Animals, Sponsors and Projects

How to read Animal, Sponsor and Conservation Project cards, animal categories, special enclosures, icons and releasing animals.

The 212 Zoo cards are of three kinds: 128 Animals, 64 Sponsors and 20 Conservation Projects, plus 12 Base Conservation Projects that start on the table.

Golden rules

• A card counts itself: if an effect refers to an icon that the card shows, that icon counts.
• What is an icon: the symbols in the top-right corner of your Animal and Sponsor cards, on your partner zoos and universities, and the water and rock needs in the top-left corner. Conditions on the left edge never count, nor do icons on conservation projects.
• Card text beats the rules.
• Effects happen at once, except “after finishing” ones; simultaneous effects in any order you like.
• A double icon counts twice (a partner zoo saves 6 on an animal with two matching continent icons).

Animal cards

1. Enclosure size (minimum standard enclosure).
2. Rock and water spaces the enclosure must touch.
3. Special enclosure it may use instead, and the spaces it takes there.
4. Cost .
5. Conditions to play it.
6. Category and continent icons.
7. Appeal (and sometimes conservation or reputation).
8. Ability — see the Glossary for each.
9. Solo version of an interactive ability.

Interactive abilities (Venom, Constriction, Hypnosis, Pilfering) only hit players with at least 5 appeal (the space is marked on the track). A group that dislikes them can play the solo effect instead.

Animal categories

Icon	Category
	Bird
	Herbivore
	Predator
	Primate
	Reptile
	Bear — mostly together with herbivore or predator
	Petting Zoo animal — a game category; also counts as a small animal
	[Marine] Sea animal — lives in aquariums (Marine Worlds)

When the game asks for “animal categories”, bears and Petting Zoo animals count unless excluded. Small animals need an enclosure of size 1–2 (or the Petting Zoo); large animals need size 4–5.

Continents

Africa · Americas · Asia · Australia · Europe. Petting Zoo animals have no continent.

Special enclosures

Your zoo can have one Petting Zoo (size 3, Build side I), one Reptile House and one Large Bird Aviary (size 5, Build side II). [Marine] Adds a small and a large aquarium for sea animals, built with side I (Aquariums). Petting Zoo animals only live in the Petting Zoo. Reptiles and some birds may go in a standard enclosure or the special one: mark the spaces shown on the card with player tokens; if there aren’t enough free spaces, it can’t go there. Special enclosures never flip, and an empty one still earns kiosk income.

Placing cards

Played Animals and Sponsors are overlapped so that only their top strip shows. Sponsors with an end-of-game effect have a brown strip behind their level so you can find them.

Sponsor cards

1. Level — the Sponsors action’s strength must reach it (brown strip: scores at the end).
2. Water or rock needs of its unique building.
3. Conditions to play it.
4. Icon the Sponsor adds to your zoo.
5. Recurring effect (blue background; purple = income in every break).
6. One-off effect when played (yellow).
7. End-of-game effect (brown).
8. Effect text (all are explained in the Glossary).

Unique buildings from Sponsors follow the normal building rules, including the upgrade spaces.

Conservation projects

Each card has 3 conditions (1) with their rewards (2); some give the player who plays the card an extra bonus (3). Two kinds:

• Icon projects — have at least the shown number of an icon in your zoo (count the top edges of your Animals and Sponsors, water and rock needs included, plus partner zoos and universities).
• Release into the Wild (A, B) — discard from your zoo an Animal with the shown continent that needs a standard enclosure of exactly the shown size.

Base projects start below the Association board and never move or leave. New projects are played above it, at the left, pushing the others right; at most 2, 3 or 4 cards fit there (by player count) and the extra one is discarded — tokens on it go back to their owners’ supply, not to their maps.

Supporting a project

Use the Association task (strength 5). Choose a free condition you fulfil; each player supports each project only once. Take any one of the 7 player tokens from the left edge of your zoo map, put it on the condition and score the reward (conservation , sometimes reputation). The space you uncovered gives its bonus at once — and some again in every break. You choose the order of reward and bonus. A Conservation Project card can only be played if you support it at once.

Supporting a lower level early is often worth it: you reach the Conservation track bonuses sooner and unlock income on your map.

Releasing an animal

1. Lose that animal’s printed appeal first.
2. Free its space: take its tokens off a special enclosure if it is in one; otherwise flip the smallest occupied standard enclosure that meets all its needs (water and rock included); if none, the smallest that is big enough; if none, nothing.
3. Score the project’s reward and your map bonus.
4. Discard the Animal card: its icons leave your zoo. Nothing else you gained from it is lost.

The player who plays a Release card from hand also gains 1 reputation; supporting one already on the table does not.

Breeding Programs (cards 123–127) have the same condition on all three spaces: pick any free one.

Cards that raise questions

The cards players ask about most on the BoardGameGeek forum, with the ruling. Every other card is in Cards & Components.

Card	Question and ruling
	Sun Bear (409) — its bonus Association action can use X-tokens and a Multiplier like any other action. Official ruling
	Indian Rhinoceros (432) — you choose the Base Conservation Project; it is not drawn at random. Ruling
	Japanese Macaque (458) — if several players tie for most conservation points, you pick which one to take from; a player needs at least 1 point to count. Official ruling
	WAZA Small Animals Program (228) — you may take a small animal from the display without playing another one from your hand. Official ruling
	Polar Bear Exhibit (251) — appeal it gives on another player’s turn cannot end the game at once: the end is triggered only at the end of your own turn or in a break. Ruling
	Native Farm Animals (260) — water and rock spaces are not empty border spaces; only building spaces count, upgrade spaces included. Official ruling
	Designer Zoo (012) — mirror-image buildings such as 248 and 252 are different shapes: tiles turn on the map but never flip. Ruling
	Diversity Researcher (219) — with the Marine Worlds Build card, the 2 money for water comes once per action, not per water or rock space covered. Official ruling
	Specialized Species Zoo (014, Marine Worlds) — pick any animal category you did not support a Base Conservation Project with; no project of that category needs to be in play. Official ruling