Ways To Keep Animals Happy In Planet Zoo

Highlights

Make sure to keep animals fed and habitats clean to avoid protesters and maintain zoo ratings.
Animals are happier in enclosures similar to their natural habitat, with the right terrain and foliage.
Manage population sizes and provide enrichment items to prevent loneliness, overcrowding, and in-fighting.

After years of anticipation, Planet Zoo has finally landed on consoles, allowing even more players around the world to create and manage the zoos of their dreams. By a large margin, the most important aspect of running a zoo is the happiness and welfare of the animals, and if players don't stay on top of this, protesters will turn up and the zoo's overall rating will go down.

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Thankfully, there are many ways to keep animals happy in Planet Zoo, and thanks to how immersive and realistic the game is, most of these tips are what real zookeepers do too. By clicking on an individual animal or going to the animal tab at the bottom, players can see each metric of an animal's happiness measured from 0 to 100.

1 Make Sure Keepers Regularly Visit Habitats

This Will Ensure Animals Are Fed & Keep Enclosures Clean

As long as players have food and water containers placed in their habitats, then the keepers will do the rest of the work, and they will also clean up all the inevitable poop. However, if players don't have enough keepers, or their staff are undertrained, then animals can go hungry and enclosures can get so dirty they not only make animals unhappy, but disease quickly becomes a risk.

To prevent this, and on top of hiring and training more staff, players will want to set up work zones that include a handful of habitats or exhibits, a keeper hut, and a staff room. They can then assign a keeper or two to each work zone, and watch their zoo run super smooth. Additionally, players can click on individual habitats and set keepers to visit more regularly. This is particularly important for large habitats with lots of animals.

2 Make Sure Habitats Have The Right Terrain & Foliage

Animals Are Happier In Enclosures Similar To Their Natural Habitat

One of the easiest ways to keep animals happy in Planet Zoo is to set up their enclosures just right. Different species prefer varying amounts of grass, rock, sand, and dirt, and this is easily seen in the Terrain tab for an animal's welfare. Players just have to toy around with the train painting tool until each slider is at a satisfactory level.

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Furthermore, animals don't like the presence of foliage that they would not find in the wild. For example, a Giraffe from Africa would be slightly unhappy with a plant from the wetlands of South America. Thankfully, the presence of these foreign plants does not have an overwhelming effect on animal happiness unless there are loads. Lastly, some animals also require traversable water in their habitats, and how much exactly they need is clearly displayed. The same is true of climbing areas for monkeys and the like.

3 Make Sure Animals Have Plenty Of Enrichment

Each Species Has Unique Enrichment Food & Toys

Just like in real zoos with animals not out in the wild, they must be enriched and engaged by artificial means. In Planet Zoo, players can head to the Habitat tab at the bottom of the screen, and here they will find two further subsections for Toy Enrichment and Food Enrichment. By filtering these by individual species, players will find exactly what the animal in question requires and can place a few enrichment items of each kind.

In Franchise mode, players will need to assign vets to research each species, and doing so will unlock more unique enrichment items. Lastly, some species in Planet Zoo prefer living in multispecies habitats and will have their enrichment boosted.

4 Manage Population Sizes To Prevent Loneliness, Overcrowding, & In-Fighting

Each Species Has A Preferred Group Size

Each species of animal has its own needs and preferences in Planet Zoo and this includes the number of individuals in their group as well as the distribution of male and female adults. For example, many animals are lonely by themselves, and yet at the opposite end of things, group sizes can grow too large, especially when there isn't sufficient space. Either of these outcomes will lower an animal's welfare.

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By looking at the Zoopedia entry for each species, players will see preferred group sizes, and this will include details on gender. A common preference for many species is to just have one adult male with a certain amount of adult females, as otherwise two or more males would fight for the Alpha status, resulting in dangerous injuries. Another option is to have bachelor groups of just males or just females, although naturally, this means players cannot start breeding programs that would in turn generate conservation credits from releasing rare animals into the wild or from trading them with other players.

5 Shy Animals Require Private Spaces To Retreat To

Some Animals Get Stressed By Guests Looking At Them

Certain species are more shy than others in Planet Zoo, and this can be easily seen in Zoopedia entries within the game. When designing habitats for these shy animals, particular consideration must be given to ensure they have adequate space to retreat to when they are feeling overwhelmed by guests. An individual animal's happiness can completely plummet when they feel stressed.

Private areas will usually involve an animal house at the back of the habitat that is sufficiently covered, but other cover such as ample foliage can also help. Furthermore, players can limit the access that guests have to the habitat, by perhaps only giving them one or two viewing areas, rather than allowing them access to the entire perimeter. Signs to remind guests to be quiet can also help in this regard.