This is Pixel Zoo, the show that dives into the wildlife of some of our favorite video games.
But what can video game animals tell us about animals in the real world?
Well, quite a lot, apparently.
Today, we look at Frontier's ultimate zoo simulator, Planet Zoo,
Released in 2019 this game lets your imagination run wild as you create the zoo of your dreams.
With well over 100 animals to fill up your enclosures with.
In Planet Zoo no two zebras are the same,
and this goes for every animal.
They have their own looks, personalities and a secret range of behaviours
that make these animals seem incredibly lifelike.
Players can construct detailed habitats,
manage their zoo and meet authentic living animals who think, feel and explore the world they create around
them.
The aim of this episode is to find out just what we can learn from the game about these animals.
Let's take a look at our top five animals from Planet Zoo.
First up is the hippopotamus,
a.k.a. the river horse, weighing up to around three
tons,
perhaps equally fearsome as it is chubby.
The large mouth can open almost 180 degrees,
Which if you've seen me eat pizza, I'm pretty close.
And you know, it's not just for eating huge amounts of food,
but it's also a weapon to defend itself with.
Yet it's the hippos' second most terrifying...
opening.
Because the fearsome hippo not only ranks as one of the most aggressive animals in Africa,
it's also number one as the most aggressive.
Wait for it, pooper, yeah, pooper.
I'm sure it's an award that it is very proud of.
That's right, these huge animals are known to do something that's called poop scattering.
Mm hmm. As you can see here, it's a little bit like those little sprinklers you get in the summer.
But let's be honest,
we're not going to run through that.
This is common behaviour done by males to mark their territory
and is an indicator for other males to know who's boss in town.
We can also see that these mainly water dwelling hippos, don't actually really swim.
This is because their bodies are just too dense, so they basically walk or run underwater,
which is why they've also developed the abilities to sleep underwater and even give birth.
Wow. Now onto one of the best camouflaged animals in the zoo, wait?
Where is it? The Bengal tiger.
The most distinguishable feature of the tiger is, of course, their stripes,
which blend into forests when they hunt.
But did you know it's not just their fur that's stripy,
It's also their skin?
These solitary cats are the real kings of the jungle.
Found around the forests of India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Tigers can get pretty rough when showing affection
I mean, they're ferocious predators, after all, and they display these instinctive behaviours from a very young
age and this is seen in Planet Zoo, too.
You can only have one or two of them in an enclosure before a fight commences.
They've got huge teeth and huge sharp claws, and they constantly have to keep them sharp by
scratching trees in the wild
or, you know, actual scratching posts in the game.
Kind of like a cat, except, well,
not the sofa and your mum's not really angry about it.
But unlike domesticated cats, tigers can't purr.
Instead, they do their own sound to show that they're happy.
It's known as chuffing or a Prusten.
This non-threatening vocalization is only made by tigers and snow leopards when greeting one another.
It's produced by keeping their mouths closed whilst pushing air through their nostrils a bit like a hum.
Tigers are capable of roaring, but it sort of sounds a little bit more like an impressive growl,
But a growl that can be heard for almost two miles.
Wow. Next up, we have the western lowland gorilla.
Now these apes are critically endangered in the wild.
The gorilla is the largest of the apes, an Alpha Male can measure up to six feet tall.
And weigh up to 180 kilograms.
And it's hard to measure strength, but a male gorilla is estimated
to be up to 10 times strong as a human.
So if you ever need like an extra pair of hands to move some furniture,
Then look no further than Central Africa.
This is where gorillas live
in groups called troops anywhere between five to 15 gorillas.
They are extremely intelligent
and social creatures that love to play and groom each other.
Here we can actually see them using a tool
to fish out food from the foraging items that our Planet Zoo keepers have left out for the gorillas.
Part of the reason why these animals have learnt to use tools is that they spend all day together kind of watching and
learning from each other.
So, you know, it's just like going to school mum, hanging out with your friends.
I would be learning!
Next up, living around many of the sub-Antarctic islands, such as South Georgia,
we find the second largest and most colourful species of Penguin,the King Penguin.
Unlike their cousins instead of hopping,
these guys just get around by waddling upright or, you know, tobogganing on their tummies.
But these flightless birds really show their true colours when they dive, reaching depths of up to three hundred
metres.
They're specialized, deep diving hunters who eat mainly Lanternfish found, understandably in
dark areas such as the deep ocean.
Once their bellies are full, they go back to their massive colonies to find their chicks
amongst the thousands of identical brown fuzzy babies and feed them.
Although we're not sure if these chicks prefer
mum or dad's cooking, as to be honest, it sounds equally as terrible as it's just a whole bunch of regurgitated
fish. Ew!
It's a little bit like how your parents used to cut up your food when you were young, but like way more disgusting
and basically, these babies need to have their food partially digested before they can eat it.
You're never going to complain about eating vegetables again because there are far worse things your parents can make you eat.
One last interesting aspect about these birds is their constant squabbling.
King penguin colonies can be up to 200000 individuals all packed in.
And as you can imagine, that's going to lead to some epic flipper slapping confrontations.
And finally, the only truly social cat, the lion.
One common myth is that Lion prides have kings.
He's part of a complex society.
This group of lions will normally just have one large male with a beautiful mane,
a symbol of his dominance in the pride.
But the real power is held by a group of females who do almost everything together.
They hunt together, they sleep together, they go to the bathroom together.
They also have babies together at the same time, which they all look after and raise together.
If these groups aren't balanced right, they'll fight amongst each other, leading to some injuries.
And you can even see some scars on the animals that are in the game too.
But perhaps their most famous for their roar
that can be heard and felt up to five miles away.
I thought I was loud.
Their deep roar could be loud enough to hurt our hearing if we're standing nearby.
And there's even been stories
that it might be able to paralyze prey in fear.
The amazingly realistic animals in Planet Zoo give us an opportunity to learn a huge amount
about their unpixelated cousins in the real world.
Join us for the next episode
where we'll be diving into another of your favorite games and seeing just what we can learn
about the natural world from its Pixel Zoo.