Your Top 10 Animals of 2023!!

[Birb（｡･ө･｡）]

1. Kiwi The guy ever

2. Little Blue Penguin - Kororā my beloved. I barely expected one species for NZ, so two - and two essential ones at that - was a very, very pleasant surprise. I’ve also coincidentally seen them nearly as many times as African penguins in the US lol, not common but nowhere near unusable there as well.
3. Tasmanian Devil - I love this weird little dude. Essential for Aus, common in NZ, and a rare, but interesting addition to overseas Aus/Oceania sections that I’ve seen a few times in NA.
4. Mute Swan - Waterfowl save me… save me waterfowl…
5. Fossa - A needed non-lemur addition to Madagascar and a delightful small carnivoran that isn’t another cat. Now I can build cute little areas of my zoos dedicated to this ecologically fascinating island.

Big ol’ gap. Not because the rest are bad, but because those first five excite me so, so much more than anything else we got last year.

6. African Crested Porcupine - Gorgeously done and a nice addition. I just think they’re neat.
7. Quokka - Very common in Aus and maybe I’ll sneak it into my overseas zoos now and then - it’s at least found there at all.
8. Asian Water Monitor - Silly guy a good filler pick even if it’s nowhere near my first choice for another habitat reptile or even another lizard.
9. Red River Hog - Very common in the US and a good addition. I have no strong feelings for it although you could say that about everything on this list under the top 5 if you couldn’t tell lol.
10. Lar Gibbon - I really like gibbons, though tbh I’m just desperate for primates at this point.

Last year was kinda weird for me because it had the highest highs (Oceania) but also the lowest lows (Arid barring the porcupine and to a lesser extent Eurasia barring the swan). Tropical was great for what it is even if it could have so much more, Eurasia is similar albeit less useful for me. European species don’t do much for me as they’re rare overseas, but don’t have the uniqueness of similarly rare Oceanian wildlife - which don’t have any alternatives and tend to be a big deal when brought international, getting their own dedicated sections. That’s just my perspective though and I can totally understand how needed the wisent and boar were. Basically how a lot of Europeans seem to feel about Oceania but the other way around lol. As for Arid… well, I think it’s been discussed to death enough.

Edit: Honorable mention to the collared peccary. I was too busy thinking about DLC animals that I totally forgot about these goobers. A wonderful addition to both NA and SA, plus I just saw them for the first time with my own eyeballs yesterday so they’re fresh in my brain.

 

[FlameWizard492]

Here’s my ranking:

10. Red River Hog - I was pretty excited for this one. Next to the Visayan Warty Pig, this was my most wanted of all the suidae. I grew up going to a zoo that housed them. Around the time after beginning to engage more in the Planet Zoo community, I took a couple of trips to that zoo, specifically ZooTampa, which sparked my interest in having them in the game. However, they do get knocked down a few points because I’m a little too used to the pig rig. Don’t get me wrong, it’s well made and well adapted to the rig.

9. Lar Gibbon - One of my favorite animals from the 2022 packs was the siamang, so I was excited to learn that a smaller gibbon would be coming to the game. I find their brachiation to be fun to watch, and the same goes for the siamang and orangutan.

8. Fossa - The fossa’s placement on this list is due to pure nostalgia, and I’m not ashamed to admit that. I was born in 2001, and like many people born around that time, I grew up watching the first Madagascar movie (though the second movie was better). Therefore, if you tell me that it’s not pronounced “foo - sah,” you’d be punching me right in the childhood. The fossa has also been in the back of my mind because I saw one for the first time in a zoo back in my high school years. Despite constantly wishing for a coquerel’s sifaka, I’m glad to get a little more non-lemur representation from Madagascar. Also, they’re a very unique animal, and I don’t have to worry about building high fences for them like I have to do for big cats.

7. North Island Brown Kiwi - The kiwi gets a spot on this list because of two things. First off, it’s absolutely adorable. Second, it proved that Frontier is capable of making small flightless birds that aren’t penguins, so they could potentially make a chicken or guineafowl for a potential petting zoo pack (assuming that we get more than just one finale pack).

6. Mute Swan - I was never too excited about waterfowl, but I’m still happy that we got the swan. While not my favorite, I can foresee them being useful in sort of garden/park areas, and I’m glad that the modding community can use them well.

5. Sichuan Takin - Despite my gripe with the exclusion of the “Sichuan” in its name, I still love the developer’s take on everyone’s favorite mountain-dwelling goat/sheep/antelope/thing. My love for them only grew because of how much I engaged with this community, and I’m a sucker for big, fluffy, fuzzy animals. I’ve only seen them once, maybe twice, in my lifetime, and I attribute my increased love for them to this community.

4. Sloth Bear - I put the sloth bear here because I have even more nostalgia bias for them than the fossa. First off, The Jungle Book was one of my favorite Disney movies as a kid, and it was a while before I learned what specific species Baloo is. Therefore, you can imagine my distain when I saw that Disney made him look more like a brown bear in the live action remake. Second, a sloth bear also used to be housed at ZooTampa before being replaced by a sun bear (I feel bad for it. It used to pace around its habitat a lot, so it might have suffered from some sort of intense zoochosis. I wonder what happened to it.). Also, just look at how well it was made in the game! The developers did beautiful work!

3. Black Rhinoceros - This animal only got so high because of what I refer to as the “white rhino effect,” which is basically the phenomenon of the admiration of how well the southern white rhinoceros was made being applied to the black rhinoceros. I was then even happier when they updated the black rhino’s look a little later after the pack’s release.

2. Tasmanian Devil - Like many of you, I felt cheated when these little monsters were left out of the Australia Pack. When we finally got them, I was ecstatic, and they look marvelous as well.

1. African Crested Porcupine - Of all the animals that we received this year, the porcupine was the game changer animal of this year, much like how the siamang led to the gibbon by introducing brachiation, the bats led to more walkthrough exhibit animals, the gray seal led to the sea lion by introducing the pinniped rig, and the meerkat led to the prairie dogs by introducing burrowing. Now we can only imagine what we’ll receive now that we know for sure that the developers know how to make quills on animals look good. If we get a finale pack, this could lead to us finally getting our beloved echidna, and it would be all thanks to our prickly friends and the support that we gave them.

Yes, I spent WAY too much time writing this, and I don’t regret it.

 

[TheDuckKnight]

Loving the responses everyone! It's so interesting to see the wide variety of everyone's faves.

I'll also jot down my Honorable Mentions: Sloth Bear, Fossa, Tasmanian Devil, Saiga, Collared Peccary

 

[RightWhale]

Collared peccary is my honorable mention, I technically like it more than the wisent but I am a sucker for conservation stories.

 

[NachoB]

My honorable mention are the takin, the sloth bear and the tasmanian devil.

 

[Mazoku]

10. Collared Peccary - It is defintiely a surprise choice for the anniversary animal!

9. Takin - This animal is well made, it is stunning and beautiful. It is great to see least known animals in the game.

8. Red River Hog - Another African rainforest animal! It's great having them in zoos as they are very common in zoos. Visayan Warty Pig please?

7. Black Rhinoceros - I didn't expect this animal to get added in the game at all as it was high on my wishlist. My most used rhino species for my zoos + great choice for conservation!

6. Fossa - It is such a cool animal, I am glad that we got this animal in the game! It's nice to see Madagascar got a new animal, something to add in Madagascar area in zoos that are not lemurs. I would like to see more Malagasy animals!

5. Addax - Again, didn't expect this animal got added in the game, Arid pack is definitely a dream pack for ungulate lovers! Amazing choice for the both game and conservation as there are few individuals left in the wild. Beautiful and fantastic model.

4. Lar Gibbon - I absoutely love this animal, it is so fun to watch and have them in zoos. I was satisfied with Siamang until this gibbon appeared, it is great to have two different gibbon species in the game.

3. Somali Wild Ass - I was so thrilled when it got added in the game since it was very high on my wishlist. I can't get over with how amazing it looks in the game, it is so detailed and excellent. It is lovely to see the game continues adding more endangered animals.

2. European Bison - So pleased to see this animal to get added in the game, an iconic European animal with amazing conservation story. I thought this animal had a low chance of making it in the game and it made it in the game! It is great to see Europe got more animals after the last pack.

Here it comes... my top 1 animal of 2023.

1. Wolverine - My long waited and most wanted animal since the launch. It feels so great and strange at sametime knowing that Wolverine had finally made it in the game after lengthy wait. It was worth it, it appears amazingly in the game, both model and animation, they nailed it.