Zoological Garden Wiesbach

[Fabian]

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Zoological Garden Wiesbach!
Other than a few habitat builds, I have never shared any of my zoos on the forums or anywhere else before, so I thought it was finally time to show off some of my builds and habitats in my latest project – a classical, foliage-heavy zoo in a rural area of Germany (not necessarily associated with the town Wiesbach that actually exists, as I merely thought it was a nice name for this project). Hence, all the signs and billboards (if I choose to design any, that is) will be in German as well throughout this zoo.

But let's dive into it! Part of the original concept I developed before starting this zoo was that I wanted to put more focus on realism, i.e. take into consideration how animals are actually kept in zoos around the world, what restrictions there are, and also finally get off my lazy behind and build some backstage areas, which is something I have often been neglecting in my past zoos. This is also the first time I have started to build a road around the zoo as well as some parking lots – I'm not overly excited about what I did there, but I think it does the job.

The Zoological Garden Wiesbach will ultimately be divided into six different geozones (Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, North America, South America), the first of which is already finished and the second one, Asia, currently under construction. If my computer is able to handle all that, that is. Mainly, I want to showcase a lot of realistic shared habitats that highlight the animals living in certain areas of each continent. I am using modded animals for the zoo to fill in some of the habitats we would otherwise have only one or two habitats for, e.g., the India Savannah I am currently building, but they are not shown off on these pictures of course. I will be noting down each of the animals living in each habitat, however.

Spoiler: The Entrance Area

First, the following picture shows how the zoo looks like right now from above. As you can see, I plan to have a main road cutting right through the zoo, which will extend to the right side of the road after a tunnel (and/or bridge) connection for the guests. The entire section in the mid-to-right part of the picture is reserved for staff access and a complete staff area (incl. veterinary buildings, quarantine, administration, food storage etc.), but has not been built yet.

Right behind the (not really finished) parking lot, a long pathway reveals the sight of the entrance building. On the left and right of the central fountain, a ticket office as well as a toilet building can be found – and at the right side of the entrance area, although it is admittedly quite overgrown, you might get your first glimpse at the first habitat of the Geozone Europa!

From the entrance area onward, the main pathway continues to the right side of the zoo, so neither the post-entrance plaza nor any of the other elements of that area are finished yet. I am still unsure about whether to do the traditional flamingo lagoon in that part or a lemur island, so that build is postponed for the time being. But the zoo shop has already been done, which the guest will inevitably stop by on their way to the exit area. Although I admit that the roof is not my proudest design (I can't make roofs look good no matter how hard I try), I am quite happy with the rest of the shop. For the interior, I used blueprints by Skylala and Borkey.

Spoiler: Geozone Europa and Fallow Deer

The main pathway extends to the right side of the entrance area and reveals a mixed habitat with animals living in Central Europe: the European Fallow Deer and the European Bison (Wisent). I might also include the Wild Boar in here, but they can be quite aggressive and I'm not entirely sure whether mixing them with bisons and deer would be realistic. At 9,200m², their habitat is the largest one in the zoo so far, and provides the deer in particular with more than enough opportunities to hide in the overgrown foliage of the enclosure. There are two main viewing areas for the guests, one as a side path from the entrance area (image 2), and the other one directly from the main path leading into the European Area (image 3).

 

[Fabian]

And up next, some of the smaller mammals you can find from Europe: badgers, foxes, and otters!

When we look at the opposite side of the mixed habitat, we can see two smaller habitats for two more animals living in Europe: the European Badger and the Arctic Fox. I would have used the Red Fox instead because I was really intrigued by the prospect of showing off the fox and badger next to each other, but the Arctic Fox was too cute to pass on another opportunity to build something for them.

Spoiler: Badger and Arctic Fox

In the front, you can see the badger habitat with their little burrow in the center, while the viewing opportunities for the Arctic Fox wrap around the badger exhibit and lead you to a slightly elevated area, from which you can also look down into the badger habitat and possibly find them sleeping in their little cave, if you're lucky.

After feeding time, the foxes were headed right to sleep:

They have a rather slim habitat, but still plenty of space.
The following picture shows the backstage area for the badger/foxes and the otters, including the habitat gate for the otters way back in the shadows. So far, I have only included the vet clinic and the quarantine into that building, but considering how much more space we have here, I am more than willing to return to this section and include more backstage (although the pathing was a pain to get right, and I'm still not sure if the color I chose for the building is really fitting).

Spoiler: Eurasian Otter

After the first few habitats, the path splits up in two directions – but my advice would be to go left first, because that path leads you back to the main path again very soon.

And the left path brings you down to... the otters!
No animal pictures here, since this habitat includes the Eurasian River Otter that we unfortunately do not have in the game, but it is still a habitat I am quite satisfied with. And dare I say – trying to get the water levels right in this one was one of the more nightmarish experiences I've had with the game. I wanted the guests to be able to see the otters underwater, but ultimately accepted that they would only be able to see the top ~30cm of the water from the viewing area. I wish it was a little easier to adjust your water bodies!

 

[Fabian]

Let's now take a look at what we can see if we take the right path: we get right to our wolves!
Through almost 1,000 hours of playing Planet Zoo since its launch, I have never built a habitat for the wolves before, neither arctic nor timber, and decided to finally give them a massive habitat where an entire pack of ten wolves would have enough space to roam around.

Spoiler: Eurasian Wolves

This sizeable 7,000m² habitat includes two sleeping areas (one building right in the center of the enclosure that they have entirely to themselves, and one in the backstage building). I used to think that the animals in Planet Zoo were coded to stick rather close to the habitat gate, but the wolves in this habitat seem to disprove my thought – they spend almost all of their time in that central building and never use the sleeping quarters in the backstage, and I often have to manually move them to the outside to get a glimpse of them in the forests, or to take some of the following pictures.

This is the viewing from the second floor of the viewing building, which is planned to also include a lot of information billboards about wolf conservation efforts. We were lucky enough to glimpse a wolf on the little bridge covering their water section – although she does take a dump when I did finally get such an opportunity, so there's that.

Next is a look at the backstage building. This is rather simplistic in the end, but I still love the way it turned out.

As you can see, there is a caged connection to another habitat on the right side. It leads into the habitat of the dholes, which are at the entrance of our Geozone Asien, and implies that theoretically, the Zoo might be able to rotate the wolves and the dholes. I don't know whether that is something zoos would actually do, but I thought it was a nice touch, and since their traversable area is a pain to build with, it isn't functional anyway.

And that marks the conclusion of Europe! Next up is Asia, which I am most likely going to divide into different regional sections: India, Southeast Asia and Central Asia. I have already done the dholes, but since the surrounding area is not quite finished yet, I will wait to show that off until I have concluded the main exhibit of this area, the Indian Savannah. (Although a glimpse of that habitat can already be caught in the overview picture I used in the intro post.)

 

[Founchou]

good start congratulations
I particularly like the deer enclosure and the dense vegetation on the ground. I'm always afraid to put too much but the result in your enclosure is superb.

 

[Fabian]

good start congratulations
I particularly like the deer enclosure and the dense vegetation on the ground. I'm always afraid to put too much but the result in your enclosure is superb.

Thank you!
It's the same for me, I always shy away from going too over-the-top with the foliage work. But I thought it would be really fitting in this case, and think it paid off in the end since the lush groundwork seems really appropriate for this animal. I don't really like the long grass terrain paint from the game, so the periwinkles from the Europe pack are a godsend to make the grounds look more overgrown.

 

[Fabian]

So, here's a little progress update!
I am close to finishing the Indian section, because I ultimately decided against holding Bengal Tigers in my zoo. I might still do something with the upcoming Water Buffalo, but imagine I will rather put them into my planned Southeast Asian section.

Spoiler: Overview

Here, an overview on the entire area:

At the bottom, you can see the outskirts of the wolf enclosure. The Indian section starts with a restaurant to the left, and the dhole habitat to the right. There actually isn't enough space for the dholes at the moment (although the habitat is more than 1,200m² big), but since the wolves have more than five times that space, I imagine I will take a little bit of room away from the wolves and expand the dhole habitat to an extent.
The largest part of the area is taken by the mixed species savannah, which provides room for Indian hoof stock and birds, namely: Indian Rhinoceros, Blackbuck, Nilgai, Axis Deer, Sarus Crane and Indian Peafowl. As we only have two of those species in the game, the enclosure looks a little empty at the moment, but I really hope I will be able to fill it up with actual in-game animals some day. (Until then, I might use the new Red-Crowned Crane here, but I'm not sure yet.)
The end of the India trail will lead through a little tunnel underneath the main road. On that other side of the zoo, the Southeast Asia section will find its place, and possibly an Oceania area if I still manage to squeeze it in there. Not sure if I am going to continue there next, or go to the left of this picture.

Spoiler: Restaurant

Here are some images of the Restaurant "Four Seasons", which comes with a very peaceful pond area right next to it! (Now just imagine some waterfowl in it...)

And on to the Dhole Habitat to the right of the restaurant:

Spoiler: Dhole Habitat

I actually didn't know they could use the beaver pool, but they can! As much as I tried, I didn't succeed to lure them there again for a little photo session, but I can assure you that I did see them splashing around in the beaver pool a few times.

The savannah habitat isn't entirely finished yet, so that will be part of the next post. Afterwards, I might return to the beginning and start a new area of the zoo, possibly related to the new DLC. Maybe some capybaras? What a banger of an entrance animal that would be!

 

[Fabian]

Long time no see! I haven't built in Planet Zoo for about two months, but the new DLC inspired me to get back into the game and finish off some of the areas I have already worked on before I stopped playing for a while.

First, here is an overview of the finished section. In the bottom right we can find the Dhole habitat, which I showcased in the previous post. Then the rest of the image is pretty much the Savannah habitat, and in the bottom left we can find the aviary for Red-Crowned Cranes, although given that I intended this to be an India section, I like to imagine that it's an aviary with painted storks instead.

The mixed India habitat includes three Indian Rhinos, three Wild Water Buffalos, a group of Indian Peafowls and one Malayan Tapir. It is separated into three sections: a smaller area on the right, only usable by the tapir and peafowl, the main central paddock which can also be used by the buffaloes, and the second paddock on the left which can be used by all animals including the three rhinos.
We don't have many Indian ungulates, so I had to build this with the ones we do have in game, but I'd love to feature Nilgai, Blackbuck and Chital here instead of the Tapir and Buffalo, plus maybe a Sarus Crane or something similar.

So, here are some shots of the viewing points into the mixed habitat:

A smaller area on the right meant for the smaller ungulates (i.e., the blackbucks which will definitely move in here if we ever get them officially in PZ).

A view into the central main paddock, accessible for the tapir, buffaloes and peafowl, with a large swimming pool for the tapir and the water buffaloes.

The tapir is sleeping in her little private corner, with a buffalo and a peafowl randomly passing by.

Look how beautiful it's at dawn from the upper viewing gallery, where education talks are regularly held.

A shot of the house interior (where I forgot to close the interface, but I'm too lazy to get back into the game again and redo this shot )

And a look at the connection between the house and the left paddock. A staff path on the right connects this to the future Przewalski's Horse and Bactrian Camel paddocks. Separated by a wall, this is right at the border of the zoo next to the main road.

This is the main paddock on the left of the habitat. As lush and dense it looks, the foliage is actually completely separate and inaccessible to any of the animals.

 

[Fabian]

Once again, I didn't even touch the game for two months... but when I'm back in, I'll immediately play for hours without end.

So... welcome to the India Expansion! Originally, I didn't plan to feature more than the India Savannah and the Dhole Habitat in the India section, but I began to feel like it just wasn't quite enough yet, and really wanted to continue towards the corner of the zoo, where I still had a little space left. This section is meant to be a rather recent addition to the zoo that has been opened very shortly ago, and it isn't quite finished yet, but I've managed to get quite a lot done already.

First of all, here is a little overview of the entire area. On the top left, you can see the India Savannah, where we currently have Indian Rhinos and Peafowls roaming around, although it is intended that at the very least Nilgai and Blackbuck would inhabit this habitat as well. Everything to the right of that is new!

We start right next to the plaza inbetween the dhole habitat and the savannah, where a little bridge leads us over the staff area to the new India section. I might have to do some signage here, but I wanted to leave that until I'm done with the entire area.

Then, from the bridge we can take a look at the Water Buffalo Habitat in the top corner of this area. The habitat is loosely inspired by an Ankole Watusi paddock from the Tierpark Mundenhof in Germany, where I really liked the design of the stables and the separation of the habitat. If we had Axis Deer in the game, they would definitely go into this habitat too.

The view into the stables.

And the right side of the habitat, with a little mudbath for the buffalo.



Next up, the highlight of the new India Section: the Asiatic Lion Habitat. Of course, we only have West African Lions in the game, but they are technically the Northern Lion which also includes the Indian population, so I decided to go with them anyway. (And I didn't want to include the Bengal Tiger, because I'm already planning the Siberian Tiger for another section of the zoo.)

 

[Fabian]

The first glimpse into the habitat can be caught from the roofed viewing gallery at the right corner of the habitat (see also last image: the gallery with the conservation grass roof). The lions are actually only rarely in this area, but you might get some beautiful shots at these animals from up here.

Then, from the regular path, you can basically look at the lions from every direction imaginable. There are a lot of blindspots to ensure the animals' privacy in the habitat, but there are still plenty of viewing opportunities for the guests to get a good look of the habitat and the animals in it. We currently have 3 female lions and 1 male, and one is already expecting offspring.

Then, in the middle of the habitat, a little pathway winds itself up through the habitat – here, the lions can effortlessly continue into the sections on the left underneath the path, while the guests are able to basically walk through the entire habitat and get a good look at the animals from above.

And on that pathway... you can even look at their sleeping spot! If you're lucky, like I was, you might catch one of the lions taking a nap up here (or just lying down for one...)

The lions also have a little watering hole. At this point, the rest of the habitat is so elevated that if the lions stood there drinking, the viewers would look directly into their eyes. (Thus, there are also these little stairways for the little guests to get the same opportunity.)

And then, the left part of the habitat! This area features an enormous viewing gallery with two platforms, one on the ground, one above, and a second sleeping quarter for the lions, including tons of enrichment. This is also the most natural part of the habitat, with lots of trees and rocks for the lions to find shade and privacy.