I'm interested to know people's favourite Zoo Tycoon 2 Animals (excluding user created downloadable content). Post about your favourite animals and the strategies you use regarding them (e.g. the type of habitat you create, how you breed them etc.)
Common Hippopotamus I start with a herd of 2.2 hippopotami, kept in two large enclosures. At least 1/2 the water is deep water, 1/4 shallow water and 1/4 land in each exhibit. I breed Male 1 with Female 1 to produce a female calf (Female 3), then 'adopt' Female 3 (without) saving until Female 1 conceives again. Then I press undo to bring back Female 3. Female 1 then produces a second calf shortly after (Female 4). I breed Male 2 with Female 2 to produce a female calf (Female 5). Note: Female 1 denotes the female which gives birth first, it is not important which of the two females this is. The result is two herds of females (Female 1, Female 4 and Female 5; and Female 2 and Female 5) that are related and relatively close in age. I then swap the males so that Male 1 breeds with Female 2 and Female 5; and Male 2 breeds with Female 1, Female 4 and Female 5. By retaining the fathers of the three younger females, you can ensure the new mate of the mother doesn't adopt her daughters as his own (preventing further breeding). Then I allow all five females to breed freely, exporting male offspring, and retaining but not breeding female offspring.
Ethiopian Wolf/Striped Hyena These two are two of my favourite species and I have included them in the same post as my management strategy for these two is identical. I build one large enclosure, with an adjoining smaller enclosure (only big enough for around 4 animals). I start with 1.1 animals and allow them to breed freely. I save before the female gives birth each time and if the litter is 1.1 or 2.0, I keep the pups. If the litter is 0.2, I exit without saving and repeat until the female gives birth to at least 1 male in the litter. I retain all male offspring. A female Striped Hyena will typically give birth to 5-6 litters in her lifetime; a female Ethipian Wolf will typically give birth to 2-3 litters in her lifetime. The reason I retain male offspring and not female is because unrelated females of these two species will kill each other. Unrelated males will sometimes kill each other but this is extremely rare and has only happened twice in all the years I've been playing the game. For the record, unrelated is defined as anything which is not on the animal's family tree (i.e. aunts/nieces and paternal half siblings believe they are unrelated). Towards the end of the lifespan of the breeding female, I obtain a new female and place her in the adjoining enclosure. By the time her happiness metre is at the optimum level for breeding (a few Zoo Tycoon 2 weeks), the previous breeding female has usually died and she is ready for introduction to the pack (consisting of the sons of the previous breeding pair). I pair her with the youngest brother, who is closest in age to the new female and repeat the above strategy. The sons of this new pair are at little to no risk of being attacked by the other adult males (their uncles) and the pack can safely expand.
Bengal Tigers and Black Rhinos for me. Something about their design always impresses me. For tigers I just put one of each gender in an exhibit and ignore it till I realize their exhibit is empty again For the rhinos it's a little different. I always put 1.3 rhinos in a vast termporary exhibit in the back, while a build up the rest of my zoo. Eventually it gets to the point I have 50+ rhinos. I would crate the ones I want to keep and release the rest to the wild. I would then build my African Safari section with giraffes, elephants, lions, etc. The rhinos are the ultimate mixing species in the game, as they get along great with every savanna species. I would put a rhino in every exhibit, complimenting cheetahs, zebras, antelope, ostriches, etc. very nicely
I like the Black Rhinos. I usually have two small exhibits, each containing a male; and two large exhibits for the females. I start with four females and breed them to one of the males. As each one becomes pregnant, I move it to the second large exhibit. I keep any female calves born to these four females and breed them to the other male. Their offspring (male and female) are released to the wild upon reaching maturity as I do not have a third unrelated male to breed this generation of females to. I also like the white rhinos but two things annoy me with them: 1) Male calves take almost twice as long to reach maturity as female calves (what's with that?) meaning a female who has two sons cannot generally have a third calf as females who have had two daughters, or a daughter and a son can; 2) The incidence of stillbirths in this species is extremely high meaning I have to watch a heavily pregnant female or I'll come back to discover she's had a stillbirth and is now infertile. Separating the females prior to birth appears to drastically reduce this phenomenon. I often house gerenuk with white rhinos.
I often do a large savannah of giraffe, zebra, ostrich and Thompson's' gazelle. Never sable antelope though as they require larger amounts of space and then upset everything in the mixed exhibit.
