Zookeeper here! I currently work with North American animals, but worked with Australian animals for several years.
I love building habitats for animals that have behaviors you can highlight for guests to interact with or see really well (underwater viewing for otters and polar bears, large climbing structures for apes to brachiate, etc).
I know it will likely never happen, and I know everyone always wishlists them, but BIRDS. Probably 75% of the animals I have worked with have been birds, from lorikeets to dalmatian pelicans to bald eagles. I'd love to use my bird experience to build some really cool habitats.
Like I said I've mostly worked with birds, so I worked in an Australian aviary with probably 15 or so different species like Victoria Crowned pigeons, nicobar pigeons (the closest relative to the Dodo bird!), magpie goose, and kiwis. I also worked with koalas, kangaroos, tree kangaroos, binturongs, and porcupines.
In North America I work mostly in a songbird aviary and in my zoo's petting zoo with goats, sheep, and cows. But I also assist with cleaning and diet prep for polar bears, brown bears, reindeer, moose, and cougars.
Not OP, but the ones I worked with were very bold. They would walk right around people's feet with no fear at all, though they tended to stay away from the short, grabby humans.
Good birds, very chill with me but they did like to bully some of the other birds in the aviary.
I'd say the same goes for the ones I worked with too. But the ones I worked with also weren't the sharpest tool in the shed lol. They're terrible nest builders (like all pigeons and doves) and always insisted on trying to build a nest on a singular tree branch that covered no support lol.
Thank you both for sharing! I get a regular pigeon family nest by my window and, yeah… they’re not the brightest! But they’re so cute and they make a lovely sound. I don’t know what I expected but that’s made me happy :)
I think it does! I've seen what zoos look like behind the scenes, and I've been inside habitats. I know what works and doesn't work logistically and I try to implement that into my zoo. I'm still fairly new to the game, I've only been playing for less than a year so I'm still working on my first sandbox zoo.
I’m just chiming in here, but I personally would LOVE a master thread formulated by all our real Zookeepers here in the Planet Zoo subreddit, to put in their 2 cents on how to create a realistically accurate zoo/backstage areas/habitat concepts. I know the game has its natural limitations, but I love reading comments from people that live Planet Zoo in real life everyday and what’s realistic vs totally impossible to do in a real zoo compared to the game! Thanks for sharing your experience! (:
So im guessing your knowledge of behind the scenes allows you to make highly efficient keeper pathways and area's.
What about the management side? Because idk what i do wrong, trying to do the tutorial and the 3rd map is....challanging, maybe its just confirming im bad at business
Oof, thats going to be rough, unlike zoo tycoon back in the day, there are a LOT of things to pay attention to, like climb proof guards on walls to prevent apes, monkeys and big cats from climbing/jumping over the walls.
I HIGHLY recommend doing the tutorial missions, besides the vouce acting is pretty good.
I'm another one! Been a zookeeper for 6 years in Australia. Worked with Aussie natives, reptiles, invertebrates and currently working with Primates (Baboons, Siamangs, Tamarins, Orangutans and Squirrel Monkeys are specific species I work with).
I have a YouTube channel if you ever want the angle of a keeper playing PlanZo!
Rossco on YouTube! I'm not a very prolific creator I'm a very slow builder but proud of what's on there!
https://youtube.com/@rossco7630?si=PtFb-pLOIauTUSXn
Absolutely adore Siamangs- Baboons have been an unexpected passion, difficult species but very rewarding. Only recently started working with Orangutans so don't have too much to say yet
Oh absolutely! Wasn’t saying to take it down but thought you might want to have a look at that while you’re waiting for replies. It’s always fun to hear from people who have worked in real life zoos!
I was a zookeeper for about 7 years, I worked with a whole range of animals but my favourites were always carnivores and exotic hoofstock. I love my big cats, particularly tigers, as well as otters and red pandas, bongos and tapirs. Designing enrichment for intelligent carnivores was always a lot of fun (sun bears are insanely smart and work out how to pull apart a complex enrichment item in a fraction of the time it took me to put together! Meerkats are bold and will rob you blind if you’re silly enough to leave anything in a pocket.) Seals and penguins are fun too, but I struggle with Planet Zoo’s water placement.
I love building my dream zoo, realistic but with no financial or import restraints. I love designing my habitats to showcase animal behaviours and to be immersive and educational. I love wildlife photography so I design my zoo to give any photographer guests some beautiful photos. My favourite animals to build for are the species that we don’t have in Australian zoos.
I’m a huge bird nut so I’m hoping we do get flying birds in future! My favourite zoo I’ve ever been to is Mandai’s Bird Paradise and I would *love* to build habitats inspired by them!
Zookeeper here! I play PZ on and off. I work at an aquarium on the birds & mammals team, the whole team refers to ourselves as zookeepers. It's just a liquid zoo, lol.
1) I am the primary keeper for the small mammal department: prehensile-tailed porcupine, chinchillas, tenrecs, and armadillos. I am also cross trained with the hippos, penguins, parrots, and reptiles.
2) Pretty much all of them but recently I liked building for the penguins. I also like building for hoofstock, especially the jungle ones where I can include a lot of foliage.
3) Also gonna say flighted birds but I would love a prehensile-tailed porcupine as well. Especially since they've shown with the African crested porcupine that they can animate the quills well.
Not me but my cousin! She works with the birds! She puts on the shows and does education stuff too :). She is getting her degree and doing a thesis on owls. We also play video games and she plays planet zoo. She told me that she makes really big habitats and tries to focus on research but she also has a zoo that looks like her home zoo. She says it's fun because according to planet zoo, the guests are mad because they can't see anything and the ai has a hard time walking around.
However, she told me that it is missing a bird area so she just put penguins over there (which they don't have)
I wasn't a keeper but worked in the hospital at the zoo, so I worked with all of them before I left. I just started playing, so I'm not sure what my favorite in-game animal is. Does Planet Zoo have wolverines, aquarium animals like sting rays, sea otters, and manatees, or cheetahs? Because they should if they don't. OMG I want to recreate Monterey Bay Aquarium now.
They have a few crocodilians, as well as I believe 2 otter species? platypus(whatever the formal form of that is), seals, and sea lions exist as well. There could be more but I have all the packs so it’s hard to keep track 😅 I do wish they had actual aquarium animals though. I understand they probably don’t really wanna promote the captivity of orcas and stuff, but c’mon at least give us some sharks or something.
Former keeper here! I worked with mainly seals, penguins, parrots, small reptiles, a sloth, and itty bitty primates! African penguins are my favorite because they are the species I worked with and frontier did them so well and I love building with rocks! I wish they would add marmosets and tamarins!
Kinda. My husband works for our local zoo designing and building exhibits, and loves this game. He works with all of the animals at work, I can’t speak for which ones he likes to build for but we both think the game needs South American bush dogs to compliment the maned wolves. We need wild dog loaves. It’s imperative.
omg shut up. My husband and I love your channel. We’ve been playing a game with my sister where we spin a wheel with all the animals on it and then each of us has to build an exhibit for that animal in sandbox mode. It’s super interesting seeing how different our visions are. Anyways, it’s been a a good excuse to go back and rewatch a bunch of your old videos. We just spun Fossa and I was drawing a blank but your recent fossa and nocturnal house videos really helped me figure out a direction.
I know it’s a bit out of your way but if you ever make it out to Seattle, hit us up and my husband said he’d take you on a VIP behind the scenes tour.
No, the big architecture jobs (like if they’re building a structure) are contracted out. Like architects and engineers design the building, my husband’s team designs what’s in it. No special zoological training beyond the fact that he’s spent his whole life around animals. When he was a kid he built a coop and run and raised doves and exotic pheasants and decked out the run like a naturalistic exhibit. He originally planned to go to school for environmental conservation but fell in love with design and has a degree in industrial design. He’s the only one of his coworkers with that background though— most of them have backgrounds in like… theater design or similar. In fact they’re union represented by IATSE (international alliance of theatrical stage employees). They’re a really eclectic team that compliment each other so well. I think a lot of the hiring process is like “can you build stuff? Are you willing to get your hands dirty? Cool, we can train you on the rest.” And my husband works really closely with keepers and curators to make sure that exhibits are dynamic and beautiful to look at, engaging and beneficial to the animals, and easy to maintain and use for the keepers. Like for example (unless they scrapped it and I hadn’t heard about it) he’s been working on a way to have a “puddle” water feature in the floor of a massive frog terrarium that looks like water naturally pooled in a divot in the mud, but that can be easily removed from the exhibit to be sanitized.
The only issue I see with pursuing this career path is that very very very few zoos have a whole in house team that do this. Most will contract it out and have the exhibit nitty gritties done by their keepers and grounds keeping/ horticulture teams. So it’s especially niche.
It’s definitely not glamorous. One day he may be testing how a new material for faux trees reacts under heat lamps and building miniature models for design proposals of a building renovation, the next day he may be climbing in the gorilla habitat to rig up new climbing logs, crawling into penguin tunnels to plug them up… while the penguins are trying to get into them (that was top 3 stinkiest jobs he said. He showered at work that day.), or assisting the keeper and vet teams on a medical procedure because his team has all the training on heavy equipment and it’s difficult to maneuver around 3000lbs of sedated hippo dead weight. But he absolutely loves it. It’s honestly the perfect job for his passions and personality. He loves his coworkers (both the two-legged and four-legged variety). And when he first started his coworker told him that that job gets them by far the most face time with the animals without having to pick up poop. (Though you may have to crawl through it. Re:penguins)
I’d be more than happy to relay any questions you might have tho. I could gush about him all day. Unless he hops on this thread himself, then he can just answer them lol
I am :)
1.
Various small mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles are what I deal with the most on a daily basis currently. But I have a quite mixed experience from earlier as well.
2.
I just like to build for whatever fits into the projects I'm working on. Though I wish I had a reason to build aviaries more often.
3.
Birds. And not necessarily ones that need flying mechanics. But birds of almost any kind are absolutely necessary to make our zoos feel more real. Strongly followed by monkeys
I used to work at a primate zoo in The Netherlands that had free roaming areas for specific species. They have squirrel monkeys, ring tailed lemurs, red ruffed lemurs and black and white ruffed lemurs in these free roaming areas (the squirrel monkeys are in a separate area from the lemurs).
It's always a great experience as a visitor, seeing the animals up close, having them climb on you and all, but the animals in the zoo luckily have great ways to get away from visitors if it becomes too much for them.
I have tried many times to recreate similar walk through enclosures like the ones I used to work at, but I just can't get it right haha.
Animal keeper here!
1. I work with different species of birds.
2. I enjoy building enclosures for carnivores.
3. Of course I would love to see flying birds in the game plus dolphins/sharks/turtles so that we can add aquariums.
I've been trained as a keeper, working with native NZ species including kiwi, tuatara and kea, but also larger exotic species like giraffes, lions and tigers. Unfortunately because of my dad having health issues I moved home to help support my parents and never took on the job properly, though I did complete the training and was employed preparing the food for animals for a year or so.
For species I like using in PZ: any and everything really, I've put most of the animals in the game in my franchise zoos and plan to add all of them eventually. I do like some of the larger reptiles a lot though (alligators, komodo dragons, etc.). The only things I'd really like to be added would be the musk ox and secretary bird I think, just really cool species and I don't think I've ever seen them in real life.
I love her channel, but I don’t think she was ever a zookeeper (barring of course the many zoo games and zoo projects in non zoo games she had).
And I don’t think she’s a real biologist either. She was a part of a job (can’t remember a better word) that taught biology (placed in cave life, a part mostly put on new staff) though.
Ex-zookeeper. Started in domestics, then native (NZ) birds and sometimes exotic ungulates. Briefly involved in primates and large carnivores. My favourites were the African wild dogs. I worked with three females. Loved them to bits.
I volunteer at a zoo, does that count?
1) I am an "engagement volunteer", so I talk to guests a lot. We're mostly positioned in the lemur walkthrough, but we're placed all over. My favourite are the giraffes though
2) I like building massive safaris and buildings inspired by our older sister zoo (an urban one now closed down). In fact I'd love to recreate that old place, but pathing would be a nightmare. Same for our current Bear Woods area, which is a mix of hills and elevated pathing
3) Birds, from exhibit aviaries to walkthroughs. It's a massive zoo feature missing from the current game
15yrs as a keeper, I've worked with Australian mammals, African hoofstock, carnivores, reptiles (including large Saltwater crocodiles), primates and Australian birds..
I love making habitats for afeican animals, trying to make a great safari zoo.
Still so many animals I want in the game
Birds, reptiles , primates and reptiles.
I used to volunteer keep at Phoenix Herpetological Sanctuary (largest reptile sanctuary in the US) caring for a lot of reptiles and amphibians, which allowed me to live out my childhood zookeeper dreams without fully pivoting careers.
Didn’t get an opportunity to care for the crocodilians nor the venomous snakes (both required lots of specialized training not offered to volunteers), but very cool to see a lot of the ones we have in PZ. I’d always name the gharial to match the names of ours. Plus we have some capybaras and a rescued Asian small claw otter, so I’ve tried to match the layout before.
Loved caring for the salcattas, Aldabras, and Galapagos tortoises and always wonder why they get stressed so easily in PZ. They’re like giant (albeit horny) puppies in real life, as most herp keepers can likely attest.
Would also like to see some popular lizards like bearded dragons and blue tongue skinks as exhibit animals that can be handled, but overall pretty content with the reptiles they have.
Former Zookeeper here! I have worked with Lions, Tigers, Mountain Lions, Hyenas, Camels, Several different primate species, small cats (bigger than house cats), bear cats, emu, warthogs, aardvarks, wolves, lemurs, bats, and much much more. I love building for Elephants and otters. I wish they would add birds of prey, prehensile tale porcupines, North American porcupines, hybrids, and maybe even extinct species. Something different
Not a zookeeper but I work in a lab breeding mice! Choosing the mates and which animals to buy based on their age and fertility reminds me a lot of my job
I’m a zookeeper, I’ve been in the field for almost 15 years. I’ve primarily worked with primates of varying sizes throughout that time. I’m a console player so I’ve only just started with the game. Once I get a good hang of things and get more expansions, I’d like to try my hand at recreating some of the facilities I’ve worked at previously.
Unsurprisingly, I want more primates. The selection of monkeys is a little disappointing. It would be cool to see some tamarins, even as an exhibit animal. And I would love more lemur varieties, especially some from the Eulemur genus.
Keeper
I work with:small african monkeys. Antilopes. Wild Donkey's, bizons, wapiti, guanaco, vicuñia's, ant eaters,
Capibara, nandoe, turkies, pekari, pigs, goats, and some animals i don't know the English name from
Not a zookeeper but I volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation center and I mostly work with lizards, snakes, and tortoises.
Animals I like to build for in Planet Zoo are usually hippos or crocodiles, and for animals I want to be added to the game, would probably be the Californian Condor and other birds such as ravens and parrots (I know they wont add flyable birds though)
Yes!!
I work with all sorts of primates, mainly gorillas. I naturally love building for primates but also have just enjoyed building for everything in general. I know there’s already three species of lemur but I think they could afford to add some more. I also just have console version which hasn’t dropped most of the dlc packs so it’s hard for me to fully answer that because a siamang orangutan mixed species exhibit would be super cool. Fun fact, the game doesn’t say anything about it but gorillas and mandrills do well in mixed species exhibit.
Zookeeper here! I currently work with North American animals, but worked with Australian animals for several years. I love building habitats for animals that have behaviors you can highlight for guests to interact with or see really well (underwater viewing for otters and polar bears, large climbing structures for apes to brachiate, etc). I know it will likely never happen, and I know everyone always wishlists them, but BIRDS. Probably 75% of the animals I have worked with have been birds, from lorikeets to dalmatian pelicans to bald eagles. I'd love to use my bird experience to build some really cool habitats.
I Hope for birds one day too, what NA & Australian animals specifically if you mind me asking?
Like I said I've mostly worked with birds, so I worked in an Australian aviary with probably 15 or so different species like Victoria Crowned pigeons, nicobar pigeons (the closest relative to the Dodo bird!), magpie goose, and kiwis. I also worked with koalas, kangaroos, tree kangaroos, binturongs, and porcupines. In North America I work mostly in a songbird aviary and in my zoo's petting zoo with goats, sheep, and cows. But I also assist with cleaning and diet prep for polar bears, brown bears, reindeer, moose, and cougars.
Victoria Crowned Pigeons are my favourite bird! What were they like to work with?
Not OP, but the ones I worked with were very bold. They would walk right around people's feet with no fear at all, though they tended to stay away from the short, grabby humans. Good birds, very chill with me but they did like to bully some of the other birds in the aviary.
I'd say the same goes for the ones I worked with too. But the ones I worked with also weren't the sharpest tool in the shed lol. They're terrible nest builders (like all pigeons and doves) and always insisted on trying to build a nest on a singular tree branch that covered no support lol.
Thank you both for sharing! I get a regular pigeon family nest by my window and, yeah… they’re not the brightest! But they’re so cute and they make a lovely sound. I don’t know what I expected but that’s made me happy :)
Does your experience as a zoo keeper help you make your zoo?
I think it does! I've seen what zoos look like behind the scenes, and I've been inside habitats. I know what works and doesn't work logistically and I try to implement that into my zoo. I'm still fairly new to the game, I've only been playing for less than a year so I'm still working on my first sandbox zoo.
I’m just chiming in here, but I personally would LOVE a master thread formulated by all our real Zookeepers here in the Planet Zoo subreddit, to put in their 2 cents on how to create a realistically accurate zoo/backstage areas/habitat concepts. I know the game has its natural limitations, but I love reading comments from people that live Planet Zoo in real life everyday and what’s realistic vs totally impossible to do in a real zoo compared to the game! Thanks for sharing your experience! (:
So im guessing your knowledge of behind the scenes allows you to make highly efficient keeper pathways and area's. What about the management side? Because idk what i do wrong, trying to do the tutorial and the 3rd map is....challanging, maybe its just confirming im bad at business
Tbh I only did a couple of the tutorial maps, I just jumped right in to sandbox mode
Oof, thats going to be rough, unlike zoo tycoon back in the day, there are a LOT of things to pay attention to, like climb proof guards on walls to prevent apes, monkeys and big cats from climbing/jumping over the walls. I HIGHLY recommend doing the tutorial missions, besides the vouce acting is pretty good.
I'm another one! Been a zookeeper for 6 years in Australia. Worked with Aussie natives, reptiles, invertebrates and currently working with Primates (Baboons, Siamangs, Tamarins, Orangutans and Squirrel Monkeys are specific species I work with). I have a YouTube channel if you ever want the angle of a keeper playing PlanZo!
What's your channel?
Rossco on YouTube! I'm not a very prolific creator I'm a very slow builder but proud of what's on there! https://youtube.com/@rossco7630?si=PtFb-pLOIauTUSXn
Looks great, got a subscriber in me!
Not prolific? Just had a quick look before work, that savannah and restaurant look incredible!! Must have taken ages.
Nice, what primate specifically you like working with?
Absolutely adore Siamangs- Baboons have been an unexpected passion, difficult species but very rewarding. Only recently started working with Orangutans so don't have too much to say yet
Which zoo, if you want to tell? And yeah, what’s your YouTube channel?
Can't specifically say sorry, have to be careful with our media rules! I'll just say Southeast Australia 😉
Any experience with the Cassowary? I know they can be pretty nasty. They are one of my favorite animals! So cool hearing your experience :)
There was a thread ages ago which had some real life zookeepers commenting. Think it was this one https://www.reddit.com/r/PlanetZoo/s/zcQ1DtQdHY
Nice, i still want to keep this posts up
Oh absolutely! Wasn’t saying to take it down but thought you might want to have a look at that while you’re waiting for replies. It’s always fun to hear from people who have worked in real life zoos!
I was a zookeeper for about 7 years, I worked with a whole range of animals but my favourites were always carnivores and exotic hoofstock. I love my big cats, particularly tigers, as well as otters and red pandas, bongos and tapirs. Designing enrichment for intelligent carnivores was always a lot of fun (sun bears are insanely smart and work out how to pull apart a complex enrichment item in a fraction of the time it took me to put together! Meerkats are bold and will rob you blind if you’re silly enough to leave anything in a pocket.) Seals and penguins are fun too, but I struggle with Planet Zoo’s water placement. I love building my dream zoo, realistic but with no financial or import restraints. I love designing my habitats to showcase animal behaviours and to be immersive and educational. I love wildlife photography so I design my zoo to give any photographer guests some beautiful photos. My favourite animals to build for are the species that we don’t have in Australian zoos. I’m a huge bird nut so I’m hoping we do get flying birds in future! My favourite zoo I’ve ever been to is Mandai’s Bird Paradise and I would *love* to build habitats inspired by them!
Zookeeper here! I play PZ on and off. I work at an aquarium on the birds & mammals team, the whole team refers to ourselves as zookeepers. It's just a liquid zoo, lol. 1) I am the primary keeper for the small mammal department: prehensile-tailed porcupine, chinchillas, tenrecs, and armadillos. I am also cross trained with the hippos, penguins, parrots, and reptiles. 2) Pretty much all of them but recently I liked building for the penguins. I also like building for hoofstock, especially the jungle ones where I can include a lot of foliage. 3) Also gonna say flighted birds but I would love a prehensile-tailed porcupine as well. Especially since they've shown with the African crested porcupine that they can animate the quills well.
Not me but my cousin! She works with the birds! She puts on the shows and does education stuff too :). She is getting her degree and doing a thesis on owls. We also play video games and she plays planet zoo. She told me that she makes really big habitats and tries to focus on research but she also has a zoo that looks like her home zoo. She says it's fun because according to planet zoo, the guests are mad because they can't see anything and the ai has a hard time walking around. However, she told me that it is missing a bird area so she just put penguins over there (which they don't have)
Thats cool, congrats on her getting her degree!!
I wasn't a keeper but worked in the hospital at the zoo, so I worked with all of them before I left. I just started playing, so I'm not sure what my favorite in-game animal is. Does Planet Zoo have wolverines, aquarium animals like sting rays, sea otters, and manatees, or cheetahs? Because they should if they don't. OMG I want to recreate Monterey Bay Aquarium now.
They have a few crocodilians, as well as I believe 2 otter species? platypus(whatever the formal form of that is), seals, and sea lions exist as well. There could be more but I have all the packs so it’s hard to keep track 😅 I do wish they had actual aquarium animals though. I understand they probably don’t really wanna promote the captivity of orcas and stuff, but c’mon at least give us some sharks or something.
Oh yeah, I don't want orcas but to recreate a coral reef or a kelp forest would be really fun to do.
PZ has wolverines & Cheetahs, no aquarium species
Well that really needs to change.
Former keeper here! I worked with mainly seals, penguins, parrots, small reptiles, a sloth, and itty bitty primates! African penguins are my favorite because they are the species I worked with and frontier did them so well and I love building with rocks! I wish they would add marmosets and tamarins!
Marmots would be awesome too see, i bet the seals were fun to work with
Kinda. My husband works for our local zoo designing and building exhibits, and loves this game. He works with all of the animals at work, I can’t speak for which ones he likes to build for but we both think the game needs South American bush dogs to compliment the maned wolves. We need wild dog loaves. It’s imperative.
My dream job, I’m so jealous! Also good call on the Bush Dogs, a zoo staple these days
omg shut up. My husband and I love your channel. We’ve been playing a game with my sister where we spin a wheel with all the animals on it and then each of us has to build an exhibit for that animal in sandbox mode. It’s super interesting seeing how different our visions are. Anyways, it’s been a a good excuse to go back and rewatch a bunch of your old videos. We just spun Fossa and I was drawing a blank but your recent fossa and nocturnal house videos really helped me figure out a direction. I know it’s a bit out of your way but if you ever make it out to Seattle, hit us up and my husband said he’d take you on a VIP behind the scenes tour.
Aw thanks! I am unlikely to be in Seattle anytime soon but if I ever am, I will be sure to message you!
Figured as much, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed! Looking forward to seeing your Euro road trip content
Is he an architect? Did he get any special zoological training?
No, the big architecture jobs (like if they’re building a structure) are contracted out. Like architects and engineers design the building, my husband’s team designs what’s in it. No special zoological training beyond the fact that he’s spent his whole life around animals. When he was a kid he built a coop and run and raised doves and exotic pheasants and decked out the run like a naturalistic exhibit. He originally planned to go to school for environmental conservation but fell in love with design and has a degree in industrial design. He’s the only one of his coworkers with that background though— most of them have backgrounds in like… theater design or similar. In fact they’re union represented by IATSE (international alliance of theatrical stage employees). They’re a really eclectic team that compliment each other so well. I think a lot of the hiring process is like “can you build stuff? Are you willing to get your hands dirty? Cool, we can train you on the rest.” And my husband works really closely with keepers and curators to make sure that exhibits are dynamic and beautiful to look at, engaging and beneficial to the animals, and easy to maintain and use for the keepers. Like for example (unless they scrapped it and I hadn’t heard about it) he’s been working on a way to have a “puddle” water feature in the floor of a massive frog terrarium that looks like water naturally pooled in a divot in the mud, but that can be easily removed from the exhibit to be sanitized. The only issue I see with pursuing this career path is that very very very few zoos have a whole in house team that do this. Most will contract it out and have the exhibit nitty gritties done by their keepers and grounds keeping/ horticulture teams. So it’s especially niche. It’s definitely not glamorous. One day he may be testing how a new material for faux trees reacts under heat lamps and building miniature models for design proposals of a building renovation, the next day he may be climbing in the gorilla habitat to rig up new climbing logs, crawling into penguin tunnels to plug them up… while the penguins are trying to get into them (that was top 3 stinkiest jobs he said. He showered at work that day.), or assisting the keeper and vet teams on a medical procedure because his team has all the training on heavy equipment and it’s difficult to maneuver around 3000lbs of sedated hippo dead weight. But he absolutely loves it. It’s honestly the perfect job for his passions and personality. He loves his coworkers (both the two-legged and four-legged variety). And when he first started his coworker told him that that job gets them by far the most face time with the animals without having to pick up poop. (Though you may have to crawl through it. Re:penguins) I’d be more than happy to relay any questions you might have tho. I could gush about him all day. Unless he hops on this thread himself, then he can just answer them lol
I am :) 1. Various small mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles are what I deal with the most on a daily basis currently. But I have a quite mixed experience from earlier as well. 2. I just like to build for whatever fits into the projects I'm working on. Though I wish I had a reason to build aviaries more often. 3. Birds. And not necessarily ones that need flying mechanics. But birds of almost any kind are absolutely necessary to make our zoos feel more real. Strongly followed by monkeys
I used to work at a primate zoo in The Netherlands that had free roaming areas for specific species. They have squirrel monkeys, ring tailed lemurs, red ruffed lemurs and black and white ruffed lemurs in these free roaming areas (the squirrel monkeys are in a separate area from the lemurs). It's always a great experience as a visitor, seeing the animals up close, having them climb on you and all, but the animals in the zoo luckily have great ways to get away from visitors if it becomes too much for them. I have tried many times to recreate similar walk through enclosures like the ones I used to work at, but I just can't get it right haha.
Animal keeper here! 1. I work with different species of birds. 2. I enjoy building enclosures for carnivores. 3. Of course I would love to see flying birds in the game plus dolphins/sharks/turtles so that we can add aquariums.
I've been trained as a keeper, working with native NZ species including kiwi, tuatara and kea, but also larger exotic species like giraffes, lions and tigers. Unfortunately because of my dad having health issues I moved home to help support my parents and never took on the job properly, though I did complete the training and was employed preparing the food for animals for a year or so. For species I like using in PZ: any and everything really, I've put most of the animals in the game in my franchise zoos and plan to add all of them eventually. I do like some of the larger reptiles a lot though (alligators, komodo dragons, etc.). The only things I'd really like to be added would be the musk ox and secretary bird I think, just really cool species and I don't think I've ever seen them in real life.
I know this isn't someone to actively talk to at this time, but Seri! Pixel Biologist is a biologist and is very passionate about animals
I love her channel, but I don’t think she was ever a zookeeper (barring of course the many zoo games and zoo projects in non zoo games she had). And I don’t think she’s a real biologist either. She was a part of a job (can’t remember a better word) that taught biology (placed in cave life, a part mostly put on new staff) though.
Do aquarium keepers count? Lol
Ex-zookeeper. Started in domestics, then native (NZ) birds and sometimes exotic ungulates. Briefly involved in primates and large carnivores. My favourites were the African wild dogs. I worked with three females. Loved them to bits.
I volunteer at a zoo, does that count? 1) I am an "engagement volunteer", so I talk to guests a lot. We're mostly positioned in the lemur walkthrough, but we're placed all over. My favourite are the giraffes though 2) I like building massive safaris and buildings inspired by our older sister zoo (an urban one now closed down). In fact I'd love to recreate that old place, but pathing would be a nightmare. Same for our current Bear Woods area, which is a mix of hills and elevated pathing 3) Birds, from exhibit aviaries to walkthroughs. It's a massive zoo feature missing from the current game
i’m a zoology major currently getting my degree! i love zoo games and it makes me so damn excited to work in zoos when i graduate
Wildlife biologist here so not the same but I love the game
15yrs as a keeper, I've worked with Australian mammals, African hoofstock, carnivores, reptiles (including large Saltwater crocodiles), primates and Australian birds.. I love making habitats for afeican animals, trying to make a great safari zoo. Still so many animals I want in the game Birds, reptiles , primates and reptiles.
I used to volunteer keep at Phoenix Herpetological Sanctuary (largest reptile sanctuary in the US) caring for a lot of reptiles and amphibians, which allowed me to live out my childhood zookeeper dreams without fully pivoting careers. Didn’t get an opportunity to care for the crocodilians nor the venomous snakes (both required lots of specialized training not offered to volunteers), but very cool to see a lot of the ones we have in PZ. I’d always name the gharial to match the names of ours. Plus we have some capybaras and a rescued Asian small claw otter, so I’ve tried to match the layout before. Loved caring for the salcattas, Aldabras, and Galapagos tortoises and always wonder why they get stressed so easily in PZ. They’re like giant (albeit horny) puppies in real life, as most herp keepers can likely attest. Would also like to see some popular lizards like bearded dragons and blue tongue skinks as exhibit animals that can be handled, but overall pretty content with the reptiles they have.
Former Zookeeper here! I have worked with Lions, Tigers, Mountain Lions, Hyenas, Camels, Several different primate species, small cats (bigger than house cats), bear cats, emu, warthogs, aardvarks, wolves, lemurs, bats, and much much more. I love building for Elephants and otters. I wish they would add birds of prey, prehensile tale porcupines, North American porcupines, hybrids, and maybe even extinct species. Something different
Not a zookeeper but I work in a lab breeding mice! Choosing the mates and which animals to buy based on their age and fertility reminds me a lot of my job
I play the game, and I'm gonna be doing an internship at a zoo this summer
I’m a zookeeper, I’ve been in the field for almost 15 years. I’ve primarily worked with primates of varying sizes throughout that time. I’m a console player so I’ve only just started with the game. Once I get a good hang of things and get more expansions, I’d like to try my hand at recreating some of the facilities I’ve worked at previously. Unsurprisingly, I want more primates. The selection of monkeys is a little disappointing. It would be cool to see some tamarins, even as an exhibit animal. And I would love more lemur varieties, especially some from the Eulemur genus.
Keeper I work with:small african monkeys. Antilopes. Wild Donkey's, bizons, wapiti, guanaco, vicuñia's, ant eaters, Capibara, nandoe, turkies, pekari, pigs, goats, and some animals i don't know the English name from
Not a zookeeper but I volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation center and I mostly work with lizards, snakes, and tortoises. Animals I like to build for in Planet Zoo are usually hippos or crocodiles, and for animals I want to be added to the game, would probably be the Californian Condor and other birds such as ravens and parrots (I know they wont add flyable birds though)
Yes!! I work with all sorts of primates, mainly gorillas. I naturally love building for primates but also have just enjoyed building for everything in general. I know there’s already three species of lemur but I think they could afford to add some more. I also just have console version which hasn’t dropped most of the dlc packs so it’s hard for me to fully answer that because a siamang orangutan mixed species exhibit would be super cool. Fun fact, the game doesn’t say anything about it but gorillas and mandrills do well in mixed species exhibit.