This is the main version of the Wild Animals mod, which means it does contain content for the main game as well as for Stardew Valley Expanded and provides compatibility for [size=3]Lnh's Ginger Island Overhaul. Please download Wild Animals Lite mod if you do not plan to play with any map-altering mods such as Stardew Valley Expanded.

Here is a mod that I was thinking about last year, but I had no idea how to implement it until today. ^_^ I love Stardew Valley's critters, but I was a little sad by how I don't see them often (aside from butterflies and the occasional birds) and how they usually run off to hide in a bush/tree (it is rather realistic though). So, here comes my Wild Animals mod to fill that animal-shaped void in my heart!

This mod adds numerous animals to multiple places in-game, depending on the time, weather, and season. You are pretty much guaranteed to see at least some of the animals as long as you have access to the areas they spawn in. They tend to wander so you may or may not lose sight of some of them, especially if they wander behind the trees or in the grass.

Your first year in-game might not have many wild animals though, maybe the occasional squirrel and the friendly ducks that like to sit in the forest's pond. But the further you progress in-game, the more animals you may encounter! Maybe some of them would learn not to run away if you get too close to them...

!!! NOTE !!!: This mod will add extra load for your game to process because of the number of animals and their settings that determine whether they should appear or not on the current in-game day. This mod may cause lag! However, I personally have not experienced lag during its testing phase with minimal other mods.

Below is the list of animals currently included in the mod:

Armadillos
Badgers
Bears + Bear cubs
Beavers
Boars
Bobcats
Chinchilla
Chipmunks
Coyote
Crabs
Crows
Deers + Fawns
Ducks + Ducklings
Fennec Foxes
Foxes (1 color variant + 1 seasonal variant) + Fox kits
Frogs (3 color variants)
Geese
Gem birds
Hedgehogs
Lemurs
Meerkats
Monkeys
Moonlight Jellies
Opossums + Joeys
Ostriches + Ostrich chicks
Owls (2 variants + 1 winter variant)
Peafowls + Peafowl chicks
Pelicans (2 variants)
Pine Martens
Platypus
Quails + Quail chicks
Rabbits (1 color variant + 1 seasonal variant)
Raccoons
Rats (3 color variants)
River otters
Seagulls
Sea otters + Sea otter pups
Skunks
Squirrels (2 color variants)
Swan (2 color variants) + Swan cygnets
Tortoises
Turtles + Turtle Hatchlings
Weasels (1 seasonal variant)
Wolves + Wolf pups
Wolverines
Wombats

... and several more bonus creatures that you might be lucky enough to see!

Link to frequently asked questions and known issues section

Features that I might add in the future:

More aquatic animals?
More reptiles/amphibians?
Wild animals giving randomized set of items to the player if certain conditions are met (you won't exactly get the most valuable items from ~~most~~ all of them though!) They might also get their own portraits when you interact with them

Features that I will not be adding:
I will not be using the following ideas even if they are ever implemented to future Custom Companion builds

The ability to capture the wild animals
The ability to kill the wild animals (this will also depend on if there will be a new aggressive behavior added by the framework in the future)

Concerned Ape for his marvelous game that I spent many, many hours on. Stardew Valley will always be placed in a special place in my heart and I will never regret owning the game (thanks again to my friend who bought it for me a couple of years ago!) His pixel art and the color palette are undeniably beautiful and I tried to have my animals match the aesthetic. <3
Pathoschild for their modding API "SMAPI" and Content Patcher. As well as PeacefulEnd for their modding framework Custom Companions. These mods allowed me to create this mod. I've always wanted to have more animals in the world of Stardew Valley because I just love animals. <3
Obamoose for their Kitty Cats mod! The moment I saw that mod I thought to myself "Wait a minute... That can be done now?" and it spurred on this drive to work on my Wild Animals mod. Whenever I felt stuck in the little coding process, I did comparisons with their adorable mod's coding structure as an example (and of course PeacefulEnd's Custom Companions in-depth wiki was a great help and easy to understand). The Kitty Cats mod was a great visual for me while I was creating this mod (and I love cats, so this mod is definitely staying in my game) <3
Credits to Eemie, tokiri, Zhuria, and jigajang as well! I've used their mods long before I started creating this one and I adore them a lot. I wanted to incorporate them into the designs of the animals I have created here. <3

SH's Wild Animals