History VideoGame / ZooTycoon

* PteroSoarer: No pterosaurs appear as adoptable animals, but there is an aviary dedicated for them in the first game: the "Pteranodon House". [[InNameOnly It doesn't even have]] ''[[InNameOnly Pteranodon]]''. [[note]] It has ''Pterodactylus'', ''Rhamphorhynchus''(mispelled ''Ramphorhyncus'') and ''Dimorphodon''.[[/note]]

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: A (mostly[[note]]''Tyrannosaurus'', the sperm whale, and all sharks (except for the whale shark, whose behavior for this is unused) are the only animals who outright kill the guests they attack[[/note]]) non-fatal example; animals only seek out and harm adult male guests. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQz49_VP5kQ Men are also only only guests that can drown when trapped in water;]] children and women will just teleport on any land available or swim forever if there is none.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology:

** Mating in the first game is divided exclusively between "monogamous" and "polygamous". Real life mating habits are far more nuanced and complicated than what this installment makes them out to be, especially for the ones deemed "monogamous" (requiring a dedicated mate) in-game.

** Black bears and grizzly bears can co-exist in the same exhibit without attacking each other, despite the two being enemies in the wild. The two species do get along in some real-life zoos though.

** The female bongo antelopes in the second game have horns that are just as long as they males’. In real life, female bongos usually have shorter horns than males. This is particularly odd considering not only did the second game fix most of the GenderBender errors of the first, but the bongos in the first game were actually correctly sexually dimorphic.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: A (mostly[[note]]''Tyrannosaurus'', the sperm whale, and all sharks (except for the whale shark, whose behavior for this is unused) are the only animals who outright kill the guests they attack[[/note]]) non-fatal example; animals only seek out and harm adult male guests. Men are also only only guests that can drown when trapped in water, children and women will just teleport on any land available or swim forever if there is none.

* 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 nothing able to kill it, but the sequel also makes it potential prey for the [[LethalJokeCharacter Killer Penguin]] and, for some reason, the giant ground sloth.

* SavageSpinosaurs: Spinosaurus is portrayed in ''Dinosaur Digs'' as a highly aggressive animal that will repeatedly attack the electric fence required to contain it. [[KingOfTheDinosaurs A T. rex will make short work of it though]].

* EverythingsBetterWithPenguins:
** Also with monkeys. And yes, even {{bears|AreBadNews}}. And so on, and so forth.
** In the first game, placing an Emperor Penguin in an exhibit suited to it will make it [[spoiler: kill ''any'' other animal placed into the same exhibit, unless it's a penguin. Parodied in the sequel with the Killer Penguins that can get dumped on you]].

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: A (mostly[[note]]''Tyrannosaurus'', the sperm whale, and all sharks (except for the whale shark, whose behavior for this is unused) are the only animals who outright kill the guests they attack[[/note]]) non-fatal example; animals only seek out and harm adult male guests. Men are also only only guests that can drown when trapped in water, children an women will just teleport on any land available or swim forever if there is none.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: A (mostly[[note]]''Tyrannosaurus'', the sperm whale, and all sharks (except for the whale shark, whose behavior for this is unused) are the only animals who outright kill the guests they attack[[/note]]) non-fatal example; animals only seek out and harm adult male guests.

* {{Pirate}}: One challenge in ''Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania'' involves Hendrick "Pirate" Parker, a world famous man who dresses as a pirate and owns a seafood restaurant chain, stopping by your zoo. He's basically like a typical zoo guest but with the unique model of a pirate and a lot of cash, and even if you don't fulfill the photo challenge of photographing him with specific objects, he is grateful enough to reward a chest of coins if he's happy. One campaign, "The Ocean's Biomes", also involves him hiring the player to run a zoo he bought, building exhibits representing each biome of the ocean, before eventually coming through the zoo himself.

* {{Pirate}}: One challenge in ''Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania'' involves Pirate Parker, a world famous man who dresses as a pirate and owns a seafood restaurant chain, stopping by your zoo. He's basically like a typical zoo guest but with the unique model of a pirate and a lot of cash, and even if you don't fulfill the photo challenge of photographing him with specific objects, he is grateful enough to reward a chest of coins if he's happy.

* 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.

* NobodyPoops: Averted, because all animals in the game do it.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: A (mostly[[note]]''Tyrannosaurus'', the sperm whale, and all sharks are the only animals who outright kill the guests they attack[[/note]]) non-fatal example; animals only seek out and harm adult male guests.

* StockDinosaurs: Played straight and averted; fan-favorites like ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', ''Velociraptor'', ''Stegosaurus'', ''Ankylosaurus'', and ''Triceratops'' can be adopted, but so can other more obscure prehistoric creatures like ''Meiolania'' and ''Herrerasaurus''.

* MixAndMatchCritters: It's possible to breed reticulated giraffes with Masai giraffes. The offspring can have either coat pattern. This is slightly useful if you're very low on money as reticulated giraffes are much more expensive, so you can buy one of each kind. This saves a few thousand dollars compared to buying two reticulated giraffes, and adds more points to your animal variety stat.

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

** ''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. Datamining reveals some truly absurd cases, in which ''saltwater crocodiles'', on an attractive scale of 60 out of 120, are more popular than an ''Ankylosaurus'', which only hits '''20.'''

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: ''Dinosaur Digs'' in the first game and ''Extinct Animals'' in the second introduces dinosaurs and other prehistoric megafauna, although they're still referred to under the umbrella term "dinosaurs". Dinosaurs are popular with guests, but it costs a lot of money to buy them and build their exhibits.

** The second game does a better job with biomes, but there's still some nuggets here and there. You can even make a ''Stegosaurus'' in [=ZT2=] happier by putting a ''glacier'' in its exhibit, due to living in a boreal forest biome, even though such cool temperatures would be unheard of in Jurassic North America where it lived.

* SeldomSeenSpecies:
** Everywhere. Japanese serow, bowhead whales, olive baboons, ''Camptosaurus'', markhor, blackbuck, ''Caudipteryx''...
** Continues in the second game with false killer whales, pygmy hippos, geladas, Ethiopian wolves, goblin sharks, ''Metridiochoerus''...
** ''Ultimate Animal Collection'' gives us a vast selection from Australia and South America. Australian species include numbats, king quails, magpie geese, elephant trunk snakes, and more, while South American species include agoutis, tamanduas, southern coral snakes, trumpeter birds...

* GoneHorriblyWrong: In the second game, messing too much in the genetic lab minigame will result in a killer penguin: An [[UpToEleven even more psychotic]] [[PrehistoricMonster prehistoric]] rockhopper penguin from WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}} (yes, possibly related to ''those'' penguins) complete with teeth, [[RedEyesTakeWarning red]] [[GlowingEyesOfDoom glowing]] eyes, and a taste for Tyrannosaurs and anything smaller. ''And you can't sell it. '''EVER'''''.

* ExtinctAnimalPark: The ''Dinosaur Digs'' expansion pack lets the player obtain dinosaur eggs which, if cared for by a scientist, will hatch into new dinosaurs to display in your enclosures. Special prehistoric foliage is included to decorate the dinosaur paddocks, as are electric fences to keep them in. Dinosaurs still have a chance to escape, however, and will need to be tracked down and tranquilized for recovery by a specialized team if they do.

* FantasticNatureReserve: Using the right expansion packs and Easter eggs, your zoo can include exhibits for bigfeet, yetis, mermaids, unicorns, and Loch Ness monsters, alongside a variety of prehistoric beasts.