I color-coded it. Red means there is no substitution, orange means there is something I use as a substitute that I am deeply dissatisfied with, yellow means I have a substitute but also want the real thing, green means its in the game or the substitute is fine, and purple is for flying birds/aquatics.
My dream zoo has one entrance between two sections: a domestic region and a children’s zoo section. Off to the left, there would be a restaurant that looks like a red barn with picnic tables out front. Nearby, would be a goat yard for little kids to pet and brush goats under zookeeper supervison. There would also be a station where guests could exchange quarters for pellets to feed the goats, as well as donkeys and alpacas in a neighboring section. There would be a smaller exhibit for turkeys, chickens, and perhaps helmeted guineafowl. A separate exhibit would contain a kunekune or a pot-belied pig. Continuing down that path would lead to a dead-end viewing area for a few highland cows, two red, one black, and one cream with white points. There would be an education station for incubating eggs and showcasing rabbits or guinea pigs and a panel explaining their value as a food source.
Across the main path, there would be more picnic tables for the restaurant and a jungle gym for slightly older kids. Squirrel monkeys would have an enclosure nearby to play alongside the kids. Nearby, red pandas and Reeves’s Muntjacs would have an enclosure to showcase unlikely pairings/friendships. A sign featuring Tom Nook would showcase Tanukis/Raccoon Dogs and describe convergent evolution. A small pond would be split between a beaver exhibit and a duck pond, featuring Mandarin, North American wood ducks, Muscovy ducks, and perhaps a few mallards would stop by to visit them. The importance of reducing water usage and not flushing chemicals would be discussed. Lastly a butterfly garden and some bird houses for local passerines would showcase how to attract wildlife to your own backyard. Pond turtles, a temperate owl, and bullfrogs would be exhibited. One path would circle back to the main path, and another would continue to an Amazon and South America section.
Continuing down this path, you would see guanacos and maras on your left. On your right, there would be a large enclosure for Maned wolves and marsh deer. In front of a large building, there would be a small walkthrough habitat featuring Galapagos Giant Tortoises. Going through the entrance side of the doors, you would find yourself walking down a trail of exhibits, small habitats, and aviaries. Some exhibits would include: emerald tree boas, an assortment of poisonous frogs, a boa constrictor, a bright yellow eyelash viper, a couple of tarantulas, a mata-mata turtle, vampire bats, and an electric eel. Some smaller habitats would contain: a green anaconda, a bald uakari, hoatzins, a Brazilian porcupine, South American Coatis, and an assortment of tamarins. The open-air aviary would contain sloths, conures, macaws, toucans, toucanets, scarlet ibises, a pair of Roseate spoonbills, agoutis, and a few large fish from the Amazon. Exiting the building, you would find yourself facing the Maned Wolf enclosure. Passing that, you would see a smaller enclosure for a Giant Anteater, and a path continuing to another part of the zoo. Close to the building, you would see outdoor sections for some of the Amazon house animals. A larger enclosure behind the building would house Baird’s Tapirs and Capybaras. A secluded one off to the side would hold and ocelot, and continuing the path would bring you between Geoffroy’s Spider Monkeys and the Guanacos and maras. You would also spot a mountain lion as you crossed the main path into a North America section.
North America would have a wide path with large enclosures for black bears (showcasing at least one color variant), arctic wolves, wapiti, bison, and a rocky cliff for bighorn sheep and mountain goats that towers over the barnyard. Smaller enclosures between them would hold river otters, bald eagles, and a wolverine. A small building would exhibit rattlesnakes, gila monsters, axolotls, and a desert scorpion. In the center, you would see a prairie dog habitat with some viewing domes for children. As you circle back to the exit and round the corner, you would see a mountain lion on your right, and smaller enclosures for bobcats, collared peccaries, and a pair of burrowing owls on you left. A path through the NA section would connect back to the main path near here. This path leads through a walkthrough fallow deer exhibit with a pair of mute swans in the middle. A third exit through this habitat would lead to the Asian highlands. You would take the exit towards the main path, which splits ahead.
Off to your right, you would see a large aquatic enclosure of the Mediterranean section, featuring harbor seals. Towards the main path, another will feature king and rockhopper penguins. In the Mediterranean section, you would also see great white pelicans, barbary macaques, alpine ibex, and Iberian lynx. A path would lead between American and greater flamingo enclosures, over a bridge spanning a spectacled caiman pond, and back to the rear of the Amazon section.
Continuing through the Mediterranean would take you to the Middle East, featuring dromedary camels, Arabian oryxes, spurred tortoises, African crested porcupine, fennec foxes, honey badgers, and perhaps Hamadryas Baboons. This would lead back to the main path, or continue towards a Safari section.
The main path forms a loop here. On the outside of the loop are shops, restaurants, a lorikeet/budgie feeding building featuring some other birds from Oceania/SEA, a reptile house featuring stuff not from South America, a red kangaroo enclosure with black swans in the middle, Saltwater crocodiles, perenties, and echidnas. The center of the loop would hold a wallaby walkabout, emus, and smaller enclosures for tree kangaroos and koalas.
Following signs for SEA would lead you past a cassowary enclosure and some Lar Gibbons to a T-juction. To the left lies Binturongs, Red Shanked Douc, Red Crowned Cranes, Victoria Crowned Pigeons, Asian Pond turtles, wild horses, markhor, snow leopards, yellow throated martens, and a Giant Panda. The path leads back to North America. To the right, you see grey langur, peafowl, white and orange Bengal tigers, fishing cats, Guar, Komodo dragons, Indian Elephants, and Orangutan. The path continues to tropical Africa.
Over in tropical Africa, you’ll see gorillas, lemurs, Pygmy Hippo, colobus monkeys, guenons, Okapi, and red river hogs. As you leave this section, it will transition to more arid species, including the grey crowned crane, serval, and Aardvark. You will pass the other main entrance to get to the Safari section, where you can take a Jeep tour to see Giraffes, Kudu, White Rhinos, Gazelles, Addax, Sable Antelope, Zebra, and Ostriches. There will be large enclosures for lions and cheetahs as well. A path would take you back to the Middle East Section. Maybe striped hyenas?
Servals, American Black Bears, and Golden Lion Tamarins have a place in all of my zoos. A few birds, especially ducks, and monkeys are needed to fulfill my dreams. Also, I would like some small animals from South America, a few Asian ungulates, and habitat turtles.
oh no I was looking at the ungulate portion of the zoo and threw them in there.
