GTA 6 animals and wildlife: every species named so far, Legendary animals and hunting

Leonida, the state where Grand Theft Auto VI is set, has more than 170 animal species across land, air and sea. Game Informer reported the count on Sept. 29 with its cover story on the game, in which Rockstar shared details of GTA 6's wildlife. Only a small share of the species have been named, and the harder-to-find animals, sorted into Rare, Discoverable and Legendary categories, are being kept secret.

Game Informer's full story is paywalled on its website, so this guide draws on the magazine's free article about the animals, IGN's, Kotaku's and VICE's reports of the story, Rockstar's own site and IGN's interviews with Rob Nelson, co-studio head at Rockstar North. Most entries in our animal library are marked as press reports, not statements on Rockstar's own pages.

Every animal named so far

Game Informer groups flamingos, manatees, pelicans and alligators as native Florida animals, and the iguanas, toads, cats and macaques as invasive ones. It adds that several of Leonida's species have never appeared in a Rockstar game, without saying which in its free article. Rockstar's descriptions of its own screenshots add deer, a cougar, a wildcat, an eel and dolphins, covered region by region below.

Birds, land mammals and sea life

IGN, Kotaku and VICE, all reporting Game Informer's story, say the species include more than 60 types of birds and more than 30 land mammals, along with fish and reptiles.

In the water, IGN and VICE list several kinds of sharks, along with whales, rays, turtles and jellyfish. Both outlets report that Rockstar gave each of these sea creatures its own distinct movement, and IGN says you can come across them while scuba diving, one of the side activities named in the story.

Rare, Discoverable and Legendary animals

Game Informer reports that some animals fall into three categories you can track, Rare, Discoverable and Legendary, and that Rockstar is not revealing which animals they are. IGN says you will track animals as you could in Red Dead Redemption 2, and Kotaku calls it the return of that game's animal rarity system, with Legendary creatures that will be hard to find.

None of the reports say how many animals are in each category, how tracking works or what finding one earns you. Our wildlife tracking page collects what is known.

Studying, petting and feeding animals

In the demo Nelson played for IGN, petting a dog brought up an option to study it. Asked whether that was a collection mechanic, Nelson said "you can study animals as a collection sort of thing," and a way to learn more about them, according to IGN's Oct. 7 transcript. He said the feature comes from Red Dead Redemption 2 and offers a way to engage with wildlife without shooting it all.

Nelson also counted going to a zoo and studying animals as quality time for Jason and Lucia. Zoos are on the list of side activities from Game Informer's story, IGN reports.

Feeding animals may matter as well. In its Aug. 27 preview, IGN wrote that small everyday actions seemed to shift the Criminal Profile, the system Nelson says tracks what kind of criminal you are. In the demo, putting trash in a bin seemed to help, and Nelson told IGN that feeding animals would be another such action. Rockstar has not said which animals you can feed or what feeding them does.

How the animals look

Rockstar is building on its Red Dead Redemption work, Game Informer reports, with animals that can be iridescent, bioluminescent or translucent, a range of feather types and new systems for hair and fur. Kotaku adds that fur reacts when people interact with an animal, and that Rockstar simulates dirt, matting, clumping, wet coats and variations in color and coat.

Michael Kane, Rockstar's vice president of dynamic art, told Game Informer that "Florida has a diverse animal ecosystem that we wanted to faithfully include," as IGN quoted him. The settings he listed run from urban and rural areas to inland waters, the ocean and wetlands such as swamps and the Everglades. He said the animal art and population teams care about getting each animal's research, look, movement and animation right.

Where Leonida's wildlife lives

Rockstar has tied only a few animals to places, in its region pages and its descriptions of the screenshots on them, and has said nothing more about those animals. The images are on our screenshots page.

• Grassrivers. Rockstar's page for the wetlands says gators may be the region's most famous attraction but warns of deadlier predators and stranger finds in the mangroves, without naming them. Its screenshots show airboats among alligators, and three mud-covered people posing with guns, a dead alligator and a wildcat. Airboating is on the side-activity list from Game Informer's story, according to IGN.
• Mount Kalaga. Rockstar says the national park on Leonida's northern border offers hunting, fishing and off-road trails, and describes one of its screenshots as a cougar stalking a herd of deer at a stream.
• Leonida Keys. Rockstar's page warns that the islands sit beside some of the most dangerous waters in America, without saying why. Its screenshots show an iguana walking in front of a mobility scooter, and two scuba divers among coral, fish, an eel and a sea turtle.
• Gambit Bay. Rockstar pitches the Shitzu Squalo, an Ultimate Edition boat, for fishing in the bay, and one of the boat's screenshots shows dolphins swimming nearby.

Hunting and fishing

Hunting and fishing are among Mount Kalaga's draws in Rockstar's description, and another of its screenshots there shows two people carrying rifles through the woods.

No one at Rockstar has described how hunting works: which animals you can hunt, what you can do with them afterward, or whether you need a license. The same goes for fishing. Our hunting and fishing pages track what Rockstar has said.

Not confirmed yet

• Which animals are Rare, Discoverable or Legendary. Rockstar is keeping them secret.
• How hunting and fishing work, and what you can catch.
• Pets. Nelson petted a dog in IGN's demo, but Rockstar has not said whether you can own a pet or keep an animal companion.
• The full species list. Most of the 170-plus species have not been named.
• Where most animals live. Rockstar has not said where to find flamingos, manatees or most other species.
• Armadillos. Kotaku's report of the story mentions them, but Game Informer's free article and the other reports we checked do not, so they are not on our list.

For the rest of what Rockstar's developers have described, see our gameplay features guide and our Leonida map guide.