What is Zoo Tycoon 2®?
How do I get started?
Can I play Zoo Tycoon 2 and its expansion packs together?
Do I need Zoo Tycoon 2 to play Marine Mania or any of the other Zoo Tycoon 2 expansions packs?
Where can I find my saved games?
How do I make animals & guests happy?
How do I walk around in first-person?
What if my zoo has run amok?
How can I get the best Windows Vista experience for my zoo?
Didn’t find what you’re looking for? Click here to submit a question that you’d like to have added to the FAQ.
Zoo Tycoon 2 is the 3D sequel to the wildly popular, award-winning Zoo Tycoon. Build exciting zoos and adopt amazing animals. Stroll through your zoo in first-person Zoo Guest mode or get your hands dirty caring for your animals in Zookeeper mode. Take photos and share them with your friends. Create impressive, realistic exhibits with easy-to-use building tools. Zoo Tycoon 2 is easy to start and play, with fun tutorials and intuitive controls for zookeepers of all ages.
What is Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species?
Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species is an expansion pack for Zoo Tycoon 2 that contains 20 rare animals, sky trams, Jeep® vehicle tours, elevated paths, bridges, and observation decks, erupting volcanoes, endangered-species-themed buildings and scenery, and a whole new set of challenges and campaigns!
To play Endangered Species, you must have Zoo Tycoon 2 installed on your PC.
What is Zoo Tycoon 2: African Adventure?
Zoo Tycoon 2: African Adventure is an expansion pack for Zoo Tycoon 2 that contains 20 amazing African animals, African-themed Jeep® vehicle tours with an all-new vehicle, pack and herd behaviors, new maps based on legendary African locations, desert-themed buildings and scenery, and a whole new set of challenges and campaigns!
To play African Adventure, you must have Zoo Tycoon 2 installed on your PC.
What is Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania?
Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania is an expansion pack for Zoo Tycoon 2 that contains 20 new marine animals, train the orca and other show animals to perform cool tricks, create splashy marine shows and dazzle your guests. Take a break from showbiz and go for a swim with your animals. Build breathtaking underwater exhibits that delight your animals, and discover a treasure trove of marine-themed buildings to deck out your zoo. Plunge into new challenges and campaigns that unlock a pirate’s booty of objects.
To play Marine Mania, you must have Zoo Tycoon 2 installed on your PC.
What is Zoo Tycoon 2: Zookeeper Collection?
Zoo Tycoon 2: Zookeeper Collection triples your zoo fun by combining three award-winning fan favorites: Zoo Tycoon 2 and the Endangered Species and African Adventure expansion packs! This collection brings you 70 awesome animals—some fun-loving, some ferocious, but all fascinating. Build exciting exhibits and Jeep® vehicle tours that thrill your guests and add to your zoo fame. Show off your zoo management skills to create world-class zoos and become a true zoo tycoon. Play campaigns and challenges and unlock special objects and achievement awards along the way.
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You must have Zoo Tycoon 2 installed on your PC before you can install one of its expansion packs. You can have all of the games installed at the same time, but you must install Zoo Tycoon 2 first.
After installing the game(s), click the Zoo Tycoon 2 icon on your desktop to start the game.
Should I play the tutorials?
The first time you start Zoo Tycoon 2 or one of its expansion packs, you’re asked if you’d like to play the tutorials. It’s a good idea to play the tutorials because they’re a fun, easy way to learn how to play the game, and then you won’t have to read the FAQ!
How do I play the tutorials later if I skip them?
You skipped them? On the main menu, click Play Campaign Game, and then click the tutorial you want to play. The Zoo Tycoon 2 tutorial teaches you the basics of the game, and the expansion pack tutorials teach you about the new features in each expansion.
What type of game should I play?
You can play three types of games. To choose which type you want to play, select one of the following options from the main menu:
- Freeform Game: The world is your oyster, money is unlimited, and you can pretty much do whatever you want because nearly all animals and building objects are unlocked (available) immediately.
- Campaign Game: You work within your starting budget and play a series of fun scenarios, such as fixing up an ailing zoo, breeding rare species, or earning a certain amount of money from guest donations.
- Challenge Game: You work within your starting budget to achieve a game challenge (such as attracting one hundred guests to your zoo) or a photo challenge (such as taking a photo of a lion drinking from a water dish).
When you successfully complete certain campaign or challenge games, you unlock special animals or objects that are then available in your freeform games.
What are the goals of the game?
It’s simple, really:
- Make your animals happy.
- Make your guests happy.
- Increase your zoo fame until you’re a zoo tycoon!
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Yes!
- You can play Zoo Tycoon 2 with as many expansion packs installed as you want. After you install an expansion pack, the new features and content are automatically added to your Zoo Tycoon 2 game. Just start Zoo Tycoon 2 to enjoy them all at once!
- If you buy the new Zoo Tycoon 2: Zookeeper Collection, you automatically get Zoo Tycoon 2 and the Endangered Species and African Adventure expansion packs. You can install Zookeeper Collection over any of these products if you already have them. Zookeeper Collection also works with Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania and any of the later expansion packs.
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Yes, you need to have Zoo Tycoon 2 installed to play any of the Zoo Tycoon 2 expansions, including Endangered Species, African Adventure, and Marine Mania. Because the new Zookeeper Collection already includes Zoo Tycoon 2, you don’t need to buy it separately!
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To find saved games on a computer running Microsoft® Windows® XP, click Start on the Windows taskbar. Next, point to All Programs, Microsoft Games, and then Zoo Tycoon 2. Click Zoo Tycoon 2 Profiles, and then open the Default Profile folder. If you created a custom profile name, open that folder instead. Double-click the Saved folder to access your saved games.
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That’s not simple, really. Or maybe it is:
- Making your animals happy—by building them a proper exhibit and meeting their basic needs for food, water, rest, and exercise—makes your guests happy.
- In addition, your guests have some needs of their own—such as food, water, rest, and entertainment—and fulfilling these makes your guests even happier.
What are the icons over my animals and guests?
Those are emoticons that tell you how your animals and guests are feeling—whether they’re happy, angry, thirsty, or have other needs that must be fulfilled. For a list of emoticons and what they mean, refer to your Zoo Tycoon 2 manual. If you’ve lost yours, click here to get a .pdf version.
What are my animals’ basic needs?
All animals have basic needs that you must satisfy to keep them happy and healthy. If your animals are in distress, they get sick and could eventually die. Viewing animals that are unhappy also makes guests unhappy and less likely to make donations.
Click an animal to check its basic needs:
- Environment: Animals must live in the proper biome and have enough space. To display the animal’s required biome, click the General Information tab. The exhibit should also be large enough to accommodate the existing animals and any offspring, which tends to crowd things.
- Hunger and Thirst: Place water and the correct types of food and food containers in the animal’s exhibit. Click the Zookeeper Recommendations button to see what food an animal prefers.
- Rest: Some animals rest best when they have shade or shelters, but many animals make themselves comfortable anywhere they can get some sleep.
- Exercise: Animals need exercise, either from running around their exhibit or playing with other animals or enrichment objects.
What are my animals’ advanced needs?
If you’re meeting your animals’ basic needs, you don’t need to worry about their advanced needs immediately.
- Privacy: Animals get the most privacy from shelters, but if you lack zoo fame and none are available, you can use solid fences or add more trees to the exhibit to isolate animals from the prying eyes of guests.
- Hygiene: Most animals can take care of their own hygiene by preening, scratching, or rubbing against features in their exhibit. Providing dirt or rock terrain in the exhibit helps animals that like dust baths. Water is useful primarily for aquatic animals. Some animals groom each other, which satisfies both hygiene and social needs.
- Social: Most animals need the company of other animals, usually of their species. Be careful when putting multiple males of some species in the same exhibit. This might lead to more aggression than social bonding. When a male/female pair has offspring, it also satisfies their social needs.
- Stimulation: Most animals are able to meet their stimulation needs if their exhibit includes other animals and some foliage, rocks, and other features of the animals’ native habitat. Some animals also enjoy playing with animal enrichment objects. Guests enjoy watching animals engage in lively behavior when using enrichment objects. Animals that are healthy and happy play with their enrichment objects more often.
What are biomes, and why are they important?
A biome is a geographic area that’s defined by its climate and the animals and plants that live there. There are ten biomes in the game: Alpine, Boreal Forest, Desert, Grassland, Savannah, Scrub, Temperate Forest, Tropical Rain Forest, Tundra, Wetlands. Each animal has a particular biome that makes it happy.
To see which biome an animal prefers, click the Animals (panda) button, then click the Animals (panda) tab, and then click an animal in the Adopt Animals panel. A description of the animal appears on the right.
How do I use the Biome Brush?
The Biome Brush is your friend. When you create an exhibit, you can use the Biome Brush to easily create terrain, trees, plants, and rocks that are appropriate for the animal(s) you’re planning to include in your exhibit.
To use the Biome Brush, click the Landscaping (shovel and tree) button, click the Biome Modification tab, click the arrow to select a biome, click the type of terrain (from deep water to dense foliage), then click and drag the Biome Brush over the area you want to transform.
Try to simulate the animals’ biomes as best you can with water, foliage, rocks and shelters to make them as comfortable and happy as possible.
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Walking around your zoo in first-person mode is great fun, like a day at the zoo. You can see whether you need to widen paths, move guest buildings, add staff gates, improve your exhibits so guests have good views of the animals, or anything else you might need to tweak.
- To enter first-person mode, click the Zoo Guest Mode (tree with path) button.
- To look up, down, left or right, move the mouse in the direction you want to see.
- To walk, hold down the left mouse button.
- To walk fast, hold down the Shift key while moving the mouse.
- You can also walk by pressing the arrow keys or the W, A, S, and D keys and using the mouse to look around.
- To exit first-person mode, right-click, and then click the Overhead View (world) button.
How do I open gates, fill food dishes, and scoop poop?
Just walk up to the animal or object you want to interact with. When you’re close enough, you’ll see a message to press the Spacebar to perform the action. You can do a variety of things, such as open staff gates, fill animal food and water dishes, replenish piles of hay or meat, bathe animals, and, of course … scoop poop.
How do I take a photo?
Proud of your zoo and sending photos to friends? Need to take the perfect picture for a photo challenge game?
- To enter photo mode, click the Photo Safari View (camera) button. Then use the mouse or keyboard to walk around just like in first-person mode. You can also use the mouse wheel or plus (+) and minus (-) keys to zoom the camera in and out.
- To take a photo, press the Spacebar. You can take 24 pictures before you have to empty your camera.
Holding down the Shift key to walk fast is particularly helpful in Photo Safari mode. Some animals move quickly, so it can be tricky to get just the right shot, especially if you’re trying to fulfill a photo challenge!
Another good trick in Photo Safari mode is to hold down the X key to crouch closer to the ground for a better view of your animals.
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First, if you get overwhelmed by all of the activity in your zoo, pause the game by clicking the button in the upper-left corner. Then take your time to fix whatever you need to take care of.
For an overview of how you zoo is doing, click the Quick Stats button. You can check on all of the animals, guests, and staff in your zoo by clicking the sort buttons to see what everyone needs to be happy and healthy.
Help! Zoo messages are popping up faster than I can read them.
Click the button to enlarge the Zoo Messages window. If you need a time-out, click the Pause button to stop activity in your zoo.
How do I find an animal in distress?
When an animal is in distress, a message appears in the zoo messages at the top of the screen. Click the message to go to the location of the emergency. Then, depending on the problem, assign a zookeeper to care for the animal or go into Zoo Guest mode and take care of it yourself.
How do I rescue an animal that can’t swim?
Pause the game so you can rescue the animal. Click the “can’t swim” message at the top of the screen to go to the animal. Click the animal, and then click the Pick Up button and move it away from the water. Then modify the terrain to keep the animal safe in the future.
Why can’t zookeepers reach things?
Sometimes when staff members take a long time to reach their goal, you’ll see a message that they can’t reach the animal, poop, food dish, trash, etc. To help the staff, click the message to see what they’re trying to reach, then click the staff member, pick them up, and move them to the area that needs attention.
What do I do when an animal dies?
Although you may feel sad, when an animal dies, you don’t necessarily have to do anything. You can replace the animal to help satisfy the social needs of any remaining animals, or if that need is not pressing, allow the exhibit to continue as is.
Why aren’t guests coming to my zoo?
Now that’s a problem. If guests aren’t coming to your zoo, you’re not making money from donations, and you’ll never attain enough zoo fame to become a true zoo tycoon! Here are some things you might want to look into:
- Is your zoo closed? Click the Zoo Finances (money) button, and then click the Zoo Information (question mark) tab. If your zoo is closed, click the Open Zoo (green) button.
- Do guests have a good view of animals in their exhibits? If guests can’t see well from paths or if terrain is blocking their view, guests won’t visit your zoo.
- Is an animal on the loose? If animals escape from their exhibits, it tends to scare away the guests. When you build your exhibits, be sure that all animals are safely contained by fences, natural terrain formations, such as moats, or ideally a combination of both.
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For the best Zoo Tycoon 2 experience on a computer running Windows Vista, visit the Windows Update home to view available updates.
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