animals they keep in an open animal market, there should be extinct and mythical creatures in the game.”

There’s no connection between the two points here and extinct animals. Just as there’s no connection in the polar bear’s size requirements and extinct creatures making it in game. Both of those things had intentions to be used in a realistic way, but others use them in unrealistic ways that are unavoidable with the freedom Frontier allows In building tools and animal adoption. There would be no realistic zoo way to incorporate the extinct creatures outside of an info board. There are realistic ways to use that terrain tool, the polar bear habitat, and the animal market.

Still, I really doubt there’s even a chance that frontier releases a mythical or extinct pack within the next two years, so all this arguing may be moot. It doesn’t seem to fit in with the direction of the game and the overall fan base.

 

[Indoraptor27]

Basic questions about the quagga may never be answered. "We will never know how genetically similar the quagga is to the plains zebra because the entire genome of the quagga is not known," Rau says. "We are selectively breeding the plains zebras to concentrate the characteristics so that we at least have the appearance of the quagga."
Indeed, the Quagga Project is strictly about appearances. The physical traits of new foals are the only measure of the project's success. This has drawn criticism from conservation biologists who argue that the quagga was unique in many respects beyond its physical traits.

A bit off-topic, but this reminds me about something I read about how "filling in gaps" in a genome isn't nearly as easy as in Jurassic Park, since you have no way of knowing where the gaps are.

 

[leguminous media]

Well that is the challenge with rewilding, which is where I think things get murky especially with Rau Quagga; I firmly disagree that it is just some sideshow we should not take seriously. A guy bred some zebra that look a bit like a quagga, and now some are living in a national park, these animals are in the wild and we have no clue if they are doing anything similar to the quagga, or if they are ecologically dangerous.
Reminds me, the devs need to change compatibility so I can make a rewilding themed area like at the san diego zoo. African elephant with Asian elephants, tapirs with llama and camels, maybe just let us toss them all in because Elephant Odyssey is so not the weirdest zoo exhibit ever build (it totally is) Also elk, need elk.

 

[SotF]

I could see something like a "recently" extinct pack that's about animals that died off, perhaps working with some zoos to replicate some minor exhibits that did have them.

Thylacine and Indian Cheetah being two decently sized ones, the Quagga and Heck Cattle as a bred back (The latter being an attempt at getting the Auroch back), and having the Passenger Pigeon as an exhibit animal (give it an extra exhibit structure included that would be based off of the one in the Cincinnati Zoo.

Possibly add the Javan Rhino as well, fewer structure things in total for it, but an extra animal since a few of them would be more of reskins of existing animals.

For the Pigeon, it's also something that could work to add an additional size exhibit thing to it. A large exhibit that can have more of the normal ones or a few larger ones. It would work for things like the Sloth or some birds as a display aviary that several zoos have...and wouldn't require a lot of work into making them actually fly everywhere so things like parrots or smaller birds could be interesting, along with some of the larger snakes that aren't something that would work for a full sized exhibit but are to large for existing ones...perhaps also things like the smaller crocodilians and such would fit as well.

 

[Little Rusty Fox]

This convo has gotten so off track it's kinda hard to keep up with. o.o

So.. this game has a solid 4k players a day. Sometimes more but it holds pretty even around there. Thats a pretty high daily number so I doubt their going to give up on this game anytime soon. So this constant chatter of -
"Guys stop we only get small scraps of the developers time!" And "Please be quiet! We want what we want and we're right because of realism! And if you keep talking we might not get the 2 seconds of attention from the developers and they wont give us what WE want!" - and it's kinda embarrassing to read... you don't go to the grocery store and beg them for scraps at full price, do you? No, you want what you pay for or you'll go to a different store.

Same thing goes for this game. If they can't keep us happy and buying, then they lose lots of time, effort, money, and resources. Their also not a tiny tiny company. So I'm sure they have staff for this game, especially when so many people where asking for this exact game for years. Things will come, we just have to wait and not get mad about it.
But if the company chooses to ignore our feed back, or make us feel like we're lucky to get scraps.. then this game doesn't deserve to keep going and another company will pick up the idea sooner or later. Suggestions such as a few more animals in DLC's instead of 700 new scenery pieces that not everyone uses.

But, as for the questions.. yeah, I would love to have none zoo animals to play with. Especially dinosaurs (But with another one Frontiers games being a sort of dino zoo sim.. I doubt it'll happen.)

But I absolutely think we should have more rare and exotic species not found in zoos. It would be great to read up on them and learn something new while playing a game. Realism is nice, but if half the players want something more that, then something should be done to keep a large percentage of players happy, or the game will shrink and become none profitable and die. You gotta understand that both sides, realism or none realism, we need each other to keep the game going. If just one side is catered to, the other half will begin to leave. Then there won't be enough to fund the development and no one will get what they want.

For realism players, you already have a ton of animals to work with. I mean, I'd of course love to see more! But I would also like to see some none normal zoo animals mixed in too. Animals that are fun and strange and who totally live in this world with us. They deserve love and attention too, even if you don't see them behind bars at your local zoo. Bring attention to wonderful creatures that the general public knows so little about. So we can be more informed and can fall in love with a new fuzzy or scaley or feathery animal we didn't know existed yesterday! And I mean isn't that kinda the goal for animal conservation, teaching us about real animals that need help? For a game preaching conservation.. I think it would be terrible to give us just the basics and not expand on it at all.

As for mythical animals like dragons and unicorns.. I think your out of luck. They didn't give us those in the original zoo tycoon and I highly doubt they'll give us such things in a game they marketed for real and existing animals. It would be cool to see, but I'm not gunna hold my breath lol. But my request would be to see some ice age creatures! That would be a fun and none realism DLC that can still be packed with actual factual info. Plus who doesn't love a woolly mammoth or want to see a saber tooth tiger? x)