best animals to start your zoo with

[quailherder]

i have played for a while now got a big zoo and everything i just know i world have loved to see something like this.
i reckon a like tapir or something but i dont know wonderd if someone else did for people who just start off

[Amigurumi]

Peafowl are the best to start with, because they're cheap and guests can walk through their habitat without stressing them. They also barely cost anything to feed, even if you have 20 of them. Several different exhibit animals are very good to have in an area together too, to make it easier to care for them. You can breed them and sell their offspring for cash to help finance your new zoo. Try the iguanas and snakes especially, because they live a long time so you won't have to buy new ones as often.

[jcp011c2]

Exhibit animals are money makers but IMO not very interesting either. But they work well for financing new zoos.

For habitat animals I'd say Warthogs over peafowl now because the do breed a lot but not like crazy like peafowl do. Their habitats can get to be a disease risk but not every time you blink like peafowl. But yeah, peafowl are fairly cheap to feed just not easy to keep clean. now that research is shared and you don't have to rush one way glass, tapir are easy starter animals too. Giraffes and ostriches may not be the first animals you want to go for, but they should be okay fairly early into the zoos. And Bison are extremely low maintenance, but they do cost a fair amount to feed.

As far as carnivores I'd say African Wild Dogs, Hyenas , Cheetahs and Timber Wolves are your best bet for new zoos. And finally I'd say the South American pack animals are too new for me to really give a good thought on, but it seems llamas aren't going to be that difficult to keep.

[meka3715]

For me it depends on the biome that I'm playing in. Like everyone has mentioned already, peafowls are a really safe bet to start off with.

In my franchise, I just started my 4th and 5th zoos in the temperate and desert biomes. I started my temperate zoo with panda bears and red pandas. & for desert, the camel and gemsbok/springsbok. Both are going well and my zoo is profitable. This was my first time starting off with animals that probably wouldn't be recommended for starting out....but it's worked very well in boosting guests numbers and profits.

[jcp011c2]

Originally posted by meka3715:

For me it depends on the biome that I'm playing in. Like everyone has mentioned already, peafowls are a really safe bet to start off with.

In my franchise, I just started my 4th and 5th zoos in the temperate and desert biomes. I started my temperate zoo with panda bears and red pandas. & for desert, the camel and gemsbok/springsbok. Both are going well and my zoo is profitable. This was my first time starting off with animals that probably wouldn't be recommended for starting out....but it's worked very well in boosting guests numbers and profits.

Oh gosh yeah, biomes definitely make a different. My desert zoo started with a camel after the exhibits...so yeah. there's that.

And agree on the pandas, both kinds. They can get pricey on the trade market, but if someone can find cheap, decent stats and not too old they should get them because they don't cost that much to keep and they bring in a ton of visitors.

[Terrence]

In my experience, I started with the Timber wolf, and then added the aardvark. Make sure to look for the cheapest ones available in the market. preferably pay with cash. i started like this and am now up to over 8 million dollars, 40K CC, and 7,000 guests in just over a 70 hrs of gametime.

[amd45414]

All of the animals listed are great, I have the deluxe edition and pygmy hippos are an animal I would definitely recommend to anyone who has the pack. They are the most appealing in my zoo currently, even more so than my regular hippos (My best pygmy hippo has 6000 appeal). They require significantly less space than regular hippos, my pygmy hippos have 7965ft of space meanwhile my hippos have 33411ft of space. They can be kept in decently sized groups of 1 male and 3 females, they are sexually mature at 4.5 years and are until death, at around 30 years. They are endangered which mean that players can also get lots of money by selling them, worst ones going for around 70 CC and the best ones going for about 400 CC (The amount of CC estimate is for releasing them). The only problem I've had is that if you have normal or one way glass in their habitat they will repetitively break it until you switch to thick glass, I've had them break about 5 panes of glass in under 4 minutes. Definitely the best part of having them in your zoo is how adorable they are.

[grampers62]

I've built entire zoos with just four frog exhibits before placing any habitat animals.
But when you are ready, begin with smaller animals that are listed as easy to breed in captivity. That info is found in the species zoopedia page. Most are cheap and breed prolifically and will earn quick conservation credits. Soon the zoo will be rolling in cash so building things is no issue nor is paying the dozens of employees in your zoo. then the only thing left is bigger and better animals!