NEWS

The vanilla game's interpretation of the Scrub biome is a bit perplexing. According to the Zoopedia, it's based off of chaparral (another word for Mediterranean scrub, specifically in western North America), but all of the animals in the biome are either from xeric scrublands/semi-deserts or tropical scrublands The Biome Update takes on the imposing task of reimagining the Scrub biome as something that's a whole lot less of a dumping ground for vague "dry" animals, instead focusing solely on what the WWF recognizes as Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands and Scrub. The end result is a unique biome with a snug animal roster and a few oddball plants.

Scrub Animal Highlights: Red Kangaroo, Spanish Lynx, Caracal, Dwarf Sicilian Elephant, Kentrosaurus

Scrub Plant Highlights: Protea Wildflowers, Flooded Gum, Olive Tree, Lavender

Biomes aren't as cut and dry as you might be led to believe. If you want a good feel for how distinct individual desert regions can be from one another, look no further than the Desert biome - or, as the WWF calls it, Deserts & Xeric Shrublands - which has inherited most of the animals that had to be moved from the Scrub biome. In Africa alone, the biome encompasses places like the sandy expanses of the Sahara and Namib, the dry savannahs of the Kalahari, the shrublands on the Horn of Africa and even the spiny forests of southern Madagascar! Suffice to say that, come November, desert exhibit builders will have a lot more to work with than just camels, cacti and date palms.

Desert Animal Highlights: Ring-Tailed Lemur, Black Rhinoceros, Western Santa Cruz Tortoise, South African Meerkat, Elephant Bird

Desert Plant Highlights: Kily Tree, Shepherd's Tree, White Gul Mohur, Prickly Pear Cactus

In the release version of Folksy Facelift, the two mangrove trees were moved to the Coastal biome. Based on user feedback, the Biome Update returns them to their rightful home in the Wetlands biome. However, that's far from the only change the swamp has seen - the biome has received a whole new look with richer greens and browns, worlds away from the neon lime greens of the vanilla wetlands.

Wetlands Animal Highlights: Hippopotamus, Nile Crocodile, Baird's Tapir, African Buffalo, Styracosaurus, Deinonychus

Wetlands Plant Highlights: Mangrove Tree, Pond Pine, Downy Birch, Common Reed

Vanilla Zoo Tycoon 2 uses the Benthic biome as a sort of dumping ground for half of the sharks. Folksy Facelift has addressed this since launch, moving the white and whale sharks to more suitable biomes and leaving the goblin shark all by itself in the dark depths.

While the Biome Update doesn't give the goblin shark any proper company, it does pretty intensely rejig the Benthic plant* selection. On top of that, you might need tank lights to see in Benthic tanks, given how much darker their waters have been made...
          *  The "plants" in the Benthic Biome are sessile animals and not actually plants.

Benthic Animal Highlights: Goblin Shark

Benthic "Plant" Highlights: Bamboo Coral, Giant Volcano Sponge

The changes to the Alpine biome have been very minor, but worth at least mentioning; purely personally, I thought the blotches of snow and rock in the biome's grass texture were very ugly, so I opted to remove them and alter the general look of the grass.