Cetaceans in Planet Zoo

[Moose]

I see a lot of talk from people saying they wouldn't like cetaceans (dolphins and whales) in Planet Zoo and I understand why people have strong feelings against this but hear me out:

All animal acquired through rescue. Huge space and water depth requirements, species specific enrichment options that promote natural behaviour, designing keeper/trainer programs for animals to be trained in cooperative care behaviours and husbandry behaviours, introducing important apparatus like slide outs, medical pools, weighing scales ect.

I think it'd be an awesome opportunity to see the community design their ideal ocean habitats for the animals and levelling up the current standards of habitats that would cost billions irl to make.

Probably not possible for all of these ideas to be implemented but it would be sad to see such a great opportunity for teaching people about caring for cetaceans in human care get missed.

I'm amazed at the disconnect between aquatic and terrestrial animals eg. being fine with having elephants - who are highly intelligent and travel long distances and migrate - but not fine with a coastal bottlenose dolphin, who are intelligent, live in shallow inlets, along coastlines and have a small home range they stay in if there's enough food available.

Anyway just thought I'd put it out there in case developers ever wanted to consider it. I used to work with dolphins so it would mean a lot to have them in the game.

[Just Kevin]

You are really suggesting a different sort of zoo. Not a zoo in fact really. Sealife rescue places are normally next to an ocean for a start. Zoos do indeed have elephants, but not many zoos do now because they simply don't have the space. Chester Zoo was bequested a lot of land, and they used most of it to increase the size of enclosures, not to get more animals. To be honest, elephants live a long time, so they are 'stuck' with them! It's pretty much the same with sealife centres that have dolphins and killer whales. They also live a long time and cannot really be set free.
Granted, elephants travel a long way in nature, but nothing like the distance whales travel. Whales are fast! But apart from that, whales are huge! No sealife place has the space for them!
But one thing maybe you have not noticed. All the aquatic creatures in PZ live on the land. It's a zoo :)

[Moose]

I'd argue it's still a zoological facility it's just going to have more specific requirements. There's still a few zoological facilities that have dolphins and even orca, as well as a lot of terrestrial species eg. Loro Parque, Brookfield Zoo, Duisberg Zoo. And it depends on the species of whale - orcas are the largest cetaceans housed in human care and would need significantly more space. But as we see with dolphins and whales that habituate to humans and are fed by humans (not a good thing) they'll stay in a particular spot if there's enough food and resources. And dolphins are only moving fast if they have to - usually to get to an area before another competing animal does. Or to avoid stressors. But there's a reason for moving around - they preserve their energy otherwise.

[Kiru]

It has todo with how captivity has been very bad for msot cetacean species like dolphins, they require immense space even to properly sleep while swimming.
iirc the cetacean species that could realisticly work from what ive heard is a beluga.
outside of those id say let modders do their magic for those who want more.