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Best Mixed Habitats in Planet Zoo 2, Ranked from the Data

How these groups were picked

The Zoopedia lists compatible species on each animal's page, as either thriving or neutral. Joining all 136 pages gives 324 compatible pairs. From those, a script built every group of two to four species where each pair inside the group is listed, with nothing added or removed by hand. That produced 1,059 three-species groups and 2,596 four-species groups, and every one of them has a temperature range all members accept.

Each group was then ranked on five data points, in this order:

• How many of its pairs are thriving rather than neutral.
• Group size, so four species beat three when the first point ties.
• Width of the shared temperature range.
• Combined barrier: lower grade, then lower height, then no climb-proofing.
• Land (or deep water, for aquariums) for a full group of every species, added up.

The top group in each cluster of compatible species is listed below. Only 968 of the four-species groups have every pair thriving, and all of them come from two clusters: the African grassland herd and an Indo-Pacific reef aquarium. Everywhere else the best you can get is a group of neutral pairs.

The best group in each cluster

Land columns add up each species' own minimum, first at the smallest group its page allows and then at the largest. The Zoopedia does not say how the game combines them, so treat the sums as planning figures.

African grassland: the thriving herd

14 African grassland species form one large block in which nearly every pair is thriving. The single neutral pair is Common Ostrich and White-Backed Vulture. Of the 1,001 possible four-species groups from this block, 935 have all six pairs thriving.

The top pick is Gemsbok, Nyala, Springbok, and White-Backed Vulture: the only four in the block whose ranges all run to 41 °C, so they share 14 to 41 °C. Any other group from the block still shares at least 14 to 36 °C. The catch is the vulture's group size. Its page allows up to 80 birds, so its land alone reaches 8,375 m² for a full group, and it also needs 2,035 m² of flight space.

Leave the vulture out and the best all-ground group is Common Warthog, Gemsbok, Nyala, and Sable Antelope, at 2,530 m² for full groups. The barrier stays at grade 2 and 1.25 m for most of the block. Cape Buffalo and Reticulated Giraffe are the two members that push it to grade 3, so swapping them out keeps the perimeter at the lower setting. The eight highest-ranked four-species groups:

Indo-Pacific reef: the thriving aquarium

The second thriving cluster is a 13-species aquarium block, 12 of them tagged Reef. At its center are Humphead Wrasse, Indo-Pacific Leopard Shark, Javanese Cownose Ray, and Ocellated Eagle Ray, which are listed as thriving with each other and with 8 more species. Those 8 are only neutral with each other, so an all-thriving group can hold at most one of them next to core species. The Red Lionfish is compatible with the whole block but thriving with none of it.

The top pick, Clown Triggerfish, Humphead Wrasse, Indo-Pacific Leopard Shark, and Javanese Cownose Ray, shares 24 to 29 °C. Keeping all four core species instead narrows the shared range to 24 to 27 °C, because the Ocellated Eagle Ray stops at 27 °C.

Asian tropical: a neutral block of nine

Nine Asian tropical species are all listed as compatible with each other, though none of the pairs is thriving. Their shared range for the whole block is 18 to 33 °C, so temperature never decides between them. The ranking therefore falls to barrier and area, and the top group is Great Hornbill, Javan Green Magpie, Long-Tailed Parakeet, and Malayan Tapir. Three of those four are flying habitat animals.

The best ground-only group is Asian Small-Clawed Otter, Malayan Tapir, North Sulawesi Babirusa, and Wild Boar, with a grade 2, 1.25 m barrier. Adding Siamang and Sumatran Orangutan would bring in a climb-proof requirement and a 3 m minimum height.

Smaller land groups

Elephant, rhino and giraffes. African Savannah Elephant, Black Rhinoceros, Masai Giraffe, and Reticulated Giraffe are all mutually compatible, but only one pair, the two giraffes, is thriving. The combined barrier is the strictest in the summary table at grade 4, 3 m, and full groups add up to 16,092 m² of land.

Aardvark and meerkat group. Aardvark, Meerkat, Secretarybird, and Wild Boar share 14 to 36 °C with a grade 2, 1.25 m barrier. All six pairs are neutral. The Wild Boar, with 15 listed partners, all of them neutral, is the fourth member here.

Camel, horse and deer. Bactrian Camel, Przewalski's Horse, and Red Deer share −5 to 28 °C, though no single biome tag covers all three. A second three-species option, European Bison, Red Deer, and Wild Boar, shares the same range but needs a grade 3 barrier because of the bison.

Aquariums without thriving pairs

Blunthead Cichlid, Boeseman's Rainbowfish, Clown Loach, and Giant Gourami, all tagged Lakes and Rivers, form a four-species aquarium group with a narrow shared range of 25 to 27 °C. A separate 13-species aquarium block has only neutral pairs; its best four is Blue and Gold Fusilier, Indo-Pacific Sergeant, Schooling Bannerfish, and Yellow Tang, at 380 m² deep water for full groups.

Pairs that do not extend

Six pairs stand alone: no third species is listed as compatible with both members, so the pair cannot grow into a group of three.

Two of them keep a water barrier option, because both species allow one: the chimpanzee and gorilla pair at 6 m wide and 2 m deep, and the tamarin and lemur pair at 3 m wide and 1 m deep.

Check a group before you build

To test your own mix, enter it in the habitat planner, which flags any pair the Zoopedia does not list and reports area, shelter, barrier and temperature for the head counts you choose. For a quick two-species check, use the animal comparison; for every listed partner of one species, see animals that go together.

Compatibility lists and requirements are from the official Zoopedia (checked 2026-10-14). The groups, rankings and sums were generated on this site; how the data is collected covers the method.