GTA VI will have over 170 animal species, from Florida natives to invasive ones
2026-09-29
Grand Theft Auto VI will feature over 170 animal species across land, air and sea. The figure comes from Game Informer issue 382, whose digital edition went live on 29 September 2026 with a fourteen-page cover story on how Rockstar built Leonida.
The number is not the interesting part. The criterion is. Rockstar has not dropped in generic video game animals: it has copied Florida's real wildlife, and that includes the problem Florida actually has.
On one side are the native species, the ones anyone associates with the state:
- Flamingos.
- Manatees.
- Pelicans.
- Alligators.
And on the other, the invasive ones, animals that should not be there and are:
- Green iguanas.
- Cane toads.
- Feral cats.
- Rhesus macaques.
That second list is not a flourish. Florida has one of the worst invasive species problems in the United States, with iguana colonies across its southern cities and troops of macaques running loose for decades. That Rockstar bothered to include them says a lot about the level of detail it is after.
From Red Dead Redemption to Leonida
The technology comes from Red Dead Redemption 2, already the game with Rockstar's best animals, but extended. Game Informer notes that animals display iridescence, bioluminescence and translucency, along with distinct feather types, and that there are new hair and fur systems.
In plain terms: a fish's scales shift colour depending on how the light hits them, some creatures glow on their own underwater, and thin wings or fins let light through instead of reading as a solid surface. These are details you only catch up close, which is exactly the point in a game people will be studying for years.
Animals you can track
There is a layer of play on top. Some animals fall into three categories: rare, discoverable and legendary.
Rockstar has not said which ones or how many: the identity of the harder finds is being kept back. The idea recalls the legendary animals of Red Dead Redemption 2, where each was a set-piece encounter in a specific place with its own conditions.
What is still unknown is what they are for. In Red Dead they fed into crafting gear from their pelts; in a game set in present-day Florida that does not translate, so photography, collecting, or something not yet revealed all seem plausible. Until Rockstar says so, that is guesswork.
Source: gameinformer.com
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