#pacific giant salamander

[cainhowlett]

Drafting drafting 1 2 3. Thinking about a nice chunky Dicamptodon clambering down a slope at night to forage.

[fatehbaz]

Wildlife photographer Yukihiro Fukuda first began diving in the cool waters of the Hino River in south-western Japan 15 years ago. But it was not until six years later that he was able to capture the extraordinary image of a male Japanese giant salamander guarding hundreds of eggs [...]. It was the first time the nesting behaviour of these mysterious amphibians, which it is thought could live up to 100 years [...], had been caught on camera. [...] The second largest of the world’s three main giant salamander species (the others are in China and the US), Japanese giant salamanders (Andrias japonicus) can grow up to 1.5 metres in length. The heaviest specimen on record is in Tottori Prefectural Museum and weighs 44.3kg. Despite their size, these creatures face multiple threats, among them the weirs, dams and concrete riverbanks that fragment their habitat in the rivers of central and western Japan – the only places where this species lives in the wild. [...] Experts estimate that the population might have declined by 30% to 50% since 1955, but the loss “could be even greater”.

---

Headline, images, captions, and text as published by: Mara Budgen. “The plight of the Japanese giant salamander: ‘23m years of DNA might die out’”. The Guardian. 12 January 2023. [Story produced with support from Internews’ Earth Journalism Network. Photos by Yukihiro Fukuda.]

[dragonology101]

My partner got a book about skulls for their birthday (Animal Skulls: A Guide to North American Species by Mark Elbroch) and I was surprised to see it actually contained some pages on dragons! Seen here are a diagram of the skulls of a Clark’s Wyrm and an American Horned Salamander. Two wyrms in two different genera, Microdraco and Pyropedetes.

[vintagegeekculture]

The Hall of Amazing Men: Branscombe Richmond

A new admission to the Hall of Amazing Men, Branscombe Richmond is best known for being an actor where he played Lorenzo Lamas’s friend, the Lando Calrissian-like sharpie Dallas Sixkiller, or as Moki, the smartmouth Hawaiian friend of Magnum, P.I. But behind the camera, as a tough as nails stunt coordinator and stuntman, Branscombe Richmond created and developed nearly all the eccentric and eye catching events in the TV series American Gladiators: Atlasphere (the one where people roll around in giant balls), Powerball (done simply because they needed a sport that could be created cheaply because they ran out of money for development) and all the various ones where musclemen shoot tennis balls at people, and where you have to avoid muscular women by jumping on a bungee cord. I don’t think it would be inaccurate to say that with his development (on a really thin budget, no less) of memorable, eye catching sports and events that, with his stunt training he knew could be done safely enough so that even kinda-sporty housewives from Illinois could do them without injury, Branscombe Richmond created American Gladiators. He turned an idea into a realized, practical show that can be done – I don’t think it is inaccurate at all to call him the uncredited creator of American Gladiators.

In his career as a stuntman, Branscombe Richmond, meanwhile, is another one of those faces that shows up over and over playing evil henchmen, members of motorcycle gangs in rough biker bars the hero brawls with karate (if there’s ever a rough scummy biker bar out there, you can bet Branscomb Richmond is in it), and hordes of nunchaku wielding ninja, to the point where if you are, like me, an 80s-90s action aficionado, his face makes you go “oh, hey…it’s that guy!” Can you really call yourself an action fan if you don’t start identifying “your” evil henchman? His IMDB page is mostly roles that are named “Gunman In Jeep,” "Biker #2," and "Terrifying Clown."  

If there is a Evil Henchman Hall of Fame, Brandscomb is there alongside the great Al Leung. You can spot his face as a henchman in Never Too Young to Die (with John Stamos), Action Jackson, Batman Returns, the Hidden, Iron Eagle III: Aces High (objectively the best one as it had Ms. Olympia Rachel McLish), and Star Trek III, where he was a Klingon henchman to Christopher Lloyd who almost got disintegrated and had to feed his disgusting slimy monster dog-salamander. It's comforting to know the profession of henching is alive and well 300 years in the future.

On television, Brandscomb Richmond was on every single cool show from the 80s: Tales of the Gold Monkey, TJ Hooker, Manimal, Airwolf, Knight Rider, Baywatch, and many times attempted to kill the A-Team, especially from motorcycles. Like Chiba, another stuntman-actor, Branscombe Richmond specialized in motorcycle stunts, and he was admitted to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2003. He is, to this day, the guest of honor at whatever motorcycle rally your embarrassing hick uncle attends. I have no evidence for this, but I have long suspected that the reason Richmond was hired to be Dallas Sixkiller in Renegade with Lorenzo Lamas was so they could get his unpaid advice on motorcycle stunts (much like how I have always suspected Warner Brothers hired Ben Affleck as Batman as a "backdoor" way to ask him to direct).

He also played the older brother of the Rock in the Scorpion King, which is an interesting choice because despite getting roles as American Indians (and being beloved in the American Indian community, who, as a whole, deeply love characters who are smartmouth, wiseass sharpies/scammers who get one over on everyone), Brandscome Richmond is in fact, like the Rock, of Hawaiian origin. His first major role in television, that of Moki in Magnum PI, was in fact Hawaiian.

Why are there so many Pacific Islanders in stuntman careers, MMA, and professional wrestling? The answer is surprisingly pedestrian. It’s because Pacific Islanders are a sizable ethnic population in Los Angeles, where movies and television are made, so if you need someone in L.A. that are tough as nails and can take a hit, a Samoan or Hawaiian is a good choice.

Happily, Branscombe Richmond is alive and well, mostly retired as a traditionally large Hawaiian family patriarch. He does occasional voice work, as Gibraltar in Apex Legends, a character physically based on him as well. I imagine he is relieved to be working in showbiz and no longer risking brain damage to do it.

[fatehbaz]

paedomorphic adult (neotenic sexually-mature adult retaining aquatic larval-form gilled body) eating a terrestrial adult (sometimes the aquatic adults can be larger than typical land-dwelling terrestrial adults. some populations of barred/western tiger salamander, especially at high elevations in Rocky Mountains, more frequently select for neotenic aquatic adults, which can inhabit cirques and alpine lakes and avoid cold winter surface temperatures by remaining active and retreating to relatively consistent milder water temperatures in these lakes without freezing, so it suits them better to just remain fully aquatic their entire life. they don't fully transform into the more recognizable land-dwelling version yet they are fully capable of reproduction despite appearing like a larva. for comparison, you can see a "normal"-sized larva at bottom left in this photo.)

Barred Tiger Salamander

[sonicasura]

Every time I remember an Autobot or Decepticon bitch about being stuck on Earth, Animated and Prime are the most frequent, it makes me laugh thinking how easy they got it. Imagine any iteration ending up on a version that is much more chaotic than the norm. Especially if the dangers are hidden or completely normal to humans.

We got JoJo's Bizarre Adventure where you literally can't trust even a simple POWER OUTLET. From stone masks that could turn people into eldritch vampire, pieces of Jesus Christ could give people powers, and martial arts which either turn the circulatory system into a sunlight generator (Hamon) or using the Golden Ratio to shred even dimensions (Spin).

I'm not forgetting about Stand Users either. Every sentient creature could become a Stand User, someone who can project a psychic manifestation of their fighting spirits that could look like anything with abilities that range from giving positive encouragement to stopping time. That weird individual on the street could dissect Megatron into pieces with fucking zippers through their Stand.

How about Resident Evil where the constant threat is viral infections? I'm not talking about the standard zombie virus either. We got mutant undead creating ones, parasitic worms/insects, to fucking hivemind mold. All guaranteed to least spawn mutants like giant man eating salamanders, evolving fanged blobs and even an eldritch dinosaur.

They have to constantly decontaminate base than just troops as a simple small strain could turn a rat into a dog sized menace. Plus all those zombies guts and blood they have to clean up if an infected did get inside. I'm pretty damn sure humans are no longer the gross squishies compared to that.

Last best addition to add is the 'Kaiju Series' i.e Kaiju No. 8, Godzilla/King Kong Monsterverse, and Pacific Rim. Normal Earth fauna doesn't cause much compared to this as kaiju practically made themselves home here. The bots aren't exactly prepared for megafauna being a constant presence and frequent threat.

Kaiju are territorial so their respective ships will get attacked if spotted too close to the creatures' home. Some may also feed on metal and think either faction are potential food. The humans here could potentially kick their afts like Kaiju No 8's Defense Force or Pacific Rim's Jaeger Pilots.

Never take what you have for granted. In the Autobots and Decepticons cases, that is a normal simple Earth. The other possibilities could be much worse.

[woodsdyke]

if i am gonna make a career change and go back to school i want to at least have volunteer experience since i won't have work experience. so i have signed up as a volunteer for a native amphibian species monitoring program because i realize it's a perfect way to be able to put "forest's ongoing hunt for the giant pacific salamander (started about 10 months ago, none located yet but just wait)" on my resume

[gin-and-topsoil]

Happy flat fuck Friday to the Hellbender salamander (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis)

the Americas only giant salamander species! The little guy above is the eastern subspecies and the most common to find. Though they are elusive and declining in numbers because of sediment pollution and habitat fragmentation

Photo source:

[incorrect-mtg]

Flavor Text Highlights - Mirage

<- Previous Set | Next Set ->

Funny - Pacifism

For the first time in his life, Grakk felt a little warm and fuzzy inside.

Funny - Elixir of Vitality

“Eternal life or your money back.” —Unnamed Suq'Ata merchant, deceased

Emotional - Reign of Terror

“I don’t know what takes them; they die around me without time to scream.” —Scout Ekemet, final journal

Worldbuilding - The entire Love Song of Night and Day* *which I will put under a line break because it's super long AND I want to repost content from a Wizards article which is no longer available

<- Previous Set | Next Set ->

The full poem, taken from the article of the same name originally posted in 2003 on the wizards website (here) with footnotes explaining which cards quote it.:

Love Song of Night and Day by Jenny Scott

He (Night) / She (Day)

Wrap yourself in your best bright clothes, your red and purple scarves of silk. Run with me to the festival, where we will dance until sunrise. The dwarves will beat their funny drums of zebra skins and hollowed trees, while stiltwalkers perform, and the musician blows his bamboo flute.

And late in the night, the poets and storytellers entertain, delight us with their dancing words, as we listen, clapping by the fire. Enchant me with your tale-telling. Tell about Tree, Grass, River, and Wind. Tell why Truth must fight with Falsehood, and why Truth will always win.1

I will tell my father's stories: how the giant mantis fooled Death by holding still as a felled tree; how the elephants trampled the leopard cub, and its father, though he knew, killed nine goats instead;2 how pirates gambled with a djinn and lost the thing more dear than gold.3

Tonight we'll eat a farewell feast. Cold corn porridge is not enough. Let's peel papayas, pineapples, and mangoes, drink coconut milk, and bake bananas.4 We'll dine on crocodiles, wild birds, and turtles, perhaps a hippopotamus--if only you can catch it first.

I'll build a palace made of stone. Two hippo-headed guards will serve, and tigers carry in your meals. I'll capture flying zebras for your steeds, and fill the stable with every kind of unicorn.5 Butterflies and salamanders will decorate your garden.

I'll strand long strings of beads for you, blue, the color only kings may wear. I'll carve a soapstone lioness, a wooden box to lock it in, girded with sapphire amulets, ostrich feathers, ivory. These things will protect you while I'm gone, remind you of my love for you.6

Your voice resounds like a songbird's, every word is a sweet, soft song. When you run you're graceful and swift, sleek as a powerful panther.7 Mysterious chameleon, you're a thousand women at once, sharp and strong as a lioness, yet gentle as a striped gazelle.

On this our last day together, let us walk across the grasslands. Hold my hand and let's walk slowly, seeing everything as children. Let's walk on the Daraja Plains, where leopards hang from trees, dosing, tasseled tails swaying in the shade, near villages of tree-dwelling elves.

Glorious, to walk again across the savannah with my beloved. A lion walks commandingly, a general among his troops, camped the night before a battle. A snake, colorful and coiled, loops around his bough, mischievous, hanging over the village path.

We'll find termites in their nests, hard tall towers above the plains, and point-eared cats, taking their turns, guarding their many entrances. We'll find the basket-nests of birds hanging from the acacia tree. Rhinoceroses and dragons for once will let us walk in peace.

When lightning tears the sky's dark cloak and heaven's bird beats the water on the muddy plains with its big wings, termites and frogs escape their homes toward the lamps in the nearest village. Spiders dry themselves indoors, the spotted lizards that never fall from ceilings suddenly appear.

In the forest, fires light the sky as the black clouds unfold their weight.8. The black-and-white sacred monkey holds her children to her, and waits.9 Love, like lightning hits suddenly. It sparks the heart with blows of light, its fire extending, bends, expands, beats and breaks your hiding places.

* * *

Remember when we were children, herding the sheep together, leading them over the grassy hills with long sticks. Your silly songs made me laugh, and in the evening, you'd enchant me with your stories, lying on your back beside me. Even then my heart was yours.

I remember your sacred rites. You were so funny, so grown up, so stiff and serious, all arms and elbows. You went in a girl, but you returned a warrior. You marched back with the others-- your hair was cut, your eye tattooed with the red triangle of war.10

Tomorrow I must go, my love. I will tattoo my head with braids. My shield will bear a shining sun so you will always be with me. Inlaid with gold, it will shine like glowing embers.11 I will return with lizard skins for your sandals. Paint your eyes black and wait for me.12

I am the sun, you are the moon. Wherever you lead I will go, following across the wide sky, as long as I live and you love. Sun follows Moon until she tires, then carries her until she's strong and runs ahead of him again.13 I'll carry you, too, my beloved.

My love, we are not Sun and Moon. Instead we are like day and night. The old ones say Day is a woman, who works only while it is light. She herds her goats and catches fish, fills her fields with golden corn, shows her children what is just and protects them from the cobra.

Day loves Night, who works in darkness, walking through heaven's milky sky collecting stars with his quick arms, piling them into a basket like a child collecting lizards and piling them into her pot until the pot overflows with lizards, 'til the basket overflows with light.

Night wears a black cloak lined with fire, studded inside with gleaming stars. At dawn and dusk he spies his love. Across the rolling hills of sky, they glimpse each other--so briefly. They throw each other kisses, cry. Their tears spill over Jamuraa. Mixed with blood, they wash everything red.14

But once, with a magician's help, Time was stopped and Day stood still.15 Night spread over Jamuraa, wrapped Day in his dark cloak and held her. In their miraculous embrace, the two became as One. Until pulled from Day's arms, Night sank, commanded by the western horizon that always beckons him to come.

I won't give up hope, my love.

Our love is like the river in the summer season of long rains: For a little while it spilled its banks, flooding the crops in the fields.16 But soon it will evaporate with the dry heat. Like Day from Night, I'll live my life apart from you, just glimpsing you across the sky, because you cannot change, my dear, and nor can I.17

[1] "Enchant me…" - Village Elder, Mirage [2] "I will tell my father's stories… how the elephants…" - Wild Elephant, Mirage [3] "…pirates…" - Kukemssa Pirates, Mirage [4] "Tonight…" - early harvest, Mirage and Sixth Edition [5] "I'll capture…" - Zebra Unicorn, Mirage (note that "flying" was changed to "gentle" on the card.) [6] "These things…" - Remedy, Visions and Sixth Edition [7] "When you run…" - Panther Warriors, Visions [8] "In the forest…" - Flare, Mirage [9] "The black-and-white…" - simoon, Visions [10] "…you returned a warrior… your hair was cut…" - Zhalfirin Knight, Mirage [11] "My shield…" - blinding light, Mirage [12] "I will return…" - Femeref Knight, Mirage [13] "Sun follows…" - Chariot of the Sun, Mirage [14] "Their tears…" - Mortal Wound, Visions [15] "But once…" - Sands of Time, Visions [16] "Our love…" - Summer Bloom, Visions [17] "Like Day from Night…" - Unfulfilled Desires, Mirage

[steezyheadbangr]

I don’t think I’ve posted any of my Ramona art on here lol

She’s my rise interpretation of Mona Lisa she’s a pacific giant salamander but I can’t decide between making her a pirate or the mud dog’s version of april bc the pirate was my original idea but I feel like the mud dog idea would be cool to and if I decide to go with that idea I have big big lore to go w/ it.

[wolvesandcomputers]

Day 9: Salamander

Once while building a trail in the redwoods I found a pacific giant salamander as long as my lower arm. I moved them away from the work zone.

[cainhowlett]

Inked Dicamptodon with stylized Calochortus tolmiei, a flower common to our redwoods forests.

[can-of-pringles]

Assign amphibians to your OCs?

Okay (I actually learned a lot about amphibians doing this)

Arline Lanes: Iranian Harlequin Newt

Fox: Madagascar Tomato frog

Carina Shepherd: Strawberry Poison Dart frog

Dannie Karim: Painted Reed frog

Ryn Halvorsen: Flatwoods salamander

Willow Tree: Luschan's Salamander (LOOK AT THOSE BIG EYES ◉_◉)

Silas Petersson: Glass frog (cutie)

Pigeon: Shovel Headed Tree frog (look at this DUDE)

Arith: Blue Spotted salamander

Iriel: Golden Mantella frog

Kaia: Marble salamander

Odel: Axolotl!

Eliška Hasek: Eastern Newt

Marigold Rosales: Spotted Tree frog

Rosie Rosales-Maximoff: Spotted salamander

Allison Dahir: Common Mudpuppy

Lee Quinn: Wehrle's Salamander

Jelaa Latka: Vietnamese Mossy frog

Van Kahl: Pacific Giant Salamander

[merklins]

Fine. The Furry Roster, part 1 of however many parts it takes: All the Gordons are cephalopods. Reasoning: Freeman's deep sea thing + Swap's tentacles + Doc is strange and bizarre + Freeman compares Loverboy to a cuttlefish in Act 1 + Literal Actual Octopus "Gordon". Freeman/Storyteller: Architeuthis/Giant Squid Swap/Overlord: Vampire Squid (they're really weird AND the vampire thing) Doc/Hypnos: Firefly Squid (those fuckers GLOW) Player/Power Trip: Blue-Ringed Octopus (chill but also dangerous) Gordon B/Leading Light: Cuttlefish Seven/Last Resort Gordon: Giant Pacific Octopus Worldstop crew: Malcom Challender: Unicorn (something something his ability to manipulate Source seemed magical to the AI? Really it's just because our Malcom fictive has a ponysona but no actual fursona) Darnold: Pitbull (seen as aggressive but tend to be sweethearts; very loyal) Benrey/"Forzen": Blue dragon sea slug / garden snail (Benrey is a slug, but his Forzen disguise is quite literally him retreating into his shell) Y2KVR crew: Benrey (also Loveletters Benrey): Heterometris spinifer/Giant blue scorpion (for obvious reasons + they're blue) Spork (also Valentine): African Gray Parrot (They're smart as FUCK) Coomer/Lovetap: Mantis shrimp Bubby/Dr. Feelgood: Fire salamander Forzen/DJ Heartbeat: Mongolian death worm (this is not a real animal, however, they are supposedly attracted by rhythmic thumping similar to a heavy bass beat) Darnold/Smooth Operator: Cinnabar chanterelle (yes, the mushroom. Consider the emails to be similar to the mycelial network. I know this is getting weird. It will get weirder.) Tommy/I Don't Remember His Lovecore Name: Common crow The Restrictor: Raven (Half-Life G-Man is associated with ravens sometimes)

More will come soon.

"blackmailbutler asked:

Furry Roster Part 2 Of Something:

Admins: Admin C: Tri-color Monitor Lizard G-Man: Komodo Dragon Da Boss: Blue Poison Dart Frog Admin F: Blue jay (Like a blue jay, most of his aggression is a bluff; he's loud and abrasive, but doesn't actually want to fight) Admin P: Praying Mantis (green and can sort of punch things) Admin Darnold (he is mentioned one time in Act 1): Clownfish (orange + Darnold is mentioned to have been taking care of Joshua, which made us think of Finding Nemo because of the whole parental figure thing? Mostly going on vibes because we know nothing of him.)

Mad Science Team: Sleepless: Canada Goose (Acts like an asshole most of the time + Canada + probably loud as fuck) Harold: Protogen (it's MY furry AU and *I* get to choose the species. AND Protogens are COOL) Electrobubby: Electric eel (duh) Politerey: Duck (mostly because we are a Benrey and Forzen siblings truther) Project Coolatta: Lace Monitor Lizard The Old Man: Lace Monitor Lizard (they're monitors to call back to a certain other father-son duo, but unlike GVRV and C, they're the same species to represent them NOT being estranged)

Merch Team/The Last Resort: The Party Pontiff: Mantis shrimp Wheels: Okay so you know how people make anthro planes? That but a Greyhound bus. Yes he still drives an actual bus. I told you last ask that it'd get weirder! Tommy Bahama: Marine iguana (He does the beach tour IIRC. Plus I wanted him to be a lizard like some of the other Tommies.) Dr. Perky: Golden orbweaver (laser grid = spiderwebs, plus golden/orange color scheme) The Bellhop: Tropical leatherleaf slug (Vibes only. Plus he can retract one of his eyestalks to fit the one-eyed thing.)

???: Barney Calhoun: Harbor Seal Alyx Vance: Leopard/Deer (based on our pre-existing furry!Alyx. Eli is a deer, and she wears a little headband with some of his shed antlers on it.) Capital M: Changeling (think MLP. What do you mean that's just the ponysona that I got assigned by the system. I don't know what you're talking about.)"

----

me time answer time (:

OH MY YOU ACTUALLY DID IT. YOU ACTUALLY HAD THEM ALL. AND!! THEY'RE ALL SO AWESOME TOO?? I don't know much about the lizard selections for the Coolattas BUT!! Absolutely AGREED on the Gordons being cephalopods that is SO SO COOL. The bright colored rings of the blue ringed octopus on Player and Power Trip? OHHH THAT'S EPIC.Love the sea slug snail thing you have going for worldstop benrey. YES!! Attention for the worldstop benrey!! Love that guy. cherish that guy. AND Y2KVR FORZEN AS THE WOOORM. THAT! IS! SUCH A COOL WAY OF TYING IN MUSIC TO CREATURES. AND!! Same goes for Y2KVR Darnold! Because OH! MY! GOD! MUSHROOM MYCELIAL NETWORK FOR THE EMAILS YES YES YES THAT!! IS AWESOME. love mushrooms (: kicking my legs and giggling DUDE!! You have so much good stuff here HOW AM I TO SAY STUFF AT IT ALL? Literally ALLLL of these are SUCH! GOOD! CHOICES! I could be here forever. Mad Science Harold as a Protogen, YIPPEE! Forzen and Benrey connections? ALWAYS welcome! WHEELS. AS A BUS FURRY. /VPOS. Dr Perky as an orb weaver I LOVE ORBWEAVERS YES YES YES I SEE THE VISION AND IT IS WONDERFUL. And you certainly covered your bases huh? THE MCDONALDS WORKERS FROM HLVRV. AS FURRYS. IN! MY! INBOX!! /pos

and of course. ponysona ponys mlp hlvrv on the merklins tumblr ONCE AGAIN!! A lovely selection by the way changelings are so epic and cool always <3

THANK YOU FOR SHARING. THE. THIS!! SO EPIC AND COOL LOVE YOUR IDEAS THIS IS WONDERFUL AND TREASURED! This list spinning forever in the thoughts now (:

[hwats-the-big-idea]

My autistic ass has been up to some crazy shit these past few days. I started playing planet zoo and not even a week into the game the computer goes caput. Frame rate on every single game is absolutely horrendous, games don't even load past a single frame for 20 mins, and there's no internet to the computer yet (we just bought a dongle and are waiting on the delivery) so we can't fix it at all rn. Well, my hyperfixation just couldn't handle this absolute nonsense, if I couldn't play the game (I literally stay up for 2 days at a time playing nonstop lmao) I'd invest my time elsewhere. With a new dlc right around the corner and the games end on the horizon, I wrote a huge post on what dlcs I think pz needs before it finishes. I've been researching animals and pz for days, I'm happy to have some new animal facts under the belt now as well. Well, I went to post it to reddit and I just... can't. I get an unknown error. It's in reddit character limits but maybe the specific sub limits characters. Well I would've posted it and split it in half with the second half in the comments but I can only post dlc wishlist on Wednesday uk time 😭 by the time I finished everything it was already 4 am across the pond.

I really, really just want to document my crazy autistic ramblings and surmise my opinion as the most correct one as always lol, so I'm gonna post my post here and hopefully I'll be able to figure it out next Wednesday. I don't see a strong pz community here in tumblr so I'll probably be talking to myself but what else is new? Here goes. Is a long one, bois. Sorry the format is unpleasant here:

Here I list every dlc I think I’d want/would do good for the game before it ends. I go into 2025 with my wishlist just because I don’t think the game can really fully finish by 2024 even though I’ve seen some speculation we might just be getting one more year of dlcs. I’ve gone on to wrap up this year, speculate for 2024, as well as 2025.

This will be a long post, an opinion piece over predictions of what I genuinely think will come, and I’ll discuss my reasons why I chose everything after I list the dlcs. I’ve taken inspiration from wishlists, what bigger names in the community have been predicting, and just what I hope to see come to the game. In my speculations I focus mostly on diversity, uniqueness in looks and mechanics, as well as what we need from rigs for mods. I’ve tried to be as inclusive as I could in my selections so I hope there’s people who will enjoy what I’ve come up with! I’ve also only recently started playing the game so I don’t understand it in as intimate a way as long time players may and I’m probably overlooking some scenery items, so take my scenery speculation with a grain of salt. I’d love to hear opinions on it all.

…

2023 dlc wrap ups

Temperate scenery pack

-Sea otter (headliner)

-European red squirrel

-Tanuki

-Collared peccary or European wild boar

Exhibit

-Chipmunk walkthrough exhibit.

Tundra animal pack

-Pacific walrus (headliner)

-Wolverine

-Musk ox

-Arctic hare

-Southern rockhopper penguin

-Tundra swan, snow goose, Canada goose, or duck (harlequin, mandarin, wood, or mallard)

-American white pelican

Exhibit

-Pika, chinchilla, or white winter dwarf hamster

…

2024 dlcs

Taiga scenery pack

-Pallas cat (headliner)

-Golden takin

-Fisher cat, stoat, or European pine marten

-Yellow bellied marmot/alpine marmot

(Alternate species:

-North American porcupine

-American black bear)

Exhibit

-Japanese rhinoceros beetle

Islands animal pack

-Tasmanian devil (headliner)

-Japanese giant salamander

-Cuban crocodile

-Malayan civet/Asian palm civet

-Fairy penguin

-Goodfellow’s/matschie’s tree kangaroo

-American flamingo

(Alternate species:

-Coconut crab

-Coquerel’s sifaka

-Sumatran rhinoceros

-Marine iguana)

Exhibit

-Tenrec

Scrublands scenery pack

-Saiga antelope (headliner)

-Gerenuk

-Alligator snapping turtle

-Roadrunner or burrowing owl

(Alternate species:

-Banded mongoose)

Exhibit

-desert tortoise or thorny devil

Rainforests animal pack

-Olive/hamadryas baboon (headliner)

-Coati mundi

-Bush dog

-Sloth bear

-Common squirrel monkey or black handed spider monkey,

-Golden lion/emperor tamarin

-Muntjac

Exhibit

-Leaf cutter ants, thorny stick insect, or giant prickly stick insect

…

2025 dlcs to wrap up the game with

To preface 2025 would see dlcs that have huge game changing mechanics, it’s definitely just personal desires since it’d be a tall order for the year, but these are all things that so many people have really been asking for and I think are are things that we would all rather enjoy for the game before it ends. We wouldn’t be seeing very many animals in any of the packs (not like we have for the terrestrial animals), but with the right selections it would allow modders to really expand the library after the games end.

Barnyard scenery pack

-American Pygmy goat or boer goat (headliner)

-Jacob sheep

-Miniature donkey or Shetland pony

-Vietnamese pot bellied pig

Exhibit: touch pools

-Southern stingray or cownose stingray

-White spotted bamboo shark or brown banded bamboo shark

-Ochre sea star (or other sea star)

-Aggregating anemone or slate pencil urchin

-Atlantic horseshoe crab

Ground bird animal pack

-Secretary bird (headliner)

-Darwin’s rhea

-Shoebill

-Marabou stork

-Roseate spoonbill

-Southern ground hornbill

-Kiwi or kakapo

Exhibit: cage exhibits

-Golden pheasant

-Raggiana bird of paradise

-Ocellated turkey

-Scarlet ibis

-Victorian crowned pigeon

Aquariums animal and scenery pack

-Bottlenose dolphin (headliner)

-West Indian manatees

-Beluga

-Manta ray

-Loggerhead sea turtle

-Hammerhead shark

-Black sea bass or black grouper

Exhibit: aquarium exhibits

-Yellow seahorse

-Compass jellyfish

-Giant pacific octopus

-Moray eel

-Tropical fish (clownfish, blue hippo tang, moorish idol, etc)

Aviary animal and scenery pack

-Scarlet macaw, blue and yellow macaw, hyacinth macaw morphs (headliner)

-Bald eagle or California condor

-Toco toucan

-Barn owl or great horned owl

-Laughing kookaburra

-Puffin

-Blue jay

Exhibit: walkthrough bird exhibit

-Sun conure

-Rainbow lorikeet

-Parakeet

-Sulfur crested cockatoo

-Ecuadorian amazon parrot

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These are all the packs that I have come up with that I think would be good enough to end planet zoo by the end of 2025. They don’t include anywhere near all the animals that we ultimately desire as a community but I think that the species are diverse enough to be able to mod most anything we want in. I’ll go on and talk about each pack individually now and why I chose what I did/what I think each pack would include.

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Temperate

A lot of people think that temperate and tundra will be the next inclusions, so they’re where I went with my speculation. For the temperate pack I’ve made it a scenery pack since that will be next if the scenery-animal pack trend continues. For this pack I’ve included a few animals I think are necessary for the game. First I’ve included the sea otter, an animal we could never see through mods, and one people want to see. I’ve also included the tanuki, I think it’s an animal that a lot of people would just enjoy having in the game. I also have the collared peccary or European wild boar, honestly either of them, or some other pig, would work in this spot, we just need more pigs in the game. And I have the European red squirrel, it’s found in some zoos, and would just be an interesting animal and rig in the game. I also have a chipmunk walkthrough exhibit, an idea from J-Double U, which I think would just flesh out walkthrough exhibits. We’d see bats, butterflies, birds (hopefully), and with this one a mammal so I thought it was a good inclusion. For scenery I think it’d be very nice to see some rustic wood cabin/camping sort of aesthetics. I’m an Oregonian myself so the Oregon zoo is dear to me, and I’d love some scenery that just says “temperate rainforest”. I’ve also just recently started playing the game so maybe I just haven’t had the chance to see every single piece we have yet, but I would love for some more diversity in our wood options, especially in sizes and shapes it all comes in. I’d also like some foliage like blackberries and furze/gorse bushes, California poppies, as well as flexi color wildflowers. As well, I know we lack trees that have a real canopy, I think some canopy trees would be really nice here. I think we could see some other scenery options, but I’d just love lots of stuff themed around a cooler climate. I think we also need some new stone pieces, bricks, and just simple flexi color building materials. I loved what we got in the tropical pack, I’d like to see some of that sort of stuff themed around a temperate climate as well and even more basic in its building capacity. … Tundra For the tundra pack I’ve included the walrus, a very much needed animal in the game, as well as some requests such as the wolverine and the musk ox. I’ve also included the arctic hare because we really could use a lagomorph of some sort. I’ve also included the rockhopper penguin because I think it’s one of the penguin types we’re lacking in diversity, and with frontier’s new animal modeling the yellow feathers would come out great on them. I’ve included the American white pelican, but really any pelican could find their way in this spot. I know the Australian pelican is the community’s desire but the American white fits the tundra theme better. Honestly though whichever pelican finds their place here we’d see the others through mods. It also was just a hard decision in general on the other water fowl. We need swans, geese, and ducks in the game and we don’t have any good rigs for them. I don’t think even the pelican rig would suffice. Honestly if it could be done by frontier I’d love to see at least both one duck and one goose in this pack, but ultimately for moddings sake I think either or would work out just fine. Really I think it’d just be a matter of which frontier personally would want to include, but I’ve dropped my choices down here. For the exhibit animal I’ve included a few options for mammals, I’d love to see more mammalian diversity in the exhibits. I think any of the choices here would be a good option really. I think chinchillas would really stand out but they’re also a somewhat common pet animal so it might be nice to see one of the other too as well.

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Taiga

The taiga pack was a hard choice, but for the sake of the game and rigs it has to offer I’ve opted for the mustelids and the marmot over the black bear and the porcupine. Since we already have both a porcupine rig and lots of options for a bear rig these animals will easily find their way into the game through mods at its end so I chose the animals I think would offer something more unique to the game. I chose the fisher, pine marten, or stoat here because we really could use a more traditional weasel in the game imo. The Pallas cat is a popular request, so it was a necessary inclusion. I’ve chosen the Japanese rhinoceros beetle as the exhibit animal but because I absolutely love these insects and would want to see them in the game. I think that scenery pieces could represent some part of Eurasia, like Russia or Italy, I imagine we could use some bold, round shapes, with a large selection of rounded building pieces. I think it’d be nice to include some more cold climate pieces especially ones that represent a modern culture and without any Christmas theming to it.

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Islands

For the islands pack it was a bit of a tossup on certain species. I’m most partial to this pack myself since it includes some of my own highly requested animals: the Tasmanian devil, the Japanese giant salamander, and the Cuban crocodile. The t devil is definitely a very, very requested animal. I also think the giant salamander and Cuban crocodile just also provide something unique we haven’t really seen in the game. For the salamander its a massive amphibian that I’d just love to build for in game, and the crocodile is a smaller croc that would have higher land requirements and a bit of a running-esc animation which I both unique for the game. I’ve included the fairy penguin since they’re such a beautiful bird, probably my favorite penguin, and we just don’t have any very tiny penguins like it in the game. There’s been many requests for various penguins, but I think for the majority of them we could easily find them through mods, the fairy penguin is something more unique in its regard. I’ve also included the tree kangaroo, a request from some, and a civet, which I think both bring a unique arboreal lifestyle to the game. I think having unique animals like them, plus their rigs, in the game is important for it at this point. I think my most controversial inclusion would probably be the American flamingo esp since we can see it through mods and all of the alternative animals I have seen as requests by the community, but personally I think it’s just a crime to the game we don’t have a pink flamingo. They’re what I’m familiar with in zoos and absolutely my preference for flamingos over the greater flamingo. Though I think the coquerel’s sifaka and coconut crab are very interesting animals that would give unique mods to the game. Honestly the flamingo or any of the alternative animals would fill this spot well. I’ve included the tenrec as the exhibit animal because it’s very unique and would provide some mammalian diversity to the exhibits. I think there are so many other good choices here, but personally I’d love to see a mammal.

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Scrublands

I’d love to see a scrublands theme come to the game personally. Here I’ve included the saiga antelope and the gerenuk, both ungulates, but I think both are very unique ungulate forms and I’d still like to see the diversity with them. I think they’d both provide something interesting to the game and animals fun to build for, especially the gerenuk with its browsing. I think we could even see a browsing enrichment item inspired by the gerenuk come to the game as well to really get a sight at their rearing. I’ve included as well either the roadrunner or the burrowing owl, both unique ground birds I think that would be very fun for the game. Personally I’d prefer to build something for the roadrunner, but I think that burrowing owls might be more iconic and more requested, so I’ve included them both as an option here. Lastly I’ve included the alligator snapping turtle in this lineup. It’s a huge reptile, one I think the game could definitely use for our zoo building, and just so peculiar looking. I think it’d really be a statement animal that I’d love to build for. For the exhibit I’ve picked the desert tortoise or the thorny devil, I’d like to see others. For the scenery I definitely want to see scrublands scenery. We have desert and grass themes items already, but I’ve been living in Texas for just over a year now and I’m enamored by just how beautiful it is here and I don’t think the game really captures just enough scrub/grass/swamp aesthetic. I’d be looking for scenery pieces that really feel like a swampy boat ride through the scrublands, I find foliage like the Texas madrone and the saw palmetto beautiful and definitely could be included in a scrublands pack. Outside of those two I think just any plants you generally find in scrublands, swamps, plains/prairies, pampas, etc would be good. I think with the grasslands pack being an animal pack the scrublands being a scenery pack would bring in lots of new foliage. People also often are sinking trees down into the ground to represent small bush plants, I think with a scrublands pack we could see lots of foliage that can represent what people are doing with trees as actual bushes. I think we could also get more rocks in this pack, rocks that represent the beauty of a place like Utah, and/or some rocks in flexicolor.

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Rainforest

For the rainforest animal pack I included the muntjac. I know the dik dik is a more highly requested animal but it’s a scrublands animal while the muntjac is a rainforest animal. I also have the alternative of the southern pudu, I’m just most partial to the muntjac personally (I find their scent glands to be so fascinating looking). I also wanted to include either the Chinese water deer or the Siberian musk deer, but I think with the muntjac we would easily see mods for all of these animals honestly. I think any of them could find their place in the slot I allocated for the muntjac. I included lots of primates in this pack, a baboon of some kind is a very requested animal, and personally I just don’t feel like we have enough small primates in the game. The capuchin just isn’t enough for me, so I’ve included another monkey of some kind (squirrel or spider I think would be good choices, though we could see potentially another option), as well as a tamarin. I think both of these animals would just look great in a pz zoo and provide what I think is needed diversity to the primates. I’ve also included the sloth bear here. Honestly it was hard to include just one bear in all of my pack ideas here because sloth bears, black bears, and spectacled bears are all highly requested animals. Really I think any of them could find their way here, especially since rainforests aren’t just limited to tropical jungles and can be temperate forests, but I did limit myself to just one bear choice since we ultimately will have the rigs for more bears to find their way into the game through mods I saw them as a less important inclusion for that reason. Lastly I’ve included in this pack the coati since we really ought to have a coati in the game, as well as the bush dog. They aren’t common in zoos but South America has some of the most unique canids and people just don’t know about them, I think including one (outside of the popular maned wolf) would provide a unique learning opportunity on these amazing animals, plus it’d just be so cool to have a semi aquatic packing canid in the game I’d love to see it. For the exhibit animal I chose leaf cutter ants, though I can see they may be difficult to do because of their size, though I do think leaf bits would help that. If they just aren’t feasible I’ve included a couple stick insect options since I’d also love to see these animals in the game. I chose to make the rainforest pack an animal pack since we already have lots of jungle-like scenery in the game, I wanted to give the scenery spotlight to some other biomes, especially since the tropical pack recently was a scenery pack.

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The next four packs are definitely tall order packs. They’d bring big changes to the game, but I think changes that we as a community would like to see. They’re all highly requested pack themes, and I think that the new mechanics would breathe new life into the game. They’d really let it live for a long time after its completed.

Barnyard

This barnyard pack brings to the game a petting zoo mechanic, as well as barn themed set pieces and some small aquarium set pieces to set up for the aquarium pack itself and to include in the touch pools. I chose a goat, a sheep, a donkey/pony, and a pig over animals like rabbits, chickens, or guinea pigs because I think it’d be much easier to do just a “crouch and pet” animation. Smaller animals would need a much larger change to mechanics so my animal choices are all medium sized. I’ve also included touch pools. I think they would be a great inclusion to the game, and I think fit in the “petting zoo” theme as well. I’ve included some stingrays and sharks which the touch tanks at Stingray Cove in the Denver zoo really inspired me. Really I think that touch pools could be incorporated in a few ways. They could include some construction pieces to make a few touch tanks of different sizes, maybe some dedicated concrete and glass pieces to build them that can contain water like the barriers. The other animal species I’ve included in the touch pools are sea stars, a horseshoe grab, and an anemone or sea urchin, which are all pretty common animals in touch pools. I think similarly to the barnyard animal petting animation, the touch tanks could use the same or similar animation. I think the scenery for this pack would definitely be a lot of barn/farm and touch pool aesthetics.

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Ground birds

Here I’ve included lots of ground bird species that people want to see. Not much to say, I think they’re all pretty common requests, and fulfill the community’s desire for more ground birds. The unique mechanics for this pack come from the new form of exhibits, and exhibit rehaul. I think everyone wants a little bit more out of exhibits, be it changing their sizes, shapes, or more in depth editing for them. The exhibits for the birds in this pack come as cages which would house the exhibit bird species. It was a long time ago and I don’t remember where it was, but I walked down a long alley with all kinds of birds in it and I’d really want to capture that kind of feeling with this. I’ve included a few exhibit bird species here, I don’t think these species would fly, but honestly that’s frontier’s ultimate decision.

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Aquariums

This pack brings the long desired aquariums to the game, and I chose a selection of animals that I think would all provide unique mods to the game. I’d talk about the mechanics for this, but I think that Rudi Rennkamel summarizes it much better, I’ll link that video at the end of this post. In short, I think they would work similarly to the touch pools, just on a much larger scale. This pack would bring a lot of new pieces all themed around aquariums and provide us with everything we’d need for building a small aquarium zoo. Again, Rudi talks about this much more in depth.

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Aviary

The last pack we’ll see come to planet zoo is the aviary pack, which will bring flying birds to wrap up the game. I’ve chosen a selection of birds that would bring a variety of rigs to the game, which is why I’ve included a bird like the blue jay. I think that most of the birds listed here are pretty common requests from the community, and any others we’d want to see I think can come from mods. This pack also brings a walkthrough exhibit for birds with many species of parrot, something that everybody wants to see. I think this pack also would bring new building pieces to make aviaries, and similar to the aquariums, we would need to make a suitable habitat first before we could fill it with the animals. I think we’d see lots of bird enrichment items, glass, netting, wiring, in many shapes such as round, triangular, pentagon, and hexagon, anything that we’d need to make a suitable aviary for the flying birds.

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The end I think after the aviary pack we will see a few free updates to the game. Updates to fix bugs in the last year of dlcs, updates to animal models and behavior, mechanics, the works. I think 2026 would be a year of tlc for the game and just getting it prepped to be finished for good. Sorry this post was so long, I just had some fun with my speculations here.

The videos:

https://youtu.be/bOqNfDyenjo?si=nRFbOk5B36_BONQ5

https://youtu.be/iKIZSIvbJ6E?si=r00teDq4EDIvnavP