Zoo theme ideas

[lunavinceres]

I love Planet Zoo but I often find myself in a bit of a rut when building zoos and repeat the same ideas between zoos ie. fairly standard scenery based/region based areas. I've seen some amazing ideas for an overarching zoo theme or for specific areas within the zoo but I struggle to come up with these myself.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to do something more interesting but struggles to come up with ideas so I thought it might be nice to put together a list for people to use.

(I can't see a similar thread on this, please just delete if I missed)

 

[coatifan]

I don’t know what themes you find yourself falling into; generally zoos have areas themed around biomes, continents or countries, or taxonomic groups, like birds, reptiles, and big cats. Almost every real zoo has areas themed like this; the only exceptions are random unthemed habitats, and a few weird themes like Elephant Odyssey (Pleistocene megafauna theme) or something like “islands.” With that said, I’ve always thought a cool theme for a dream zoo would be some sort of general tropical oasis theme with pirate/beach decorations and coastal/island species, or something about adaptation with things like giant tortoises and Komodo dragons.

 

[lunavinceres]

I tend to follow the biome or taxonomic group too, but I want to think of things that are a little different from the norm and not necessarily something you'd see in real life. I've thought about doing a Fairytale forest zone, for example.

Your oasis theme sounds great and you should try it sometime!

 

[coatifan]

Your oasis theme sounds great and you should try it sometime!

Thank you! I might do a full zoo with the theme sometime later, but for now maybe I’ll make an islands building focusing on Australia but with other species from the Galapagos, Indonesia, and maybe even Madagascar.

 

[shirandhak]

Perhaps you'd like something like themepark with animals, for example "Waterworld" with some postapocalyptic ruins. Or Junglebook-World, or some "Indiana-Jones"-theme...

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

I personally really enjoy "random" zoos with only little theeming going on, with me mostly thinking about the why.
Why are these animals here?
What made the zoo adopt them?
Did they allready have had them before they started to renovate?
If yes, have they been moved from their old habitat?
Did it get renovated or destroyed?
Whos living there now?

My favorite example would be from a Zoo with its own thread, Tiergarten Friedrichswalde i think i named the zoo, where i headconnend a significant breeding group of babirusa, that had two different habitats for max efficentcy, but when their male died, they didnt need the extra space anymore so they could take in two young anteaters that needed a home quick.
I also build an old monkey house in that zoo, that now served as a small asia house.
Damn i miss that zoo.

But yeah, storytelling gives zoos an extra bit of personality and another way to have meaning in areas eventhough they arnt themed.
Also just a ton of fun to think about

 

[lala2021]

I tend to go by biome. My recent zoos (started and not finished!) are a small zoo on an island in the Med, desert biome, hot and sunny. Small animals as it's on an island and the sort of architecture found in the Med - European holidays. The sort of little zoo you'd take the kids to whilst on holiday.
My newest zoo, which I'm just planning now, is based on the Highlands Wildlife Park in Scotland. I've never been but have been to its partner, Edinburgh Zoo. The wildlife park would translate to a taiga biome and it has all sorts of cold loving animals, including the UK's only polar bears (and a baby which was born in December!).
Otherwise, I've started an African grasslands zoo, breeding the endangered animals, with the aim of getting education to 5*.
I like to give myself a story and a challenge. But I'm not very good at the building, so my ideas are great (well, I think so!) but I struggle to implement them!!

 

[dinosaurchestra]

I've been wanting to make a Yellowstone-inspired wildlife refuge featuring hidden naturalistic barriers with NA animals like bison, wolves, pronghorn and prairie dogs as well as boardwalk areas with geysers, fumaroles, paint pot pools and the like. I would love to see other people's take on such an area, or other more naturalistic wildlife refuges that hide a lot of the artificial-feeling "zoo" aspects and make you feel as if you are immersed in the natural landscape. I also have a Sonoran desert zoo that I made an entrance and nature walk for but stopped short of adding any animals, that I should really get back to sometime!

I've also started zoos/areas with architecture, biomes and species inspired by regions of India, afro-futurism, and Bogotá/Andes mountains. I like to find some specific architecture or aesthetic to emulate (though I'm still not very good at building) and try to go beyond what the game gives us for "India" or "South America". For instance the European pieces and classical pieces in something like the Bogotá build. So I love to see how others mix and match the scenery and set pieces the game gives us to elevate the themes they choose and make them feel fresh and new.

A Victorian era crystal-palace style exhibition hall and menagerie could be fun. Or a medieval/fantasy zoo - you might use animals from heraldry like lions and bears and stags, but also have something like a gazelle which the display touts as a unicorn, seals as selkies, etc.

 

[XT]

I tend to either look at existing real world gardens/parks/zoos etc. Or ... take a stab at searching for a building theme like - African Modern Architecture - and design my buildings on that look. I find searching for animal habitats not rewarding because they tend to look pretty similar. But, for example; want to do a section on african desert animals? Try searching for Ethiopian architecture, or South African colonial architecture, etc, etc. Just ... heh, toss some words together and search like ... 'biome era buildings' and see if any of the looks appeal.

 

[lunavinceres]

So I liked the idea of having a story so I did start an Australian rescue sanctuary that had received funding to home 2 orphaned Kangaroos that were now fully grown and needed a permanent home (2 kangaroos I had in my trade box for ages). But honestly I wasn't really feeling it.

I've now decided to go full British and have a zoo based at an old, abandoned castle ruins. I want the castle to be overrun by wolves but we'll see how the building goes. Do we have wild wolves in Britain now? No. Should we have wild wolves in Britain? Yes. And I'm going to do it.

It will also feature the fairytale forest. I won't just stick with European animals, but I do want to incorporate all the ones that are or historically were in the UK. I'll also pretend a brown bear and beaver are the European ones.

I'm going to do this in franchise but I'll build some stuff in sandbox. I'm currently working on an English pub to have near the entrance.

 

[NZFanatic]

I don't like to theme too heavily, and if I do theme I try and blend it into a more Spartan architectural style. So for an Africa-themed building I might have wooden walls decorated with African motifs rather than using the mud set.

 

[lala2021]

So I liked the idea of having a story so I did start an Australian rescue sanctuary that had received funding to home 2 orphaned Kangaroos that were now fully grown and needed a permanent home (2 kangaroos I had in my trade box for ages). But honestly I wasn't really feeling it.

I've now decided to go full British and have a zoo based at an old, abandoned castle ruins. I want the castle to be overrun by wolves but we'll see how the building goes. Do we have wild wolves in Britain now? No. Should we have wild wolves in Britain? Yes. And I'm going to do it.

It will also feature the fairytale forest. I won't just stick with European animals, but I do want to incorporate all the ones that are or historically were in the UK. I'll also pretend a brown bear and beaver are the European ones.

I'm going to do this in franchise but I'll build some stuff in sandbox. I'm currently working on an English pub to have near the entrance.

Love the sound of this! I might borrow a bit of your idea - I’ve seen ideas for an old abandoned jungle ruin, but I love the translation into temperate Europe! And wolves are awesome!

 

[Spiderhawk]

I had thought of some kind of extra North American theme. I consider the new world theme to have a “national park vibe”. While I see some of the aquatic architecture resembling North Atlantic (think Maine-Canada) to Northern European coastal.
someone suggested themes such as Wild West and American frontier would seem a bit more suitable for an amusement park. I would at least like some Native American scenery such as totems or native art similar to the Australian art.
I had originally predicted some kind of “Grimm/Harry Potter like theme” for Europe until the announcement of European city fusion theme.
Maybe an island theme could be a fusion of Caribbean and Polynesian.
all in all I feel like if this is the final year I’d rather just have animal packs or at least additional scenery to be added as opppesed to building packs.

 

[premierfong]

I like the indigenous around the world themes.

 

[SotF]

I had one zoo where I themed it around animals that kind of fit into the designed terrain, a lot of it was relatively random, but the idea was a canyon with a zoo filling it. I wanted a more vertical maze fitting things in while trying to keep it looking more like a heavy use of a semi-real terrain look. I'd worked on that from a bit after the aquatic pack until the NA pack when something glitched out and things failed all over so i gave up. Sure, it's an unrealistically large canyon design, but it was fun to have bison and pronghorn in the floor with other things along the sides, and seals in the water near the entrance.

Another one that I've been working on is an old farm that's being converted into a zoo. The owner shifted from normal cattle to more exotic options, replacing the cattle with bison, peafowl being common, and a few lamas, then adding in some reindeer/caribou that could be "rented" out for Christmas events before shifting more into the zoo side as the original owner passed it on to his son who wanted more of a zoo...such as culling a good chunk of the old christmas tree farm to have a timber wolf habitat and taking in some brown bears from the DFG that had been declared as nuisances. I've added more mods to expand the options with that one, being the first zoo I've used them in, just to be able to have more options for native north american animals. But I'm still, largely, keeping the old, midwestern farm theming and structure style for it

 

[lala2021]

I had one zoo where I themed it around animals that kind of fit into the designed terrain, a lot of it was relatively random, but the idea was a canyon with a zoo filling it. I wanted a more vertical maze fitting things in while trying to keep it looking more like a heavy use of a semi-real terrain look. I'd worked on that from a bit after the aquatic pack until the NA pack when something glitched out and things failed all over so i gave up. Sure, it's an unrealistically large canyon design, but it was fun to have bison and pronghorn in the floor with other things along the sides, and seals in the water near the entrance.

Another one that I've been working on is an old farm that's being converted into a zoo. The owner shifted from normal cattle to more exotic options, replacing the cattle with bison, peafowl being common, and a few lamas, then adding in some reindeer/caribou that could be "rented" out for Christmas events before shifting more into the zoo side as the original owner passed it on to his son who wanted more of a zoo...such as culling a good chunk of the old christmas tree farm to have a timber wolf habitat and taking in some brown bears from the DFG that had been declared as nuisances. I've added more mods to expand the options with that one, being the first zoo I've used them in, just to be able to have more options for native north american animals. But I'm still, largely, keeping the old, midwestern farm theming and structure style for it

That sounds so cool! I tried a while back to do something similar but based in the UK. It was an old farm, with farm building/courtyard and a walled veg garden where the peacocks are, and then it went out into the fields with deer etc. I sort of stopped then though, not really sure why!

 

[SotF]

That sounds so cool! I tried a while back to do something similar but based in the UK. It was an old farm, with farm building/courtyard and a walled veg garden where the peacocks are, and then it went out into the fields with deer etc. I sort of stopped then though, not really sure why!

Mine started due to a relatively close by farm that has shifted over to less common animals, though maintaining older ones.

They have a small bison herd they're starting, and they raise Reindeer/Caribou with a breeding program where they're going for more personable ones that can be on display while also being able to sell the meat of the less handleable ones. They'd had peacocks and several wild turkeys that are raised in captivity...the peacocks are ones they'd had for a while and were the first "exotic" species they had. In 2019, they had a few articles about issues they were having, trying to get ahold of wood bison for a second herd, though more for a conservation side of thing...and they do have a few rarer breeds of bovines along with others that are "heirloom" farm lines that aren't really desired as much now.

They also have a few other species that they have...from what I'd read then, they were discussing going public as a zoo when the entire mess happened in eastern Ohio with the guys collection getting out.

There's also the old Fermi Lab and Big Bone Bison herds which are very interesting to see.

But the idea fits a lot of what is in game, after all, with a lot of the open range species, having a steam train moving through the larger enclosures fits in quite well

It also blends into the surrounding areas from several of the US maps with the farm fields surrounding them...