GTA 6 Cover Story Puts More Than 170 Animal Species in Leonida

More than 170 GTA 6 wildlife species in Leonida should stop a swamp run from looking like a Vice City street, according to Insider Gaming's September 29, 2026 report on the Game Informer cover story.

Insider Gaming and VICE name manatees, flamingos, pelicans, and alligators in that cover-story count.

Animals the cover story named

Insider Gaming, VICE, and RockstarINTEL all carried that September 29 count from the Game Informer cover story: more than 170 animal species across Leonida, including over 60 bird types and more than 30 land mammals, plus fish, reptiles, and other creatures. Insider Gaming identifies Michael Kane as Rockstar's Vice President of Dynamic Art and reports a Florida ecosystem across urban and rural ground, inland waterways, the ocean, swamps, and Everglades-inspired wetlands. GTA V kept a much smaller animal set mostly in the countryside, and RDR2 split predators from ambient birds by biome.

The animal art and population teams are incredibly passionate about delivering animals that are accurately researched and look visually correct in every respect,

Kane also tied the work to movement and animation to bring the animals to life. VICE reported several types of sharks, plus whales, rays, turtles, and jellyfish with distinct ways of moving, and animals that can appear iridescent, translucent, or bioluminescent, with different feather types and fur that reacts to the surroundings. Distinct movement matters if you stop on the water. GTA V sharks were a thin ambient presence.

Alligators carry the obvious threat read. Manatees, flamingos, and pelicans read as discovery wildlife. RockstarINTEL's summary alone adds iguanas and macaques, separate from Macca the Gator, the TV-show collectible on the official VI page.

The Tracking Tags Have No Hit List

RockstarINTEL reported that some animals can be tracked as Rare, Discoverable, and Legendary, and that Rockstar is keeping those identities secret. RDR2 made legendary animals a hunt with a compendium. If the tags ship, some players get a collection chase, and the legendary target stays a withheld goal. Players who filled an RDR2 compendium will read the tags as a grind, and players who remember GTA V's thin set will read them as drive-past labels.

A GTABase animals page already calls a fully explorable zoo confirmed and attaches hunting, fishing, and an RDR2-style study checklist. Those verbs are unconfirmed fan-site claims, and they are not in the Insider Gaming, VICE, or RockstarINTEL wildlife reporting. A Rockstar post that names the verb would settle it.

Stop for the manatee, the flamingo, the pelican, or the alligator. The legendary name is still a secret.

Earlier on GTA6Now: GTA 6 leak tracker.