u/Future-Law-3565

These are only the breeds of horse, donkey, cattle, sheep and goat. The vast majority of them are critically endangered due to rural abandoning, hybridisation with industrial, exotic breeds, replacement by exotic breeds, inbreeding, and other factors. Many of these, as is already being done, are useful for rewilding projects.

All my photographs.

1. Churra do Minho ram. A very small sheep from the mountains of Braga, Viana do Castelo and Vila Real districts.
2. Churra Algarvia taxidermy ram. I have seen living ones, but did not photograph. Large, elegant breed with impressive spiralling horns, indigenous to the Barrocal and Coast of the Algarve, but, as these fertile regions have been occupied by cities, it is pushed to the edges of the Barrocal and now the Serra. Nonetheless the extreme rusticity of this ovine made that migration no challenge.
3. Algarvia goat. Characteristic livestock of the Algarve scrubland, here with mongrel sheep.
4. Maronesa cattle. Very aurochs-like cattle from an area similar to the Churro do Minho ovine.
5. Garrano horse. Small, sturdy, very rustic bay horse found semi-feral in Peneda-Gerês.
6. Sorraia horse. Primitive grullo or bay dun horse created in 1937 from the Sorraia river basin.
7. Miranda donkey. Large dark donkey from Miranda Plateau in risk of extinction.

Link. The animals are grullo (black dun) like all Sorraias, but appear more primitive than most, in that they are shorter and sturdier, and some have semi-erect manes, though this is almost certainly due to cutting and not a natural condition. Still, they are quite a bit too tall and lanky, with falling manes, than the desired appearance.

To clarify, despite the beautiful appearance, the last wild horse is indeed the Przewalski's horse, Equus caballus przewalskii, which is not a feral horse nor the ancestor of the domestic form. Roughly, in 1920, the hippologist Ruy d'Andrade saw a herd of "wild" horses in the oak savannas of the Sorraia River basin, Sesmaria lands, on a hunting trip. He noted the extremely primitive appearance, reporting some were grullo whilst others bay dun, with very heavy striping, recalling a hemione or zebra. He was unable to find them again.

Later, in 1937, he collected a few domestic farm horses that he thought were similar to those he supposedly saw in 1920, and further bred them to resemble what he observed. The animals were 4 stallions and 7 mares, with a South American Criollo stallion also being added later. Therefore, it has a totally domestic origin. Due to the small founder population and the current effective of 200 heads, the Sorraia horse suffers from inbreeding.

I am doubtful that Ruy d'Andrade saw what is usually implied. I find it highly unlikely that an animal as conspicuous as the large, social, plains-dwelling wild horse would have survived unnoticed in a country as populated and explored as Portugal, especially in the area of Coruche, relatively close to Lisbon. Yes, I know that in that time, even wolves were found in the area, but still I find it extremely unlikely, especially since there is no mention of them before or after the sighting. If he saw anything, it was likely feral horses.

This is Doñana National Park in Spain, by me. This area in the northwestern part (Charco de la Boca trail), is heavily populated by wild boar (Sus scrofa baeticus) and red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus), with fallow deer (Dama dama) and feral horse (Equus caballus caballus) less common. The deer and boar come out in the late evening from the pine and riparian woodland thickets to feed on the fertile floodplains "marismas". As you can see there are well trodden game trails to and from the feeding ground. As one sees, they evenly trampled, and narrow, about the width of the animals using them, and very numerous.

Why are the in-game trails so different? They are very broad, and uneven, with patches of grass in the middle of them, and, they form almost like roads. In truth they just be very numerous, crisscrossing almost the whole map, especially to and from water points. And most of the time they do not have a defined end/start, they just abruptly join others, a main trail, etc. Even mammoth/elephant trails are much narrower than the ones seen whilst playing. It would be interesting if mammoths and to a lesser extent bison & horse could create their own trails, but that would be hard to do, since they would eventually reset.

Credit: Anja and Heiko Denker on Kgalagadi Sightings Facebook

This is very curious, since the presence of the eagle would appear totally irrelevant to the large ungulate. In a typical circumstance it would ignore it completely, but here attacks seemingly without reason! Red hartebeests are watching.

In my latest post (link), I showed how the stilt-legged horse or "Harington's pony" could be implemented in-game so as to avoid being just a small version of our present western wild horse. The main point is that whilst the latter is more cursorial, prairie-loving, water-dependent, almost pure grazer and has a harem-based social structure, the former is less cursorial but more agile and surefooted on rugged and broken terrain, inhabits mainly the sage-chaparral scrubland, more arid-adapted, eats both woody plants and herbs as well as grass, and the social system is organised into territorial, breeding males, nomadic female bands and non-territorial, non-breeding male bachelor groups that are semi-tolerated by the territorial males. These mechanics have been fully integrated into the game by the developers, as seen in the official website.

However, I want to perhaps clarify better how it would be done in practice. Adult males would have a territorial grid like the predators, establishing and defending territories which also reward tracks, etc., but they would not share the grid with other species. Only other territorial males. The territories would be marked mainly by dung middens — areas in which the jacks routinely defecate in dung piles, which leave scent and demonstrate that the territory is occupied. They routinely smell them and if another jack has utilised it, the owner will overlay it with his own dung. Now with the nomadic female bands, they would indeed have the migration zones just like the other three herbivores. The trickier part is the implementation of the bachelor males. How would they be separated from territorial ones on spawning in? I’m not very sure how it would be right now. I think it would work with growth. Territories are only acquired at around 6 years, so from 3 to 5 years of age, they are bachelors.

So, as we see, this animal's social structure, if they want to represent it naturally, is quite dependent on growth as is the case with all the playables, in fact. During the 2025 summer event at the La Brea museum, it was said that growth is essentially a possibility especially by the end of the game's lifespan. Everyone says it has been fully de-confirmed, but it is not the case. It would be essential for the game. This is how I think it would work:

"The default setting is to spawn as an adult, unlike in many other games of this genre where players spawn alone as newborns. Adult spawning is more realistic, as adults outnumber juveniles, and it is far less frustrating. However, players can also choose to spawn as newborns. As a female, a player can receive a mating request from a male, which appears as a pop-up. If accepted, pregnancy begins, with no explicit animations, of course. Certain species are seasonal breeders, so mating requests can only be done at certain times of year. During pregnancy, the model's abdomen enlarges, speed and stamina are reduced, and hunger drains much faster. Once pregnancy is complete, players on the menu selection screen can choose to spawn as the offspring, then grow from there. Each animal also has a limit to how many young can be birthed by a single mother, such as 1 for mammoths or 4 for sabers. This ensures that babies always spawn with a parent, rather than alone as helpless juveniles. Young animals can suckle from their mother or be fed, growing seamlessly from newborn to juvenile, subadult, adult and elder (though, if it proves to be easier, it also can be staged growth where it is a new model for each growth stage, instead of being seamless). Players that spawn as adults cannot become elders; only those that begin as newborns can reach old age, keeping elders rare. For example, saber gestation could last 11 in-game minutes, with a maximum of 4 cubs and a growth time of 40 minutes, with breeding being non-seasonal."

I would also like if scars, torn ears and broken horns, tusks or teeth were not buyable skins like they are now, instead being things you can acquire throughout your life, and in fact often bring disadvantages. The same would go for moulting coats, instead of being a skin that you buy permanently, bison and mammoths would moult seasonally for all skins automatically. It would also be nice if mutations are accurately represented, in the fact that whilst they are appealing physically, they bring many downfalls such as camouflage problems, sun exposure, etc.

Moving onto the two most essential things for the whole game in my opinion, emotes and wellbeing. These are very important because they provide downtime activity of which there is currently none. The game rapidly becomes very boring whilst you are not travelling, fighting, eating or drinking. This is especially true for mammoths which have largely been abandoned. Each animal has a set of emotes and calls used to express mood, whether aggressive, passive or submissive. These are fundamental for occupying downtime within groups. Players can groom themselves or others as a cleanliness behaviour, but primarily as an affiliative, bond-reinforcing interaction. Sparring and scapegoating keep hierarchy well-established but mobile.

Antique bison (Bos bison antiquus) emotes:
- Raise tail (agitated)
- Toss head (aggressive)
- Paw the ground (aggressive; before rolling)
- Horn (bushes/ground; aggressive, agitated)
- Roll (cleanse parasites; for adult bulls, also show of strength)
- Chin-up (dominant)
- Outstretched neck (submissive)
- Lick (amicable)

Etc., the emotes for the various species have been said frequently. I would also make an adjustment to jousting (or sparring). First, it would be present in mammoth and the two equids aside from the bison. Second, I would separate two modes for it which work much the same but have different animations and outcomes. The first mode is "Casual Joust". It is non-lethal nor inflicts any injuries, is much less severe (more like a few second tussle, not very strong) and serves entirely for rank hierarchy amongst the herd and also for fun. On the contrary, "Rutting Joust" is only between the adult breeding males of the species. It can only be done for mating rights (and in seasonal species, like bison, therefore only in the breeding season) and has much more intense animations (the current jousting is very intense, it would be similar to that) and can have injurious consequences, so death is a possibility.

Both emotes and wellbeing could also be placed into the daily quests mechanic.

Wellbeing is a mechanic designed to give players a deeper sense of survival, while also providing meaningful activities outside travelling, feeding or combat. It has been designed to remain somewhat optional, so that it does not intrude or become a chore during more important behaviours, but it provides significant benefits when practised. There are five types of wellbeing. In all cases, performing a correct wellbeing action is rewarded with tracks.

-Diet. Each animal has a diet, and eating preferred foods increases wellbeing, fills the hunger bar more efficiently and slows food drain. This also coincides with track rewards. Eating your preferred foods rewards you with more tracks which have a faster cooldown. Normally, each species has around 5 preferred foods, with the rest being neutral, although some true generalists have no significantly preferred items. In many herbivores, many currently eaten plants are completely unpalatable or toxic. Their diets also vary seasonally, so bulrushes and browse are taken in the winter and autumn whilst grazing dominates the diet in the summer and spring. They all can eat goldfield and buckwheat, but it is not a very important food — the foods listed below are simply the ones that actually give tracks and nutrition (same for carnivores after). Chamise, tarweed and black walnut and arrowhead are toxic to these animals. Coffeeberry is mildly toxic.
Antique bison:
Terrain grass — 3 to 4 tracks every 25 minutes;
Tufted hairgrass — 3 tracks every 35 minutes;
Bulrush — 2 to 3 tracks every 40 minutes;
Willow — 2 tracks every 45 minutes;
Sagebrush — 1 track every 1 hour (if eaten excessively your screen will turn green as it does with the arrowhead and walnut already);
Oak — 2 tracks every 30 minutes;
Alder — 2 tracks every 30 minutes.

Western wild horse:
Terrain grass — 4 to 5 tracks every 20 minutes;
Tufted hairgrass — 4 tracks every 30 minutes;
Bulrush — 2 to 3 tracks every 45 minutes;
Sagebrush — 1 track every 1 hour 10 minutes (same thing as with bison).

Stilt-legged horse:
Terrain grass — 3 to 4 tracks every 30 minutes;
Soapbush — 3 tracks every 32 minutes;
Prickly pear — 3 tracks every 35 minutes;
Sagebrush — 2 to 3 tracks every 40 minutes.

Columbian mammoth:
Terrain grass — 4 tracks every 25 minutes;
Tufted hairgrass — 4 tracks every 25 minutes;
Bulrush — 3 to 4 tracks every 30 minutes;
Willow — 3 to 4 tracks every 30 minutes;
Alder — 3 to 4 tracks every 30 minutes;
Oak — 3 tracks every 35 minutes;
Western sycamore — 3 tracks every 40 minutes.
Prickly pear — 3 tracks every 40 minutes.

With the carnivores, it's less about specific species which are palatable or non-toxic, because it's all meat at the end of the day (exception is carnivore meat which is highly avoided even by scavengers). So instead it is more so the most available species within the preferred biome of the predator. It should be noted that getting the food (either knocking down tree or bringing down prey) doesn't have the same track reward as eating it (the action reward already exists).
Saber-toothed cat:
Antique bison — 4 tracks every 35 minutes;
Californian tapir — 3 tracks every 40 minutes;
Flat-headed peccary — 3 tracks every 40 minutes;
Western camel — 3 tracks every 40 minutes.

Dire wolf:
Western wild horse — 4 tracks every 35 minutes;
Stilt-legged horse — 3 tracks every 40 minutes;
Wapiti — 3 tracks every 40 minutes;
Antique bison — 2 to 3 tracks every 42 minutes.

With the Orcutt's coyote, I admit I haven't made the diet completely and it is tricky to balance the plant vs. animal foods. Carrion of any herbivore, fish, brush rabbit, Botta's gopher, dwarf pronghorn, deer fawns, prickly pear, black walnut, strawberry and elderberries would all be important.

Diet would therefore help in keeping species to their preferred biomes, such as the western wild horse sticking mainly to the coastal prairie due to its abundant grasses, etc., however, it would not and should not hard-lock them to specific areas, as the map is small and overall wooded.

-Social Group. Animals can be gregarious or solitary. Gregarious animals benefit from being in groups, while solitary animals receive heavy stress penalties when grouped together. Even among gregarious animals, most species have group limits; when these are exceeded, penalties apply. They are not necessarily the mechanical group limit: bison, horses and mammoths have a stress limit much larger than their mechanical group sizes, but that is not the case for the predators.

-Temperature. Each species tolerates a specific temperature range. Sabers, notably, cannot tolerate midday heat well and therefore rest extensively during the day, becoming more active at night when it is cooler. This allows Truman's false-cheetahs and other less dominant predators, which tolerate a much higher temperature range, to hunt and remain active during the day. Mammoths and tapirs cool down in water or mud.

-Activity Span. Closely tied to temperature. Each animal has a preferred activity span: diurnal, crepuscular or nocturnal. Sleeping outside the activity span boosts stamina recovery and duration and rewards tracks, such as sabers sleeping during midday, while sleeping during the active period has no negative consequences but offers no tracks nor perks.

-Cleanliness. Ticks and other parasites occur in-game. To reduce them, players clean themselves through various species-specific methods. Horses and bison roll in bare scrapes of earth or dust. You can either create your own scrape by pawing the ground repeatedly, or find the various scrapes already on the map. Mammoths, tapirs and peccaries wallow in mud or water. Many animals, like felids, clean themselves through grooming or allo-grooming. Low cleanliness usually means a higher parasite load, reducing health and stamina. Ungulates are further affected by brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) NPCs, which can reduce tick load and serve as predator surveillance, but may also open wounds, prevent wounds from healing, eat earwax and consume mostly gorged ticks. Most species can also rub against trees or rocks.

In my opinion, cleanliness and diet are the most important aspects that should be released first; both of them have been confirmed by the devs.

Miscellaneous suggestions:
I would also appreciate seeing Capromeryx and Sylvilagus as free-ranging NPCs like peccaries instead of being confined to sagebrush and ferns, as well as having (the already done) female model for the former, since all are male currently.
The ability to mark "points of interest" on the map. This could be dung middens, kills, den-sites, resting spots, etc., very useful for realism.
Another wish is marking territory by scent-marking instead of just vocalising. Turkey vultures (and future scavenger NPCs, if any) avoiding carnivore carcasses. Carnivores avoid eating other carnivores.
Improved carnivore combat: Smilodon pin Aenocyon, whilst the latter latch the former, like in Wild Savanna. I would also like a slight revolution in carnivore vs. herbivore combat as well. Dire wolves latch their prey, killing it via bloodloss and exhaustion, and once the prey has only 20% of its stamina left, it collapses and the canids either apply a throat bite (prey <80 kg) or eat it alive (prey >80 kg). Saber-toothed cats would have new, slightly different pouncing animations since the current positions especially those on the neck are quite janky; you would be able to pounce the rump and back as well as being able to get a direct kill by a neck hold whilst standing. Consumed carcasses show meat and leave a skeleton of the species, not just generic bones, and dire wolves can chew bones. Flattened grass by a kill.
Personally for Smilodon, I would re-do its in-game social structure. It is an extremely robust, forest-dwelling ambush predator, so sociality wouldn't help it immensely in terms of feeding. Instead, gregariousness in large carnivores is more often tied to the bettering of the defence of territory and kills, and this would be very advantageous in the extremely competitive carnivore guild of La Brea. At the same time, the hyper-carnivorous dentition of S. fatalis, more so than in other felids, allows it to consume meat very quickly, so that a solitary animal is just as successful; however, the presence of individuals with healed horrible wounds indicates either prolonged parental care or the presence of supportive groups. I would prefer solitary adult males and adult females (except for breeding and a mother with cubs in the latter), that defend a fixed territory excluding members of the same sex, and then young males that have left their mothers forming coalitions of up to 3 individuals that are more nomadic. As in the bachelor males of Haringtonhippus and other ungulates, these "coalition males" would be decided by the growth mechanic.
Narrower and more extensive game trails. Game trails in nature are quite a bit narrower than in-game, usually about the same diameter as the actual animals using them, and they typically criss-cross the whole landscape.
Presence of thickets impenetrable to large mammals and more rugged, less neat appearance, especially in the sage-chaparral scrubland. Also considerable map expansions, but not necessarily adding new regions, instead, simply "de-compressing" the map, i.e stretching out the distance between places. It must feel more remote and hospitable to large herds of herbivores; this would also make survival more difficult as it enlarges the distance between water and good pasture during the winter.
Use of custom water if possible, instead of the Roblox water which leaves very jagged shores and has a very strange opaque look.
Interactions between NPCs, and also for example peccaries and dwarf pronghorn getting stuck in tar.
In terms of new fauna, whilst it is nice, there are genuinely more important mechanics because new animals don’t bring anything if there isn’t anything to do. There will probably be a large drought after these two additions, but I think Truman's false-cheetah (Miracinonyx trumani), short-faced bear (Arctodus simus), Harlan's ground sloth (Paramylodon harlani), California tapir (Tapirus californicus), western camel (Camelops hesternus), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), wapiti (Cervus canadensis), common pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), California condor (Gymnogyps californianus amplus) and the four fish species can be good soon additions, many more coming later.

Lastly, skins. I completely agree that skins are not a priority at all. People seem to get very upset when a skin similar to an already existing one is released. But in my opinion, that is actually favourable, as it gives even more individual variation. I say this because the overall very warm, clean appearance of the game combined with the quite exuberant appearance of several skins destroys immersion, because several skins almost look like a different subspecies or species than others. So I appreciate low contrast, similar types.

There are other things I would have liked to comment on, but there is no space.

TLDR; emotes and wellbeing are essential and thankfully have priority even over new fauna. This is because the new fauna won’t bring anything special if you have nothing to do in downtime, as we saw with the mammoth. Growth is fundamental for realism and downtime, and would be good near the end of the game's lifespan.

Credit: Mark Boyd on Facebook (Mammals of East Africa). This is seemingly the first photograph of Beatragus in a predator-prey interaction, the wild dogs are also endangered too, particularly in Kenya.