Small zoo based on natural barriers / visitor "immersive" exhibits

[ZooForce11]

Hello! Long time no see - I have been playing some Zoo Tycoon 1 again the last few days and wanted to share what I have come up with!

 

Last year when I played ZT1 I had this idea for elevated vantage points for guests that go into the exhibit (My other post Little City Zoo) and the idea worked quite well in my opinion. For some reason I never really thought much about using "natural barriers" for my zoos to use less obstrusive fencing around the habitats for the animals, a few days ago I suddenly had the idea to do this in ZT1, use water, rocks and whatnot in conjunction with low fences that many animals normally are able to jump over, this is what I cam up with:

 

 

EDIT: The screenshots seem to be super small in this thread, I uploaded them to imgur where they are a bit bigger so you might look at details a bit better: https://imgur.com/a/Z4dHZU4

This is an overview of the whole zoo, it's a medium grasslands map, no money or guest name cheats were used, just a few decorative mods. While building I kinda also got the idea to thematically divide the areas a bit.

 

 

The grizzly exhibit was the first exhibit I built, I was experimenting with the barriers a bit and since they can jump and swim it was kinda hard to create an exhibit where they couldn't escape all the time. I put elevated vantage points in the back and tried making them look like they are part of a rock-like mountain, some slightly raised points hidden by plants and on each side I used low fences with rocks so that it kinda looks like a river that has a natural rock-barrier running through it:

 

 

This is the serow exhibit, the fencing in combination with the roofing reminded me a bit of hunter's perches in forests, so I used this look for the elevated lookouts and used low fences for the water barriers. Since they can't swim it was much easier to contain them here.  

 

 

The bison exhibit - I used the ranger / hunter perch look for the elevated views again and the low fence for the water, I also lowered one "watchpoint", made it advance into the exhibit and hid the barriers in bushes and (modded) grass. I liked the look of it - kinda like you would sneak through the bushes like a hunter to get as close to the prey as you can.

 

 

This is a wolf exhibit, I was able to cut off escape ways with water here again and "pierced" the exhibit barrier with slightly elevated viewpoints into their forest.

 

 

Since the serow exhibit had some hills in it that I used for the elevated lookouts I extended these hills outside of the exhibit and made the japanese garden building into a little "mountain monastery":

 

 

Siberian tigers exhibit, used rock fences for a little mountain where the guests can look down as well as slightly lowered and elevated vantage points and water barriers:

 

 

With the pandas I had another idea - why not try to use the rock walls and roofings to create a little cave that goes through one of their exhibit mountains and leads to a vantage point inside their exhibit:

 

 

I used the same technique for the snow leopard exhibit, just a few more times because they need more mountains in their enclosure:

 

 

This is the savanna area - I must admit I am kinda proud of this one haha. The bridge "walls" are modded obviously but it could have been done without them as well, the large rock-walls are normally not accessible to the player but I used a mod that adds developer mode items for the player to use. The exhibits here have multiple species in them, I wanted this area to feel like being on a safari through the large open savanna. Water barriers with low fences and the "bridges" made for really great ways to hide obstrusive fences. There are elephants, giraffes, rhinos, buffalos, zebras, ostriches, gazelles and wildebeests.

Other side of it with leopards and cheetas. All animals have green habitability ratings:

 

 

Right next to the savanna I was experimenting a bit... tried building some kind of harbour with a ship where stalls are in lol. There are sea lions and manatees but I am not that happy with the area, might going to reconstruct everything there:

 

 

The last corner of the zoo has some tropical animals in it, bengal tigers, okapis, tapirs etc. The center of this area I tried to make look a bit like a village "marketplace":

 

 

I must say I had a lot of fun with this zoo, it was quite challanging at times - let's just say there were a few... "incidents" with tigers and bears that were in places where they were not supposed to be (can I blame them though? Hotdogs right next to the exhibit probably smell great...). As you might see from the exhibits my "techniques" have gotten a bit better over time (grizzly exhibit was the first I build, savanna one of the last). two exhibits I forgot to take screenshots of but they aren't that special (moose and horses) and use the same techniques as the other exhibits anyway.

[(Admin)Savannahjan]

What a beautiful, well laid out zoo.  The observation areas are really nice.  Thanks so much for sharing your work.  

[Truly_happy]

Love your caves and harbor. Good concept, good build!

[pukkie]

What a beautiful result That zoo mustbe just how you visioned it

It looks absolutely natural and breathtaking

That took some  serious zoobuilding skills

Well done!

[fountain]

Beautiful exhibits and paths layouts!