The Next Planet Zoo DLC: Initial Thoughts & Wishlist

During last Wednesday's Frontier Unlocked livestream, Frontier revealed some early key art for a future Planet Zoo DLC.

The most prominent animal featured on it was a honey badger and there were also silhouettes of a primate bearing a strong resemblance to a lion-tailed macaque and some Asian elephants.

Such animals would definitely allude to an Indian theme, and if that's the case, what animals do I think it should bring?

I'm going on the assumption that this will be an animal pack with 7-8 animals, plus some scenery or an exhibit animal.

The first animal, the honey badger, is already locked in and it's a decent choice. Most people probably know them as African animals but they're found in the Indian subcontinent as well. They don't have the biggest captive presence in the areas I like to build my zoos but there's no denying their presence online thanks to individuals like Stoffel and videos like these.

The lion-tailed macaque is all but confirmed with a very discernible sillouhette and I think it would be a good choice. I love that Frontier is continuing to bring us new primates after a noticeable drought. In terms of their presence in zoos around the world, I'd say they're in the "uncommon" category, somewhere between common and rare. They seem to be mainly kept by the bigger or more specialised collections. I think it would be great to have another macaque, although my first choice would probably be the rhesus macaque.

Asian elephants can be seen in the key art and many have speculated that they may be Sri Lankan elephants. Being completely honest, I'm hoping they're not in the pack and only shown for illustrative purposes. I'd prefer something more unique since we already have Asian elephants. 

What about the animals we don't see?

One animal I'd love to see is the common palm civet. They're very common in captivity and would give us another option for our nocturnal houses. 

I'm also itching for a true crocodile, since we haven't had one since the base game, one like the mugger crocodile, although I wouldn't mind waiting longer for a Nile crocodile in a different pack.

We definitely need more Asian hoofstock and I reckon blackbuck and nilgai would be great choices — the latter being surpisingly more common in zoos than I expected and very unique in its appearance. Gaur would be quite interesting too, although not as usable for me.

As for a bird, I'd love to see the demoiselle crane or the Himalayan monal, which would be functionally-similar to the crane and peafowl we've already got. For something more unique, I'd love to see the great white pelican.

Judging by the most recent packs, this one will more than likely come with at least one "clone/reskin" animal. I can't think of any that would be high on my personal wishlist but I guess I wouldn't mind the chital or smooth-coated otter.

The last few packs have given us scenery instead of an exhibit animal but I'd rather they just make the existing Indian scenery flexicolor and give us a new exhibit animal instead. The king cobra seems a popular choice but, being completely honest, I think it would be wasted in Planet Zoo, as it likely wouldn't have its hood deployed and that's pretty much its unique selling point. I'd rather something more common like a python (reticulated, Burmese or Indian) — you can't deny pythons are a big omission from this game.

If this pack is definitely themed around the Indian subcontinent, I'd be very happy as there's lots of potential. I'd also be happy with a more generic "Asia Animal Pack" as that could open up the possibility for animals like raccoon dogs, which I've always wanted.

It's also great that Frontier is still pushing out content after so many predicted an end to it with the Zookeepers Animal Pack.