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The Planet Zoo Files - Part 2.
Chapter two is here. :) I honestly don't know that this is going to have more than maybe five readers in all, but let's put a little warning here anyway. This is a realistic zoo simulator. Animals die in this game. Also, they don't follow human social conventions, and have some rather messed up family dynamics. If that's not something you're in the mood for today, or ever, it's perfectly fine if you give this a pass.
Part two starts with the criminally cute fennecs. They always look so happy. Actually, most animals in this game do. Not the new Amur leopard that's in a yet-to-be-released expansion, though. That one looks like it's seen some sorrows.
I like how many expressions these little guys make. They've got presence!
That yawning animation, though! You can see another galaxy in there if you squint.
Snoozzzzzz....
Meanwhile, over at the lion place.
Kira and Sebastian's second litter was a female and a male. The one in front is Lulu, and in the back is her brother Leonard.
My wild dog Adele died. :( She was one of Natasha and Mattias' puppies. Her sister Ayla had already passed away from old age, and now the turn had come to her and Omani. She was still alive in this picture. Animals can't die in their sleep. They wake up to do their "croaking" animation. I don't like it.
The notification for the final sister came right after. Omani, who was the Alpha female, met her end up on the hill.
It looked like she was observing the animals in the savanna habitat below. Maybe she was. When I unpaused the game after taking pictures of her, Omani started running down the slope. Then she took one final leap, landed on the roof of the little tunnel to the cave inside, and left this sinful earth. She really went out in glory.
OHAI, baby meerkat. I love those tiny little fangs they have!
Warthogs probably don't get enough love. Have a warthog. :)
The ostriches are one of the most long-lived species in the game. They live to around 60 years of age. It's also incredibly easy to multiply these guys, so you've got to use contraceptives liberally if you don't want a giant crowd. At this point, the ostriches were a relatively small family of six. There was grandma Adamma, who I think is the one you see in front there, her daughter Abiona, and Abiona's daughter Olabisi - who was also her sister. Yeh, Abiona didn't get on birth control fast enough, and had offspring with her father. x( The current Alpha male is Ekon, who descends from Adamma's son Lateef - who was also the father of Abiona and Olabisi. He was released to the wild ages ago. Then there was Ekon's mother, Bejide, and his sister Ebbie.
Of this gang, only Ekon and Ebbie are still around in my current save. Ekon and his mate Hasina have had many children and grandchildren since then, though!
The black wildebeest is also an overlooked species in my opinion. I can't explain it, but I'm really invested in the animals many people would consider boring, and not all that into "exciting" animals like leopards and tigers. I like the lions, though. In the original Zoo Tycoon they were my favourites.
This is Nedulu. He was the Alpha of the sable antilopes.
The habitats were many species can live together are always my favourites. I love the variety. OHAI baby rhino Delma, who's making her photo debut here. You'll see more of her.
The tan and white gazelle-like animal is a springbok. I've finally learned to tell them apart from the Thompson gazelle!
I thought it was time to introduce some flamingos into the park. This is the first guy I adopted. He arrived almost headless.
And now for a very special animal! Blog readers, meet Greg!
It's no secret that I absolutely love and adore old, inaccurate depictions of dinosaurs. The older and less scientifically on point they are, the better!
And among the bonkers designs, my true love is the bendy-necked plesiosaurs.
There's a part of me that really wishes dinosaurs for real looked like this. Then again, if they did, then that would be completely factual and scientific, and that would mean we wouldn't think of them as looking hilarious.
That angry bat, though.... x)
Many old parks had or still have sculptures in that style, and my test zoo absolutely needed a tribute to that long lost art. I told you the landscaping tools let you do very crazy stuff, and here's the proof.
I posted Greg on Reddit in the r/PlanetZoo sub, and he received almost 300 upvotes. x) That's pretty good for a small sub like that one. I felt almost bad that he outperformed other users' beautifully designed habitats and recreation areas that were posted that day. But only almost, because I thrive on attention. :D
.....as long as it's the positive kind.
He wasn't quite done yet, however. Since then he's received a tail, pathetic little flippers made out of rocks, and he's squirting water out of his nose. I remembered later that it was the itchyscratchysaurus who had the nose fountain according to Victorian scientific(?) insights, not the plesiosaurs, but whatever. He's Greg, and he can shoot water if he wants to.
Good job!
I've never felt the need for a lemur plushie before, but I think I need one now!
The park has penguins now. :) They share a habitat with the flamingo. It's fine, they're African penguins and not really cold climate birds. Their habitat has this deep diving-pool on one side, and a shallow lagoon on the other, separated by a tall sandbank.
I feel like the pool looks barren and dull, but there aren't any saltwater plants in any of the expansions I own. The penguins probably wouldn't like it if I put in freshwater plants, and the guests wouldn't be able to see them as well.
Then I discovered how much I like the moonlight in this game!
I think the springboks liked it too, because when they walk side by side like this it usually ends with a baby!
But as new ones arrive on the planet, and step into the light, others have to leave. In loving memory of Baderinwa, the first Nyala in the park.
Even the derpy dad seemed to be in awe of the gorgeous starry sky above! Someone plz to convert this skydome for Sims 2, we neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed it! D:
At least the guests can't get their heads stuck in the shop window. O_o It would probably be funny the first time it happened to a kid, and then it would quickly get old.
Maybe if it was only a very rare occurrence...... LOL!
In loving memory of Nekiru!
*YAWN*
"Sleepytiemzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...."
"Look! The glass is actually a force field!"
"Hiiiii! It's been five minutes, and I'm still cute!"
I have to admit she's right.
Apparently Vickie from Dark Shadows started going by her mother's surname and took a job working the information booth. Poor Vickie needs a break, but Barnabas will be happy to know that she's staying out of trouble and isn't Mrs. Bradford-Clark.
I'd had the oldest daughters of Wambo and Spoopa, cousins Akini and Benni, in storage for a few in-game decades. Their bloodline (that sounded a bit evil dynasty) had progressed far enough that they weren't closely related to the current Alpha. I want to see if I can 1: Bring back Spoopa's ghostly coat, and 2: Keep the original family going by breeding very distantly related animals to each other. Yeah, I'm treating this like Sims.
I know people think the hyena model is cartoony, but I kind of love the large, shiny eyes. They remind me of Beanie Boos, almost.
I just wish they were as cute and cuddly as they look.
Suddenly the cold night of winter descended again. The wild dogs sought shelter in their log cabin.
The lemurs retreated into the Glitchenhaus, where one of them sat on an invisible chair.
Ren plopped down below a rock arch. Not very warm under there, but at least he was out of the snow.
One of his kids found an even better spot to hunker down. Seriously, get into the cabin! It's warm in there!
I wish you could grab animals with the cursor and plop them down elsewhere, like you can in ZT2.
Here we've got the beginning of the Australian section. :D That kangaroo statue is animated. I thought I was hallucinating the first time it moved! I had to hide the utility building from the guests' view, so I placed this premade decoration in front of it. Guests can't see very far, apparently! You'll see more of this area later, in another chapter.
The pygmy hippos were smart and went inside. Yes, the game calls them "pygmy" hippos. I don't know if that's a questionable word or not, in relation to animals.
The standard hippo, across the street for them, was very confused. That one's name's Alika. She's a rare colour variant.
This is her dude, Egon. They've got two children, Levi and Abisi. I released Levi, because more than one adult male hippo is too much. None of the children have had Alika's colouring.
Egon has another daugher, named Kayna, with his second mate (LOL, they're a ship's crew!) Kesia. There are too many animals named Kesia in the zoo, but hippos are among the long-lasting ones, so she can keep her name. I'll rename the mayflies.
The inhabitants of the savanna enclosure ran to one of the available shelters.
There are always some stubborn souls who just won't go into the heated shelters, even though there's plenty of room. Instead they run under the nearest tree, and stay there until winter is over. Luckily for them, winter usually just lasts one night. I put some heaters down in the most popular hang-out spots, to give them more places to hide from the cold. Since this habitat often gets fed at night, it made sense to make the regular feeding area a warm zone.
Here's Benni taking a nap. (I seem to remember that it's Benni, anyway.)
Hi, Delma! Come in, it's freezing out there!
Random baby wildebeest? I mean, it's probably one of my "chosen ones," that will continue the family. But I failed to write down who it is. Kojo Junior? I think it's Kojo Jr! He'll be the Alpha one day. I just want to get a couple of more offspring out of the guy who's Alpha now, because he's got great genetics.
Charlie and Safiya are siblings. Their mother is an older female name Ameenah, and their father was Jayvyn, son of Saleem, son of Spoopa. Jayvyn (also a commonly recurring name) was released when Charlie came of age, because Charlie had better stats.
This is Akini, I think. I wanted to breed her because she was the only offspring of Wambo, who again was the only offspring Hamisi - everyone's (great etc.) grandpa - had with Sibongile.
Winter was mercifully short. Alika and Egon went for a romantic, moonlit walk in the spring of morning. <3
And this is a nice place to end this chapter! TTYSoon, readers!
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It's good that the lighting in the game lets us see all the romantic walks under the moonlight. And the babies that come later are way too cute~~!
I think penguins are perfectly happy with just rocks and water. That's what their enclosure is like in my city's zoo (with really high rocks, and elevated platform for tourists to watch them), and they seemed perfectly happy last time I went there.
I love Greg. You're absolutely right: every park needs a slightly unrealistic dinosaur.
[If I were there, I'd try my best to get under the nose-fountain too]
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The babbiz are so stinking cute, I wish I could freeze them in time! But new ones keep coming, so there's always cuteness around.
It's true, I guess penguins do live in some very barren places. As long as there's fish....!
I wonder if I'll be able to carve out a friend for Greg. There's a lot more development around his little pond now, but if there's room I'll try to make an ichthyosaur. His name will be Henry, and they can have water-spouting contests every day of their lives.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
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It's not like creatures made of stone can't complain that the pond is too small for them both, so do it!!! With an ichtiosaur made as well as rock carving can do, it will be even more like a scene from the old pictures!
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"I think you forgot to sharpen your sword today, Oddmund! It stopped half way through me!"
"Aye, but I sharpened the other side!"
[Vegard's head goes flying]
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I for real thought the kids were wearing doofy masks!
Apparently Vickie from Dark Shadows started going by her mother's surname and took a job working the information booth. Poor Vickie needs a break, but Barnabas will be happy to know that she's staying out of trouble and isn't Mrs. Bradford-Clark.
XD
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