Helpful Hints for Happy Zoo Tycoon Animals at The Zoo Enclave

Leopards: African Savannah, 35 tiles per animal, Rock Cave, 90% suitability

Habitat: 70% Savannah grass, 20% rainforest, 5% dirt, 5% fresh water, 6% rocks, 15% foliage - Boabab, White Thorn Acacia
Regular leopards are the easiest type of leopard to care for, and reproduce fairly well.

Black Leopards: South Asian Rainforest, 20 tiles per animal, Rock Cave, 90% suitability

Habitat: 85% rainforest, 10% grass, 5% dirt, 6% rocks, 15% foliage - Foxtail Palm, Mangrove tree, Rainforest Fern

These animals need some privacy to be happy, so make at least one full wall (or its equivalent in large spans of wall) opaque.

Clouded Leopards: South Asian Rainforest, 35 tiles per animal, Rock Cave, 90% suitability

Habitat: 80% rainforest, 20% grass, 5% dirt, 6% rocks, 15% foliage - Mangrove, Rainforest Palm.

These animals need some privacy to be happy, so make at least one full wall (or its equivalent in large spans of wall) opaque.

Snow Leopards: Central Asian Highlands, 35 tiles per animal, Rock Cave, 90% suitability

Habitat: 60% snow, 30% gray rock, 10% brown rock, 10% rocks, 1% foliage - Himalayan Pine, Himalayan Birch
Use some hills: about 50%, or until you start getting sad faces.
These animals need some privacy to be happy, so make at least one full wall (or its equivalent in large spans of wall) opaque.

Helpful Hints for Happy Animals:

Animals need an appropriate habitat. They need shelter, food, water and enough room in a clean pen to stay healthy. Some need more privacy than others, and some require toys, too, or they get bored and unhappy. How you choose to meet these needs is up to you, but here are a few ideas to consider:

Assign a zookeeper to the exhibit, and only that exhibit.
Set paths back at least one tile from the exhibit.
Try putting watering holes at the edges of exhibits, with shelters toward the middle or back. This encourages animals to come out into guest view, while also allowing them some privacy when they need it.
Zookeepers cannot swim. Remember this when building watery exhibits and be sure there is a land path to all shelters and/or islands. Otherwise, you'll end up with pockets of poo that can't be cleaned and very unhappy animals.
If you're using the pit method in building exhibits, be aware that zookeepers can climb or jump down one elevation, but no more than that. Exhibits sunk one tile into the ground will be fine, but those sunk (or raised) two levels or more will need step-down elevations for zookeeper access.
Some animals, especially herd animals, prefer combined exhibits.
Many animals prefer several medium and small rocks instead of a few big ones.
Place foliage four to a grid-square whenever possible.
Animals get a happiness boost whenever a zookeeper visits, but how long that keeper stays doesn't matter. For borderline or particularly picky animals, pick up a zookeeper and drop him in the exhibit for a second. Do this a few times and you should see happiness improve. Unless the animals were already trending up in happiness, the effect won't be permanent, however! Take additional steps to improve your happiness ratings.
Don't run Marine shows on "continuous;" show animals need breaks, too.
Snow leopards, pandas, unicorns, and warthogs tend to be very shy and feel easily overcrowded. Hippos can feel crowded by too many guests, too; keep this in mind when building their habitats.
Chimpanzees like to play in Orchid trees, and Orangutans play in Durian trees. These trees can also count as shelters for their respective animals.
Elephant seals like their tanks deeper by one tile than other aquatic animals.
Flamingos like their water reeds 4 to a square.
Try putting watering holes at the edges of exhibits, with shelters toward the middle or back. This encourages animals to come out into guest view, while also allowing them some privacy when they need it.
Periodically check your exhibits for animal crowding or shrinkage. Crowded exhibits make animals and guests unhappy. Smaller exhibits and/or those with slow-reproducers are prone to emptying as animals die, and an empty exhibit does nothing for your zoo!
Avoid crowding. Sell off "extra" animals and shelter the inhabitants from too many guests. But beware - Ostriches get very angry if you sell off too many animals in their exhibit at one time. Prune them gently and routinely for best results.
Once Gorillas and Ostriches get angry it takes a long time for them to get over it, so be careful when messing around with their habitats.
Don't put prey in with predator, unless you're trying to feed your animals a very realistic diet - which isn't necessary and doesn't (in this game, anyway) actually appease their hunger. It's a waste of money without any positive impact on your zoo.

All Animals, All the Time!
On this page you'll find general hints, tips and tricks for making and keeping your exhibit animals happy and healthy.

Exhibit Suitability
Want to get the highest suitability ratings possible? There are several websites (Wisco's and Pixigger's are two prominent examples) that will outline very high suitability exhibits square by square for each animal. If you're interested in finding out on your own, however, here are some tips that can help:

1. Whenever possible, start with just one type of terrain.

Pleasing Unhappy Animals

What does the Zookeeper say?
Check Zookeeper recommendations and see if they have any suggestions for you.

Check your suitability!
Look at your suitability rating - is it in the green? If not, you'll need to tweak your exhibit. Suitability can mean hard or soft habitat (shelter and terrain or rocks, foliage and toys). Animal crowding and privacy can also affect it. It's a large umbrella for an established exhibit, and you may have to experiment to find the right combination.

How's the terrain?
Animals need the right terrain in the right combinations to feel happy in their artificial habitats. Is it flat or mountainous enough? Check the animal information guide supplied with the adoption tab if you have any questions about the terrain and the zookeeper's not talking.

Check for trampled terrain. 5 types of terrain can be affected: grass, savannah, rainforest, coniferous and deciduous. Trampled terrain shows up as red dots on the mini-map in the bottom left hand corner of your screen. Or you can hide foliage and buildings, turn on your terrain tool, and search the exhibit square-by-square. Trampled terrain squares are outlined in yellow, and the game will give you a "trampled terrain" tool tip when you run your cursor over the spots. No bulldozing is necessary: just click on the spot and add the appropriate terrain.

How about the foliage, rocks and toys?
Do you need more? Less? Different kinds? Try adding, subtracting, and using different combinations while watching the happy/sad face signals your animals send up.

How many animals are in the exhibit?
Does this animal like a lot of companionship, or would he prefer to be alone or in small groups? Even the most gregarious can get overcrowded - try selling off a couple of animals (ignore the happy/sad faces in this case) and watch the happiness ratings for a couple of days. If the happiness goes up, then selling was the way to go; keep going until you get into the green. Either that, or consider enlarging your exhibit(s) if you want to keep the animals. Conversely, try adding a companion for lone animals and see if that improves their dispositions.

What about privacy?
Do the animals have enough privacy? Try moving shelters to the back or center of the exhibit (depending on configuration) away from the crowds. There are other options to try if your inhabitants are feeling crowded by too many guests.

Do they have enough room?
It's not just exhibit size and crowding that matter, but also the configuration of that exhibit with respect to softscaping (foliage, rocks and toys). Some animals need more concentrated areas of empty space (like the Siberian Tiger, who prefers 50% of his exhibit open). Try moving softscaping to the outer edges of the enclosure, or concentrating patches together. This will give the animals more room to run/spread out.

What about the zookeepers?
Do you employ enough? Too many animals with too few zookeepers mean lots of poo and sick animals in your exhibits, which tends to make them unhappy. Trying assigning at least one keeper to each exhibit, and keeping a couple of "spares" who can roam where needed.

I've tried everything and the animal still isn't happy!
Once angry enough, some animals seem to never be happy again. This is particularly true for gorillas and ostriches. If you've tweaked your exhibit up to very high suitability, assigned a zookeeper and relieved crowding, and your animals are still angry, sell them and buy new ones.

a. Though it's cheapest to start with either dirt (most animals like at least a little dirt in their exhibits) or your animal's preferred type, any kind will do; this is just to give you a baseline.
b. If you're using a freeform or scenario with one type of terrain already (i.e., the grassy zoo), then don't bother changing at all. Just start with what you've got.

2. Fence your exhibit and add your animals.
3. Terrain: Select the type of terrain you wish to start with, and begin adding one tile at a time. Watch your animal feedback (happy/sad faces) and keep placing the new terrain until the animal stops producing faces. This means the animal is neutral to any more of that type of terrain.

a. Check your zookeeper recommendations for the next type of terrain you need to add.
b. Replace the last neutral square with the new type of terrain.
c. Repeat steps 3-5 for all types of terrain added until the exhibit floor is complete. Dont forget to add fresh water for drinking!

4. Shelter: Add a shelter for your animals. Use enough for minimum growth, or leave spaces for planned additions if you plan to let/hope for the animals reproduce frequently.

a. For exhibits with a definite "back," place the shelter(s) there.
b. Exhibits set up for viewing on all sides should have shelters placed in the deep center (furthest away from guest view) for privacy.
c. Be sure to use a suitable or favorite shelter.

5. Foliage: Use the animal's favorite foliage (listed on the information panel of the adoption box) as your primary source of greenery.

a. Add plants 2 or 4 to a square until you see two sad faces in a row. (You should ignore the first sad face on any new square because the animals will often make a sad face for the first placement, and a happy face for any subsequent placements. This only applies to 4 to a square plantings, though.)
b. Undo your last planting the one that caused the sad faces and any immediately preceding sad face plantings.
c. Once sad faces appear, switch to a new kind of plant from that type of habitat (rainforest, savannah, etc) and repeat the planting process until the animal makes sad faces for all new placements.

6. Rocks: Most animals like some type of rock in their exhibits.

a. Start with one or two large rocks, depending on exhibit size.
b. Fill in with small and medium rocks, 2 or 4 to a square, until the animal produces sad faces.
c. Undo / remove any sad face-producing rocks.

7. Toys: Add the appropriate toy(s) for the animals. Be sure to include enough to support your animal population.
8. Assign a zookeeper to the exhibit.

Appeasing Animals Crowded by Too Many Guests

Set known shy animals back away from high-traffic areas.
Enlarge the exhibit.
Establish viewing areas at least one square away from the path.
Using the cliff tool, sink the exhibit 1-2 tiles into the ground. The animals' elevation will be that much lower than the guests' elevation and the animals won't be able to see the guests, though guests will still be able to observe your animals. This is known as the Pit Method.
Make walls opaque, two tiles at a time.
Widen existing or planned paths (3-5 squares wide). Guests who are just trying to get from one part of the park to another will be less likely to crowd animals.
Don't put paths on all four sides of an exhibit (unless it's a really big exhibit). Most animals are happier if paths are restricted to 1-2 sides.

A Word About Leopards

Leopards prefer their exhibits finished before they move in. Do as much as possible before adopting your animals, and pause the game to make any major changes (i.e., changing the shelter type) to established habitats.

Pesky Animals That Just Won't Breed

Breeding is a random function of the game. Every animal is coded with a breeding chance of 0-3. Animals with 0 chance won't breed at all, while "good" breeders (like lions) are set at three. Other animals (endangered species, for example) are set between with a 25-75% chance of breeding provided conditions are right. Known good and bad breeders are:

Good/Fast			Bad/Slow
Flamingos	Ostriches	Warthogs	Elephant Seals	Markhors
Hyenas	Polar Bears	Wildebeest	Endangered Species	Okapi
Lions	Tigers	Zebras	Leopards (exotic varieties)
Moray Eels	Tuna

Do you have at least one breeding pair?
You need at least one male and one female to produce offspring. Some animals (notably pack, flock, and herd) do even better with one male to multiple females.

Place males in exhibits before placing females:
The game runs a breeding algorithm every time you place an animal in an exhibit. Males are generally ready to breed more frequently than females are, so place them first, then add females. This way, your female has a viable shot at breeding as soon as you place her in the exhibit. If you place the female first, then with no male to breed you'll have to wait until the next cycle for a chance at a baby.

Are conditions right?
Animals won't breed in non-suitable exhibits, so get your suitability into the green, at least, and chances improve as suitability increases. Unhappy animals don't breed, either. Check your happiness ratings to see if they need improvement. This may mean changing terrain, altering fence type, adding foliage, rocks or toys, providing more water and/or moving the animal shelter to the back of the exhibit for privacy.

What about room to run?
It may be that they don't have enough room for babies. Try enlarging the enclosure.

Have you researched animal fertility?
Go to the Research & Conservation dialog box to make sure this program has been completed. If not, check it for completion. Uncheck other programs if you're anxious to see some babies.

Still won't breed? Try these tricks:

Build a complete suitable exhibit and then move the animals in.
Pick the animals up, move them, and then put them back. The game will check conditions again once they're back in their exhibits.
Animals can be picky, too, and it might just be your pair. Sell existing animals and replace them with new ones.

*Suggestions for Successful Combined Exhibits*
Hippos, Flamingos Wildebeest, Ostrich, Gazelle, Zebra, Giraffe Wildebeest, African Buffalo Lions, African Buffalo Bengal Tiger, White Bengal Tiger, Black Leopard, Clouded Leopard Grizzly Bear, Black Bear Asian Elephant, Okapi Okapi, Mandrill Komodo Dragon and Saltwater Crocodile Chimpanzee, Gorilla, Mandrill, Bongo, Okapi, Orangutan Manta Ray, Barracuda	Camel, Gemsbok Panda, Asian Black Bear Ibex, Llama, Markhor, Bighorn Sheep Malaysian Tapir, Asian Elephant, Javan Rhino Cheetah, Lion Olive Baboon, African Elephant, Black Rhino Sea Lion, Sea Otter Great White Shark, Sperm Whale Orca, Sperm and Humpback Whales Sperm Whales, Humpback Whale, Bottlenose Dolphin Hammerhead, Maco and Tiger Sharks
I've tried and had very good success with combinations noted in red.

Endangered Species

Black Leopard
Bowhead Whale
Common Sawfish
Giant Panda
Japanese Serow

Javan Rhino
Komodo Dragon
Lowland Gorilla
Macrauchenia
Malaysian Tapir

Mexican Wolf
Orangutan
Przewalski's Wild Horse
Whale Shark
White Bengal Tiger

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Site Last Updated:
April 13, 2004