Ok, here I come.
Being from Spain and living in Finland has allowed me to learn about the big biodiversity of Europe. The Iberian peninsula and the Nordic countries still have lots of wildlife. People tend to forget that, so here I am with a big list of European animals I would like to have in the game. Of course, for obvious reasons, most of these animals are also found in Africa and Asia, and some in North America, but that doesn't make them less valuable, on the contrary, they are better additions since they can be used in many areas.
The first group includes the absolute must-have animals:
- Wild boar
- Wolverine (when you live in the Nordics, this animal is so European as the hippo is African)
- White stork
- Alpine marmot (we don't have a very small cold animal. It would be a nice counterpart to meerkats and prairie dogs too).
Then we have the other must-have which are also European although the majority of their range falls in other continents:
- Great white pelican
- Walrus
- Crested porcupine
The game needs more primates and the
Barbary macaque is such a special animal, being the only one living in Europe. It would be a nice anniversary animal since it wouldn't require much work using the Japanese macaque.
European rivers aren't well represented in the game, we only have a newt. I want the
Eurasian otter because we need a cold tolerant otter (and solitary). The
European mink is endangered and they are becoming more common in European zoos. It would be a good option. Estonia is the leading country in their conservation program.
Then we have the "clones". The
Iberian lynx and especially the
European bison would be nice inclusions because of their conservation history and bearing in mind that Frontier usually gives us one of those.
Then we have the small critters, like the
pine marten, European wild cat, European hedgehog and European rabbit. These animals would bring a new kind of animal that we don't have yet in game, although I admit they are not my priority.
For caprines, the
muskox has been reintroduced to Europe, so I guess it is valid to include them here too. The
European mouflon is good (but I need Asian and African goats first).
Swans and ducks are always common in Europe, so they also deserve a place on the list.
We don't have any European reptile, so I really want a European tortoise, preferably
Greek tortoise. We could also get a
Mediterranean chameleon, but I think other species are more likely. The reptile section has however the only European animal I DON'T want: snakes we don't need any European snake. Let me lie to myself and think we don't have any of those crawling things around here.
Finally, we have the two big mistakes Frontier did. The
timber wolf should be split into Mackenzie wolf and Eurasian wolf. I know the idea is to represent the cold biome wolves, but with the arrival of the arctic wolf and the dingo later it just doesn't make sense. It's like having the African wildebeest, the African zebra or the Australian wallaby. That doesn't exist.
The other big unforgivable mistake is the brown bear. We should have had a general brown bear or a grizzly and a
Eurasian Brown bear. The Himalayan brown bear is the worst choice in the game history. Eurasian brown bears are very common in European zoos and one of the most iconic animals in our culture. Even worse is that the base game only had a flamingo and a confusing wolf as European animals, but three Asian bears. People say we can pretend the HBB is the Eurasian. If we had gotten the HBB and the Eurasian brown bear, but not grizzly bear, I'm sure many of those people wouldn't be happy pretending the HBB is the grizzly bear. The Eurasian brown bear should be added to the game, either as a free animal, or as single animal for purchase for 1 or 2€.
Sorry for the long post, and thanks to Frontier for giving Europe the love it deserves. We've come far from the 2 animals and 0 exhibits, but there's still a long path to walk together.
