American black bear. It's inarguably essential for North American zoos.
White-tailed deer. I'll fight for this one, it's only a half-tick less essential than the bear. We need them both, and then North America can be laid to rest.
Serval. I've lowered my hopes and expectations for felines after their appearances slowed down this year, but this is one I absolutely can't let go of.
South American species. I'd say that the core of ocelot, coati, mara, and rhea are the ones we NEED need, but beyond that we still need volume even if the exact species start to matter less. Spectacled bear, Brazilian tapir, southern tamandua, bush dog, it doesn't matter at that point.
Monkeys. At least, like, three. Ideally something like... idk, eight, ten? lmao. A baboon, another New World species (be it tamarin, howler, spider, or squirrel), and then a wildcard (colobus, guenon, langur, or another New World) are
essential. But again, there's really no such thing as "too much" here as long as they aren't picking stupid species.
Birds. I gave up hope for aviary birds years ago, briefly had accepted that we'd probably be stuck with ratites and penguins from here on out (if we were lucky!), but then they had to go and do the swan. At minimum, now we need a duck (ideally several!) and a pelican to follow that up. Beyond that, I still think we'd benefit from the same "volume but not specifics" approach with a few more cranes or storks or whatever being able to put the bird roster somewhere vaguely agreeable.
And really, I think that's it for what I
need. There's a few more species that I really want to see, but aren't required to the same degree:
- Short-beaked echidna
- Matschie's tree kangaroo
- One or more additional habitat tortoises
- A large antelope
- Domestic goat and maybe like 2 more domestics (pig, chicken, donkey, whatever) to make it feel less out of place
- Raccoon dog, even though I've truly given up hope at this point
