My First Recreation Project: Introducing Ponderosa Zoo

An overview of the first part of the zoo looking towards the entrance and wallaby enclosure. I haven't built the area in front of the entrance yet.

When I was little, I didn't have any nearby zoos I could visit, and as a zoo lover, especially at that young age, it was quite disappointing. The closest thing I had was a rare breeds farm located at the Ponderosa Rural Therapeutic Centre, which was established in the early 1990s. It had wallabies, emus, llamas, goats, water buffalo, a small reptile house and even a tapir, and every visit, whether with my family or on school trips, went some way towards filling a void; it was like having a zoo on my own doorstep. By the 2010s, it did actually grow into a fully-fledged zoo.

I've tried to rebuild Ponderosa Zoo ever since my days of playing Zoo Tycoon 2. Of course, with a game that old, there's only so much you can do to make things look accurate and realistic. When I moved over to Planet Zoo, a game with much more creative freedom, the first thing I did was try to recreate Ponderosa Zoo, but my beginner skills meant I could only do it to a basic level.

In 2021, I recreated my local public park to transform it into a zoo and it gave me a taste of what it's like to recreate something from real life. Until then, I usually built things which were the work of my own imagination or inspired by real life, so doing an exact recreation of something was a new experience and one I wanted more of.

I wanted to rebuild a small zoo so I could finish it more quickly, but more importantly, so I could put more detail into it without my PC suffering. Building something accurately requires lots of reference imagery, so I also needed a zoo which was close enough to make frequent visits for references.

Ponderosa Zoo fit the bill perfectly. It was small, nearby and had a lot of sentimental value.

Background

An aerial image of the real Ponderosa Zoo showing its compact size and location between two disused railway lines. (Google)

In real life, Ponderosa Zoo is a small zoo with around 38 species which are spread across 11 acres. It started out as a rare breeds farm which used animals and horticulture to help develop skills in those with disabilities. It still has that focus today but, as a licensed zoo, it also focuses on conservation.

Its collection includes wallabies, coatis, Scottish wildcats, serval, Cuvier's dwarf caiman, lemurs, kinkajou, porcupines, African spurred tortoises, reindeer, Père David's deer, raccoon dogs, otters, squirrel monkeys and a variety of reptiles, birds and invertebrates. These are exhibited in enclosures which are quite basic, and in many cases unattractive, but still functional for their species.

In the early-to-mid 2010s, the zoo attracted criticism due to inadequate enclosures, some of which I posted on ZooChat. But I'm happy to report that the zoo has made significant improvements and those horror shows are no more.

I've got a huge soft spot for Ponderosa Zoo given all the work they've done to support those with disabilities and now the part they're playing in conservation. Sadly, both of its kind-hearted founders, Howard and Maureen Cook, died in recent years but hopefully the future will be bright for their son who has taken the reins. 

Keep an eye out for an indepth review on Ponderosa Zoo, but for now let's look at my recreation!

Recreating Ponderosa Zoo

My aim is to recreate the zoo to a degree where I can compare it to its real-life counterpart and not notice too many differences. So far, I'm surprised at how accurate I've managed to make it look. I suppose having 14 gigabytes worth of references played a part in that!

The entrance cabin/gift shop is mostly complete aside from its signs and interior decorations. It's one of the first things I built but I feel it stands the test of time.

There's definitely some differences but most of them are minor things, like signage not looking exactly the same and items in the gift shop being different, but I can live with those things. There's a few bigger differences but those are a work in progress!

Sadly, I wasn't able to make the gift shop functional but I think it will look good when it's fully furnished.

Making the zoo as functional as possible is another priority because I want people to be able to download and run it with guests. Sadly, this isn't always possible, like when I built the gift shop and the exhibits in the reptile house, as sometimes things are just too small for the game to make functional. If making something functional means changing how it looks by making it bigger, then I won't do it as keeping things accurate is a higher priority.

These staff buildings were a challenge to build early on but thanks to some recent reference photos, I'm happy with their accuracy.

The real Ponderosa Zoo has many animals which we don't have in Planet Zoo, like coatis, raccoon dogs and squirrel monkeys. Since I don't use mods, I've turned to lore to explain why they're missing: The zoo was in the process of closing down and several animals were rehomed. Before the whole collection was rehomed, the zoo was bought by Apex Zoos (the fictional operator of my zoos in my fantasy universe).

The first enclosure once through the entrance belongs to wallabies. Them being added to the game in December 2022 might have been another reason I started this project. I just love them!

I'm building the zoo in the condition it was bought in but I'm planning on a "phase two" where I upgrade it with new animals (and make it more functional). I'll probably expand it too but I know the real Ponderosa Zoo had difficulties with that due to green belt land and I should probably honour that for accuracy.

Probably my favourite part of the zoo so far, the reptile house.

So far, I've built the entrance, a few staff buildings, the reptile house and the enclosures for wallabies, meerkats, porcupines, squirrel monkeys, Scottish wildcats and coatis. I've also built part of the cafe and nocturnal house. I've enjoyed every moment and it's very satisfying seeing how accurate it looks.

Inside the reptile house - most of the species don't exist in the game so their exhibits will have to sit empty for now. Also, I'm now realising that I forgot to transfer over the sign images when I took the screenshots so that's why they're blank.

The one area I'm not looking forward to building is the adventure playground as I wasn't comfortable snapping reference photos of it with so many kids around. The rest of what remains is fairly easy but two things I may struggle with are the large boat-shaped playing area and maybe the Père David's deer enclosure as I couldn't get near enough to take reference photos.

A closer view of two reptile exhibits, with the left belonging to black spiny-tailed iguana and red-footed tortoise, and the other belonging to Cuvier's dwarf caiman. Sadly, the caiman enclosure was too small to make functional with water (what you're seeing is a pane of glass).

I'd say I've built around 40% of the zoo so far and I'm having a lot of fun doing it, so I can see it being finished eventually. I'm also looking forward to phase two and putting my own touch on it!

For now, I hope you enjoyed this little overview and look forward to seeing more screenshots when I have them.