Revision - animals and welfare - Planet Zoo 2 Wiki

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. 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.

A Sumatran tiger resting with a juvenile and a cub while another tiger claws at a tree trunk

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.

Behaviour Type	What It Covers
Routines	The animal’s default actions, such as exploring, resting, and using enrichments.
Periodics	Reactions to changes in the environment between routines, such as finding shelter or escaping a predator.
Distractions	Reactions that change how an action is carried out, such as joining a herd while exploring or answering a social call while resting.
Interruptions	Reactions that stop the current action for another, such as playing with a member of the same species or waking from sleep when disturbed.

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.

A second layer sits on top of the brain. Formations let several animals of the same species act as one group when they gather closely enough, forming up for migrating, defending, fleeing, or neutral situations. Shape, size, and density vary by formation type and by species, so a bison herd may close into a defensive ring against a nearby predator while migrating zebra form a line with the male at the rear. Members compare the routine behaviours they individually want and effectively vote on a shared action, weighted by how sociable the species is. The whole system is detailed under The Animal Brain.

Flying and aquatic species use the same brain but draw on different pools of behaviours. Birds weigh the cost of flying against walking and prefer perching if they are arboreal, while fish hold a preferred position in the water column and rest by hovering. Those differences are covered under Aviaries and Aquariums.

Welfare

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. Selecting an animal opens a panel with its name, species, age, and life stage alongside an overall welfare percentage broken into components, plus an Animal Appeal score that measures how much of a draw the animal is for guests.

Welfare Component	Covers
Animal Status	The animal’s own condition, including health.
Social	Group size and company, measured against what the species needs.
Environment	How well the habitat itself suits the animal, including space, terrain, and planting.
Enrichment	Stimulation from enrichment items placed in the habitat.

The same panel carries direct actions, so a keeper can be assigned, a vet requested, or a clean ordered without hunting through a menu. Aquatic animals add a salinity requirement on top of the shared needs, and every species has its own temperature tolerance.

A saltwater crocodile basking beside its habitat pool with the animal information panel open, showing welfare, social, environment and enrichment readings

Breeding and Nesting

Players raise animals from their earliest moments and can breed them across generations. Planet Zoo 2 adds nesting, which the first game did not have: flying birds, flightless birds, and reptilian egg-layers all need a suitable nesting site for each breeding pair, and a pair cannot conceive until it has claimed one. Eggs are laid in the nest and incubated by the male, the female, or both depending on species, while reptiles leave their eggs to incubate alone, though some mothers stay to guard them.

Newly hatched flying birds are nestbound and depend on their parents. At fledging age they swap their shaggy juvenile look for adult plumage, but they still count as juveniles and do not press against a habitat’s adult population limit until they reach sexual maturity. Reptiles and flightless birds hatch free to explore straight away.

Fertility is not constant. Some species have seasonal fertility and can only conceive during part of the year, and welfare feeds directly into both fertility and the ability to conceive, so an animal in poor condition during its window costs a whole year. Others breed continuously, which removes the deadline but creates a steady supply of young that has to be housed or controlled with contraception. Some species also show visible pregnancies. Nest types, incubation, and the requirements an animal has to meet before it can be released are covered under Breeding and Nesting, and the seasonal cycle under Seasons and Weather.

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. Aviary birds can cohabit with other animals, which the studio has shown as part of its aviary coverage.

Conservation

Conservation is a central theme rather than a side objective. Animals can ultimately be released, and that effort extends beyond the zoo through the new Wildlife Reserves. Frontier says it researches every species with input from experts and from the IUCN Red List, and that its choice of aquatic species in particular was guided by real-world husbandry and ethical practice, keeping to animals that suit the habitats the game actually ships with.

Frontier has been asked directly about cetaceans, and has not committed either way. It says that while dolphins, whales, and porpoises are popular animals, it matters to the studio that every species in the game has an environment that properly reflects its requirements, and that it is watching how conservation research and modern aquarium rewilding programmes for that group develop. Nothing has been ruled in or out.

Release into a reserve is also selective rather than universal. Only species that have an appropriate Wildlife Reserve to go to can be released, because Frontier builds each reserve around a landscape and a matching set of animals, so the roster of releasable species grows as more reserves are added.

The wider conservation arc, from welfare and breeding through research to rewilding, is covered under Conservation.

The Zoopedia

The Zoopedia is the game’s in-game reference for every animal, and it is also published on the official website ahead of launch. Each entry covers the animal’s appearance, size and weight, taxonomy down to genus, wild population, conservation status, social and reproductive behaviour, and a set of real-world facts. New species are added in weekly drops, and Frontier notes the Zoopedia reflects work in progress, so text, images, and stats are not final.

Entries are filterable along five axes. Animals are sorted by where they are housed, across Habitat - Terrestrial, Habitat - Flying, Aquarium, and Exhibit; by biome, across twelve options; by continent, across ten that place four ocean basins alongside six landmasses including the Arctic; by conservation status; and by content pack, which separates the base-game roster from the Deluxe additions. The reference itself is covered under Zoopedia.

Axis	Values
Housing	Habitat - Terrestrial, Habitat - Flying, Aquarium, Exhibit
Biome	Desert, Estuarine, Grassland, Lakes and Rivers, Mangrove, Open Sea, Reef, Taiga, Temperate, Tropical, Tundra, Wetlands
Continent	Africa, Arctic, Asia, Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Indian Ocean, North America, Oceania, Pacific Ocean, South America
Conservation status	Least concern, Near threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically endangered, plus an unassessed placeholder
Content pack	Base game, Deluxe

Catalogued Roster

One hundred and two species had Zoopedia entries as of 13 September 2026, of which 96 belong to the base game and 6 come with the Deluxe Edition covered under Editions and Pre-Orders. Frontier adds new entries in weekly drops, usually eight at a time, and has not revealed the final roster size, so this is a growing list rather than the complete lineup.

Group	Catalogued So Far
Mammal	36
Ray-finned fish	23
Reptile	14
Bird	10
Invertebrate	8
Amphibian	7
Shark or ray	4

Housing is not exclusive. Of the 102, 42 live only in a terrestrial habitat, 16 only in an aquarium, 23 only in an exhibit, 9 in an aviary, and 12 can be kept in either an aquarium or an exhibit. Barrier requirements for the 63 species that live in habitats are tabulated under Habitat Requirements. Three species carry a habitat camera flag in the Zoopedia data: the African Penguin, the Sumatran Tiger, and the White-Tailed Sea-Eagle.

Species	Edition	Group	Found In	Conservation Status	Wild Population
Aardvark	Base	Mammal	Africa	Least concern	Unknown
African Leopard	Base	Mammal	Africa	Vulnerable	Unknown
African Penguin	Base	Bird	Africa	Critically endangered	19,800
African Savannah Elephant	Base	Mammal	Africa	Endangered	320,000
African Tigerfish	Base	Ray-finned fish	Africa	Least concern	Unknown
American Bullfrog	Base	Amphibian	North America	Least concern	Unknown
Axolotl	Deluxe	Amphibian	North America	Critically endangered	50 - 1,000
Black Wildebeest	Base	Mammal	Southern Africa	Least concern	11,160
Blackspotted Puffer	Base	Ray-finned fish	Indo-Pacific reefs and lagoons	Least concern	Unknown
Blacktip Reef Shark	Base	Shark or ray	Indo-Pacific reefs and coasts	Vulnerable	Unknown
Blue Wildebeest	Base	Mammal	Africa	Least concern	1,550,000
Blue and Gold Fusilier	Deluxe	Ray-finned fish	Indo-Pacific reefs	Least concern	Unknown
Bluespine Unicornfish	Base	Ray-finned fish	Indo-Pacific reefs and coasts	Least concern	Unknown
Blunthead Cichlid	Base	Ray-finned fish	Africa	Least concern	Unknown, abundant
Boa Constrictor	Base	Reptile	South America, Central America	Least concern	Unknown
Boeseman's Rainbowfish	Base	Ray-finned fish	Asia	Endangered	Unknown
Brown Trout	Base	Ray-finned fish	Europe, Western Asia, North Africa (Atlas Mountains)	Least concern	Unknown
Cape Buffalo	Base	Mammal	Africa	Near threatened	564,000
Cloudless Sulphur	Base	Invertebrate	North and South America	Least concern	Unknown
Clown Loach	Base	Ray-finned fish	Asia	Least concern	Unknown
Clown Triggerfish	Base	Ray-finned fish	Indo-Pacific reefs and coasts	Least concern	Unknown
Common Bluetongue	Base	Reptile	Oceania	Least concern	Unknown
Common Hippopotamus	Base	Mammal	Africa	Vulnerable	115,000 to 130,000, in decline
Common Rudd	Base	Ray-finned fish	Europe, Asia	Least concern	Unknown
Danube Crested Newt	Base	Amphibian	Europe	Least concern	Unknown
Desert Horned Viper	Base	Reptile	Africa, Asia	Least concern	Unknown
Diamondback Terrapin	Base	Reptile	North America	Vulnerable	Unknown
Dolphinfish	Base	Ray-finned fish	Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean	Least concern	Unknown
Eastern Brown Snake	Base	Reptile	Oceania	Least concern	Unknown
Eurasian Beaver	Base	Mammal	Europe, Asia	Least concern	1,500,000
Eurasian Bittern	Base	Bird	Europe, Asia, Africa	Least concern	184,000 - 310,000
Eurasian Brown Bear	Base	Mammal	Europe, Asia	Least concern	100,000
Eurasian Lynx	Base	Mammal	Europe and Asia	Least concern	50,000
European Bison	Base	Mammal	Europe	Near threatened	2,518
European Peacock	Base	Invertebrate	Europe, Asia	Least concern	Unknown
Fire Salamander	Base	Amphibian	Europe	Vulnerable	Unknown
Galápagos Giant Tortoise	Base	Reptile	South America	Vulnerable	20,000 - 25,000
Gemsbok	Base	Mammal	Southwest Africa	Least concern	373,000
Gharial	Base	Reptile	Asia - Indian subcontinent	Critically endangered	650
Giant Malaysian Leaf Insect	Base	Invertebrate	Southeast Asia	Not evaluated	Unknown
Giant Slippery Frog	Base	Amphibian	Africa	Endangered	Unknown
Giant Tiger Land Snail	Base	Invertebrate	Africa	Not evaluated	Unknown
Gila Monster	Base	Reptile	North America	Near threatened	Unknown
Golden Eagle	Deluxe	Bird	North America, Europe, Northern Africa, Asia	Least concern	85,000 - 160,000
Golden Lion Tamarin	Deluxe	Mammal	South America	Endangered	4800
Golden Poison Frog	Base	Amphibian	South America	Endangered	Unknown
Golden Trevally	Base	Ray-finned fish	Indo-Pacific reefs and coasts	Least concern	Unknown
Goodfellow's Tree-Kangaroo	Base	Mammal	Southeast Asia	Endangered	Unknown
Great Hammerhead	Deluxe	Shark or ray	Worldwide tropical and warm temperate oceans	Critically endangered	Unknown
Great Hornbill	Base	Bird	Southeast Asia	Vulnerable	13,000 - 27,000
Grey Wolf	Base	Mammal	Europe, Asia, North America	Least concern	200,000 - 250,000
Hawksbill Turtle	Base	Reptile	Worldwide tropical and temperate oceans	Critically endangered	Unknown
Humphead Wrasse	Base	Ray-finned fish	Indo-Pacific reefs and coasts	Endangered	Unknown
Indo-Pacific Leopard Shark	Base	Shark or ray	Indo-Pacific reefs and lagoons	Vulnerable	Unknown
Indo-Pacific Sergeant	Base	Ray-finned fish	Indo-Pacific reefs and coasts	Least concern	Unknown
Komodo Dragon	Base	Reptile	Southeast Asia	Endangered	1,383
Lehmann's Poison Frog	Base	Amphibian	South America	Critically endangered	Unknown
Lion	Base	Mammal	Africa	Vulnerable	22,000 - 25,000 (estimate)
Long-Eared Owl	Base	Bird	Northern hemisphere	Least concern	2,200,000 - 3,700,000
Longfin Batfish	Deluxe	Ray-finned fish	Western Pacific coasts and reefs	Least concern	Unknown
Malayan Tapir	Base	Mammal	Asia	Endangered	2,500
Masai Giraffe	Base	Mammal	Africa	Endangered	35,000
Meerkat	Base	Mammal	Africa	Least concern	Unknown
Menelaus Blue Morpho	Base	Invertebrate	South America	Not evaluated	Unknown
Mexican Redknee	Base	Invertebrate	North America	Vulnerable	Unknown
Mountain Hare	Base	Mammal	Europe, Asia	Least concern	Abundant, Unknown
Nile Monitor	Base	Reptile	Sub-Saharan Africa and Nile Delta	Least concern	Unknown
Nyala	Base	Mammal	South-Eastern Africa	Least concern	32,000 - 36,500
Ocean Sunfish	Base	Ray-finned fish	Worldwide	Vulnerable	Unknown
Ocellated Eagle Ray	Base	Shark or ray	Indo-Pacific reefs and coasts	Endangered	Unknown
Old World Swallowtail	Base	Invertebrate	Europe, Asia, North America	Least concern	Unknown
Pacific Bluefin Tuna	Base	Ray-finned fish	Pacific Ocean	Near threatened	Unknown
Pacific Sardine	Base	Ray-finned fish	Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean	Least concern	Unknown but prolific
Palette Surgeonfish	Base	Ray-finned fish	Indo-Pacific reefs and coasts	Least concern	Unknown
Plains Zebra	Base	Mammal	Africa	Near threatened	150,000-250,000
Przewalski's Horse	Base	Mammal	(Re)introduced to Asian steppe habitats	Endangered	1,900 reintroduced, semi-wild in national parks and reserves
Red Deer	Base	Mammal	Europe, Asia, Africa	Least concern	Abundant, Unknown
Red Lionfish	Base	Ray-finned fish	Western Indo-Pacific Ocean	Least concern	Unknown
Red Panda	Base	Mammal	Asia	Endangered	10,000
Reticulated Giraffe	Base	Mammal	Africa	Endangered	11,050
Ring-Tailed Lemur	Base	Mammal	Africa	Endangered	2,000
Sable Antelope	Base	Mammal	Africa	Least concern	50,000 - 60,000
Sailfin Snapper	Base	Ray-finned fish	Indo-Pacific reefs and coasts	Least concern	Unknown
Saltwater Crocodile	Base	Reptile	Asia, Oceania	Least concern	500,000
Schooling Bannerfish	Base	Ray-finned fish	Indo-Pacific reefs	Least concern	Abundant, Unknown
Secretarybird	Base	Bird	Africa	Endangered	6,700 - 67,000
Shoebill	Base	Bird	Africa	Vulnerable	3,000 - 5,300
Spotted Hyena	Base	Mammal	Africa	Least concern	27,000 - 47,000
Springbok	Base	Mammal	Southern Africa	Least concern	2,000,000 - 2,500,000
Sri Lankan Rose	Base	Invertebrate	Asia	Endangered	Unknown
Sumatran Orangutan	Base	Mammal	Southeast Asia	Critically endangered	14,000 - 15,000 (estimated)
Sumatran Tiger	Base	Mammal	Southeast Asia	Endangered	400 - 600 (estimated)
Sunda Pangolin	Base	Mammal	Southeast Asia	Critically endangered	Unknown
Thomson's Gazelle	Base	Mammal	Africa	Least concern	145,000
Toco Toucan	Base	Bird	South America	Least concern	Estimated more than 10,000
Western Chimpanzee	Base	Mammal	Africa	Critically endangered	21,000 - 53,000
Western Diamondback Rattlesnake	Base	Reptile	North and Central America	Least concern	Unknown
Western Lowland Gorilla	Base	Mammal	Africa	Critically endangered	230,000 - 260,000
White-Backed Vulture	Base	Bird	Africa	Critically endangered	27,000 - 51,300 (estimated)
White-Tailed Sea-Eagle	Base	Bird	Temperate and boreal Eurasia	Least concern	20,000 - 60,000
Yellow Anaconda	Base	Reptile	South America	Least concern	Unknown
Yellow Tang	Base	Ray-finned fish	Indo-Pacific reefs and lagoons	Least concern	Unknown, abundant only in Hawaii

Wild population figures and conservation statuses are the real-world data the Zoopedia publishes for each species, not in-game statistics.

Revision 11