History VideoGame / ZooTycoon

* HerbivoresAreFriendly: Averted in the first game where large herbivores like elephants and hippos will go out of their way to kill predators. Prehistoric herbivores will also kill staff and even smaller herbivores apparently for the heck of it. Played irritatingly straight in the sequel, however. Place a carnivore in an herbivore's exhibit and it's pretty much a death sentence for the latter, regardless of whether or not the herbivore can defend itself. This ranges from the mildly annoying but unsurprising (like crocodiles eating peafowl) to the absolutely ridiculous (a Fennec fox, the smallest member of the dog family, effortlessly killing and eating an oryx, a large antelope with imposing horns).

** Black bears and grizzly bears can co-exist in the same exhibit without attacking each other[[note]]Don't actually try it though, their completely different exhibit requirements means you can't satisfy them both[[/note]], despite the two being enemies in the wild. The two species do get along in some real-life zoos though.

** Zookeepers being unable to reach an animal/food dish/poo for no reason at all. Instead choosing to run around the sides of the exhibit. It should be noted that this is sometimes the player's fault if they forgot to add a staff gate (in the sequel anyway, as gates are automatically added to enclosures in the original) or if the gate is blocked by another object, but just as often the keeper simply has no excuse.
** In the original game. If you put 500 scientists and a dinosaur on an island, the scientists will completely ignore the dinosaur which is eating them up. Meanwhile, the only scientist in your park who isn't on the island will be trying to get there to put the dinosaur back in a cage. Marine Biologists are even worse. Fortunately this was somewhat fixed for the sequel ''Extinct Animals''.
** Zoo guests are annoyingly dimwitted. You can build a zoo so a whole food court + bathrooms is within easy reach at all times, but there will always be at least one angry guest with a critical level need because they decided that riding a zoo ride/making a wish/talking to another guest was more important than taking care of that need before it got too high. Of course, the zoo is what they blame. In other words, [[TakeThat a perfect representation of reality.]]

** Occasional gaffes in animals' descriptions (Galapagos giant tortoises on the mainland?) or the criteria of a challenge (jaguars, whose breeding range extends into Mexico and possibly the United States, not counting as a North American species).

** Animals do not breed according to certain seasons; instead they breed randomly without any pattern to it. Species where normally the females would give birth all around the same time don't, presumably so the player doesn't have too many animals to sell.
** Most animals have one offspring, with only a few having more, even if they are lions or other animals with larger litters. In the first game this is probably for balance, as selling your animal's young, or alternately, waiting until they reach adulthood and selling their parents, are still very good ways to make money.

** The "insect" house building showcases three animals: scorpions, spiders, and beetles(in the second game only). Only one of those (the beetle) is an insect while the other two are arachnids, and the building even has a giant spider on top in the second game(the first game replaces it with an ant). However, in a strange mix of this and ShownTheirWork, the Zoopedia article correctly refers to the inhabitants of the insect house as arthropods.

** ''Kentrosaurus'' is named as ''Stegosaurus kentrosaurus'' in ''Zoo Tycoon 2'', despite not actually being a species of ''Stegosaurus''.

** Several extinct animals are also inaccurate in terms of behavior and/or appearance (the likely herbivorous oviraptorosaur ''Protarchaeopteryx'' is portrayed as a strict carnivore, a consequence of it being recycled from the secretarybird).

* AscendedToCarnivorism: ''Protarcheopteryx'' in ''Zoo Tycoon 2'', very much unlike the real animal, is depicted as a carnivore instead of a herbivore, due to it sharing behaviors and animations with the predatory secretarybird. The giant ground sloth ''Megatherium'' in the same game leans towards the controversial theory of being an occasional scavenger, being able to eat meat on the ground in addition to various plant materials, when the animal was also a herbivore in real life.

** Dinosaur exhibits seem appealing, but they take a lot of money to build and maintain. All dinosaurs are capable of shredding through the normal fences and require expensive, reinforced fencing—the biggest animals like ''Apatosaurus'' and ''Allosaurus'' are especially notable as they will even destroy those if they're not electrified. They also require a lot of room you could have used on something else, which can be especially problematic since the size of the exhibit can negatively impact guest happiness: If they don't see lots of happy animals, their happiness score starts to decline. That problem is especially exasperated by how many dinosaurs prefer being alone with no more than two other individuals with them.

** Giant pandas may be considered the "Endgame" animal for your zoo, but they are very picky about what they want in their exhibit, making building a suitable exhibit difficult. They are also shy animals who don't like being seen by too many guests.

* BearsAreBadNews: If you sic the bears on the zoo guests anyway.

* CheatCode: ''Everywhere''. From "shift-4" for extra cash to the various ways renaming exhibits can unlock special animals to how aquatic-themed items react if you put them in a tank, there are little bonuses all over the place.
* ConservationOfCompetence: The ArtificialStupidity problems mentioned are more likely to manifest and worsen, the bigger your zoo is and the more guests who visit (which does make a certain amount of sense, as they are all drawing on your computer's resources, and thus have a fixed amount of "intelligence" between them).

** ''Zoo Tycoon'': Perhaps the strangest is Magnet, a polar bear based off of Baltimore Zoo's once famous polar bear (now deceased). You already have regular polar bears in the game, and Magnet is not much different except for a few little things, such as having an animation of him playing with his famous red ball. You can adopt as many as you want despite that it would more sense if you could only have [[OneSteveLimit one individual]] at a time, and you can even adopt female ones despite the real Magnet polar bear being male.

* EscapedAnimalRampage: Animals can be released by deleting a section of fence or they can escape on their own if you don't maintain damaged sections of fencing. Releasing the ''Tyrannosaurus'' in Dinosaur Digs can provide a little fun via Easter egg. If the ''T. rex'' destroys a one-person restroom you can see a person crying on the toilet (a reference to the lawyer's fate in ''Film/JurassicPark''.)

* KingOfTheDinosaurs: ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' is an adoptable dinosaur in both games. This is one of the most expensive and hardest animals to keep happy and enclosed, but it's also one of the most popular with the guests. Set it loose in a zoo and it'll tear through everything, with only the ''Deinosuchus'' able to kill it, while the sequel also makes it potential prey for the [[LethalJokeCharacter Killer Penguin]] and, for some reason, the giant ground sloth.

* MammothsMeanIceAge: In the original game's ''Dinosaur Digs'' expansion pack, the animals are divided in four groups based on the geological period they lived in- Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous and Ice Age (Pleistocene). Guess which species is included in the fourth period? Plus, the Mammoth is the only Ice Age species that requires to be researched (and will always be the first ''Dinosaur Digs'' species available to reseatch). Also, the first non-tutorial scenario ''Dinosaur Digs'' mission is exhibiting all four of the vanilla Ice Age animals(Woolly Mammoth, ''Smilodon'', ''Meiolania'', and Woolly Rhino; the game has two more Ice Age species in ''Macrauchenia'' and ''Megatherium'', but they don't appear since they were added later as DLC. Also, they don't live in a tundra.).

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: A (mostly) non-fatal example, animals only seek out and harm adult male guests.

* PrehistoricMonster: Played straight in the first game. With the exception of ''Caudipteryx'', all prehistoric animals need highly reinforced fencing to keep them contained. If they do escape, they will go on a staff-killing rampage unlike modern day animals which will maul guests but leave staff alone. The sequel averts this with prehistoric animals having the same fencing requirements to equivalent sized modern animals with no appetite for staff members (though ''T. rex'' will still eat guests).

** In real life zoos, peafowl are typically allowed to roam free, but in [=ZT2=], free-roaming peafowl almost always send guests into a panic. There are ways around this, though.

** ''Aepyornis'' (elephant bird) has a fan of ornamental feathers on its head, which is supported by the presence of small pits on the skull.

** If you spend too much of your money and don't have enough animals and/or things to sell to get some back, you can be put in a situation were you cannot buy more animals and things, and if you don't have enough animals because they all died or something, you cannot even slowly make more money because you won't get enough guests. The only solution other than restarting or loading a save file is to use a cheat code to make more money.

** You pretty much can treat your animals as good or bad as you like, though the game does punish you if you are mean to them.
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Having too many unhappy animals in the first game will make you unable to adopt new ones. The only way to lift this restriction is raising the existing animals' happiness to higher levels.

* WouldntHitAGirl: Animals don't attack female guests, although they still will run and scream in a panic near any escaped animals.
* WouldntHurtAChild: Animals ignore children of both genders, although the children still run and scream in fear if they are near escaped animals.

** In the first game, the info article about tigers claims they live in groups. Possibly the writer confused them with lions? In any case, they are satisfied with just two of them in a exhibit like all the other big cats (obviously bar lions), so this mistake didn't extend to actual game play.

** Black bears and grizzly bears can co-exist in the same exhibit, despite the two being enemies in the wild. The two species do get along in some real-life zoos though.
** Flamingos and anteaters eat ''hay'' in the first game. Averted in the second game where the flamingo is among the few animals to eat shrimp.

** The "insect" house building from the second game houses three animals: a scorpion, a spider, and a beetle. Only one of those (the beetle) is an insect while the other two are arachnids, and the building even has a giant spider on top. However, in a strange mix of this and ShownTheirWork, the Zoopedia article correctly refers to the inhabitants of the insect house as arthropods.

** Some of the dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures inhabit unrealistic biomes. You can, for instance, make a ''Stegosaurus'' in [=ZT2=] happier by putting a ''glacier'' in its exhibit.

** The ''Stokesosaurus'' is much too large, as the real animal was at most the size of a tiger. In addition, it is very stockily built, while the real animal was more akin to a Jurassic cheetah. Parodied when it sprouts a pair of glasses when interacting with the painting enrichment item.
* AscendedGlitch: In the first game, ludicrously penguins kill most other animals when they are in the same exhibit, including animals like lions and ''T.Rex''. This is referenced in the sequel with the killer penguin, a red eyed bloodthirsty demonic penguin, albeit it resembles a rockhopper penguin instead of an emperor penguin, you may be randomly offered in challenge mode or you may have a chance to receive when botching the cloning procedure.

** Some of the best user-created zoos in the sequel use dozens of hyper-realistic mods that are used to achieve a realistic looking zoo. Unfortunately, guests cannot see through fences that they should or animals cannot get around due to too many rocks.
** Dinosaur exhibits seem appealing, but they take a lot of money to build and maintain. They also require a lot of room you could have used on something else, which can be especially problematic since the size of the exhibit can negatively impact guest happiness: If they don't see lots of happy animals, their happiness score starts to decline.

** Giant pandas may be considered the "Endgame" animal for your zoo but they are very picky about what they want in their exhibit, making building a suitable exhibit difficult. They are also shy animals who don't like being seen by too many guests.

** In the first game, any animal suited to the environment the zoo is situated in. For early scenarios, grassland animals are a given, while later scenarios like the ones seen in the "Advanced" difficulty switch it up.

* CheatCode: ''Everywhere''. From "shift-4" for unlimited cash to the various ways renaming exhibits can unlock special animals to how aquatic-themed items react if you put them in a tank, there are little bonuses all over the place.

** California Sea Lions in ''Marine Mania''. They're cheaper to purchase than the other show animals, and all of their tricks are available from the start. However, they aren't as appealing to guests as the others, and their shows aren't as lucrative in part because they can't expand upon their [[StealthPun shallow pool]] of tricks. Their low starting costs are also offset by the need to hire both a Zookeeper to tend to their basic needs ''and'' a Marine Biologist to conduct their shows, further negating the profitability of their shows unless both can be assigned to other compatible exhibits. The disparity between the Sea Lion and other show animals is especially apparent in the "Aquatic Show Park" scenario, where the player has to account for the different financial models between shows.

** You can unlock ''Triceratops'', ''Deinosuchus'', unicorns, and mermaids by doing certain things in the first game.

** There is a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq5KwlYhfKY hidden gold brick path]] in the first game, generally considered the most beautiful path in the game, that becomes available if you put a lion, a bengal tiger, and a grizzly bear in the same exhibit. This is a reference to the famous "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" line from the ''Film/TheWizardOfOz.''

** On almost any scenario, players can clear the entire park except the initial starting path in order to start off with a significantly larger chunk of cash.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: ''Dinosaur Digs'' in the first game and ''Extinct Animals'' in the second one. Dinosaurs are popular with guests, but it costs a lot of money to buy them and their exhibits.

* JurassicFarce: ''Dinosaur Digs'', obviously. Of particular note are the toilet cabins, which can be destroyed by the dinosaurs, leaving someone sitting on the can in the open like when Donald Gennaro meets his demise to the ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' in ''Film/JurassicPark''.
* KingOfTheDinosaurs: ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' is an adoptable dinosaur in both games. This is one of the most expensive and hardest to keep happy/enclosed animals, but it's also one of the most popular with the guests. The first game has it lose only against the orca/killer whale and the ''Deinosuchus'', while the sequel also makes it a potential pray for the [[LethalJokeCharacter Killer Penguin]] and for some reason the way more expensive giant ground sloth.

* MammothsMeanIceAge: In the original game's ''Dinosaur Digs'' expansion pack, the animals are divided in 4 groups based on the geological period they lived in- Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous and Ice Age (Pleistocene). Guess which species is included in the fourth period? Plus, the Mammoth is the only Ice Age species that requires to be researched (and the first ''DD'' researchable species). Also, the first non-tutorial scenario ''DD'' mission is exhibiting all 4 of the vanilla Ice Age animals (the game has 2 more Ice Age species, but they don't appear since they were added later as DLC).

* MenagerieOfMisery: You can invoke this by making your animal pens extremely small, making the environment inside the enclosure as different as possible from the animal's natural environment, and by not feeding the animal. However, as one would expect, neither the animals nor the visitors will be too happy about this. There are also several challenge mode games that involve fixing up zoos that keep the animals in poor conditions.

* PteroSoarer:
** The "Pteranodon House" in the first game doesn't have ''Pteranodon''. [[note]] It has ''Dimorphodon'', ''Pterodactylus'' and ''Rhamphorhynchus''.[[/note]]
** There are some custom fan-mods of pterosaurs that vary in terms of accuracy, a few have ShownTheirWork.
* RaptorAttack: ''Velociraptor'' appears in the first game, and it's scaly. A scaly ''Deinonychus'' and ''Utahraptor'' and feathered ''Velociraptor'' appear in [=ZT2=]. The male ''Utahraptors'' have feathery crests on their heads.

* SandboxMode: Freeform games act as an alternative to the scenarios. Here you have no objectives to complete, and can design a zoo as you wish in one of many maps. You don't have unlimited funds, but can choose to start with anywhere from $10,000 to $500,000. You also still have to research various upgrades and unlock objects. Marine Mania adds a "Kids Map", which is even more of a sandbox, starting you off with a few exhibits and with everything unlocked. Zoo Tycoon 2 retains something very similar to the original Freeform, now called Challenge mode. Freeform itself is now even more of a sandbox, giving you unlimited funds and unlocking all animals and objects from the start.

** ''Ultimate Animal Collection'' gives us a vast selection from Australia and South America. Australian species include numbats, king quails, magpie geese, elephant trunk snakes, common ringtail possums, Tasmanian devils... South American species include Andean porcupines, agoutis, tamanduas, red-footed tortoises, southern coral snakes, trumpeter birds...

** Speaking of which, when theropods (such as the ''Tyrannosaurus rex'') [[Film/JurassicPark escape from their enclosure and destroy toilet cabins, there's a park guest sitting on the toilet]].

** Many of the pterosaur fan-mods launch quadrupedally.

* SimpleYetAwesome: Using the "create cliffs" tool to dig a large pit in the first game and then surrounding it with the cheapest fence available so that it counts as a proper exhibit. Particularly effective with dinosaurs, as using the terrain tool actually costs less than using the dino-proof fencing, there's no risk of them or the guests shocking themselves on the fence, and they can't break out even if the fences break down (though the zoo staff has [[ArtisticLicensePhysics no problems with getting in and out of the exhibit despite the sheer cliff face]]). You can also use the terrain editor to add water holes to your exhibits and save money on filling water dishes

* StockDinosaurs: Played straight and averted, fan-favorites like ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', ''Velociraptor'', ''Stegosaurus'', ''Ankylosaurus'', ''Triceratops'' and ''Styracosaurus'' can be adopted but so can other more obscure prehistoric creatures.
* StockNessMonster One of the animals available in the Complete Collection. It's basically a palette-swapped plesiosaurus that lives in fresh water, rather than salt water.

* ThreateningShark: Sharks can be adopted in ''Marine Mania'', and the great whites are capable of eating any unfortunate guests that fall into their tank.

** ''Zoo Tycoon'' features [[FantasyKitchenSink unicorns, yetis, Bigfoots, etc...]] Yet exhibits containing such amazing creatures are not swarming with guests. Heck, seeing [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs dinosaurs]] and [[LochNessMonster Nessies]] in a zoo is mundane for them.

** To both the animals and the guests. It's possible to sic lions and other predators on your prey animals or guests. There is even a nice animation for the ''T-Rex'' when it attacks a man. It tosses him into the air and swallows him alive.

* YouAreNumberSix: The default name of the animals are basically "[Species Name] [Number]". For example: Nile crocodile 1, or polar bear 4.
* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: Some items you have to research for no logical reason.

* StockDinosaurs: Played straight and averted, fan-favorites like ''[[TyrannosaurusRex T. rex]]'', ''Velociraptor'', ''Stegosaurus'', ''Ankylosaurus'', ''Triceratops'' and ''Styracosaurus'' can be adopted but so can other more obscure prehistoric creatures.

* FantasyKitchenSink: Using the right expansion packs and Easter eggs, your zoo can include exhibits for bigfoot, yeti, mermaids, unicorns, and Loch Ness monsters. Sadly, no dragons.

** Also with [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys monkeys]]. And yes, even {{bears|AreBadNews}}. And so on, and so forth.

* {{Unicorn}}: Can be unlocked in the first game by naming an exhibit "Film/{{Xanadu|1980}}". Interestingly, the males are black and orange and the females white. They also sound exactly like the zebras in the game. You could chalk it up to lazy programming, but they bothered to give the wild horses proper neighs...

* {{Unicorn}}: Can be unlocked in the first game by naming a exhibit "Film/{{Xanadu|1980}}". Interestingly, the males are black and orange and the females white. They also sound exactly like the zebras in the game. You could chalk it up to lazy programming, but they bothered to give the wild horses proper neighs...
* UnintentionallyUnwinnable:

* StockDinosaurs: Played straight and averted, fan-favorites like ''[[Tyrannosaurus rex T. rex]]'', ''Velociraptor'', ''Stegosaurus'', ''Ankylosaurus'', ''Triceratops'' and ''Styracosaurus'' can be adopted but so can other more obscure prehistoric creatures.

* {{Unicorn}}: Can be unlocked in the first game by naming a exhibit "Film/{{Xanadu}}". Interestingly, the males are black and orange and the females white. They also sound exactly like the zebras in the game. You could chalk it up to lazy programming, but they bothered to give the wild horses proper neighs...

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The second game lumps all forests other than boreal forests and tropical rainforests into the “temperate forest” biome. Boreal forests are a type of temperate forest, with the boreal forest having more coniferous plants while the temperate forest has more deciduous ones.

* HerbivoresAreFriendly: Played irritatingly straight. Place a carnivore in an herbivore's exhibit and it's pretty much a death sentence for the latter, regardless of whether or not the herbivore can defend itself. This ranges from the mildly annoying but unsurprising (like crocodiles eating peafowl) to the absolutely ridiculous (''Protarchaeopteryx'', a dinosaur smaller than a turkey, effortlessly killing and eating ''Kentrosaurus'', a dinosaur larger than a horse and covered in gigantic spikes).

** One of the challenges in the second game's Challenge Mode is to take three pictures of guests doing different things. While two of them can be easily taken (a guest mimicking an animal, and a guest dancing next to a music rock decoration), the third requires you to take a picture of a guest talking to a hand puppet gift item, a behavior that was not actually coded into the game. Fortunately, you are able to decline the challenge and move on to a different one through a drop-down in Photo Safari mode.

** Several extinct animals are also inaccurate in terms of behavior and/or appearance (the likely herbivorous oviraptorosaur ''Protarchaeopteryx'' is portrayed as a strict carnivore).

* AscendedToCarnivorism: ''Protarcheopteryx'' in ''Zoo Tycoon 2'', very much unlike the real animal, is depicted as a carnivore instead of a herbivore. The giant ground sloth ''Megatherium'' in the same game leans towards the controversial theory of being an occasional scavenger, being able to eat meat on the ground in addition to various plant materials, when the animal was also a herbivore in real life.

** The second game also allows for ''Deinosuchus'' to either purchase, or create in the extinct research lab. Though unlike the real ''Deinosuchus'', it has spikes because [[RuleOfCool it looks cool or something]].

** All extinct species fossils can be found on every map, regardless of continent.

** The Stokesosaurus is much too large, as the real animal was at most the size of a tiger. In addition, it is very stockily built, while the real animal was more akin to a Jurassic cheetah. Parodied when it sprouts a pair of glasses when interacting with the painting enrichment item.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: A non-fatal example, animals only seek out and harm adult male guests.

* UnwinnableByMistake:
** Some ''Zoo Tycoon 2'' players with the ''Endangered Species'' expansion pack cannot adopt a Galapagos giant tortoise at all. Attempting it causes the game to freeze or crash. This glitch unfortunately has never been fixed, and makes one scenario that requires breeding them unwinnable. You need to complete this scenario to unlock the very useful Conservation Breeding Center. Mitigating this somewhat, this animal is not well liked among players anyway, as its slow walking speed makes it take forever to get its needs met.
** One of the challenges in the second game's Challenge Mode is to take three pictures of guests doing different things. While two of them can be easily taken (a guest mimicking an animal, and a guest dancing next to a music rock decoration), the third requires you to take a picture of a guest talking to a hand puppet gift item, a behavior that was not actually coded into the game. Fortunately, you are able to decline the challenge and move on to a different one through a drop-down in Photo Safari mode.

** Attaining the Christmas Tree on your own without a guide requires you to just so happen to be playing the game on Christmas, instead of, say, celebrating and visiting with loved ones. Even if you just so happen to be doing that, you have only until Santa finishes flying across the zoo to notice it's available and purchase it, which is possible to completely miss because his path can be offscreen, and then the tree is gone again until next year (unless you use a cheat or fiddle with your computer’s date.) This one at least is possible for a few to figure out because the tree is listed as the reindeer's favorite foliage, and is prominently visible in one scenario, so the player at least is aware enough that it exists to be able to consider ways to try unlocking it. The Jack-o-Lantern has the same exact issue, just with a witch and Halloween instead of Santa and Christmas.