Animals and Welfare

Animals are the heart of Planet Zoo 2. Every species is a realistically simulated creature with its own needs, and a habitat only thrives when those needs are met. The sequel rebuilds animal behaviour around what Frontier calls an improved animal brain, producing more natural and varied actions such as herding, grazing, and reacting to the world around them.

Welfare is tracked through clear on-screen indicators, and animals now show more obvious physical reactions to their surroundings and condition, making problems easier to spot. Frontier highlights a generational leap in fidelity, with detailed fur, feathers, and scales, along with authentic breathing and sounds.

Behaviour is also more expressive. Layered animations communicate an animal's mood and emotional state at a glance, without the player needing to open a menu, and species show off newly detailed actions such as more dynamic climbing and jumping, resting on raised frames, and rubbing against their surroundings.

The Animal Brain

Underneath those expressions sits what Frontier calls the animal brain, the set of systems that decides how a creature behaves across its zoos and reserves. It works as a reactive brain that sorts everything an animal can do into four kinds of action and lets it shift between them smoothly as the situation around it changes.

Mood feeds into all of this. An animal that is happy, sad, angry, or scared carries out the same actions in a different manner, shown through its appearance rather than a readout, whether that is a hot lion panting or an angry tiger flattening its ears. Those moods can spread, so a scared zebra alerts the rest of its herd to danger. Animals also read their surroundings, reacting to the time of day, the weather, the seasons, and the presence of predators, and seasonal fertility shapes when they court and breed.

Care, breeding, and conservation

Players raise animals from their earliest moments and can breed them across generations, while enrichment items help keep animals stimulated and healthy. Conservation is a central theme: animals can ultimately be released, and that effort extends beyond the zoo through the new Wildlife Reserves.

Cohabitation returns from the first game and takes on a larger role in management, letting compatible species share a single habitat. Frontier has said it will detail how cohabitation works closer to launch.

New kinds of animal

For the first time in the series, zoos can keep fully aquatic species in aquariums and free-flying birds in aviaries, greatly broadening the kinds of life on display.

Confirmed species

Frontier has not yet revealed the full animal roster, but the in-game Zoopedia is now live as a reference for the animals shown so far, with new species added in weekly drops ahead of launch. Forty-five animals were catalogued by late July 2026, and successive drops have expanded the list well beyond the announce trailer. Recent additions include the Spotted Eagle Ray, Gharial, Boa Constrictor, Gila Monster, and Springbok, alongside reef fish such as the Red Lionfish and Schooling Bannerfish, grassland mammals like the Aardvark and Gemsbok, and the Giant Malaysian Leaf Insect, which joins the European Peacock butterfly among the game's invertebrates. The species confirmed so far, grouped by type:

A further set of six species, including the Golden Eagle, Golden Lion Tamarin, Great Hammerhead Shark, Axolotl, Blue and Gold Fusilier, and Longfin Batfish, is tied to the game's deluxe release rather than the base game.

The Zoopedia

The Zoopedia is the game's in-game reference for every animal, and it is also available on the official website. It sorts each species by habitat type, spanning terrestrial habitats, flying aviaries, aquariums, and exhibits for smaller creatures, alongside the biome and continent it is found in and its real-world conservation status. As the roster has grown the taxonomy has broadened to twelve biomes, from Desert, Taiga and Tundra to Reef, Open Sea and Lakes and Rivers, and nine continents including Oceania. The recognised conservation tiers are Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, and Critically Endangered. Each entry covers the animal's appearance, size and weight, taxonomy, wild population, and social and breeding behaviour. Frontier notes the Zoopedia is a work in progress, so its stats and artwork may change before release.

Animals listed in the Zoopedia so far, with the real-world conservation data shown for each. The roster is growing through weekly reveals, so this is a partial list rather than the full lineup.