What if the Lystrosaurus were to make burrows?

[Pixelated Sparkster]

One of the newest additions from the latest Malta DLC, the Lystrosaurus, has become one of my favorite attractions to house in the parks. Being the 2nd non-dinosaur terrestrial animal, the lystrosaurus is a tiny herbivore that lived in the Early-Triassic Period as potentially one of the most dominant creatures of that time after surviving the End-Permian extinction, which makes it stand out a lot from the roster. Besides that, they are awfully cute with their small size, bulldog-like posture, playful social animation, and very fluffy eyebrows.

One thing when looking into lystrosaurus was that it may have survived the Permian extinction event thanks to its burrowing lifestyle, which makes me think that it would be cool if we could see the lystrosaurus exhibit such behavior in Jurassic World Evolution 2. As is, it is one of the tiniest herbivores in the game, if not the tiniest, and if they were to burrow, they could occupy a niche not taken in the current dinosaur roster, making the lystrosaurus stand out more like a prehistoric meerkat or wombat.

Planet zoo has such a behavior implemented with the likes of Meerkats from the Africa Pack digging tiny holes to hide in, and placeable animal burrows later on in update 1.8 alongside the launch of the Europe pack where you could observe the animals inside the burrow, as that acted as a shelter for your animals to sleep.

I think there is a lot of fun having your lystrosaurus build its own burrows. It could integrate with the territory system where they would situate burrows in their territory to use as tiny escape shelters from predators, tour trucks, and stampedes. It could also bring about a unique challenge in dealing with these animals since they may hide in burrows to escape medical or tranquilizer darts, which would require that extra level of care not to spook them to run for the burrows. Plus I would melt if I walked in first-person mode, walked and peered into a lystrosaurus burrow, and see their tiny heads pop up to see if the coast is clear.

 

[DragonNTiger]

Considering the corners they've cut in making this game, and the need to be able to see an animal at all times to interact with it (you can't tranquilize and move an animal underground), I find it highly unlikely they'd create a whole new behavior that would potentially be limited to one animal...

 

[Jurassic Tyrant King]

I would definitely love Lystrosaurus burrowing they could reuse the mechanics from Planet zoo and implement it into the game. Because burrowing and Planet zoo is pretty simple and it would be cool to see that the species sticks around its Burrows and whenever danger comes it tries to hide. But cannot return to its burrow whenever it's hungry or thirsty. That's kind of my idea on how this could work.

 

[Pixelated Sparkster]

Considering the corners they've cut in making this game, and the need to be able to see an animal at all times to interact with it (you can't tranquilize and move an animal underground), I find it highly unlikely they'd create a whole new behavior that would potentially be limited to one animal...

That is very true, it is something I am curious about how it could be done if it were to be done, especially with how all animals are meant to be visible at all times to be interacted with.

One thing that comes to mind is that if a lystrosaurus is sick or needs medical attention, it won’t go in the burrow. That way any medication that needs to be done could be done accordingly without having to wait it out.

Another could be that the staff could use flares to draw them out of the burrows. Flares used in the game already attract a lot of the dinosaurs in the roster, and I could imagine any interaction that needs to be done with lystrosaurus could be better handled with flares first, plus it could give off that "Aha!" moment with first-time players trying to figure out how to draw out lystrosaurs from burrows if they barley respond to ranger commands.

But cannot return to its burrow whenever it's hungry or thirsty.

Exactly! From what footage I have seen of meerkats and other burrowing animals in planet zoo, they tend to be outside of the burrows most of the time to do standard animal stuff like drinking, eating, and chilling. There has to be a balance if it were to be executed so that they do not stay in the burrows all the time, but only if danger is apparent.

Thinking about it, it could be a nice balance for having such a small herbivore with high appeal, as a rating of 51 for such a small animal is really noticeable. It could be that if a lystrosaurus hides in the burrow, the animal disappears from guest view and the park's rating drops a bit, but since you could incubate a large batch, a few hidden ones won't be that bad.

It is however important to consider where you place the lystrosaurus, for if the herd is placed in an enclosure where other dinosaurs would get into alpha disputes a lot, or if mass panic is to be very common from either tight tours or nearby predator enclosures, then it may be more appropriate to place them in a less stressful environment.