Great animal/zoo-themed board games?

[Ashley]

Off the back of Simon's Wingspan thread, does anybody have any good board game recommendations that involve animals or zoos in some manner?

To start off, not quite zoo, but animal rescue, we've just played Isle of Cats for the second time this evening. It has a fantasy art style, but the premise is you have sailed to an island in danger to rescue the native cats before the island is destroyed. Each cat is an odd tetrimino shape and you have to do your best to fit them onto your board which is your boat and rescue as many as you can. It's really very fun. Doesn't have the realistic artwork that Wingspan has, though.

 

[jwer]

There must be many. The most logical that springs to mind is Zooloretto, the 2007 prestegieus “Spiel des Jahres” winner. The game was re-styled in the Netherlands and sold as the “Burgers’ Zoo Boardgame”, which in the end was a bit odd because all the expantions that came out internationally never fitted the Dutch remake. It’s a fun family game;

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27588/Zooloretto

The game is a board-game variant of the earlier card-game Coloretto, which has a much shorter playtime, is a nice “filler” and is themed around Cameleons;

Coloretto

Another very strong “animal” themed game is “Evolution”. A pretty looking game where the theme is very elegantly woven into the gameplay. If your very religious and not very much into the evolution theory, you might want to steer away;

Evolution

There must be many more games themed with animals. The odd party game “Party Animals” which forces players to make animal noises;

Party Animals

Another nice filler is Frank’s Zoo;

Frank's Zoo

And in my opinion a poor game, but with gorgeous playing pieces to be up on display, Shear Panic;

Shear Panic

I could go on for quite a while if you like @snowleopard once slept in my house in fear of being crushed under my boardgame collection

 

[Ashley]

I could go on for quite a while if you like @snowleopard once slept in my house in fear of being crushed under my boardgame collection

That's a great list. All but Evolution are new to me, though I was aware of Coloretto (never played it though!) and Zooloretto looks up our alley.

I'm a relative novice to you when it comes to boardgames, then, it seems! We have only the one shelf. Just had a quick look and, besides Isle of Cats and Wingspan, the only other animal-themed game we have is Kakerlaken Poker. It's a pretty fun bluffing game.

We also have Dixit which has lovely art across the board, but I'm always more drawn to the animal cards, especially the foxes.