GTA VI animals: species, tiers and what is known

Confirmed

What Rockstar has confirmed: over 170 species

On September 29, 2026, in a Game Informer exclusive, Rockstar confirmed that GTA VI includes more than 170 animal species. More than 60 are birds, more than 30 are land mammals, and the rest is split between fish and reptiles. It is the only number that exists: Rockstar has not given an exact count or a breakdown of the rest, and anything more precise than this has no official source behind it.

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Confirmed

The three tiers: discoverable, rare and legendary

According to Game Informer, the game tracks animals in three tiers: Discoverable, Rare and Legendary. Rockstar keeps the identity of the legendary animals secret, so nobody can say today which ones they are. It has not said which tier each species belongs to either, so any table that puts the flamingo or the alligator in a specific tier is a guess and not a fact. The Codex list does not show a tier for the same reason, and the legendary animals appear as a separate row that says they are still secret.

Confirmed

The eight species Rockstar names

Rockstar gives eight specific names: American alligator, flamingo, manatee, pelican, green iguana, cane toad, feral cat and rhesus macaque. It describes the last four as invasive: the green iguana, the cane toad, the feral cat and the rhesus macaque. Of the eight, the alligator, the flamingo and the pelican show up in the first trailer, the manatee appears in the swamps of An Extended Look and the feral cat is seen in the second trailer, on a store ATM in Vice City. The cane toad and the rhesus macaque have not been seen in any footage yet, and the green iguana is placed in Ambrosia by a secondary source.

Confirmed

Studying animals: what the gameplay video shows

In An Extended Look, the official gameplay video, Jason comes across a dog and the game offers three prompts on screen: Pet, Scold and Study. It is the only thing Rockstar has shown of that mechanic, and the dog is seen in Vice City. What happens when you study an animal, where it is logged or what you gain from it, Rockstar has not shown.

• Activities seen in the official video

According to IGN's preview: a list you tick off

IGN watched a hands-off demo and reports that you can study animals at a zoo or in the wild, and that each one is checked off a list, like in Red Dead Redemption 2. Several outlets have relayed it, including Rockstar Report and GamingBolt. It is second-hand information: Rockstar hasn't confirmed that list with footage, and until it does we present it as what it is, the account of a press preview.

What is still unknown

Rockstar has not shown a single compendium screen, so how it is presented, what completing it gives and whether studying every animal is required are all unknown. Which species belongs to which tier, who the legendary animals are and how many animals each region holds are unknown too. And the species spotted in the trailers come from third-party breakdowns whose timestamps do not always agree, which is why they carry the Unverified label.

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How to read the Codex animals list

The list groups species by region of Leonida. The eight Rockstar names carry the Official label and cite Game Informer; the ones seen in video according to third-party breakdowns carry the Unverified label, because we have not checked their timestamps. Each entry says which video the animal appears in, and anything without a confirmed area sits in a separate block. Every species can be marked as studied, and the count rises on its own without the tier of each one mattering, because that data does not exist.

• Forum threads about the map