When playing Planet Zoo, it can be hard to get started, money can be an issue and you have less to impress your guests with.
The best thing to start out your zoo is to make sure that you save money by getting in some cheaper animals, by choosing ones that breed quicker, you can also make some money by selling the offspring too, this also works really well with exhibition animals, breed and sell just to get you going.
Before we dive in, here’s an overview of Planet Zoo’s best starting animals:
- Indian Peafowl
- Greater Flamingo
- Aldabra Giant Tortoise
- Springboks & Warthogs
- Nile Monitor
- American Bison
There are of course hundreds of different Planet Zoo animals to choose from. However tempting it might be to wow your guests by presenting them with wolves and tigers, take a look at the list below for a slow and easy start.
1. Indian Peafowl
These aren’t the most impressive animals your Zoo will have, but they breed so quickly. This, in turn, will help you to keep your profits up.
If you have some conservation credits to spare, use them to purchase your Indian Peafowls, then you will also be able to breed them and make some more conservation credits as well selling some for money.
Your guests won’t be overly impressed by them, but if you use a guest gate to make sure they can get up close and personal it will make them happier, well placed donation bins will also drive in more income.
2. Greater Flamingo
Thankfully these are a bit more interesting than Indian Peafowls, and just like the Indian Peafowls, they breed like crazy, which again will help you bring in some more money and expand your park quicker.
Their bright pink colors also add a bit of color to the park, which can’t hurt either, there aren’t that many creatures that are as colorful as the Flamingo.
3. Aldabra Giant Tortoise
These take longer to mature, which means they are not good at bringing in money or conservation credits for your Zoo, but I personally find that animals you can walk in with help to keep your visitors happier.
Whilst there are other animals that you can walk in with, other than the Indian Peafowl, which is the cheapest, the Aldabra Giant Tortoise is extremely cheap too.
They also live for an incredibly long time, which of course helps when you are starting out and they don’t seem to be as costly to feed like other animals.
4. Springboks & Warthogs
Interspecies enclosures are a good idea at the start as you can double up on animals, making the zoo even more interesting for your guests, without taking up too much space in your zoo.
Springboks & Warthogs are just two examples, you could use any of the interspecies compatible animals, if you’re not sure which animals can live together in your zoo, we created a list here.
Another benefit to these animals, they both have short gestation periods, meaning you should see them multiplying quickly, again allowing you to make more money or conservation credits quickly.
5. Nile Monitors
Nile Monitors are amazing creatures, and your guests will think so too, they attract a lot of guest attention, which of course is going to help you to get more donation money.
When they breed, the female Nile Monitor carries her babies until the rainy season. They can have multiple hatchlings at one time, but they do not breed overly quickly making it too hard to handle. The hatchlings sell for a decent amount of conservation credits too, so you can expect a return on your investment in no time.
6. American Bison
The American Bison tend to need a bit more land than any of the animals on this list, so if you decide to add them as a starting animal, try to leave them till you’ve done some of the other enclosures first, as this will give you some time to get the money together to fund a nice big enclosure for them and make sure it’s packed out with everything they could need.
American Bison can get away with having more females to male ratio than other animals. Taken from the Fandom Wiki, “Bison live in herds with multiple social dynamics, which can range in size from 15 to 400 individuals. Females live in interrelated groups with their offspring, while young males live in bachelor herds until they reach full growth at around 6 years old, at which point they will become a solitary dominant bull.”
Animal & Park Tips for Starting Zoos
So you’ve now got a good list of animals to start out with, there are a few tips that can help to make sure your animals are happy, and you make a good profit to start with, allowing you to expand your zoo further.
These include:
- Ambient Speakers
- Helping animals in distress
- Enrichments
- More animals, more donations
While a lot of Planet Zoo is trial and error, there are some solid starting points that will help you make money easily, and make the process of starting your zoo a lot smoother.
1. Ambient Speakers (Stressed Animals)
Have you had animals stressing out and you can’t find why? Perhaps you have a guest gate with visitors walking into the enclosure which could be upsetting your animals?
Ambient speakers make your animals feel much more like they are in their natural habitat and calm them down, making it much more pleasant not only for them but for guests visiting too.
2. Animals in Distress
A good zookeeper will spend more time keeping their animals happy than anything else in the game, distressed animals will not only cause health issues for the animals but will also attract protestors which will have a massive impact on guest happiness and reduce donations.
3. Enrichments
Enrichment items will keep your animals happy, this much is explained in the game’s basic tutorials, but make sure to rotate which enrichment items are available every now and then, as this will stop animals from getting bored of the same items.
4. Double the Animals, Double the Donations
I’ve touched on interspecies enclosures above, but one way of really pushing this is to not only have interspecies enclosures but also include exhibits inside walk-in enclosures.
A well-placed exhibit, with a well-placed donations bin, will mean the guests are much more likely to part with their money. If you are not sure if the donation bins are placed well to capture donations for each animal, don’t forget that you can click on the donations bins to see which of your Planet Zoo animals guests are donating for.
