Building Chester Zoo

Hi everyone,
I'm currently building Chester Zoo in-game. Thought I'd share in here, see what you all think. There are Youtube videos of these, too, but won't share as the beginner's guide suggests it might get my post deleted. So here are a few pictures.


Elephants of the Asian Forest, outdoors



The planning and WIP for the butterfly journey, andes and dormouse gardens, Eurasian Black Vulture, Giraffes, etc.


Jubilee area, aerial.


Jubilee, ground


Warthog and rhino enclosures with shared house.

 

This is looking fantastic so far and I can't wait to see it all fully built up.

I so wish I had this game to play (especially if I am stuck indoors for a while) as I want to have a go at building Twycross Zoo, Folly Farm and Yorkshire Wildlife Park, as well as Chester Zoo myself.

I do hope this game will get hundreds more animal species.

 

I've completed the next part of this build of Chester Zoo, and it is the Butterfly house! Can't really get the greatest of pictures of it, so here's the video I made for it. You can skip ahead to see the build, or toward the end to see the finished product. Let me know what you think!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

As the response to the previous video was quite good, and because I don't think the images do it justice, either, I'm going to step back one build and show you the elephant paddock I made. I've been experimenting with how to edit the videos as I've made them, so this one uses cuts to skip from step to step rather than showing the build sped up. I'd be glad of any feedback as to which style people prefer out of these two videos.

"

 

Part six of my Chester Zoo build is in the can. I've made the Eurasian Black Vulture aviary and built up the area around it, including the bridge and Andes Garden. Also, thanks to @ShonenJake13 and @ThomasNotTom I was able to do a half decent job of the off-show Scottish wildcat exhibit, so thank you for your help! You can watch the video below. I'd love to hear your feedback and, if you like any of it, please do subscribe!

 

Part seven is up. This week was pretty much fully focussed on the giraffe enclosure and house. Quite a different process to the previous two builds, much larger scale work with less fiddly bits, thank goodness!
As always, would love to hear your thoughts.

 

I put episode 8 up earlier this afternoon. It has turned out to be the first of two parts as I am building Spirit of the Jaguar which is a huge undertaking with plenty to do. The first part is below and the second will be up hopefully next weekend. As always, would love to know your thoughts.

Edit: it's also probably the very best thing I've done so far, both the build and the video, so I hope you like it.

 

Very good! Instantly recognisable by anyone who has so much as visited Chester. Do you have a melanistic jaguar to add to the realism? I remember I spent at least half an hour in front of the outdoor exhibit waiting for the jaguars to come out and then realised the melanistic specimen was camouflaged in the cave the entire time. Anyway, both came out in the end and the spotty male (I think) walked out over the waterfall on the log that crosses it. A very memorable zoo experience that I will never forget.

 

It's funny you should say that because my wife and I had almost the exact same thing happen when we were there! We had been to the jaguars in the morning, seen nothing, then went back before we left and decided to wait around to see if they'd emerge, only for us to realise that she was sitting in the cave and staring straight at us the whole time!

I haven't yet got a melanistic but am keeping my eye on the trading to see if one comes up. Failing that I'm going to try and breed one.
When the zoo is finished, which won't be for a good while, I'm going to populate it as far as I can from the trade centre, name them correctly, then attempt to correctly breed the animals so that the family trees are accurate to those of the real residents of the zoo. Don't know when that'll be, though as the building takes a lot of time! Good job I enjoy it!

 

That's funny about the similar experience!

You seem very committed to it, which always comes in useful when it is a massive task as it is. Good luck!

 

I'm doing something similar,Twycross zoo actually. The recreation of Chester looks amazingly accurate.

 

Welcome to Zoochat! We would love to see your Twycross recreation, I'm sure it's excellent as well!

 

Will you be doing YouTube videos of your recreation of Twycross Zoo? I have been waiting for someone to recreate this zoo as I personally don't have the game yet.

 

Seconded! Would love to see your work. I haven't been to Twycross since the snow leopard enclosure was new.

 

Thank you I appreciate the warm welcome

 

Sadly no as I do not have the equipment to record yet

 

Himalayas at Twycross zoo

 

Pets corner. Donkeys and sheep to the right ,finches straight ahead with goats on the left

 

You could start your own thread and then display your zoo there perhaps
The recreation looks really good though.

 

Good idea actually !