AnimalID

The ingame ID number for the animal.

Name

The name of the animal.

LocationName

The geographical area where this animal is usually found (except of course in zoos - required by some scenarios)

Origin

Where you can get this animal from or which official expansion pack it comes from

PurchaseCost

The cost of buying one of these animals (or an egg if using Dinosaur Digs)

RequiresResearch

Whether or not you must research this animal before you can adopt one

IsClimber

Whether or not the animal can climb trees or fences that can be climbed

IsJumper

Whether or not the animal can jump over low fences

Description

The full ingame description of the animal giving useful hints about their social groups, preferred foliage and other habitat information

AttractivenessAdult

How attractive the guests find the adult animal. Possibly linked to the ExhibitGawkTime calculation for Guests and appears to be cumulative (i.e. 1 animal @ 60 attractiveness will have guests watching longer than 2 animals @ 20 attractiveness since 60 > 40).

AttractivenessYoung

How attractive the guests find the baby animal. Possibly linked to the ExhibitGawkTime calculation for Guests.

InitialHappiness

The level of happiness of the animal when first exhibited. Animals with a low value should have their exhibit made as suitable as possible before placement as it will take them longer to regain their happiness if the exhibit is unsuitable. See HabitatPreference below.

HabitatPreference

The minimum suitability rating for a suitable exhibit. i.e. a value of 85 would mean that the suitability rating bar would not change to green colour until the exhibit was 85% suitable for the animal. See InitialHappiness above.

Captivity

According to the Panda file this is the reduction in happiness due to being in captivity, but it is unclear if this is a one-off event or if the animal goes through a captivity check process. Judging by the way the Panda's happiness fluctuates it is reasonable to assume that this is an ongoing check. Therefore the higher the number the more unhappy an animal is, due to being in captivity

Crowd

Possibly the number of guests at which the animal starts to feel crowded. Guests can fit 4 to each game square and so if you divide this figure by 4 you can estimate how many viewing areas to place around the animal exhibit. It appears that this does include diagonals so an exhibit with a single viewing area can theoretically contain 12 guests. However most animals have a figure of 30 for this variable which would suggest only 2 usable viewing areas before making an animal unhappy. In practice this figure is far too low since some animals can be in an exhibit that guests can walk all the way around without becoming unhappy. I did consider whether or not this could be the percentage of exhibit wall that guests can see through which appeared to be more accurate but this changed dramatically the more guests that came in! So basically if you have an animal with a low Crowd variable it is best to limit their exposure to guests, or if they have a high CrowdHappinesChange figure below.

CrowdHappinessChange

The change in happiness resulting from too many guests being in close proximity of the animal. All the figures are negative so the higher the figure after the "-" sign, the more unhappy the animals become.

ClimbsCliffs

Whether or not the animal can climb cliff-faces either in the exhibit itself or if it is/has escaped. This is useful if you adopt the "pit" exhibit technique of lowering the entire exhibit by 1 square as it tells you which animals would not be able to escape from a 1-level down exhibit, otherwise the exhibit would need to be lowered by 2 squares.

Pit depth

The pit method of enclosing an animal involves having the level of the exhibit lower than the surrounding land. The principle advantage in using this method is that you can use the lowest, cheapest fence (Low Chain-Link) to enclose even the strongest animals! It also means that should the fence break the animal cannot escape! By taking into account whether or not the animal can jump, climb or climb cliffs, the figure for pit depth is therefore how many elevation levels 'down' the exhibit must be in order to keep the animal inside.

This tends to work out considerably cheaper in terms of Purchase Cost and Upkeep, means that no animal will ever escape (unless you delete the fence!) and also that it reduces the effects of overcrowding on the animals caused by too many guests.

There are two methods to make a pit exhibit:

First (and most simple) is to lower the entire exhibit by the required number of levels;

Second is to actually raise one square all the way round an exhibit but this can be tricky if there is elevation required in the exhibit or if you are trying to co-ordinate a path system right next to the exhibit. The point at which this becomes cheaper to do than lowering the whole exhibit is for an exhibit size of more than 28 squares. To demonstrate:

FenceName

Simply the name of the fence that can be used for exhibiting this animal.

PurchaseCost

How much each individual piece of fence costs. If you build a 100% (i.e. 100 square) exhibit then you would need 40 fence pieces.

Height

How high the fence is. If an animal can jump then you will need a fence that has a height of 2. For Dinosaur Digs animals, some animals with a CrushesFences variable require a fence with a height of 3 otherwise they can simply bash straight through! This has been accounted for in listing appropriate fences.

Strength

How strong the fence is - if this figure is lower than the BashStrength of an animal then the animal will pass straight through and escape!

Life

The expected life of the fence in game months, assuming that the animal does not bash through first.

CostEffective

This is a calculated figure used for ranking the fences in terms of Life/Cost to provide a comparative ratio. For example if a fence costs $120 and has a life of 12 months, then the CostEffective figure would be 12/120 = 0.10 (so I have multiplied the result by 100 to give 'nicer' numbers). If a fence costs $150 and has a life of 20 months then the figure would be 20/150 = 0.13. Since 0.13 is higher than 0.10 then the $120 fence would be a more CostEffective solution for that particular animal. This is very much down to personal preference, however, as the more CostEffective solution may mean that you have busier Maintenance Workers as the fences tend to have shorter lives - you may also have more frequent escapes. So you may decide to use the longest-lasting fences which tend to be less CostEffective. Like I said - personal preference.

AnimalDensity

The amount of space required by individual animals. If an animal has an Animal Density of 20, then a 100 square exhibit can house up 5 animals (100/20). If the Animal Density is 100 then a 100 square exhibit can house up to 1 animal (100/100). This only applies to adult animals as babies are not included in the Animal Density calculation. For mixed exhibits, use the higher Animal Density figure to determine the size of exhibit. E.g. if one animal has an AD of 25 (i.e. 4 animals per 100 square exhibit) and another animal has an AD of 50 (i.e. 2 animals per 100 square exhibit) then if you wanted to build an exhibit to house one of each animal you would use the AD of 50, otherwise the animal with the AD of 50 would feel crowded when the other animal was added.

Number of Animal/Exhibit - Min

The minimum number of animals that can be exhibited without causing unhappiness. Unlike the Max figure below, this should be regarded as an absolute figure and you should not build any exhibits for this animal that cannot contain the Minimum number, otherwise the animal will receive a decrease in happiness caused by too few animals. In actuality, particularly if you plan to breed the animals, you should build the exhibit bigger than the minimum requirement to allow for future expansion.

Number of Animal/Exhibit - Max

The maximum number of animals that can be exhibited before happiness is unaffected. However, this is not the maximum number of animals that CAN be exhibited together as providing the AnimalDensity multiplied by the number of animals is still less than the ExhibitSize then there is no limit to the number of animals that can be exhibited together. All this means is that the happiness boost that an animal gets from having another animal added stops at this Maximum. E.g. the Giant Panda has a Maximum of 2 animals. When you adopt 1 Panda and then add a second, the first receives a happiness boost of 15 but if you add a third (i.e. greater than the Maximum) then this boost is not received. Dino Digs appears to have tightened the code on this so that more animals complain about too many animals than they did in ZT, even with enough space!

TerrainName

The name of the TerrainType that the animal likes.

Value

This is the percentage of an exhibit that should have this TerrainType. To help with calculating how this works out in terms of squares, the columns "1" to "10" list the actual number of squares of this TerrainType based on the number of animals exhibited (i.e. 1-10) and the total size of the exhibit is listed in the ExhibitSize row.

Rocks (or RockPref in the AI files)

The percentage amount of rocks preferred by the animal. This appears to vary when using Rock Formations and often you find that you can place the required percentage of rocks and still add Formations (i.e. Snow Leopards!). This is because some of the Rock Formations are not considered to be rocks and you can therefore place as many of these as you like! This also differs from TreePref as it interprets the 4/square 'rule' differently to the TreePref. In other words, with a RockPref of 3 you could still place 12 small rocks (3 x 4/square) in different squares (i.e. 12 squares) and this would still count as 3% but see the section on Rocks below for more details. Again, columns 1-10 give the figure of actual squares that should be used (multiply by 4 if using small/medium rocks)

Foliage (or TreePref in the AI files)

The percentage of foliage preferred by the animal, referring to the number of squares in every 100 squares. The preferred foliage listed for many animals can often only be placed 1 to each square whereas a less preferred foliage may be able to be placed 4/square. As these are generally not much lower rated than the preferred foliage, the 4/square foliage should be used for maximum suitability and happiness but see the section on Trees below for more details. Again, columns 1-10 give the figure of actual squares that should be used.

Elevation (or ElevationPref in the AI files)

The number of changes in altitude that the animal prefers, assuming a 100 square exhibit. A value of 10, for example, would mean that you should raise either 10 cliff-faces or rolling hill elevations for the exhibit. Each individual square has a possible 4 cliff faces or rolling hill elevations. For an ElevationPref of 10 you could pull up (or push down) 2 non-adjacent (i.e. not touching) squares of terrain giving a value of 8 (2 x 4) and then a further 1 adjacent squares that touch one of the others. To explain more clearly, 1 square can give 4 cliff faces - if you raise/lower a square that is touching that square then 1 of the cliff faces is obscured where the two squares touch (making 3 cliff faces) and the new square raised/lowered also has 1 face obscured by the first square (making 3 additional cliff faces and 6 in total). This means that each new touching square that is raised/lowered only adds 2 to the elevation value. It is actually much simpler to raise a grid of squares and then raise/lower additional squares if needed. A 2 x 2 square grid will give a value of 8 cliff faces so you would need to raise/lower 1 additional touching square to make up the 10 required. The same process applies for rolling hills although you must remember that although when you raise/lower a single square then 9 squares actually change elevation this still has an elevation rating of just 4.

Trees - ID

Simply the ingame ID number of the Foliage Item that the animal likes

Value

The ingame positive effect that placing this tree has on the animal but see Foliage Effect below

TreeName

The ingame name of the foliage

Foliage Effect

This is a calculated figure that takes into account whether or not the tree can be placed 4/square and also what habitat effect this foliage has. For example, the Gallimimus from Dinosaur Digs has entries for trees from different habitats (no original ZT animal has this that I've seen!) so that the Sigillaria Tree (Savannah Habitat) has a rating of 16 compared with the Spruce Tree (Coniferous Forest Habitat) with a rating of 12. This would suggest that you should use the Sigillaria rather than the Spruce. However, the Habitat compatibility changes this assumption as Coniferous Habitat has a rating of 10 but the Savannah has a rating of -5. This changes the ratings so that Sigillaria becomes 11 and Spruce becomes 22 making the Spruce a better choice. This calculation does also account for the fact that some trees with lower ratings can produce better Foliage Effect values than higher-rated trees, due to whether or not the tree can be placed 4/square. Another example - the Giant Panda has the following rating: Bamboo = 12 and Himalayan Pine = 2. If you add the Habitat compatibility (3 for Highland Habitat) to these the figures become Bamboo = 15 and Himalayan Pine = 5. Bamboo can only be placed 1/square so the total value/square is 15 however the Himalayan Pine can be placed 4/square so the total value/square is 20! However, for the Panda you should use the Himalayan Birch anyway as it is rated 5 (+3 for Habitat) and can be placed 4/square, but this demonstrates that you shouldn't always believe the Preferred Foliage icon!

Cost/Square

Obviously the downside of using 4/square foliage is that you have to buy 4 of the trees and this column lets you know how much each filled square will cost.

CostEffective

This calculation is used to list the trees in terms of FoliageEffect divided by Cost/Square and theoretically gives the best balance between the exhibit suitability and the costs involved. Using the Giant Panda example above, this actually suggests that the Bamboo is a more cost effective solution than the Himalayan Pine with a CostEffective figure of 3.0 compared to 2.8. However, because of the interrelation between Animal Happiness and Guest Donations (the higher the happiness the more donations) I have left this section ranked according to the FoliageEffect. I would recommend only using the CostEffective calculation if lack of money is a serious consideration as it is in some scenarios. You can always replace the trees when you have more money!

Rocks - ID

This section lists which rocks are appropriate for this animal and the ID is simply the ingame ID number of the rock.

Value

The ingame positive effect that placing this rock has on the animal but see Rock Effect below

Rock Name

The ingame name of the rock

Size X and Size Y

These are the measurements on the X and Y axes of the rocks in terms of half-squares (i.e. X = 1 and Y = 1 gives the rock a footprint of 1/2 square x 1/2 square = 1/4 square - hence 4/square). This is most useful when using Rock Formations as these tend to be fairly large by comparison.

Rock

Whether or not this rock is considered a rock when calculating the RockPref of the animal. Most Rock Formations are not considered rocks so it is best to complete the animal's RockPref figure using 'normal' rocks and then add Formations afterwards. This is particularly the case with animals like the Snow Leopard and Reindeer !

Rock Effect

This calculation is used to rank the rocks according to the one that has the highest positive effect on the animal (with the exception of Rock Formations - see Rock above). It takes into account the footprint of the Rock (small/medium rocks that fit 4/square only count as 1/4 towards the RockPref but do not need to be placed 4/square) and the habitat that the rock belongs to. In most cases, the small/medium rock have a Neutral Habitat rating and, as such, are usually the best rocks to use for all animals.In the case of Marine Mania animals then the Small Ocean Floor Rock becomes the rock of choice.

Purchase Cost

The cost of buying one of these rocks.

Cost Effectiveness

A calculation that helps to rank the rocks in terms of Rock Effect divided by Purchase Cost. Usually this does not change the ranking of the rocks as there are clear 'winners' in terms of the Rock Effect.

Shelters

This section list the shelters that are appropriate for use with this animal.

Shelter ID

The ingame ID number of the shelter.

Shelter Name

The ingame name of the shelter.

Shelter Value

The ingame amount by which an animal's happiness increases when this shelter is placed (but see Shelter Effect below).

Shelter Effect

A calculation that takes into account the Habitat value of the Shelter (usually Bad Habitat) which gives a more realistic amount by which an animal's happiness increases.

Purchase Cost

The cost of buying one of these shelters.

Capacity

The number of animals that this shelter can accommodate. However, many people have found that this is not an absolute variable and with certain animals (the Snow Leopard again plus the Okapi !) you can actually use additional shelters to increase the animal's happiness without them complaining about having too many shelters. This is because the reduction in happiness from having too many shelters is actually lower than the increase in happiness when placing the shelter and also having additional shelters appears to increase the chance of Reproduction !

Requires Research

Whether or not this shelter must be researched before it becomes available.

Toy

This section lists any toys that are appropriate for this animal.

Toy ID

The ingame ID number of the toy.

Toy Name

The ingame name of the toy.

Toy Value

The increase in animal happiness resulting from placing this toy. This does not take into account the Habitat rating of the toy simply because Toys are one of the very few things in the game that don't have a Habitat!

Purchase Cost

The cost of buying one of these toys.

The Life Cycle

This section gives you the actual numbers that control Reproduction, Sickness and Death.

Reproduction Chance

The probability that the animal will consider reproducing. 0 means an animal will not reproduce, 1 means it has a low chance and 2 means a higher chance. To make life easier this number has been replaced by the actual level (i.e. 0 becomes "Never", 1 becomes "Low" and 2 becomes "High").

Reproduction Interval

The time period during which an animal will consider reproducing subject to its HappyReproduceThreshold and ReproductionChance. This is a check cycle in the game whereby during this period the game will check if the animal is happy enough to reproduce and appears to be reset after each check (very happy animals will reproduce much quicker than this figure suggests). For ease of comparison, the number has been converted to a monthly figure.

Happy Reproduce Threshold

The happiness threshold that an animal must achieve before considering reproducing. The higher the value then the more difficult it will be to successfully breed this animal (Giant Pandas have a 99% Threshold!) - also linked to ReproductionChance and ReproductionInterval.

Offspring

The number of babies that are born at each birth event.

Baby To Adult

The length of time taken to grow from baby to adult. The value is given in game months (i.e. the original value divided by 365). This is useful if you know that the exhibit is too small for the number of adult animals that will be there when the baby has grown up (i.e. if you have an exhibit that is only big enough for a pair of animals and they breed then when the baby has grown up the animals will become crowded and you will need to sell some of them or make the exhibit larger). Since guests prefer seeing babies it is a good idea to either wait until the babies have grown up and then sell them or to sell the corresponding gender adult as animal parents will breed with their own offspring - eugh!). However, some animals are monogamous and will complain that they cannot find their mate - sell with caution!

Sick Chance

The probability that the animal will become sick. The higher the probability the more likely the animal will become sick.

This ranges from 2 (very low!) for the African and Asian Elephants and the Wooly Mammoth to 40 (very high!!) for the Giant Panda and T-Rex (what a surprise!).

Sick Change

The change in happiness caused by being sick - grab a Keeper!

Again this ranges from -5 for the African Warthog (they don't care) to -20 for the Plains Zebra, American Bison, Unicorn, Siberian Tiger, White Bengal Tiger, Giant Panda and Dromedary Camel (if you get a sickness message for one of these animals then pause the game, find a keeper and place them as close to the sick animal as possible).

Death Chance

The probability that the animal will die at its TimeDeath. A high percentage means that an animal is almost certain to drop dead at its TimeDeath.

This varies from 10 (maybe) for a lot of animals to 90 for the African Elephant (start digging!). If you can keep track of the lifetime of an animal you may be able to successfully retire (i.e. sell) old animals before they die but you'll probably need a big sheet of paper!

Time Death

The time period at which the animal may die subject to its DeathChance. Each animal has a specified life-expectancy but fortunately they don't always die when they're scheduled to!

The figure has been converted to game months for ease of reference.

Compatible Animals

The compatibility figure takes into account the animal's compatibility with the actual Family as well as the Animal itself. It also now considers the Habitat that the compatible animal comes from.

By example, the African Elephant has a Thomsons Gazelle listed as being compatible with a value of 10. The Gazelle belongs to the Even-Toed Ungulate Family which has a compatibility of -5 with the African Elephant plus the Thomsons Gazelle comes from the Savannah Habitat with a rating of 3 for the African Elephant so the compatibility rating of a Thomsons Gazelle to an African Elephant is

10 (+) -5 + 3 = 8

This therefore excludes the Gemsbok from the Elephant's compatibility list as the Gemsbok comes from the Desert Habitat which has a -10 rating for the Elephant.

If you're trying to construct multiple animal exhibits then you will need to check that not only is Animal A compatible with Animal B and vice versa (!) but also that their terrain/rock/foliage requirements are similar enough for them to happily co-exist.

Prey Animals

A list of animals that this animal will eat (given half a chance!)

Keeper Food Type

The type of food that the Zookeeper leaves for this animal.

Lays Eggs (Dino Digs only)

Whether or not this dinosaur gives birth to eggs (if "no" then it has live births!) A scientist is required to care for eggs.

Time To Hatch (days) (Dino Digs only)

This is the figure for how long a well-tended egg will take to hatch into a young Dino. If there is no scientist to take care of the eggs they will spoil and effectively die. Also some dinosaurs will eat the eggs of other dinos if they're allowed to!

Depth Min (Marine Mania only)

This is the minimum Depth (the maximum is always 28) for Marine Mania animal tanks and should be considered an absolute value. In most cases this is around 4 or 5 (the default depth when a tank is first constructed) but if the animal is a show animal the minimum depth required to join a 'normal' tank to a show tank is 3 depth levels (otherwise the tank portal will not appear). The Beluga is a very odd exception to the rule as it only requires a depth of 2 (confirmed in testing) but Deep Sea animals like the Pacific Octopus and Giant Squid go to the other extreme of over 10 deep!

Skip Trick Happiness (Marine Mania show animals only)

This is the level of happiness below which the animal has a SkipTrickChance (below) of not performing one of the scheduled show tricks. If you find that some of your shows are receiving bad reviews by guests then it is worth checking the happiness state of the animal while it is performing - it may be that you need to lengthen the time between shows, to reduce the number of scheduled tricks, or to address some problem in the 'normal' exhibit tank.

Skip Trick Chance (Marine Mania show animals only)

This is the probability that if the animal's happiness is below the Skip Trick Happiness level then it may not perform one of the scheduled tricks.

Sailinity Change (Marine Mania only)

The change in happiness resulting from changes to the salinity (saltiness) of a tank

Salinity Health Change (Marine Mania only)

The change in health resulting from changes to the salinity of the tank

Poo Water Impact (Marine Mania only)

The reduction in happiness resulting from poo being in the water

Murky Water Threshold (Marine Mania only)

The level at which water is considered murky by the animal

Murky Water Change (Marine Mania only)

The change in happiness resulting from the water becoming murky (this could be due to a broken or missing Tank Filter or even by too many animals in the same tank - if symptoms persist you may wish to build an overspill exhibit or sell some of the animals)

Murky Water Health Change (Marine Mania only)

The change in health resulting from the water being murky. If a murky tank is not cleaned then it may well progress to becoming Very Murky (below)

Very Murky Water Threshold (Marine Mania only)

The level at which water is considered very murky by the animal

Very Murky Water Change (Marine Mania only)

The change in happiness resulting from the water becoming very murky (this could be due to a broken or missing Tank Filter or even by too many animals in the same tank - if symptoms persist you may wish to build an overspill exhibit or sell some of the animals)

Very Murky Water Health Change (Marine Mania only)

The change in health resulting from the water being very murky. If a very murky tank is not cleaned then it may well progress to becoming Extremely Murky (below)

Extremely Murky Water Threshold (Marine Mania only)

The level at which water is considered extremely murky by the animal

Extremely Murky Water Change (Marine Mania only)

The change in happiness resulting from the water becoming extremely murky (this could be due to a broken or missing Tank Filter or even by too many animals in the same tank - if symptoms persist you may wish to build an overspill exhibit or sell some of the animals)

Extremely Murky Water Health Change (Marine Mania only)

The change in health resulting from the water being extremely murky. If an extremely murky tank is not cleaned then many of the animals could become seriously ill and will definitely become very unhappy! This is not good for you zoo!

NOTE - Murky water becomes 1 point murkier every 30 seconds and so can quickly reach the Murky and also Very Murky levels - ensure you have adequate Tank Filters and also Marine Specialists to keep the tanks clean!