malymin

Lately, in Zoo Tycoon 2, I've gotten very fond of setting up a desert exhibit as my first exhibit.

I want to show you the Animal Attractiveness Reference Chart. This determines how much guests are "attracted" to the direction of certain animal exhibits.

Okay, so here's the animals we'll be looking at:

• Dromedary Camel: 0.5 stars, $1,250
• Scimitar Horned Oryx: 1 star, $2,000
• Addax: 2 stars, $5,500
• Fennec Fox: 2 stars, $5,500

An adult Dromedary Camel has an attractiveness of 0, like most other low-cost animals, but a baby Dromedary has an attractiveness of 20, where most low-cost babies have an attractiveness of only 5. This makes baby camels disproportionately good at drawing guests towards them, and thus it's wise to place your food court stands, restrooms, gift carts, etc near the camels, so that they get lots of guests visiting them.

The Scimitar Horned Oryx has 0 attractiveness as an adult, and only 5 attractiveness as a baby. However, it's one of the two earliest available Endangered or Critically Endangered animals in the game, which can be quite useful for certain challenges and campaigns. The other endangered animal unlocked in this tier of zoo fame is the Green Sea Turtle, and you may not feel up to designing a tank to accommodate it... especially when Tank Filters are only unlocked at 3 stars.

Addaxes are crazy powerful in terms of guest attraction for their cost. Baby Addaxes, at 145 attractiveness, are only five points below baby Giant Pandas and Orcas, or adult Tyrannosauruses and adult Great White Sharks. These, are, for the record, all highly expensive 5 star animals, costing $45,000, $50,000, or even $80,000 per pop. Adult Addaxes, at 95 attractiveness, are also disproportionately popular, being only five points below adult panda bears, adult orcas, baby T-Rexes, and baby great whites in guest attractiveness. They are a cheap way to control guest behavior, even late into a save file where they have to compete with the rarest and most charismatic megafauna. I do not know why they're coded like this. Also, they're endangered, like the oryx, making them good for completing campaigns and challenges involving endangered species.

Fennec Foxes have an attractiveness of 30. Their babies, however, have an attractiveness of 85 - just as appealing to guests as Red Panda and Triceratops babies are, which are expensive late-game animals (though not 5 star animals). So they're not quite as powerful at drawing guests towards them as an Addax, but... they have a lot of toys they can play with, which generally makes them more entertaining than most ungulates. You can cohabitate them with the ungulates, or you can keep them in their own little exhibit nearby.

Thus, build a desert exhibit near your earliest food court, keep it stocked with a breeding population of some cheap animals, and you will ensure it maintains business even late into your zoo's career.