What Animals Do You Need to build Your Perfect Zoo?

[SubtleAsh404]

Just an idea I had.

This isn't a thread about every single animal you could possibly imagine some time using if it happened to be in the game. This is a thread for the animals you want for your perfect zoo. It could be a zoo based off a real one, like @Captain Callum's San Diego Zoo, or a zoo entirely of your own creation. What animals aren't in the game that you need for that specific zoo?

For the sake of convenience, let's leave out the hypothetical WTE birds and fully aquatic animals and small exhibit mammals. It's always better to assume the status quo of content will continue.

I would love to see elephants in the game! I adore seeing them when I visit zoos IRL and I don't think I could have a 'complete' zoo without them!
Bats are also my favourite animals, with my favourite species being the Grey-Headed Flying Fox Bat, as they are the mega bats living closest to me. I don't ever expect to get them, as we now have the Spectacled Flying Fox, but I would be so happy to see them in game.

 

[yoav_r]

Taste the rainbow Suzie

Is there a unicorn mod @Leaf Productions?

 

[SuzieSky]

Is there a unicorn mod @Leaf Productions?

I used Skittle colors. It's a candy with the slogan, "taste the rainbow." I've seen unicorns on the website, but I don't know if it has been updated.

 

[synthetase]

"Needed" Specific Species

• Serval (would be nice to have for African areas, children's zoo, cat houses... The list goes on and on for this animal)
• Rhea (we already have the other flightless birds so why not? Plus South American areas needs at least one bird!)
• Domestic Yak (since we have the camels and Llama, a yak would be nice to include in Himalayan areas as well as possible petting zoos)
• Domestic Goat (pretty ubiquitous in zoos: the African Pygmy is probably ideal, although if we got one I'd want another breed such as the Angora or La Mancha)
• Hamadryas Baboon (baboons are in zoos!)

Specific Species that would be Nice

• Walrus (iconic choice for Arctic and Coastal builds)
• Musk Ox (a cool animal to supplement the Arctic)
• Wisent (European builds need a large herbivore)
• Pallas' Cat (since we already have the Sand Cat: why not a cold-weather alternative?)
• Masai Giraffe (would be really nice to have a choice for which giraffe to include!)

Niches to fill

• Small New World Cat(s) (North America only has the cougar)
• New World Monkeys! (I don't build for primates but they are pretty essential for realistic zoos!)
• Birds for each continent (I'd really like at least two habitat birds for each continent)
• Smaller Safari Canid (I know its controversial but I think grasslands of Africa could use another canid besides the Wild Dog)
• New World Otter or badger
• A Deer endemic to the New world
• A lagomorph
• At least one small ungulate
• Another Armadillo
• Another Zebra
• (tree) Kangaroo to add to the Red Kangaroo
• Maybe a microbat
• An Old World and/or Hot climate Caprine

A couple things I don't need as much since DLCs came about: a second wallaby (quokka kind of fills that), Asiatic Wild Donkey (I still want him but not quite as much now...), an unique canid (Spectacled Flying Fox is so unique its not even a canid haha), Large Herbivore for Israel (we got the Dromedary )

 

[Veah]

Hallo! I thought that maybe a map of the hotspots would be useful for everyone following this thread. With some edits and a bit of Planco language, it's the same map I used in the main hall of the Visitor Center.
View attachment 349305

Alright, this is an interesting topic! Considering the Hotspots Zoo as my main PZ project, and being very well defined the theme for each enclosure, I think I have most of the hotspots covered, but I could still do a nice Animal Pack with the species I desperately need and some others that would come in handy:

Biodiversity Hotspots Animal Pack

1. American flamingo or Cuban crocodile (Caribbean)
2. Gray fox or American black bear (California)
3. Hawaiian goose (Polynesia-Micronesia)
4. Kagu (New Caledonia)
5. Philippine mouse deer (Philippines)
6. Japanese serow (Japan)
7. Markhor (Himalaya)
8. Crested gecko or gargoyle gecko (New Caledonia, exhibit)

 

[synthetase]

Alright, this is an interesting topic! Considering the Hotspots Zoo as my main PZ project, and being very well defined the theme for each enclosure, I think I have most of the hotspots covered, but I could still do a nice Animal Pack with the species I desperately need and some others that would come in handy:

Biodiversity Hotspots Animal Pack

1. American flamingo or Cuban crocodile (Caribbean)
2. Gray fox or American black bear (California)
3. Hawaiian goose (Polynesia-Micronesia)
4. Kagu (New Caledonia)
5. Philippine mouse deer (Philippines)
6. Japanese serow (Japan)
7. Markhor (Himalaya)
8. Crested gecko or gargoyle gecko (New Caledonia, exhibit)

American Flamingo, Grey Fox and that would be an awesome animal pack! Although, I have no idea what a Kagu is? Let's look it up...
Yes, that's an awesome pack! It even has the mouse deer that personally want but don't see mentioned too often at all.

 

[Veah]

American Flamingo, Grey Fox and that would be an awesome animal pack! Although, I have no idea what a Kagu is? Let's look it up...
Yes, that's an awesome pack! It even has the mouse deer that personally want but don't see mentioned too often at all.

Kagu, cool endangered flightless bird that is the only New Caledonian animal big enough for habitat instead of exhibit.
For Philippines I had 3 habitat mammal options: warty pig, spotted deer, or mouse deer. But the first two weren't as unique as the mouse deer, because we already have fallow deer, red deer, babirusa and red river hog (and we need the wild boar).

 

[Milurian]

So my list is pretty long since my dream from the games release was to recreate all 3 zoo tycoon games for simplicities sake ill split the list into groups and I know this list is very unrealistic but this is supposed to be a dream zoo list never wanted the extinct or fiction stuff so they arent here.

Spoiler: new species

• japanese serow
• american black bear (as ssp or main)
• blackbuck
• olive baboon
• markhor
• american bighorn sheep
• northern elephant seal
• southern sea otter (is ssp)
• green sea turtle
• pacific walrus (is ssp)
• emperor penguin
• javan rhino
• ethiopian wolf
• secretary bird
• barbary ape
• spectacled bear
• gelada
• gerenuk
• black crested gibbon
• masai giraffe (as ssp or main)
• mountain gorilla (is a ssp)
• nile crocodile
• spanish lynx
• musk ox
• rockhopper penguin
• ratel
• american flamingo
• african spurred tortoise
• wolverine
• leather back sea turtle
• northern giraffe (has ssp)
• southern giraffe (has ssp)
• african forest elephant
• northern white rhino
• topi antelope
• roan antelope
• bushbuck
• red lemur
• black capuchin
• tufted capuchin
• golden bellied capuchin
• pale throated three toed sloth
• white tailed mongoose
• reticulated python
• perentie
• lesser flamingo
• green peafowl
• sloth bear
• arabian oryx
• southern two toed sloth
• hoffmanns two toed sloth
• maned three toed sloth
• red footed tortoise
• yellow footed tortoise
• alligator snapping turtle
• guanaco
• alpaca (has ssp)
• antilopine kangaroo
• eastern grey kangaroo
• western grey kangaroo
• azaras agouti
• black rumped agouti
• red rumped agouti
• orinoco agouti
• black agouti
• central american agouti
• coiban agouti
• ruatan island agouti
• mexican agouti
• andean porcupine
• southern hariy nosed wombat
• northern hairy nosed wombat
• screaming hairy armadillo
• southern coral snake
• elephant trunk snake
• amethystine python
• emerald tree boa
• chochoan suhmaster
• false water cobra
• green anaconda
• black headed monitor
• heath monitor
• yellow spotted monitor
• sand goana
• numbat
• common ringtail possum
• common brushtail possum
• brazilian tapir
• mountain tapir
• northern tamandua
• southern tamandua
• yacare caiman
• smooth fronted caiman
• black caiman
• broad snouted caiman
• freshwater crocodile

Spoiler: Subspecies

• barren ground caribou
• himalayan red panda
• giant sable antelope
• grants zebra
• eastern wolf
• florida panther (I will concede on the north american subspecies)
• south african ostrich
• eastern moose
• south african meerkat
• eastern thomsons gazelle
• santa cruz tortoise
• mexican grey wolf
• nigerian pygmy hippo (for sub species accuracy)
• katanga lion (old ssp not part of pzs)
• transvaal lion (old ssp not part of pzs)
• sumatran tiger
• olympic black bear
• kodiak bear
• kermode bear
• cinnamon bear
• tibetan blue bear
• syrian brown bear
• himalayan black bear
• glacier bear
• gobi bear
• sri lankan elephant
• sumatran rhino
• bornean elephant
• sumatran elephant
• west african giraffe
• angolan giraffe
• rothschilds giraffe
• nubian giraffe
• thornicorft giraffe
• masai giraffe
• kordofan giraffe
• south african giraffe
• central chimpanzee
• nigeria cameroon chimpanzee
• eastern chimpanzee
• suri alpaca (its a breed)
• huacaya alpaca (its a breed)
• south western black rhino
• south central black rhino
• eastern black rhino
• lowland bongo
• mountain bongo
• new south wales koala
• victorian koala
• queensland koala (yes i know the zoopedia call it this but it doesnt have the subspecies name)
• southern south american cougar (old ssp SA)
• eastern south american cougar (old ssp SA)
• costa rican cougar (old ssp NA)
• asiatic lion (old ssp)
• barbary lion (old ssp)
• masia lion (old ssp)
• congo lion (old ssp)
• malayan tiger (old spp)
• indochinese tiger (old ssp)
• south china tiger (old ssp)
• not including the 7 jaguar variants out of spite
• bonus animals include the gemsbok subspecies that doesn't really exist just a placeholder to separate it from other old gemsbok subspecies and the african warthog subspecies that doesn't exist.

Spoiler: fully aquatics

• shortfin mako shark
• hammerhead shark
• tiger shark
• manta ray
• great barracuda
• whale shark
• common sawfish
• beluga
• narwhal
• bowhead whale
• west indian manatee
• pacific octopus
• harbor porpoise
• green moray eel
• atlantic swordfish
• bluefin tuna
• orca
• bottlenose dolphin
• humpback whale
• sperm whale
• great white whark
• lion's mane jelly fish
• giant squid
• false killer whale
• scalloped hammerhead
• blue marlin
• blacktip reef shark
• goblin shark
• short-finned pilot whale

Spoiler: flying birds

• blue and yellow macaw
• hyacinth macaw
• great green macaw
• scarlet macaw
• blue throated macaw
• military macaw
• common barn owl
• sooty owl
• australian masked owl
• lesser sooty owl
• magpie goose
• brown falcon
• peregrine falcon
• black falcon
• grey falcon
• king quail
• grey winged trumpeter
• pale winged trumpeter
• dark winged trumpeter
• palm cockatoo
• sulphur crested cockatoo
• galah
• yellow tailed cockatoo

The sad thing is even using mods I am unable to fulfil my dream since quite a handful of animals dont have mods even though its possible.

 

[Fallax]

Kagu would be really awesome for an Islands pack if that ever happens now lol

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Kagu would be really awesome for an Islands pack if that ever happens now lol

I dont get the kagu if im honest.
It just seems like a lesser victorian crowned pidgeon to me.
Its less blue, less big, far less common in zoos, less synergertic with the current roster, less pretty and just generally less usefull with nothing that would put it above the crowned pidgeon

 

[Fallax]

I dont get the kagu if im honest.
It just seems like a lesser victorian crowned pidgeon to me.
Its less blue, less big, far less common in zoos, less synergertic with the current roster, less pretty and just generally less usefull with nothing that would put it above the crowned pidgeon

Give me both.

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Give me both.

Fair point, i can get behind that

 

[leehonglocal]

Did/Will creators and designers of Planet Zoo visit this forum and threads? If not, will it be less point for this forum and threads?

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Did/Will creators and designers of Planet Zoo visit this forum and threads? If not, will it be less point for this forum and threads?

Who knows, but theres a whole job at frontier of interacting with the community so i doubt that they never read around here.
And in general does that matter?
We are here because we like the game and want to share our enjoyment and talk about it with like minded people, thinking that anything we say or do influences frontier only sets up disappointment.
Just enjoy your time here and dont expect anything here to influence anything

 

[leehonglocal]

Who knows, but theres a whole job at frontier of interacting with the community so i doubt that they never read around here.
And in general does that matter?

What did you mean by "here"? This thread or forum?

 

[Captain Callum]

Did/Will creators and designers of Planet Zoo visit this forum and threads? If not, will it be less point for this forum and threads?

Of course they visit the forums as a whole, frontier nowadays don't directly communicate directly to players especially in the planet series of games. We can only guess where they take inspiration from but most people (the forum users) believe the meta - wishlists play a major role in influencing animal decisions. But to be honest, another wishlist is just another one to add to the pile of thousands of personal wishlists.

 

[Milurian]

What did you mean by "here"? This thread or forum?

they were referring to the forums in general no way of knowing which threads frontier finds important enough to look at. This thread will only be pointless is if it ends because as long as it exists and grows in popularity the likelihood frontier sees the thread is higher. Irrespective of whether frontier views this particular thread this thread influences other people may discover animals they loves or be inspired to add to the meta wishlist which frontier definitely reads. The idea a forum is pointless if frontier is not actively involved is itself pointless as these sorts of thread build hope and passion for the game.

 

[Markiz]

My long time project is this zoo called Terra Mariana located in Latvia. It's not a traditional zoo, but like forested hiking park with huge fenced habitats that cover only animals found in Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) and Finland. For a zoo game (comparing to older Zoo Tycoons) I have actually really cool roster.

I need several animals to finish the park off:

1st priority animals are the ones I have no replacement in game for:

-Wild Boar
-Wisent
-Capercaillie
-Wolverine
-Mountain Hare

2nd priority animals are the ones I still have no replacement for, but are not essential for completing the park

-Pine Marten
-Eurasian Otter
-Ringed Seal
-Flying Squirrel for WTE
-Common Adder for E

3rd priority animals are the ones I have pretty good replacement for, but if we got unlimited slots wouldn't mind:

-Eurasian Brown Bear (Himalayan)
-Tundra Wolf or Eurasian Wolf (Timber)
-Eurasian Beaver (American)

Add to that couple of eagles and owls and I'm golden

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

For this kind of threat i actually do not need the wild boar, as quite frankly while i think that they are super important for european representation, they would be a little out of place in a big ticket zoo, eventhough i can imagine them really well in an european section at the border of the zoo where you go through a forest with some small carnivore habitats and large paddocks for red deer, wild boar and a bear or wolf habitat.

This aged like milk as im currently building for the boar as my first animal from the eurasia pack

 

[Pentoleaf]

Saiga is in the game, so all zoos are now my ultimate fantasy zoo. =)

As for animals I would like to complete my realistic reconstructions -

Black and white colobus*
Squirrel monkey
Dwarf goat
American black bear*
Greater rhea*
Alpaca*
Muskox
Markhor
Pallas cat
Rock hyrax
Siberian musk deer
North American otter*
North American porcupine
African dwarf crocodile*

Grey crowned crane
Roseate spoonbill
Muscovy duck
Wild turkey
White-headed whistling duck
Victoria crowned pigeon
Additional Asian pheasant

Chameleon species
Emerald tree boa
Gecko species
Bearded dragon
Asian pond turtle
Radiated tortoise*
Spurred tortoise*

Flying birds... but that will probably be a whole other game at this point.

* indicates animals that I can fudge using other species currently in game.

There are other animals like serval, ocelot, coati, howler monkey, baboon, gelada etc. that I would love to see in the game, and would use if present, but the above are the ones I currently have empty or implied habitats for in multiple zoos.

Whether any of them ever show up, in this game or the next, PZ is the best zoo game ever by a wide margin and I'm so happy and grateful for the work the devs are still putting into it 4 years later!