Live Food

Zoopedia entry
Carnivores/Marine predators enjoy their food even more if they have to catch it! Many zoos have introduced live food as part of their animal enrichment programs.

Live Food
Expansion	Lizard: Zoo Tycoon 2: African Adventure Arctic cod and Yellowfin Tuna: Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania
Object Type	Enrichment
Size	All: Half Tile
Animals That Use Object
Lizard: Short-Faced Bear Secretary Bird Carnotaurus Deinonychus Deinosuchus Dimetrodon Fennec Fox Striped Hyena Komodo Dragon Mandrill Meerkat Nile Monitor Protarchaeopteryx Ratel Stokesosaurus Thylacine Tyrannosaurus rex Utahraptor Velociraptor Warrah African Wild Dog Ethiopian Wolf Gray Wolf Wolverine Arctic Cod and Yellowfin Tuna: Beluga Bottlenose Dolphin Blue Marlin Narwhal Sea Otter Emperor Penguin Rockhopper Penguin California Sea Lion Goblin Shark Scalloped Hammerhead Blacktip Reef Shark White Shark Pacific Walrus False Killer Whale Orca Short-Finned Pilot Whale All: Asiatic Black Bear Grizzly Bear Polar Bear All Cats Nile Crocodile

Live Food is a special type of enrichment item in Zoo Tycoon 2, introduced in the African Adventure expansion pack. Marine Mania also adds two new marine live food items.

Live food consists of living animals (with no detailed info or needs) that move around the exhibit for zoo predators to chase, hunt and eat. They are used by a wide variety of animals, and satisfy their stimulation, exercise and eventually hunger needs.

Guests react positively to viewing animals hunting live food, unlike when they hunt other, proper zoo animals.

Live Food Lizard

The Live Food Lizard is a Live Food enrichment item introduced in Zoo Tycoon 2: African Adventure. It will run around after placement.

It is used by non-marine predators of all sizes. The animal will first stalk, then attack and kill, then eat the lizard.

Unlike fish live food items, the live food lizard changes to a "dead" state after being attacked, which is then used as food, instead of being instantly eaten. This allows the dead lizard to be carried by predators as well.

The live food lizard has a bad smell component, so placing too many live food lizards can lead to animals complaining about a smelly exhibit.

Arctic Cod

The Arctic Cod is one of two Live Food enrichment items introduced in Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania. The Arctic cod is a marine live food enrichment that can only be placed in water and tanks. Once it is placed, it will swim around the body of water until either a predator kills it, or it beaches itself on land and dies.

The Arctic cod is chased by and eaten by marine predators (cetaceans, most sharks, California Sea Lion, Sea Otter, Pacific Walrus, Blue Marlin), as well as cats, penguins, the Nile Crocodile, Polar Bear, Grizzly Bear, and Asiatic Black Bear.

Yellowfin Tuna

The Yellowfin Tuna is a Live Food enrichment item introduced in Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania. It must be unlocked by completing two Marine Mania animal challenges in Challenge Mode. The yellowfin tuna has the same functionality as the Arctic cod and can only be placed in water and tanks.

The yellowfin tuna can be hunted by all the same animals as the Arctic cod.

Trivia

• Due to a coding error, the yellowfin tuna shows up as fully locked in the rewards panel even after one or both challenges have been completed, and the item has been unlocked. This is due to a minor coding error and is only a visual bug which has no effect on gameplay.
• The live food lizard is the only live food that does not correlate to a certain species. Rather, it appears to be a generic green lizard.
• The live food lizard is the only land-based live food.
• In the game's files, there are indications that the live food for African Adventure was originally going to be a rat.