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#8 - December 2013 / January 2014
Topic Started: Jan 8 2014, 04:23 PM (1,506 Views)
Orca Freak
Member Avatar
Killer Whales rule the World

Posted Image[anchor]top[/anchor]

[anchor]intro[/anchor]Posted ImageWritten by: Orca Freak

First of all: Our apologies for skipping a month. It's been a really busy - even a bit hectic - period. But now that the holidays are behind us, it's time to get back to work.
We've had a lot af big events in the last couple of weeks, from screaming at Halloween with spooky stories and terrifying banners, and a long, exhaustive Marathon II, to giving out presents and searching for Santa's reindeer during the Christmas period.
Do you want to go over it one more time, looking at the huge list of people who won one of our prestigious contests, or are you eager to find out which animal gets the honour of being our "Animal of the Month"? Well, you deffinitly came to the right place. Just sit back and relax while reading our monthly Newspaper.

Enjoy!

  • [go2=intro]Introduction[/go2]
  • [go2=events]Events[/go2]
  • [go2=awards]Awards[/go2]
  • [go2=features]Features[/go2]
  • [go2=spotlight]Spotlight[/go2]
  • [go2=staff]Staff Discussion[/go2]
  • [go2=news]Community News[/go2]
  • [go2=animal]Animal of the Month[/go2]
  • [go2=questions]Questions[/go2]
  • [go2=poll]Poll[/go2]
  • [go2=game]Game Time[/go2]
  • [go2=cc]Community Challenge[/go2]
  • [go2=help]Help Out[/go2]


[anchor]events[/anchor]Posted ImageWritten by: Swimming Spaghetti Monster, and Orca Freak

Over the last few weeks we had a number of different contests and events. There was the Animal Encyclopedia Contest to increase activity in that section of the forum. But we also had the big Marathon II. Halloween didn’t pass without notice. Spooky Stories were told, creepy banners scared the hell out of us, and the staff tried to trick us in “Trick or Treat”. Following Halloween, there were the Indoor Complex Building Contest and the Ingame Photography Contest: “A Place in Time”. The Christmas Event is coming to an end, but we still need your vote for choosing out some winners for the contests. So don’t forget to take a look in the Christmas Event Section.

Now these are all over, it doesn’t mean we can relax. New contests and games are being planned behind the scenes. So keep your eyes and ears wide open, you never know what the staff is going to throw at you this month.

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[anchor]awards[/anchor]Posted ImageListed by: Orca Freak

We've had a lot of great contest in the last couple of weeks. Lets list all those contests and their winners one more time.

Make an Emoticon Contest v2 (September 9 - October 5)

1st Place: The Lonely Alula with :adowable:
2nd Place: Cat with :dino: and Terrena Laxamentum with :ninja:
3th Place: OwlParrot with :worship:

Visual Art Contest: Life (September 15 - October 12)

1st Place: Furka with "In the Jaws of Death"
2nd Place: Sheather with "An Unfair Trade" and Cat with "New Life"
3th Place: DRAGON-unit911 with "Raising a Different Life"

Marathon II (October 12 - December 1)

1st Place: Team Sach'arara (Caviar, Farkle, kelenkeen, Okeanos, and Rocky)
2nd Place: Team Ex Aqua Emergens (Barackobamasaurus, Cat, Crookedjaw, Laura, and Stephen)
3th Place: Team Kubwa Kaliba (1993, Hudson, Neonraptor, OwlEye, Panthera leo, and Yur)
Star of the Competition: Okeanos

Spooky Stories Contest (October 20 - November 11)

1st Place: Tyranachu with "Computer 16"
2nd Place: Flower with "Hell Girl", Snoopy with "You Can't Scream" and Murdock129 with "Unhinged"
3th Place: Myrtle Snow with "Shadows" and JurassicMT with "Terror at Praya Pong Dum"

Halloween Dress-Up (October 31)

1st Place: Okeanos
2nd Place: MrGorsh
3th Place: Furka

Trick or Truth (October 31 - November 7)

1st Place: Orca Freak with 17 guesses
2nd Place: Swimming Spaghetti Monster with 13 guesses
3th Place: Arrancar with 6 guesses

Animal Encyclopedia Contest (November 5 - November 30)

1st Place: Furka with 60 Fact Sheets
2nd Place: MrGorsh with 24 Fact Sheets
3th Place: Hudson with 17 Fact Sheets

Indoor Complex Contest (December 2 - December 22)

1st Place: Zebrasaurus with "Asian Trails"
2nd Place: Cat with "Jungle Jems"
3th Place: izzibob with "China House"

A Place in Time (December 13 - December 24)

1st Place: doNDon0626 with "Land of the Time Forgotten"
2nd Place: fridooh with "The Survivals"
3th Place: Oviraptor with "A Colorful Herd"

Congratulations to all of you

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[anchor]features[/anchor]Posted ImageWritten by: Orca Freak

Now that Halloween lies behind us, the scary animals have left our shop. But there is no reason to panic. Chickens and turkeys flew in at Thanksgiving, and with the overwhelming respons on our last Community Challenge, you, our members convinced a large group of amazing animals to come over. (And they told us that they are going to stay)
With the beginning of the Christmas season, again a number of different animals came trotting in. Arctic animals left that cold place we call the North Pole, to warm themselves in our homes and hearts. Last but not least, there were the missing reindeer from Santa's Sleigh, with their golden Christmas glow. Or were you one of the lucky ones to catch a glimps of Rudolph with his shining nose?

Not as shiny, but just as nice. Maybe some of you have already noticed, we have two brand new emoticons available to you:
A lovely badger :bb: made by Sheather
And a very cute doggie :doge: made by MrGorsh

Not really a new feature, but the designing section has been divided in different subforums. This way it will be easier to keep an overview. And you'll be able to find a designers topic a lot faster.

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[anchor]spotlight[/anchor]Posted ImageInterviewed by: Orca Freak

For this month talent, we chose a great man who is part of some of the greatest desing teams in the ZT Community, and became the Star of our latest Marathon Competition: Okeanos

1. When and how did you first become involved in the ZT community?

I joined the community way back in the Zoo Admin days, but I was nothing but a lurker. I stayed like that for several years, and because I never posted I never knew about the other ZT2 sites. After browsing Youtube a bit, I came across the Prehistoric Monsters Pt1 trailer, the Cretaceous Calamity trailer (which unfortunately I can't find now) and the WWD expansion teaser, and these videos introduced me to ZTV :P I posted there, and being the download hoarder I once was, I mainly did it to get the 50 posts I needed for the "almighty Exclusive Downloads". However, once I had posted I discovered some nice people who I could relate to and I soon became friends with them. DinosaurKing10000 and HorseGirl901 were my best friends at that point, and I was called "Belugamad". Ever since then, I guess I've moved from site to site, following the cycle of forum death and forum rebirth xD

2. When did you start designing and what was your first project?

I first started designing... a few months after I joined ZTV I think. I can't remember the month or day because the original Zoo Tycoon Volcano board was deleted. Anyway, it was a Mussaurus made from the Zebra, made by editing the nodes of the animals instead of the vertices. This most likely sounds idiotic, but I was quite young when I joined the forums in 2006 and having had no previous experience with computers other than random doodles with paint and photoshop, I find it miraculous I even managed that :P the first project I showed, and that I can still find pictures of, was the JFC pack I created with Pika247 and a couple of other people. I can find pictures of the Pachyrhinosaurus, and there were a couple others I skinned, but they are somewhat disgusting to me now :P I'm glad I've improved since then! At Environ I started designing more, and Environ is where I really started to develop as a designer. I created my Mesozoic Marine Marvels pack. I never actually released any of it anyway :P but looking back on the stupid things I've said when I was younger makes me cringe, so I might just stop there XD

3. How has the community changed you as a person? Have you allowed it to?

I'd say the community has changed me quite a bit. By being able to talk to people here, I've found new confidence when talking to people in real life. I've made friends in many foreign countries, and my friends often ask about people in the community, generally my closest friends (Mat, Ben, Iben, you've all been asked about :P I'll tell you what about later) which really adds a sense of close friendship between reality and the community for me. Some of my friends in real life have talked to people here, and it seems almost cosy (except when they talk to BZM, then they just run away screaming). I think the fact that you guys have similar interests to me too really helps. My friends are nice, and they try to keep up with my interests, but they never quite can when I start rambling on about 'Azhdarchids' and 'Dicynodonts' and 'Coprolites', so it's nice to have a place where I can talk about these kind of things without being thought of as obsessive or stange :P JFD is definitely the thing in the community that has changed me the most though. JFD changed me from a shy little designer to a confident jerk (as it does to all of its members) who speaks his mind :P I'm actually quite grateful to them, thanks guys!

4. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose to live?

If I could live anywhere, it'd be Iceland. This may seem like just a random place, but I visited the country in March 2013 and absolutely fell in love with it! I stayed there for 6 days with my Geography class of 30 students, and 5 teachers. I was told to expect it to be really cold but when we got there it was actually sunny and hot, in fact it was hotter in Iceland than it was in the UK! We stayed in Reykjavik on the first night, and even managed to see the Northern Lights, which were spectacular over the beautiful cityscape. In the following days we went Gorge Walking, saw several amazing waterfalls (and even walking behind one) and climbing, and then sledding down, Katla, one of the largest volcanoes in Iceland. It was a bit worrying, since Katla normally erupts two or three years after Eyjafjallajokull erupts, and since that volcano had erupted in 2010... and we went to Iceland in 2013... well you can do the maths xD Our guide told us "Don't worry, if it's going to erupt it will take two hours for it to break through the ice sheet on top, and we can get you down safely in that time"

Really? Considering it took three hours to get up there?

We also visited the inspiration for the Gates of Mordor (shout-out to Crooky!), huge towering cliffs which were breathtaking (except when they tried to kill us, huge icicles fell down near us and almost hit us. I guess you can't simply walk into Mordor?). My favourite place in Iceland is definitely Jokulsarlon. Seriously, I can't even describe it, just google it. It's amazing.

So yeah... woo Iceland. I'd really recommend visiting it, it's an amazing country! If anyone wants to see pictures I took while on the trip they can be found here


5. What are your favorite animals?

I absolutely love most cetaceans, perissodactyls and fish, however my favourite type of animals has got to be reptiles. I love lizards, give me a lizard and I can sit there for days just watching it but my most cherished of all animals are the Archosaurs. Crocodilians and birds are so magnificent to me, I can often just watch them for hours on end and this is obvious to my friends, as I often when we walk home from places I shout 'LOOK TITS! I mean... Blue Tits, sorry guys..' or 'OMG I just saw a Green Woodpecker! Can you hear that?'. I think it annoys them slightly, but I don't really care xD

My favourite animal overall, living or extinct, is probably Estemmenosuchus. I love how bizarre it is, and although my favourite animal changes a lot, this one has always been a firm favourite of mine, as well as Carnotaurus and Dacentrurus.


6. When did you develop your love for animals?

I don't know how to answer this one, I've always had a love of animals :P growing up I lived in a house right on the edge of a cliff, so I was always surrounded by nature (sometimes too literally, I remember when I was three I got my leg caught in a clump of stinging nettles on the clifftops, it hurt like hell!). I've always been taught by my parents to respect nature, and I think over the years that respect has turned into fascination and passion. I used to collect shells and categorise them by species (yes, I was that sad) and when I was about 5 or 6 I started creating my own "experiments" (basically finding animals and keeping them and recording their behaviour) in which I'd look after all kinds of invertebrates I could find in my garden and record any behaviour I saw. For some reason, the snails always decided to mate and one time I awoke to find 3 baby snails in the box, it was quite a shock (not as much as opening my window curtain and snail poop falling on me, apparently one snail escaped and decided he'd rather live on my curtain rail >.>)

7. What do you want to be when you grow up?

I'd love to do something with Zoology when I'm older. It's the one thing I'd love to do, and while I have no clue if I will be able to do it as a career, I feel I may as well try for it. What's the point in applying for something that you won't love as much as something else? If I did anything else I'd feel I'd most likely regret it later, and so I am devoting my time to working towards that goal. Just seeing animals makes me happy, and I'd honestly love to be able to work with them when I'm older. I think I'd love to volunteer with conservation of animals, since there'd be nothing better to me than helping a species recover. I'm going out to Costa Rica next June with my school to help rescue baby Leatherback and Green Sea Turtles, as well as help conservationists in the rainforest and see the Costa Rica Sloth Sanctuary, among other things. It is those sorts of jobs I'd love to do, making a postive difference to the world, and if I can achieve that I'd be happy. However unlikely it is to happen, I know if I don't try there will be no chance of it happening :P

8. Are you a morning person or a night owl?

Depends on the time of the year. Generally, I'm a morning person. I find it hard to lay in and I've never managed to sleep past 8am (I always get up way before that). I think it's because I'm one of those people who has to be doing something all the time, which I think has contributed to how much I've designed over my time as a designer :) When school comes though, I'm sort of forced to do both :P I need to stay up late to get all my homework done, but still get up early for school (and to feed my 12 guinea pigs, if I don't feed them by 7am I can hear them squeaking). I think as I get older I'll become more and more of a Night Owl, since the only thing that's keeping me from sleeping all day is that I always have something that need to be done XD

9. Want to share any sneak peaks of anything?

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Sure, take from this what you will :P

Thank you very much, Okeanos.
And we'll definitly keep an eye on your Project Thread.

[go2=top]Back To Top[/go2][anchor]staff[/anchor]
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Written by: Orca Freak

The team:

The staff has had a few members leaving in the last couple of weeks. So, naturally, a few additions were made to fill in the open spots.
This is our team today:

jragonizer -----> Admin
Zoocrazy -----> Admin
Cat -----> Pointies Manager
Crookedjaw -----> Download Manager
Hudson -----> Download Manager
Snoopy -----> RTZI Manager
Orca Freak -----> Newsletter Manager
Imp -----> Moderator
Rafael -----> Moderator
Furka -----> Moderator
fridooh-----> Moderator

Behind the Scenes:

We're cleaning up now the Christmas Event is coming to an end. The snow is no longer falling, and the missing reindeer have been send back to the North Pole. New games and contest are being prepared for the near future. So keep your eyes open, and be prepared!

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[anchor]news[/anchor]Posted ImageReporter: Orchid

Okay, here we are for our January newsletter, and you have with you your reporter, Flower. Well, there have been a lot of different events, like the end of the 2nd Marathon and the Christmas events. There have been the results of Halloween contests, and the winners of the Marathon II. And there are many other events brewing up among the inspirative brains of our Staff, that we will get to know very soon, so hurry up and bring out your popcorns.


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The results for the haloween contests were declared and many people won beautiful prizes and loads of pointies (Yay I won 2nd place in the spooky story writing contest!) Many awesome haloween silhouettes were taken away from the pointies shop and those who didn’t get one, keep your eyes open, there might be others selling their silhouettes !

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There was the beautiful Christmas event on TRT, with there are a lot of games, like the reindeer hunt, and 'gift a present', and there were also awesome contests like christmas carol writing, zoo building for christmas and many other christmas contests. The Round table had been added with ‘snowing’ special effect and a new logo for TRT was added at the top of TRT. The reindeer hunt was a bit difficult, but there were people who succesfully completed it. So Happy Belated Christmas to all our readers!

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The famous Zoo tycoon based site, Zoo Hispania, has been having a SOS festival, where SOS means, Save or Succumb. The SOS festivals gives you a lot of goodies, animal downloads, contests and more, so don’t forget to check it out ! You can click on the SOS banner above to go to the wonderful and awesome site - Zoo Hispania! Be sure that you check it out!

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The Round table of zoos incorporated, which was a big hit at the beginning, suddenly had a lot of inactivity, and many people have stopped S&T'ing in that section. I really really ask all our readers to start their new zoos in the RTZI to lighten it up!

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Well, the Marathon II event has come to an end. The event took place at two sites simultaneously - our own TRT and Gaia. The marathon was a big chunk, and you can see the results here in TRT at the given link below :
Marathon II

And finally, your reporter Flower has changed his name to Orchid. Pretty cool, huh? So stay tuned until next time, bye! And enjoy the newsletter !

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[anchor]animal[/anchor]Posted ImageWritten by: Oviraptor
Banner: Orca Freak


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Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Marsupialia
Genus: Myrmecobius
Species: M. fasciatus


Posted Image


Range:

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General:

The numbat is a small marsupial native to western Australia. They have a long, bushy tail measuring about the length of the body. Colors can range from a light grey to deep red-ish brown. The flanks have 4 to 11 black stripes that made towards the rear. Weight varies between 280 and 700 g (9.9 and 25 oz). Unlike most other marsupials, the numbat is a diurnal creature, due to it's specialized diet.

Habitat:

The numbat only remains in two tiny pockets of woodland in the Dryandra Woodland and the Perup Nature Reserve, both being located in Western Australia. Today, numbats are found only in the Eucalyptus Forests, although they once lived in habitats ranging from Spinifex grasslands all the way to sand dunes. Numbats will forage through the undergrowth in search of food.

Diet:

Numbats are insectivorous, and their diet consists exclusively of termites! An adult numbat will eat up to 20,000 termites in one day! They will spend most of the day digging up termites in the soil with their front claws and will scoop them up with their long, sticky tongue. Even though some people call the numbat the "Banded Anteater" the numbat will not eat ants intentionally.

Threats:

The numbat's natural predators inclue the little eagle, brown goshawk, collared sparrowhawk and carpet python. Numbats are also frequently preyed on by introduced foxes. Unfortunately, the numbat is effected by human destruction such as deforestation and poaching. When the Western Australia government instituted an experimental program of fox baiting at Dryandra (one of the two remaining sites), numbat sightings increased by s large amount.

Weight & Length:

Numbats can grow to a size of between 35 and 45 centimetres (14 and 18 in) long, including the tail. The tail takes up about half of that length.Weight varies between 280 and 700 g (9.9 and 25 oz). The largest specimen ever caught was 711 g and 19.5 in long. There have been claims of larger specimens, but those are unconfirmed.

ZT2 Animal Guidelines:

Ingame, the best enclosure for a numbat is a medium sized, sparsely planted, rocky area. Make sure to include some patches of dense plants to offer some sort of shelter. Numbats don't require that many vertical spaces, but be sure to include at least one stick for scratching purposes. Be sure that your fences are solid because numabts can easily squeeze through small spaces.

Pointies Animal:

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This lovely little numbat is available in our Pointies Shop.


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[anchor]questions[/anchor]Posted ImageInterviewed by: Animalraja

This month we are going to find out what Hamikins, Furka, and MrGorsh think about our community and we will get to know them a little bit better.

Personal:

1. What country would you like to live in? (Besides your own)

Well I'd like to move either to Canada or Australia, since I think they have beautiful environments and wildlife and are both English speaking countries. I can't speak for the people living there, since Idon't follow stereotypes, but I doubt they could be like Italians. Canada has the presence of many species of game fish in addiction, so... ~Furka

Hehe. Living in New Zealand is one of the things I really enjoy about my life, but, if I had to. Probably the Shetland Islands, a cold and treeless region where I'm probably related to everyone, on that windswept isle in the middle of nowhere. ~ Hamikins

I honestly have no idea. There's probably no consistent answer I could give you for this question, simply because I'd rather see my own country developing and becoming more hospitable. I like living here, but it could, of course, improve a lot. If I had to choose where to move, then probably New Zeland. Beacuse of freedeom. And I like its landsacpes. And most people I met (online) from there didn't prod my nerves. :) ~ MrGorsh


2. Are you doing anything for the Holidays?

I haven't planned anything yet for the Holidays. Of course we will have the traditional family reunion (lots of food and such) but I don't know where we'll go this year. And I'll try to do something together with my friends for the new year. Other than that I don't think I'll do much, since the University is taking lots of time. ~ Furka
Just went to Auckland, some pictures are in my blog, to visit family, and also to enjoy the trip on the 8 hour ride, stopping at various places like the hot pools. We're going to wellington on the opposite end of the North Island to see family at Christmas.~ Hamikins

Designing, stuffing myself with food, poking people in the eye online. Casual stuff, holiday time only differs from the rest of the year because I have more free time for my hobbies. And still don't have enough of it to accomplish what I wanted but it might be an issue with mu demanding attitude towards myself. In the end its mostly rekaxing, yet productive. Just as I wanted it to be. ~ MrGorsh


3. What is your favorite food and why?

Well I think everyone in the community knows I'm very carnivorous xD I'm a fan of meat, preferring wild games to domestic ones (and the same goes for fish), but I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables too (always eat your veggies, kids !) and I never refuse a good pizza (yayfor patriotism !) and the occasional junk food, not to mention I really love gummy candies. Overall I think of myself as a very good eater with the exception of mushrooms, which are the only food I hate, soI've always found hard to pick a favourite food. ~ Furka

Fruit. Oranges, feijoas, kiwi fruit, especially golden. I like natural things in general.~ Hamikins

I'm having a hard time deciding. I love food. More than I love people(that AT rederence). But if pressed to choose what I'd have to consume daily for the rest of my life, I'd choose bigos. It can be called our national dish and dispite having rather straightforward recipe, it's possible to obtain a diffrent flavor each time we cook it. And it's delicious. Not just ordinary tasty. Making-you-swoon level of delicious. I love it. I could eat it all day long if it wasn't so easy to get full with it. ~ MrGorsh


Nature:

1. What animals do you see in your daily life or around the neighborhood?

Since I live in an urban environment, I see mostly birds, other than some bats, wall lizards and a few invertebrates. Usually it's small ones like blackbirds and sparrows, plus robin during winter and a few migratory species through the year, but also crows, magpies and collared doves, and since there's the Arno river not too far from my home, I often see gulls, cormorants and herons.However I consider myself very lucky because my father works in a natural park, and I often see large animals like foxes, fallow deers and wild boars quite often, more than most people here anyway. ~ Furka

Budgies. xD . I now have 12 in an aviary, for those of you who don't know. xD . Mainly yellow, but some have green, one has purple and yellow and is so unusual. This is because my yellow girl and my white boy had a batch of 8 youngsters.~ Hamikins

Mostly collared doves which are what I'd call a pest here. They tend to visit my chickens and rob them off the food. Daily I also often see eurasian magpies and sparrows, plus great and blue tits. When I visit the town nearby, it's hard to not spot a pidgeon. They're everywhere. Other than that, it's mostly other birds of central Europe, sometimes I get to see a roe deer or a hare, or my yard is visited by pheasants. It's been a year since I saw a fox last time and I don't miss them. Yesterday I saw a stoat. And... that'd be it. Birds far outnumber other vertebrates in terms of diversity here. ~ MrGorsh


2. What is your favorite native animal?

Southern Pike (Esox flaviae). I devoted my entire fishing career to this species, and this had effects on my life even outside fishing (for example it taught me to be very patient). Plus, it's a beautiful animal, the pure essence of a predator in my eyes. Many people think fish are boring and stupid animals, but once you go fishing after a certain species and you have to work hard to succeed, you'll actually learn to respect them. Sadly it's slowly disappearing from many places … ~ Furka

I love all NZ natives. They have a subtle beauty. I say I love Tui birds the most, their song is so gentle and I hear it in the morning when I wake up, and it reminds me of home.~ Hamikins

Long-eared Owl. They're adorable and cunning. Beautiful and interesting birds, there's nothing in them I could consider to be repulsive. Nothing else to say. :P ~ MrGorsh


3. What are your thoughts about wild animal domestication?

It depends on what we mean for domestication. If you mean making pets out of wild animals, I must say this depends too much on the various species, although I'm not strongly opposed to it. If you mean keeping wild animals in captivity to be used as resources, I'm fine with that, as long as we remember that these are wild animals and should stay like that. We have thousands of horses, but very few “original” wild ones remain out there today. A good example of how I think wild animals should be farmed in captivity are deer farms: the animals are left in a very large space where they live their life as wild animals, only depending on humans for a constant food supply. ~ Furka

Well, as long as all their needs are taken care of, and that includes their more advanced needs (hehe ZT2 speech) like socializing. But some animals will never be happy kept as a pet, so, don't. And why do we need any more pets? ~ Hamikins

As long as domestication isn't a purpose to wipe out wild populations of the animals, I don't see anything wrong with this process. Many species that we domesticated are doing well and, in some cases, domestication saved the evolutionary lines from extinction (take Aurochs for an example). Humans are often in connection with other organisms on the planet, be it through dependance for food or simply our desire for companionship. I don't see how distancing ourselves from the world we're a part of could be considered good. One animal I wish that could've been domesticated is Quagga. It was tame enough to try and domesticate it but some people decided it'd be better to wipe it out. Human brilliance at work. *claps* ~ MrGorsh


Community:

1. In Which forum do you post frequently?

TRT is the site I'm active the most. I'm pretty active at Gaia and Zoo Hispania too, although not as much. ~ Furka

I don't know. General discussion probably. Or the atheist form. I like socializing with people. But I know which form I post the least in, the spam form. Though I occasionally stumble around it and post random stuff, I have the feeling I have no idea what's going on. xD ~ Hamikins

None. I'm not an active poster. Temporarily I post more often on TRT than other sites but it can change any minute for various reasons. I rarely get attached to any particular ZT2 site because community focus shifts rapidly and I see no point in calling any place 'home' just to remain alone on its rubble after the stampede of people runs off to another one in pursuit after 'community spirit', downloads or favourite designers. ~ MrGorsh


2. Why did you decide to join the community and contribute to it, rather than just lurking for downloads?

This happened back in the times I first joined the old Zoo Hispania: back then I needed 10 posts to access the exclusives, and since I knew there were some downloads that I really wanted, I started posting. Eventually I ended up liking the comunity atmosphere, and resolved to become an active member of it (although my career as a member on Zoo Tycoon Super Forum was a complete disaster). ~ Furka

I looked at the form and thought that there were people I wanted to be friends with.~ Hamikins

I wanted to attempt to make something myself out of sheer curiosity. When I was a ZT2 community lurker, I was also an active skinner in JPOG community. Naturally, I wanted to poke ZT2 skinning too after a while and learned few new tricks. Then became curious about modelling. Ultimately the urge to share my creation somehow crawled out from the back of my mind. Though I can't say this urge is strong lately and is rather dropping than rising, I'm still fueled by the desire to improve my game with things I make. Sharing them feels nice, but is also a risky option, considering that there are many disgusting trends in the download communities that have, unfortunately, plagued this one as well :) ~ MrGorsh


3. Have you enjoyed your time in the ZT2 community so far?

I really enjoyed my time in the comunity. Except for the ZTSF incident, i've never seen myself as a trouble maker, and i don't remember having issues with other members even after becoming part of the staff here. My english has improved a lot, and i learned a huge amount of new stuff since i joined (mainly paleonthology related). If it wasn't for the comunity, i would have probably stopped playing the game a long time ago. ~ Furka

Lovely, lovely time. The people here are good friends, and the form is well regulated.~ Hamikins

It was, and is, rather amusing, I've gained some knowledge, developed various designing skills and met few people I enjoy spending my time online with. There were also moments of disgust, boredom and times when I was wondering what am I even doing here. I like the community, I just have problems getting along with people and tolerating some of them while also not being a nice, easygoing guy myself. All in all, I'm still here, enjoying my stay, not planning to change in any tiniest bit. We'll see what comes next. ~ MrGorsh


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[anchor]poll[/anchor]Posted ImagePoll by: Hudson, Orchid, and Myrtle Snow

Like every time, we had a poll with a number of interesting questions. Here are the results:

What is your favourite part of Halloween so far?

Pick a Pumpkin - (41,7 %)
Exclusive Pointie Animals - (25,0 %)
Contests - (20,8 %)
Theme - (12,5 %)

How many pets have you had in your lifetime?

Five or more - (68,0 %)
Two - (12,0 %)
One - (8,0 %)
None - (4,0 %)
Three - (4,0 %)
Four - (4,0 %)

What is your favourite species of big cat?

Tiger (Bengal, Siberian) - (36,0 %)
Cheetah - (32,0 %)
Leopard (African, Amur, Clouded, Snow) - (16,0 %)
Cougar - (8,0 %)
Jaguar - (4,0 %)
Lion (African, Asian) - (4,0 %)

What is your favourite kind of milkshake?

Vanilla - (23,8 %)
Chocolate - (23,8 %)
Strawberry - (23,8 %)
Other - (14,3 %)
None - (14,3 %)
Mixed - (0,0 %)

How many times have you been abroad?

Never - (36,4 %)
Many times - (27,3 %)
Once - (13,6 %)
A couple of times - (13,6 %)
Twice - (9,1 %)

What's the forum part you love most?

Zoo Tycoon topics - (34,3 %)
RTZI - (25,7 %)
Hangouts - (31,4 %)
Art section - (5,7 %)
Animal Encyclopedia - (2,9 %)

New questions have been put up, so make sure you check them out: [Here]

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[anchor]game[/anchor]Posted ImageCreated by: Orchid, and Orca Freak

Here are the answers to the riddles of the November Newsletter:

1. Your shadow
2. The letter "h"
3. A piano
4. Balance
5. Scent, Cent, and Sent
6. The letter "x"


Congratulations Snoopy and Okeanos for finding them all, and TheGuy for finding 2 answers.

Lets have another try with the next five. Do you think you know the answer, make a topic in the Staff PM Box with the Title: "Newsletter 8 - Riddles: Your username". You never know, you might get something in return.

1. A farmer in California owns a beautiful pear tree. He supplies the fruit to a nearby grocery store. The store owner has called the farmer to see how much fruit is available for him to purchase. The farmer knows that the main trunk has 24 branches. Each branch has exactly 12 boughs and each bough has exactly 6 twigs. Since each twig bears one piece of fruit, how many plums will the farmer be able to deliver?

2. I went into the woods and got it. I sat down to seek it. I brought it home with me because I couldn't find it. What is it?

3. If a man carried my burden, he would break his back. I am not rich, but I leave silver in my track. What am I?

4. I am in talk, and in stop, I am in tickle, and in tackle, I am in bullet, and kite, I am in poster, and in tear, I am in torn, and in fear, I am in tick, and in stock, I am in tulip, but I'm also in by. What am I?

5. I never was, am always to be, no one ever saw me, nor ever will, and yet I am the confidence of all to live and breathe on this terrestrial ball. What am I?


Good Luck!


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[anchor]cc[/anchor]Posted ImageWritten by: Orca Freak

For this month, we didn't manage to get a challenge ready. But we are working hard on one for next month, so there is no need to start panicking.

We did notice however, that the RTZI-section is getting a bit less attention these days. So, Zoo Builders, it might be a nice idea to start participating in that. Instead of just building your zoo, you'll have to pay for your animals, breed them with care, and trade them to other zoos. So take up the challenge, and build a RTZI-zoo.

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[anchor]help[/anchor]Posted ImageWritten by: Farkle

Interested in helping out the forum? Well there are several things you can do to help us out!

1. Join the Newsletter Team! All the above posts were written this month, and next month you could be one of the writers! Post in the Staff PM Box and tell us what you would like to do, and we'll get you into something.
2. Report stuff. If you see something that is against the site rules, then just click that little report button so that we can see it ASAP. We can't be everywhere at once, so the sooner you let us know about it the better
3. Assist. If you see someone who needs help, has a question, or isn't following the rules, kindly help them out if you can. Often times a staff will still follow up behind you, but we always appreciate seeing members helping each other out.
4. Be active. The more you post, and make topics, the more others can post and that will open more doors for you to post!
5. Be friendly. PM people, welcome people, and be patient with everyone, especially newer members. Remember, if you're kind to people, its very likely they'll be kind to you
6. Submit Downloads. We have a nice download center so we mine as well get as many downloads as we can in it. We also have good download managers, so we had mine as well keep them busy too
7. Offer your help in the Staff PM Box. Let us know if you are available and we may just have something for you that would take a lot of pressure off of us.


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Edited by Orca Freak, Feb 7 2014, 04:50 PM.
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