Building your zoo
Fences, paths, placing and moving things, build times and a bigger park.
🧱 Fences and enclosures
Press the hammer, pick a fence, then drag across the grass and let go. The price is for each fence tile, so bigger enclosures cost more. An enclosure needs to be a little bigger than three tiles each way, can't be built over a path, and holds up to 5 animals.
| Fence | Price per tile |
|---|---|
| Rope | $25 |
| Wood | $100 |
| Chainlink | $150 |
| Glass | $175 |
| Ironbar | $200 |
| Electric | $500 |
Dinosaurs, King Kong and the Loch Ness Monster only stay behind an electric fence.
🗺 Paths, grass and water
Press the map editor at the top right, pick a tile and press the map where it should go. Each tile costs $100.
- Paths: guests only walk on paths, so lay them past your enclosures, shops and scenery. Keep the path from the entrance open.
- Grass: grows long over time. Mow it, or hire a groundskeeper.
- Water: a pond inside an enclosure makes water lovers earn more and gives every animal a drink. More about water
🎯 Placing things
When you pick something from a menu, a see-through copy follows your mouse. Its spot is green where it fits and red where it doesn't, with a short reason, like "Needs an electric fence" or "This enclosure is full". On a phone or tablet, the first tap shows the preview and a second tap on the same spot places it. Press Cancel to put it back.
- Animals and food bowls go inside enclosures.
- Buildings go on land, not on water, paths or enclosures.
- Scenery can go almost anywhere, inside enclosures too.
🏗 Build times
New buildings and fences take a while to build, and you'll see a crane and a countdown while they do. The higher your level, the longer building takes, from 1 minute at level 1 up to 2 hours. (Build time for every level)
- You can build 2 things at a time. Zoo VIPs have no limit and build twice as fast.
- Press the countdown, or Pay in its window, to finish now for Zoo Tokens: one token for each half hour left, 5 at most.
- The Quick Builders and Speed Builder research make building much faster.
🔄 Moving and selling
Press anything in your zoo to open its window. Move picks it up so you can put it somewhere else. Sell gives you back half of what it cost. A fence with animals inside can't be sold, and neither can a baby animal or an adopted one.
🏞 A bigger park
A new zoo builds on part of the map. The land past its edge is fenced off with For Sale signs. Expand Park in the Zoo Token Shop (25 Zoo Tokens) opens the whole map for good, and lets you hire more staff.