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Zoo Manager is a free zoo game you play in your browser, one month at a time. Visitors come in at the gate and follow your paths until their legs give out — a few squares of walking, then a bench or they turn back — and an enclosure only earns if a path they reach runs alongside it. So the layout is half the game: where the path goes, where the benches sit, which enclosures share a fence. Inside each fence the animals decide the rest. Zebras want company, a tiger wants to be alone, lions frighten anything next door that they might eat, and penguins wilt in a heatwave — less so with a keeper beside them. Happy animals have babies, which bring the crowds — until the enclosure is too small. Build with savanna, forest, wetland and arctic habitats and twelve animals across eight zoos, buy the fenced-off land next door when you run out of room, and watch for rain, illness and summer holidays. Stars are the zoo’s value at the end of the season. No download, no sign-up, and it plays on a phone.
How to play Zoo Manager
- Read the zoo’s card and press Open the gates. Each zoo runs for six to twelve months from a set start month, with a starting sum of money and a site of open grass, rocks and trees.
- Lay path from the gate: choose Path and drag across the grass. Visitors walk only a few squares of path before they tire — the card says how many — and a bench on the path lets them walk that far again. Path nobody reaches is shown striped red.
- Choose Enclosure, pick a habitat and a size, and tap the top-left square of where it should go, beside a path visitors reach. An enclosure no visitor walks past earns nothing, and says so.
- Tap the enclosure and adopt animals of its habitat. Each species likes a group of a certain size and takes a certain amount of room; happiness, and what the enclosure is worth to visitors, shows under it.
- Before you open the month, set the keepers — each looks after three enclosures — and the ticket price. The forecast shows about how many visitors a dry month would bring, what they would spend and what the month would cost.
- Press Open for the month. Visitors, takings and bills come back, then whatever the month brought: rain, a heatwave, an animal falling ill, a baby. When the site is full, buy the fenced-off plot next door. At the end the zoo’s value — cash plus half of what it cost to build — earns up to three stars.
Tips
- Run one main path up from the gate and build either side of it. Enclosures packed round the first squares of path leave nowhere for the path to grow.
- Watch for red, striped path: visitors never get there. A bench at the last square they reach sends them on as far again.
- Give every animal the company it likes. A lonely zebra or a crowd of eight meerkats is unhappy, and an unhappy enclosure is worth much less to visitors.
- Keep predators away from prey. A lion or a tiger sharing a fence with zebras, lemurs or penguins frightens them all month.
- Put enclosures of the same habitat side by side: visitors enjoy a savanna walk more than scattered pens, and a wider variety of animals draws more of them too.
- Set the ticket near the fair price the month panel shows. Much above it and the crowd stays home; a little below it fills the zoo but earns less.
- Leave room for babies. A happy group can grow past its favourite size — and past the room it has — in a single month.
- Hire a keeper before the heatwave. Arctic animals suffer in the heat, and much less with a keeper looking after them.
- Keep enough cash for the month’s bills. A zoo more than $200 in debt at the end of a month goes bust, and a bust zoo earns no stars.
FAQ
Is this zoo game free?
Yes. Zoo Manager runs free in your browser with no download, no install and no account, on a computer, tablet or phone.
Why does my enclosure earn nothing?
No visitor walks past it. Visitors follow your paths from the gate for only a few squares — the level’s card says how many — before they turn back, and an enclosure earns only if a path they reach runs alongside it. Path they never reach is shown striped red; a bench on the path lets them walk as far again.
How do I keep the animals happy?
Give each species the group size it likes and the room it needs, hire a keeper for every three enclosures, and add toys. Keep predators — lions, tigers and polar bears — away from prey: prey that shares a fence with a predator is frightened all month. An ill animal stays miserable until you call the vet.
How do animals have babies?
An enclosure with two or more animals that is at least 75% happy can have a baby at the end of a month. A baby draws extra visitors for a month, but it can push a group past its favourite size or its room, so leave space for it.
What should the ticket price be?
Near the fair price the month panel shows, which rises as the zoo gets better. Much above it and the crowd stays home — at half as much again, fewer than half of them come; a little below it brings more visitors but less money.
How do I get more land?
Choose Buy land and tap a fenced-off plot next to land the zoo already owns. Each plot costs 30% more than the one before, and half of what you pay for it counts toward the zoo’s value.
How do I get three stars?
Stars are the zoo’s value at the end: its cash plus half of what everything standing cost to build and stock. The marks were set with test keepers on sites the marks were not taken from. One that follows the tips on this page — a main path with benches, the right group sizes, a keeper for every three enclosures, predators kept apart and the fair price — reaches two stars on most sites and three on over a third. One that builds beside the path it already has, with a flat ten-dollar ticket, usually reaches one star — and after the first zoo, rarely two.
Is it the same zoo every time?
Play it again replays the same site and the same weather, and illnesses and births are drawn the same way — so the same moves bring the same months, and a better plan shows. New site draws a different scatter of rocks and trees and a different run of months.
Is Zoo Manager like Zoo Tycoon?
It is the same kind of game — build enclosures, keep the animals happy, sell tickets — played month by month on a small grid, and it is not affiliated with Zoo Tycoon or Microsoft. The puzzle here is the visitors’ walk: where your paths and benches let them go.