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| The immediate view upon entry: Lake Meeko and the restaurant. Aside from the restaurant, nothing on that side of the lake has been built (the trees are a placeholder for now) |
In 2022, I had the pleasure of visiting the Canadian Rockies and it was easily one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. The endless peaks, crystal blue lakes, deep forests and, of course, abundant wildlife all left me feeling very inspired to build in Planet Zoo. As soon as I had the chance, I fired up the game and got to work on something.
Cranbrook Zoo
For the longest time, I've wanted to diversify away from just British zoos and my visit to Canada gave me a great opportunity. This zoo is meant to be a small side project but (inevittably for me) it became something much bigger. It's a medium-sized zoo which is dedicated to Canadian wildlife and set somewhere in the Canadian Rockies. I've called it Cranbrook Zoo for now but I may change it to something different as Cranbrook is more suburban than how I've built the zoo. I just used the name Cranbrook as I thought it sounded good.
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| The entrance was inspired by Banff train station! |
Those who have been to Banff may recognise the entrance as I took the design straight from Banff's train station. I saw it on the way to a gondola and thought it would make the perfect zoo entrance. This has become a habit of mine, seeing ordinary buildings and then converting them into zoo ones, but it actually works! I copied its interior too but, in all honesty, I'm not fully satisfied with how it looks — some things just don't translate well in Planet Zoo and I feel like this is one of them.
Once through the entrance, I wanted guests to be immediately hit by natural beauty, so the zoo opens to a sightline of a log cabin on the other side of a crystal blue lake surrounded by forests and mountains. Although this is a zoo, I wanted it to feel very in tune with nature, so the enclosures are kept simple and unobtrusive. I don't want them to distract too much from the natural surroundings.
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| The striped skunk enclosure in the forest section of the zoo. |
On one side of the lake, I've built a forest which is home to forest species, such as skunks, raccoons, bears, cougars, beavers and moose. The other side of it will be more open plain and home to animals like bison, pronghorn, caribou, wolves and prairie dogs. I'm also going to build a small section for invasive animals, as a zoo like this would probably highlight issues like that, but aside from fallow deer, mute swans and American bullfrogs, there aren't many animals I can include.
That's been a bit of a frustration throughout this project. Not quite the lack of appropriate species, more the consistent lack of any new ones. There's been around five DLCs since I started this zoo but there's only been one Canadian addition in that time, the wolverine. It came to a point where I was actually thinking of broadening the zoo to include cold climate animals from other parts of the world, like Siberian tigers and snow leopards, but then I remembered it was meant to be a small side project and it was already too big.
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| Part of the raccoon enclosure. |
When building zoos in foreign places, it always helps to actually visit that place to see what it's actually like and how it feels. You notice things that might not always be apparent in photos online. It's the little things like bear proof bins or man-made nesting sites for bald eagles. I don't know how to explain it but places just have a vibe and sometimes you have to go and experience it first-hand to know what it is.
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| One of the buildings I made for the zoo which hasn't found its final resting place yet. It was inspired by a restroom I visited at Lake Minnewanka. |
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