What Success Have People Had with Large Habitats?

[NZFanatic]

Just curious; a lot of people, including myself, build pretty big sprawling habitats for African savannah animals or elephants, but I always run into the problem of the keepers not bothering to reach the items that are far away from the habitat gate. This results in the animals congregating in one part of the enclosure and avoiding the other part, which defeats the whole purpose of creating so much space. I'm wondering if anyone else has faced similar issues, or if they've managed to find a way to do this sort of thing more successfully.

In one example, I did a fairly long, canyon-esque exhibit for my giraffes, zebras, ostriches, and nyala, which was the final touch to an African savannah section and kind of 'wrapped' around the whole area. I had the gate and shelter at one end with guest viewing inside the shelter, and enrichment items spread out around the whole thing (and viewpoints jutting out into the enclosure from along the whole side). The keepers seemed to only fill the food and enrichment items in one half of the enclosure (and it had nothing to do with traversible terrain). They did rarely make their way into the other side, but not very often, which made it seem like a third of the whole habitat was completely pointless.

 

[Wistala]

Depends on what you see as big. I would consider mine big and I got no problems. Food objects etc are near the habitat gate and toys are spread around the entire habitat. The animals are walking around the entire habitat just fine. I also place the water "lake" somewhat in between the gate and the end of the habitat.

 

[Firestar97]

How much are your Zookeepers trained and how big is the Enclosure?

 

[NZFanatic]

How much are your Zookeepers trained and how big is the Enclosure?

The zookeepers are all trained to the max as soon as they can be. I have a habit of going through the staff list every so often and training everyone so all my staff end up on five stars. The actual size I'm not too sure of. I haven't played in a while (NZ lockdown has been effectively over for me for the last three weeks now so I've had no more time to sit down and play) so this is more of a discussion about what I plan to do in my next zoo (when I have the time again), based on what I remember from my last zoo. It wasn't obscenely huge anyway, I tried to make it conservatively (the original plan was for it to be much larger). If I had to make a rough guesstimate, it would probably have lined up with what a lot people make for two polar bears while matching their space requirements (which isn't something I pay much attention to, because I have welfare turned off).

My plan for when I can play again is to build an elephant enclosure capable of supporting a decently-sized herd, but I was hoping others who have built similar habitats to what I described might have some insight on how to make it "worth it", if that makes sense. In any case, I don't think I'm experiencing a bug or anything, or that the keepers are incapable of reaching the far end of the enclosure, as they have done it before; it's more that they don't go there as frequently as I would like (even if the food enrichment down there is empty).

One theory I've had is that it's to do with the position of the gate. Rather than putting the gate somewhere in the middle, I've got it at one end, as this is where the large hard shelter is (I try to build realistically, so I put my staff facilities, habitat gate, and hard shelter all together as they would be in a real zoo). The other reason for this is that as the guests have a view into the habitat from inside the hard shelter, I didn't want to put it too far away from where the main paths are (like real zoos, I try to design mine around cyclical sections, where one path leads you past every habitat in the section instead of branching off randomly to other exhibits).

I imagine that when I get around to going ahead with the new zoo, I might have to try this again with the hard shelter more centred, so the keepers can move around in a rotation rather than having to go all the way from one end to the other. This thread was more to see how other people have done things.

 

[NZFanatic]

Depends on what you see as big. I would consider mine big and I got no problems. Food objects etc are near the habitat gate and toys are spread around the entire habitat. The animals are walking around the entire habitat just fine. I also place the water "lake" somewhat in between the gate and the end of the habitat.

I don't like to cram all my food items around the habitat gate as they draw the animals in that direction. I try to spread them around where the viewing areas are, so when they're filled the animals will go to where the guests are (it's quite good this way, as it fills most of the viewing areas with guests like it would in a real zoo).

 

[Wistala]

I don't like to cram all my food items around the habitat gate as they draw the animals in that direction. I try to spread them around where the viewing areas are, so when they're filled the animals will go to where the guests are (it's quite good this way, as it fills most of the viewing areas with guests like it would in a real zoo).

They won't be cramped tho. They will flock to the area the food is in yes. So if you have like a food trough or two near the habitat gate, they will be there when there is food.
However, if you place toys (none food) and place the water (not the one the zookeeper fills up, an actual little lake or puddle etc) away from the habitat gate, the animals will spread out after food time. So when they are hungry, they will go to the habitat gate, but when they are thirsty, they will wander away from the feeding area and walk to the water to drink and when they want to play they will go to where the toys have been placed.

So have a viewing spot at the habitat gate so guests can see them eat, then perhaps another viewing spot at the water, and then another where it has views over some of the toys.