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Site Last Updated:
April 13, 2004

You can keep exhibits square to cut down on fencing requirements.
You can make exhibits L-shaped to provide shy animals with additional privacy. This has the added benefit of allowing space for food stands, restaurants, attractions or park areas.
You can make exhibits oddly shaped for the heck of it, to fit into an unusually configured empty space, or because you find the effect pleasing.

On September 15 on the in game calendar (the date of the signing of the contract between Microsoft and Blue Fang for Zoo Tycoon), a biplane with the Microsoft logo flies across the map pulling a banner with the Blue Fang logo.
On their own turf, penguins are capable of killing pretty much any animal in the zoo.
Guests entering the zoo on January 1 (New Year's Day) on the in-game calendar may be sick.
October is Dinosaur Month! Purchase all dinosaurs at half price during the in-game month of October.
On October 31 on the real-world calendar, all guests and buildings wear orange and black in honor of Halloween, a jack-o-lantern is available from the buildings and items menu, and a wicked witch flies over the zoo on a broomstick.
On game date October 31 (Halloween), a witch flies over the zoo on a broomstick and a jack-o-lantern is available from the buildings and items panel.
On game date December 25 (Christmas), Santa Claus flies over the zoo in his sleigh.
On game date December 25th, you will be able to buy Christmas Trees and Frosty the Snowman for your zoo.
Place a Mermaid Statue in an exhibit or show tank and it changes into a real mermaid. The Mermaid will not appear in the adopt an animal menu; however, you can continue dropping Mermaid Statues into water tanks to "adopt" more.
When penguins reach a happiness rating of 90+, they will do a happy dance.
When lowland gorillas reach a happiness of 90+, they will do a happy dance.
Crazy Water Fountain: Enter the menu to buy a fountain. Right click on the "Elephant Fountain" and press [Shift] + [Ctrl] + [Alt]. Your fountain will spray water all over your guests.

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Space at the front of your zoo will eventually become the most important and valuable, so plan accordingly.  Begin building a little way in, and make the heart of your zoo, with food, attractions, and popular animals near the center to draw guests further in.
When leveling hilly terrain, raising sunken terrain, or making cliffs, use the cliff-making tool. It's faster and cheaper than the hill tool, and allows you to control hill-creep outside of your exhibit.
Bloodlines and gene pools: The game doesn't consider gene pool and the effects of inbreeding on real-world bloodlines, so neither need you. You can build a continually healthy, long-term exhibit based on one or two mating pairs if the conditions are right.
Herbivores are generally more adaptable and easier to care for than carnivores; comparatively stupid animals are easier to manage than smart ones.
Monkeys will climb trees to escape their exhibits. Keep tall trees away from fences in their enclosures.
Want to easily keep track of births to aid in crowd control? Name animals with gender specific names and numbers for quick & easy reference. Periodically pause the game to check the animals in an exhibit - you can tell at a glance which are male (Mike Lion 1, Bob Lion 4), which are female (Betty Lion 2, Veronica Lion 3), and which have been born since your last check (Lion 5, Lion 6). The number also helps you to discern relative age so you can sell off older animals before they die, while keeping the younger ones for breeding, health and attractiveness. Just be sure to rename any baby animals you keep!
Include a variety of tricks in your aquatic shows. Guests don't like too much repetition.
Guests attend aquatic shows if they happen to be nearby when a show starts. Place these exhibits near high-traffic areas for best results.
Set aquatic grandstands one tile back from the tank. Any nearer and the animals won't perform; any farther and the guests won't be able to see.
No animal can climb a cliff-face that is two elevations above its starting point. Be aware of this when designing exhibits for cliff-loving animals.
When building exhibits, best results come from establishing habitat (terrain), adding shelter, then foliage, rocks, and finally toys. Putting rocks before foliage will work, but will not maximize animal happiness or exhibit suitability.
Every animal house can add special exhibits. Click on the house to bring up its dialog window, then click on the notepad icon to show exhibits and choose which ones you'd like to use. You'll have to pay for research to get new exhibits in the houses, but each addition rewards you with bonuses to guest happiness.
Periodically check your exhibits for animal crowding or shrinkage. Crowded exhibits make animals and guests unhappy, and are a source of revenue for your zoo when you sell of the extra animals. Smaller exhibits with slow-reproducers are prone to emptying as animals die, and an empty exhibit does nothing for your zoo!
Some scenarios require a minimum guest happiness rating to win. Since guests enter the park at a happiness of 75, new guests will decrease your average GH and could cause you to lose the scenario. Just before the scenario ends, jack your admission price up to $100.00. This will seriously restrict the influx of new guests and should stabilize your happiness rating, allowing you to win the game. Alternatively, you can block the zoo entrance with a large fence and keep guests from leaving or entering the park, but this could affect the happiness of your incarcerated guests, so use at your own risk.
Don't forget that the Dinosaur Recovery Team (DRT) are considered staff. Once you place their building, you won't be able to move, sell, or bulldoze it. You'll have to fire and then rehire the staff if you change your mind about location.
Guests can see down about as far as they can across (10 tiles), so you can place high elevation and flat land exhibits next to each other if you can get the terra-forming right. Just build your high elevation exhibit first, then use the cliff tool to flatten the other exhibit into a pit-method plateau. Run paths at both elevations, with stairs for easy guest access. The effect is really nice, and this has the added bonus of eliminating the need for fencing in the second exhibit (provided the entire enclosure is at least one-two tiles below surrounding elevation).
Freeform games start with limited choices in animals, objects, foliage and buildings.  More items become available as the game progresses, about every three months or so, until all unlocked items are accessible - roughly two years in game time.

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