What Minimum Animals Do We Still Need to Make a Good Region Specific Part of a Zoo?

[raf8655]

Imo, we can cut those lists down even further.

There are only 3 essential animals left for oceania from an international perspective, those being the emu, wallaby and tree kangaroo, 2 of them being extremly common and one being decently common.
BUT its only fair to give the region some local zoo animals, adding the lyre bird, kiwi and little blue penguin to that list, all 3 of which would also help the struggling bird roster.
In spite of its popularity, i wouldnt see the tasmanian devil as essential but u would certanly love seeing them in the game, eventhough all the animals mentioned above are in my opinion much more important to flesh out australia, new guinea and new zealand.

Europe id say, stop the eurasian wolf and eurasian brown bear nonsense, thats mod territory or Aniversery animals, not something id ever want to see in a dlc slot.
There is just one animal i see as essential to make an europe themed area in a zoo, and thats the wild boar, which would finish the most important european forest animals, but for general use id also add the alpine marmor so that atleast a small alps themed area is possible and atleast 1 of the white stork, mute swan and mallard duck as water fowl and birds to represent ponds, parks and wet lands.


NA is good besides birds, but i dont know enough to judge what bird is best.
What i do know is that the area south of the USA lacks representation, so the best all terrain fix would be the collared peccary, filling up the deserts and rainforests of middle and south america.
And theres a second one that i personally dont care for but defenetly is needed to build a local american area is the white tailed deer.
You cant believe in red and fallow deer greatness without recognising that americans also deserve their common deer.


South Saharan Africa needs 2 things, atleast one monkey and a bird.
Imo something like the de brazas monkey and the marabu stork would work out quite nicly to fill up the tropics and wetlands a bit more, but any monkey or bird would work.


MENA needs the dromedary and thats it.
Everything else is a cool bonus, but imo the onix and fox allready work very well together as a 2 animal themed area with most other animals either overlapping with them (sandcat, addax, arabian oryx) or not vibing with the sand desert like they do.
I can totally see the arguments for hamadryas baboons and barbary sheeps as a second 2 animal combo to add for mena, but just speaking about a themed area the former and the latter dont really vibe well with each other, but this is quite the subjective statement so i can totally see people seeing it otherwise.

For asia, while there are no animals needed anymore for asia in general, it has quite the few areas that feel like they are so close to being considerd their own sub regions, so while non of these animals are necessary in the grant sceme of things, i do believe that they regard some missed potential and black spots that could be filled to make asia sections much more diverse and interesting.

While South East Asia is quite amazing the way that it is, it would be quite easy for frontier to elevate Sulawesi to its own distinct small themed area.
We allready got the babirusa and the addition of the celebes crested macaque and anoa in something like an island animal pack is a realistic way to elevate the area, that seems quite likly for frontier to do.

For central Asia there is one big flaw.
We got 3 apex predators for the himalaya (HBB, snow leopard, asiatic black bear), a small arboreal animal aaaaaand...nothing.
Which is a shame as the himalaya is such a unique and majestic space.
Adding the palas cat, domestic yak and himalayan monal would elevate this area to an actual subsection.

And lastly, i want to take a look at the amur river region, a place allready represented quite a bit that could use a bit of love to exceed even more just being Skandinavia + tiger and asiatic black bear like it allready started with the leopard crane and dhole.
The yellow throated marten, chinese softshell turtle and mandarin duck would all 3 be a first for us and also further enhance one of the coolest underappreciated regions.


Now for the elephant in the room, south america.
In my humble opinion south america sucks and will allways suck for one region: monkeys.

Monkeys are to south america what antelopes are to africa, an essential back bone that should have a diverse and varried roster to pick and choose from.
We got 10 antelopes in the game, 8 being base game + even more miscelanious savanah ungunlates like giraffes, buffalo, zebra or the warthog.
To south america, this should be comparable in arboreal animals, about 8-12 monkeys and a few other aboreal animals like coatis, kinkajous, tamanduas and sloths.

But we got one.
One arboreal animal thats also a monkey.
Yes we can gradually get more south american animals, but this is the main problem weighing south america down. More then any other continent it needs a huge variety in one kind of animal that it just does not have.
I have no doubt in my mind that everything besides monkeys and arboreal animals will be fine if support stays long enough with even just an ocelot, peccary, mara and rhea covering most holes in the SA roster.
But im affraid without mods the arboreal side of things will never be fixed just by the sheer amount of missing animals.
And before you think "sheesh, 8-12 monkeys, are you insane? Wouldnt they be way to similar?" Let me give you a look what thag could actually mean.

1. White Faced Capuchin aka the one we have in the game
View attachment 327669
2. A Squirrel Monkey as a second general small monkey
View attachment 327670
3. White Faced Sake for its unique somewhat ugly look and upper medium size
View attachment 327672
4. Black Howler with its large Size and Chorus
View attachment 327673
5. A spider monkey as a medium sized monkey with an unique grabbing tail
View attachment 327674
6. A night monkey for nocturnal houses
View attachment 327671
7. Golden Lion Tamarin as a small dot if color
View attachment 327668
8. Cotton Top Tamarin as a second small and very distinct looking option
View attachment 327675
9. Emperor Tamarin as a third small and very unique looking option
View attachment 327667
10. Coppery Titi as a medium sized fluffy monkey
View attachment 327666


Idk about you, but that would be a monkey roster to be excited about.
It would leviate most of both south americas and primates problems in relevanz in the roster, but like i said i doubt we will ever have more then 4 south american primates.
Im honest im also more then cool with a second capuchin or the red howler as clones, as any kind of monkey bloat would be very appreciated.

I quite agree on everything, but above all on the extreme need to cover as much as possible the total lack of South American monkeys, at least the ones you mentioned would be needed!!!

 

[raf8655]

In any case, in general, there is an intolerable absence of monkeys in the game, not just those of South America.

For Africa there are no vervets, baboons, colobus, etc...

For Asia there are no macaques (only Japanese), langur, lorisids, etc...

VERY, VERY BAD!

 

[FoxyDee]

Now for the elephant in the room, south america.
In my humble opinion south america sucks and will allways suck for one region: monkeys.

Monkeys are to south america what antelopes are to africa, an essential back bone that should have a diverse and varried roster to pick and choose from.
We got 10 antelopes in the game, 8 being base game + even more miscelanious savanah ungunlates like giraffes, buffalo, zebra or the warthog.
To south america, this should be comparable in arboreal animals, about 8-12 monkeys and a few other aboreal animals like coatis, kinkajous, tamanduas and sloths.

But we got one.
One arboreal animal thats also a monkey.
Yes we can gradually get more south american animals, but this is the main problem weighing south america down. More then any other continent it needs a huge variety in one kind of animal that it just does not have.
I have no doubt in my mind that everything besides monkeys and arboreal animals will be fine if support stays long enough with even just an ocelot, peccary, mara and rhea covering most holes in the SA roster.
But im affraid without mods the arboreal side of things will never be fixed just by the sheer amount of missing animals.
And before you think "sheesh, 8-12 monkeys, are you insane? Wouldnt they be way to similar?" Let me give you a look what thag could actually mean.

I agree completely. The lack of New World monkeys is really worying, considering most zoos have alot of species of SA monkeys, yet we can pick the same one species for all of our zoos. I cant wrap my head around that tbh. I also agree that we probably wont get alot of them unfortunately, I would consider us lucky if we get more than 2...
For me personaly these are the must haves:

1. Squirrel Monkey - really common and probably could reuse capuchin rig/animation, should not be much trouble for Frontier.
2. Howler Monkey - This one is really popular and could utilize the new chorus behaviour.
3. Any kind of tamarin/marmoset - My preffered one is Golden lion Tamarin, but really would be glad for any. I would not want them to be exhibit animals tho, they would work as fully habitat animals if their space requirments are even less than what meerkats need. Something like ingame 70m2 could work.
4. Saki Monkey - This one is really unique and my personal wish although probably not a "must have" for many people
5. Spider Monkey - Another prime example of SA Monkey, alot of people say they could utilize the brachiation but I am not sure...they would probably look weird on those huge brachiating frames that the Siamang use...Utilizing their tail could also be quite challenging to animate but if Frontier could pull that off, it would be sign to see.

 

[raf8655]

5. Spider Monkey - Another prime example of SA Monkey, alot of people say they could utilize the brachiation but I am not sure...they would probably look weird on those huge brachiating frames that the Siamang use...Utilizing their tail could also be quite challenging to animate but if Frontier could pull that off, it would be sign to see.

They could make everything...The problem is if they want make that!

 

[Chuditch]

In spite of its popularity, i wouldnt see the tasmanian devil as essential but u would certanly love seeing them in the game, eventhough all the animals mentioned above are in my opinion much more important to flesh out australia, new guinea and new zealand.

Just playing my usual Tasmanian devil's advocate role here, but I would consider devils an essential species for building zoos based in Australia - this shouldn't be undervalued just because they aren't as widespread in international collections. Aside from maybe echidnas, they're the most common missing local zoo species I can think of after the obvious emus and wallabies. Tasmanian devils also have a lot of value in terms of taxonomic representation (which I think is also important to consider), given they're the only marsupials not in the order Diprotodontia that have any real chance of making it into the game. In the end it's just another case of which species are "essential" depending heavily on personal bias.

In any case they're a far more important zoo species than lyrebirds (as much as I'd love them), which are rarely kept even in Australia - they're currently only housed at Adelaide Zoo, Taronga Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and Rockhampton Zoo to my knowledge.

 

[markun]

In the end it's just another case of which species are "essential" depending heavily on personal bias.

I agree with this. So often I read “we don’t need any more bears/cats/Asian animals/European animals” but we all play the game in different ways and want different things from it.

In any case they're a far more important zoo species than lyrebirds (as much as I'd love them), which are rarely kept even in Australia - they're currently only housed at Adelaide Zoo, Taronga Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and Rockhampton Zoo to my knowledge.

I’d much prefer things like a black swan, brolga and Australian pelican before getting a lyrebird.

 

[Angeł]

I think if I’m cutting the lists down to what is ESSENTIAL for creating themed areas in zoos, I’d bulk up the same four areas as you but slightly differently.

Oceania

• Red Necked Wallaby
• Emu
• Tree Kangaroo

South/Central America

• Two Toed Sloth
• White Nosed Coati / South American Coati
• Spectacled Bear
• Golden Lion Tamarin

Middle East/North Africa

• Dromedary Camel
• Crested Porcupine
• Barbary Macaque
• Caracal

Europe

• European Bison
• European Wild Boar
• Eurasian Brown Bear
• Wolverine

I know that some of the species, particularly from the latter two areas, may not seem like the most interesting picks from each region. However, they are (in my experience) present in almost all areas themed after each geographical area. I’ve never seen a ‘Europe’ themed section in a zoo which lacks Eurasian Brown Bears and European Bison. Therefore, I think if we are classing this as essential to the continent’s completion, all of these species must be prioritised.

 

[Iben]

I'm surprised at how hard this is to answer. I feel like it's difficult to make the distinction between animals that I really would just want, and animals of which I'm like "okay, but we actually need these". A lot of this is still personal preference of course and mostly based on the European zoos that I've visited.

Oceania
Surprisingly I didn't go with a lot of animals here. I feel like the Oceanian/Australian sections in the zoos that I've visited tend to not be as big, so I don't feel like I need that many extra animals at this point. I would love an echidna or a wallaby, but with the addition of a wombat there really are only two animals I still consider a must.

• Tasmanian Devil
• Emu

I feel like with those two animals you can make several variations on the Australian area. Are more welcome? Yes. I would love a wallaby and a tree kangaroo, but I don't personally consider them essential.

South America
As you mentioned, SA is in a much better state than it was at the start of the game. There are still a few animals that I would really want, but again, I've tried to reel it back to the animals I consider really needed

• Golden Lion Tamarin or the Golden-headed Lion Tamarin
• Patagonian Mara
• Maned Wolf
• Linnaeus' two-toed sloth
• Greater Rhea
• South American coati

I feel like tamarins, rhea and maras are pretty common in SA themed sections of zoos, even in the ones that aren't immense high budget zoos. The sloth, coati and maned wolf further flesh out the roster and and are equally commonly found in zoos.

Asia
Now, I'm of the opinion that we already have quite a nice roster of Asian animals. If I purely look at more common zoo animals, there's very little left that I'd consider essential.

• Domesticated Yak
• Grey Langur
• Any kind of pheasant

I feel that a Yak is common enough to be added to the game and the langur feels more like a "generic" monkey and is common enough as an alternative to the three more "special" monkeys we have. A pheasant is badly needed in this game if you ask me, and Asia has plenty of them. Part of me wants to include a Takin here as well, but I as much as I want to, Yaks are just far more common.

Africa
Oh this is a difficult one. I firmly believe that the Africa Pack was a justified scenery pack as I genuinely think the game at this point has a very nice and overall quite balanced roster of African animals. The following animals I therefor not really consider to be essential, but they would be nice additions.

• Red Duiker
• Mantled Colobus
• Dromedary Camel

Honestly, none of these animals really scream "essential" to me, mostly because I really do think that we have quite a lot of African animal to make multiple African sections with; but on the other hand these are some of the animals that aren't the super popular African animals but are the ones a lot of people in zoos would recognize.

North America
Again, very few animals here that I personally still consider essential. We've gotten a good range now, but maybe there's room for a few more.

• Elk
• North American porcupine
• Collared peccary

Just like before, just a bunch of relatively common animals that would be a nice addition to the game overall.

Europe
The hardest one of the bunch. The ones that I think are essential are birds, but I'm not adding any of them to the list really. The only two animals I could honestly think of are a boar and a mink, so let's go for that.

• European mink
• Wild boar

 

[avietar]

I define essential as: The game wouldn't feel complete if support ended without these animals at least.

Europe
Red deer
Wild boar
Wisent

These will complete the European forests. These three animals are keystone species that shape the environment around them. And for anyone thinking that fallow deer have the same impact on their environment as red deer: no, they don't. Fallow deer have different feeding habits, eating far more graminoids (grasses) and far fewer plants and shrubs than red deer. Not to mention fallows are considered an exotic 'alien' species in large parts of Europe, even though we might be used to seeing them by now. Anyway, I could go on and on but the takeaway is this: fallow deer do not replace red deer, not in cultural importance, not in ecological importance. This isn't like all the Indian deer where it's hard to say which one represents India the most, because they all represent India. THE European deer is the red deer and it's not even close. If you had to pick a runner up deer species, it'd be the roe deer. And only after that, in third place, is the fallow deer.
End rant

Asia
Ungulates, such as takin, musk deer, water deer, serow, yak, you name it.

Non-tropical Asia is currently very saturated in predators and very much lacking in prey species. I don't need all of the above. We need at least one.

Oceania
A wallaby species
Emu
Tasmanian devil

Essentials are a wallaby and the emu. I also put the Tasmanian devil here, because it would give us an iconic marsupial predator.

Africa
An old-world monkey species
Porcupine species

There are lots of species I'd love, but I think only these two are essential. Like Asia, Africa is very saturated. I'd very much like the fossa to give us a predator for Madagascar, but I don't think that'd be essential.

North America
Peccary
White-tailed deer
Nine-banded armadillo

With the raccoon and skunk, temperate North America is complete. What's lacking are species from the tropical and desert regions. I think the peccary, white-tailed deer, and armadillo will rectify that, and they will also add towards the South American roster.

South America
Maned wolf
Mara
Large new world monkey species (howler, spider monkey)
A South American wetlands bird species (roseatte spoonbill, scarlet ibis)
Rhea

South America is the most lacking, I feel. Like others have pointed out, there should be a ton of monkeys available here, but there aren't. I'd argue there is an absolute need for at least one large new-world monkey species in addition to the small monkey we already have. South America also needs tons of birds, but because we don't know if flying birds are gonna happen, I'm gunning for at least one South American wetlands bird here. South America is currently mostly represented by tropical animals. What we are lacking are species from non-tropical South America. So here we get the maned wolf, mara, and rhea: a predator from the cerrado (tropical grassland/woodlands), a rodent from Patagonia (dry grassland/desert), and a bird from the pampas (fertile temperate grassland). Three different habitat regions covered. I'd like the spectacled bear as well, but the Andes already has the llama for representation so I don't think it is absolutely essential.

 

[Cotolorynchuseggs]

Europe

• wild boar
• Eurasian brown bear
• European wolf
• red deer

Africa

• shoebill
• monkeys
• camel
• Nile crocodile
• fossa
• Watusi cattle
• African crested porcupine
• guineafowl

Asia

• takin
• Japanese serow
• a pheasant
• mandarin duck
• anoa
• some kind of monkey
• giant salamander

North america

• roseate spoonbill
• armadillo
• north american porcupine
• peccary
• turkey
• american flamingo
• Na river otter

South america

• small monkey
• medium sized monkey
• howler monkey
• spider monkey
• tamarin
• maned wolf
• ibis
• sloth
• porcupine
• tamandua
• rhea
• spectacled bear
• green anaconda
• Hercules beetle

Oceania

• Tasmanian devil
• tree kangaroo
• kiwi
• black swan
• tuatara
• wallaby
• Bennett's wallaby
• Victoria's crowned pigeon
• echidna
• emu
• fly river turtle
• snake necked turtle
• bearded dragon
• frilled lizard
• lord Howe's island stick insect
• little blue penguin
• coconut crab

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Something interesting to add here would be what kind of packs could deliver the best at essential animals.
Depending on preferences, id say islands, desert or mountains could deliver best on them.
So for some examples:
- Desert can deliever on the Emu, Dromedary and North American Desert animals. A line up of emu, dromedary, collared peccary, big horn sheep/ring tail, hamadryas baboon, lace monitor and maybe something like a chilean flamingo. That would add something for the blind spots of mena, australia and the na deserts with one last spot to either dedicate to them or some other desert like the south american one i choose

- Islands: Islands could be both an scenery and an animal pack, with the tasmanian devil, kiwi, tree kangaroo and the arguably also borderline essential for madagascar sections fossa as great candidates, even though 3 animals from oceania might be a bit much for a scenery pack, not that that would stop frontier.
More realistic would be a line up of tassie devil or kiwi, fossa, hawaian goose and one miscelanoius random frontier weirdo pick.
For an animal pack, something like kiwi/tassie devil, a tree kangaroo (while i dont care about which one, this would be a case where id find it really cool if we just got both with one as a bonus clone. Yes i know how unrealistic that is but it would be super super cool), fossa, hawaian goose, celebes crested macaque, low land anoa and the racoon dog, giving us 2 oceania animals from 2 islands, upgrading sulawesi and madagascar and adding animals from quite underrepresented groups in general.
I said either or to the kiwi and devil, because both could easily sell a pack on their own and both still have a nocturnal or temperate pack as a potential second pack.
Id also understand if people disagreed with 2 more sulawesi animals, but both are unique and from underrepresented taxa that i believe them to be a good addition

- lastly a mountain pack could deliever on an himalayan ungulate, the spectacle bear, mena animals, a wallaby and the alpine marmot.
Getting something like alpine marmot, spectacle bear, domestic yak, barbary sheep, yellow footed rock wallaby + 2 more like the pallas cat and chamois for example


In general i just hope for atleast on of those pack themes to drop soon, as i really do believe that frontier would need to actually try hard to pick an underwhelming selection of animals regarding the amount of needed animals from those 3 biomes

 

[Elbslayer]

i am actually totally dissapointed why everything is so fixed on mammals or large non-flying birds. maybe i am not aware of the game limitations but i wonder ehy there is no chance to add another exibit style: small aviaries (with finches, parrots, doves, chicken...), coral tanks or shark enclosures.

in my opinion, the way of planet zoo is not be fixed to localities but rather other themes (such as the midnight genre with the current new dlc). if there was a like an animal theme it would be easier for the programmers to design: similar or likewise interactions of the animals with all other animals or items (just change the "skin"),
i wish there was a swine pack (european boar, potbelly pig, peccaries, bearded pig...). they are so much fun to watch but easy to keep and maintain.
there definetly should be an avian package with ducks and geese to populate water surfaces of enclosures.

 

[avietar]

i am actually totally dissapointed why everything is so fixed on mammals or large non-flying birds. maybe i am not aware of the game limitations but i wonder ehy there is no chance to add another exibit style: small aviaries (with finches, parrots, doves, chicken...), coral tanks or shark enclosures.

in my opinion, the way of planet zoo is not be fixed to localities but rather other themes (such as the midnight genre with the current new dlc). if there was a like an animal theme it would be easier for the programmers to design: similar or likewise interactions of the animals with all other animals or items (just change the "skin"),
i wish there was a swine pack (european boar, potbelly pig, peccaries, bearded pig...). they are so much fun to watch but easy to keep and maintain.
there definetly should be an avian package with ducks and geese to populate water surfaces of enclosures.

I'd welcome animal packs that focus on specific types of animals as well. I think a primate pack would sell very well. And personally I'd love an ungulate pack, or even if it got more specific such as antelopes, cervids, or like you said: suines.