The shiny coats of Planet Zoo

A comprehensive list of all the different special animal color variants (aka "albinos") you can find in Planet Zoo, with gender dimorphism and text detailing all of them. DLC animals are included!

The shiny coats of Planet Zoo

As in real life, the animals in Planet Zoo don't have just one coat color. While slight color variation was not added until later in the game's life, many species in the game have had special coat variation from launch. As a lot of these special coat variations are pale, they've been called albinos by players, despite what later in-game descriptions state.

In this guide, I'll list all types of special coats that the animals can have, what it is called in-game, how it looks with both sexes pictured if there is sexual dimorphism, as well as some fun trivia for some species and a few corrections in the colors that are actually stated in the game. A lot animals are listed with female and young in the picture, and if there's a significant sexual dimorphism the male is listed after on a separate image. Most of the images were borrowed from Mergie, so special thanks to them!

First I'm gonna ask and answer some questions.
Do all animals have special coat variants? No. If it's not listed or mentioned, it doesn't have a special coat.
Are the chances of finding one rare? Short answer: yes. Long answer: Depends on what mode you play, and what animal we talk about. Special coats are easier to find in franchise as others breed and sell them, and certain animals have their special coats easier to be found in general like the black jaguar. All in all, finding special coats of animals are pretty rare in most instances. Each special coat can be as rare as a 2,5% chance of appearing in some species and as common as 75% chance of appearing in others if you play in sandbox mode and only buy from the trade center.
How many special coats exist per species? Before the launch of the Europe DLC in 2021, all species could only have one special coat. With the release of that DLC, up to three special coats per species have been implemented but only a select few actually have that.

Base game animals A to P

All animals listed are in alphabetical order.



Aardvark is listed as ALBINO in the game.



African buffalo is listed as ALBINO in the game.



African savannah elephant is listed as ALBINO in the game.


Aldabra giant tortoise, is listed as ALBINO in the game.


American bison is listed as ALBINO in the game.




Bactrian camel is listed as LEUCISTIC, and PIEBALD, as well as different colors without a specific name in the game. Colors include things like “dark brown” or “reddish brown” in the descriptions.


Baird's tapir is listed as ALBINO in the game. In real life, only albino lowland tapirs have been discovered, no confirmed sightings of Baird's have ever been found.




Bengal tiger is listed as LEUCISTIC, PSEUDOMELANISTIC, and GOLDEN TIGER in the game.


Black wildebeest is listed as ALBINO in the game.



Bonobo is listed as ALBINO in the game.



Bornean orangutan is listed as ALBINO in the game.



Cheetah is listed as SPOTLESS and KING CHEETAH in the game. King cheetah coloration is much more common and well-known in real life, and would make more sense to be added in my opinion. King cheetah patterning was added into the game in the 1.12 update, but weren't when I originally wrote this guide. Thank you so much Frontier for going back and adding new stuff to older animals!


Collared peccary s listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.



Common ostrich is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.



Common warthog is listed as ALBINO in the game.


Formosan black bear is listed as GOLDEN in the game.


Gemsbok is listed as ALBINO in the game.



Gharial is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.


Giant panda is listed as ALBINO in the game. The only known real life images of an albino giant panda show a complete white animal, which isn't odd as an albino animal shouldn't have any markings.



Grizzly bear is listed as ALBINO in the game.


Hippopotamus is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.



Indian elephant is listed as ALBINO in the game.



Indian peafowl is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.


Nile monitor is listed as ALBINO in the game.





Nyala is listed as WHITE NYALA and PIEBALD in the game.


Plains zebra is listed as AMELANISTIC in the game. Like all equids zebras cannot be true albinos. Amelanistic means that it simply has no black or dark pigment, which is why it has stripes.





Pronghorn antelope is listed as ALBINO and PIEBALD in the game.

Base game animals R to W

Red deer is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.


Reticulated giraffe is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.


Ringtail lemur is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.


Saltwater crocodile is listed as ALBINO in the game.




Sibirian tiger is listed as LEUCISTIC, PSEUDOMELANISTIC, and GOLDEN TIGER in the game. Despite the logical conclusion that a white Siberian tiger would do well in the wild, they only exist in captivity in real life due to breeding them with white Bengal tigers.




Springbok is listed as WHITE SPRINGBOK and KING SPRINGBOK in the game. King springbok is just a special name for springboks with piebaldism.


Timber wolf is listed as MELANISTIC in the game.



West African lion is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.


Western chimpanzee is listed as ALBINO in the game.



Western lowland gorilla is listed as ALBINO in the game.

Arctic pack

Reindeer listed as LEUCISTIC and as a "pale coat" in the game.

South America pack

Colombian white-faced capuchin monkey is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.


Giant anteater is listed as ETYHRISTIC in the game.


Jaguar is listed as MELANISTIC in the game.



Llama is listed as LEUCISTIC and as different colors without a specific name in the game. Colors include things like “gray” or “chocolate” in the descriptions.

Australia pack

Koala is listed as ALBINO in the game.


Red kangaroo is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.

Aquatic pack

Cuvier's dwarf caiman is listed as ALBINO in the game.





King penguin is listed as LEUCISTIC, MELANISTIC, BROWN MUTATION, and XIANTHIC in the game.

Africa pack

African penguin is listed as BROWN MUTATION in the game. This coloration is not that uncommon in all species of penguins in real life, as is usually called isabelline due to the lighter and sometimes blonde appearance.

North American Animal pack

American alligator is listed as ALBINO in the game.


Arctic fox is listed as BLUE MORPH in the game. In certain Arctic fox populations the blue morph is as common as 12% of the population having it and it doesn't seem to influence their survival rates.


Black-tailed prairie dog is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.



California sea lion is listed as different colors without a specific name in the game. The two genders also have different colors listed.



Moose is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.

Europe pack

Since some of the animals in the Europe pack have more than one special coat, I have the images listed in the order the names are listed.



European badger is listed as ERYTHRISTIC and ALBINO in the game.







European fallow deer is listed as LEUCISTIC, MELANISTIC, and MENIL in the game.


European lynx is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.

Wetlands Animal pack

Asian small-clawed otter is listed as ALBINO in the game.


Capybara is listed as ALBINO in the game.


Wild water buffalo is listed as ALBINO in the game.

Conservation pack

Amur leopard is listed as MELANISTIC in the game.

Twilight pack

Whew, the Twilight Pack brought us a lot of different coat colors for it's animals! This is actually the first DLC where all of the animals have a special coat, that's actually special, no?


Common wombat is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.



Raccoon is listed as MELANISTIC and LEUCISTIC in the game.






Red fox is listed as LEUCISTIC, PARTIALLY MELANISTIC (CROSS), MELANISTIC (SILVER), MELANISTIC (BLACK), and PIEBALD in the game. Due to how the piebaldism work in the game, the white patches can appear on all of the different coats, and is here shown on the normal coat color of the red fox, and the piebald variation can have different eye colors.



Striped skunk is listed as ERYTHRISTIC and ALBINO in the game.

Grasslands Animal pack

Blue wildebeest is listed as ALBINO and GOLDEN in the game.


Caracal is listed as MELANISTIC in the game.


Emu is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.


Red-necked wallaby is listed as ALBINO in the game.

Tropical pack

Asian Water Monitor is listed a ALBINO and MELANISTIC in the game.




Lar Gibbon is listed as different colors without a specific name in the game. Colors include things like “black” or “brown” in the descriptions.

Arid Animal pack

African crested porcupine is listed as ALBINO in the game.





Dromedary camel is listed as MELANISTIC, LEUCISTIC, and PIEBALD, as well as different colors without a specific name in the game. Colors include things like “dark brown” in the descriptions.

Oceania pack

Little penguin is listed as LEUCISTIC and PIEBALD in the game.



North Island brown kiwi is listed as PIEBALD and LEUCISTIC in the game.

Eurasia Animal Pack

Mute Swan is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.
Very difficult to see it, you can basically only see it in the baby. The difference is pinkish brown feet instead of black and a slightly paler orange beak in the adults.



Saiga is listed as ALBINO in the game.


Sloth bear is listed as ALBINO in the game.



Wild boar is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.



Wisent is listed as LEUCISTIC in the game.



Wolverine is listed as ALBINO and LEUCISTIC in the game.
The difference between these two are slim; the leucistic version has dark markings on the legs where as the albino version does not.

Barnyard animal pack

Alpaca is listed as various colors, including black, brown, cream, and pied in the game.







Alpine Goat is listed as BLANC, BROKEN CHAMOISE, and NOIR in the game.



American Standard Donkey is listed as various colors, such as blonde or white, and with spots in the game.



Highland Cattle is listed as various colors, like blonde or cream, as well as black in the game.





Sussex Chicken is listed as CORONATION and SPECKLED in the game.

Exhibit animals

I decided to lump all the exhibit animals together in it's separate part due to there being so few. They're listed in alphabetical order, and then with a note detailing which DLC it belongs to if any. None of these have any in-game descriptions of their colors, so we can only look at them and take a guess what the devs had in mind when making them.


American bullfrog
Available in North American Animal pack only.





Axolotl
Available in Conservation pack only.


Boa constrictor
Available in base game.


Common death adder
Available in base game.


Eastern brown snake
Available in base game.


Egyptian fruit bat
Available in Twilight pack only.


Fire salamander
Available in Europe pack only.


Green iguana
Available in base game.


Lesser Antillean iguana
Available in base game.


Monarch
Available in Grassland animal pack only.


Puff adder
Available in base game.


Western diamondback rattlesnake
Available in base game.


Yellow anaconda
Available in base game.

Oddities, removed coats and other stuff

At the launch of the Arctic DLC in 2019, the dall sheep could be found with an icon with paler/pinkish horns. When bought and placed out, it had the normal coat. This faulty icon was later removed and replaced with the normal icon for all animals. At the time, no in-game description existed for colors so we don't know what it was supposed to be. It is quite possible an albino or leucistic variant was planned at one point, but then removed as the dall sheep already are white as snow.

Llamas at launch of the South America DLC in 2020 were quite different when it comes to special coats. The original llama was a pure light gray color without spots, which can be seen in promotional images from the time, and special coat for llamas was a paler variant with blue eyes. This special variant was removed, and replaced with a dark brown/gray variant without spots. Another color variant that looks like a light llama without spots were also added; it is the same as the normal llama color but without the coding to have spots appear on it. At the moment, three variants of llamas exist: light with spots, light without spots, and dark without spots. None of the coats before the color change was listed in-game at the time so we don't know what they might have been called.

A special coat variant for the grey seal exist in the game files only: this color can't be legitably found in the game, but can be added via hacking/editing the game files, which is nothing I condone and can be seen as illegal if you were to hack the files to your advantage in franschise mode (which isn't possible), l but I want people to know about this coat that's hidden in the files regardless. It is a darker variant, quite possibly just a color variant like the California sea lion, or a melanistic variant. As it's not properly implemented it has no in-game description.

^The unimplemented coats in question, hacked in^

At the launch of the South East Asia DLC, Frontier also added an Easter Egg but it was bugged and unannounced at the time causing some animals to be textureless when placed and could easily be mistaken as special coats at first glance. This was fixed shortly after, and the Easter Egg's activation was revealed: name any animal DaveyT#FFFFFF, with the ”FFFFFF” being a color hex code for white that can be changed to any hex color code.

At the launch of the Grasslands animal pack, a few base game animals and the reindeer from the Arctic pack got more special coats added. This also meant a change for the reindeer: the preciously pure white coat that was labeled as WHITE REINDEER got replaced with a new white coat with slight daker mottling. labeled as LEUCISTIC.

Pictured is the old look for the reindeer, where it was pure white without the mottling.

Real world explanation of special colors

Reading this list and looking at the images you might have asked yourself why some animals are listed as albino, some as leucistic, others as melanistic, and what all of these terms actually mean and what the difference is. The best explanation is that animals' fur/scales/feathers have different color layers like how an image has a red/green/blue/yellow channel, and those different layers are affected differently.

ALBINO and LEUCISTIC are similar, in such a sense that both are missing color. Albino is the complete absence of any type of pigment on the animal's body which also affects the eyes turning them red to light blue depending on the species, while leucistic are mostly missing all pigment except for in the eyes.
MELANISTIC is the opposite with extra pigment, giving the animals a dark most often black appearance. In real life, melanism is often a dominant thing where the offspring often will turn darker too if one of the parents are.
ERYTHRISM is when the darker pigments in an animal's skin turn a reddish color instead. This can be genetic, or in some cases be due to diets.
PIEBALDISM is when an animal have patches of white (or rarely, black) fur/skin/feather coloration on top of their other, more natural color.

Final, personal words and thoughts

I love these special coats for the most part. It shows that thoughts were put into each and every animal in the game, and the texture department has done great work on them. Finding a special coat in the game also feels special due to their scarcity; it's like when you see one of those oddly colored animals in real life, or finding a shiny pokémon. It fills me with glee and childish happiness.
Personally though, I find some of the choices odd, like adding the spotless cheetah into the game over the striking king cheetah. But I also know that at the start of the game's lifespan only one special coat could be added by the developers and thus some variants had to be prioritized over others.

With the quite recent addition of multiple special coats, which took me by surprise, I do hope and wish that the developers will add new coats for some of their base game animals that honestly need it, but also for those animals that don't necessarily need it but have multiple ”odd” color patterns in the wild but only one special coat in the game like the springbok. (Update October 9th: This small paragraph was written before the reveal that the update coming on October 18th will include new coat variants to a few base game animals, including the springbok.)

Special thanks and other stuff

Special thanks to those who have made it possible to find all these special coats easily to I could find the name of them in the game, to Frontier for making this game so I could make this guide in the first place, and to Mergie (on Discord, please come forwards with your Steam name so I can tag you) who took the majority of the images and let me borrow them for this guide.



If there's some error, either factual to real life animal or the animals in Planet Zoo, do feel free to comment with corrections and I'll look it over an possibly change the guide accordingly. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this guide, as it's the first one I've ever written.

I'll also try and keep this guide as updated as possible when new DLC brings animals with special coats, but do keep in mind that I might be busy and not able to update it right away (if the guide haven't been updated within two weeks of new coats being added, then you can worry!)

Initial posting of the guide was at Saturday, March 17th, 2022.
Updated at Thursday, April 7th: added the leucistic llama which I had previously missed.
Updated at Tuesday, April 12th: added wetlands animal pack animals, changed some info in the Gray seal section of "oddities, removed coats and other stuff".
Updated at Tuesday, July 5th: added the conservation pack animals.
Updated at Sunday, October 9th: fixed formatting of images in all sections so it displays properly on PC and mobile, adjusted text in exhibit section, small typo fixes in all sections, added a little note in the personal thoughts section.
Updated at Saturday, October 22nd: added the new piebald coat variants for the nyala, pronghorn, and springbok, added the Twilight pack animals, extended some text in the beginning, and did some minor typo fixes.
Updated at Thursday, November 3rd: added the red deer, also fixed the inaccurate text saying that the white skunk was leucistic, when it is actually listed as albino in the game.
Updated at Saturday, December 17th: added the new coats for the cheetah, formosan black bear, and timber wolf, added and updated the reindeer coats, updated some red fox images, added the Grassland animal pack animals, updated the section on removed/changed coats.
Updated at Friday, April 14th: added the color morphs for the Asian water monitor and the lar gibbon, both from the Tropical pack (sorry about the delay, life kinda got in the way).
Updated at Saturday, July 1st: added the color morphs for the African crested procupine, and Dromedary camel, both from the Arid animal pack. Also added the new coats for the Bactrian camel, from the base game.
Updated at Saturday, September 23rd: added the color morphs for the little penguin and north island brow kiwi from the Oceania pack, as well as added the new morphs to the king penguin from the Aquatic pack.
Updated at Saturday, November 10th: added the 2023 anniversary animal, the Collared peccary.
Updated at Tuesday, January 2nd: added the Eurasia animal pack morphs, as well as the new tiger morphs from the base game; also changed an error regarding the kiwi descriptions, and split up base game animals into two sections.
Updated at Monday, May 27th: added the morphs from the Barnyard animal pack.
Last update: Monday, May 27th, 2024.

[Lewis ✚]

Hey barnyard pack is out! Any older animals get some new coats maybe? :)

[Bomber Bird]

Heads up: Barnyard is out.

[{IA} Fiveme2]

You do not have the moose on this list.

[RonJon]

Sally Feb 29 @ 3:05pm
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[Sally]

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[blair]

Great Work! How long did it take you to get all them?

[Scoopitybop]

I wonder if the new peudomelanism for tigers works the same way piebalding does, it would be very cool to see on the other color coats.

[Dead Azz]

It's interesting how the Piebald for foxes works.
I have a black piebald fox, just black and white and the game see's it as melanistic (black).

I have all the colors of foxes in franchise and piebald on two coats. I love them <3

[Capybara Enthusiast]

u need to add eurasia pack and the new bengal tiger thingee

[DarthQuell]

Great work so far. This really helps to also update the Planet Zoo wiki.

Update 1.16 added erythristic and pseudo-melanistic Bengal/Siberian tigers, as well as the mute swan, wisent, wild boar, wolverine,saiga, and sloth bear