Bluff in Zoo

About this board game

Bluff in Zoo is a bluffing card game for 2–6 players that takes about 20 minutes to play. Players return from the zoo and compare how many animals they have supposedly seen—but not every claim is truthful.

On your turn, choose whether to play a card face down onto the central pile and announce a claim, make a claim without playing a card, or doubt the previous player’s claim. Each new claim must either name a higher number than the previous claim or the same number of a larger animal.

When a claim is challenged, all cards in the pile are revealed. If the cards show at least the number of animals claimed, the doubter takes the entire pile. If they do not, the player who made the claim collects the cards instead. Since collected cards are worth negative points, every challenge can change who is closest to losing.

• Face-down cards keep the true animal count hidden.
• Claims involve one of five kinds of animals.
• Jokers can count as any animal.
• Some cards reduce the number of animals seen.

These special cards mean that no player can be completely sure what the pile contains. The deck’s surprises make judging when to continue claiming—and when to call for a reveal—central to every round.

In Bluff in Zoo, the first player to collect thirty cards loses and ends the game. Once the game ends, the player with the fewest cards wins.