Goats, Garru and Bulls were all formerly part of the same faction, 'Herbivores'. Now they each belong to their own with positive relations with one another. This helps determine which predators hunt them and which ignore them.

Goats have some extra HP for their head and body, run faster and drop a new item 'Goat Horn'. Probably the most common animal on the continent now, they travel in typical and extra large ravenous herds which will attempt to eat your crops! Domestic goats are free from this behavior however.

Garru have slightly increased forelimb health and now drop animal skins in addition to meat. They are slightly resistant to bleed damage and also ♥♥♥♥ at inflicting it, but do slightly better blunt damage to compensate. Like goats, the large herds will attempt to eat your crops and they will rush to defend their goat buddies from attackers when they see it; the smaller family groups avoid risky crop theft however, as do the even bigger migrating herds found where predators are common. The warning dialogue has been redone so now your dumb and maniacal characters have a chance to actually provoke them into fighting as intended.

Both wild and domestic breeds of bulls have been beefed up HP wise, so they'll hold their own longer in a fight, and the wild/pack bulls now do some mild armor piercing on their attacks. Domestic bulls aren't so painfully sluggish anymore allowing them to keep up with pack bulls and the rest of your squad easier. Bulls do not go after crops unlike the previous two herbivores.

The larger herbivores are still all under the 'Wildlife' faction. Leviathans, Swamp Turtles, and the reintroduced Cage Beasts. Pretty much everything coexists with them, with the exception of Gutters.

Leviathans are functionally the same except for their item drops. Hunting them is now more rewarding, as they drop loads of skins, raw meat and even more foul meat in addition to the pearl. The only other change is cosmetic: as they are clearly not any class of recognizable Earth vertebrate, I gave them a lavender shade for their blood fitting of their alien biology.

Swamp Turtles are no longer defenseless. Fixes to their attack type and animations have been baked in and their combat stats have been boosted. Their HP has been greatly increased, fitting for both turtles and elephants, and they are pretty resistant to bleed while having a tripled healing rate. Think twice before turning these gentle giants into turtle soup. They also attract birds cause it's cool! :D

The Cage Beasts are now called Behemoths. Since their original role of serving as a mass slave transport unfortunately doesn't work in game, I opted to give them a more fitting species name which IMO they'd need anyway just like how domesticated Garru are called Pack Beasts. Behemoths is quite thematic alongside Leviathans and fits them with how massive they are. They migrate along the far north and east edges of the map, crossing the Cannibal Plains, Great Desert and Beak Thing infested Gut in large herds, family groups and solitary elders to reach Leviathan Coast and Stobe's Garden. You can find massive mixed herds of them and garru together in a few regions as well as the occasional elder which are similar in size and stats to young Leviathans.

Swamp and River Raptors both have identical bleed resist and healing rates to Swamp Turtles, while having slightly nerfed cut damage. The two do not get along, with the former often preying upon the latter. To defend themselves, River Raptors will sometimes gather into great hordes. They also smell blood, as do all predatory animals from here on out, though some are better at it than others. River Raptors in the Leviathan Coast will sometimes follow around Leviathans for safety and foraging.

Spiders have been split into two factions, Skin Spiders and Blood Spiders for different animal faction interactions, but allied with one another still. They both drop a little foul meat and have had slight max speed increases, and halved swim movement. Hull size fix for them is baked in this mod. Most other predatory animals hate them.

Skin Spiders have somewhat reduced blunt damage and slightly increased cut damage.
Blood Spiders have halved vision range, do very little blunt damage and are weak against armor, however they inflict double bleed, are very good at smelling blood and have nests which spawn very large swarms of mixed age. This was done to emphasize their glass cannon nature and make them into even more of a quantity over quality style threat. Also changed their blood color from the standard red to one halfway closer to the orange blood of their larger cousins.

Skimmers are more dangerous, but pretty similar to vanilla. They will happily eat you and any other unconscious being they find, and have a slight vision increase which stems from their model in Kenshi 2 having massive eyes like a predatory insect. If you're near the sea shore, you might be able to evade them by going to the water, as they avoid it and are slow swimmers. Other than that, the only new addition is they drop lots of foul meat and some teeth.

Crabs have a few changes. They're extremely resistant to blood loss damage and drop some foul meat alongside regular raw, and their blood is a bright cyan similar to real life horseshoe crabs and other animals with copper based blood. Most of them are less aggressive, with the exception of nests, infestation squads and megacrabs; but all of them will happily eat you alive... just like IRL coconut crabs.

Landbats are a bit faster, but still easy to outrun. The large swarms only come out at night though and will scout very far from the areas they typically nest in, following even small blood trails. They are tenacious fighting almost to the last bat, and will happily ♥♥♥♥ you dry, living or dead. They have a slight weakness to bleed damage but also deal triple blood loss with their attacks, this is based off of the anticoagulant found in real life vampire bats, 'Draculin'.

Beak Things received a couple of small nerfs. Vision is halved, and they now have a more reasonable speed distribution, which may be controversial to some. In vanilla, all adult beak things run at 38 MPH whether at 1 athletics or 100. This has been changed so the range is 26 MPH to 33 MPH. This is still faster than almost all other creatures in the game (we'll get to them below), and the quickest characters without scout legs. That said all of the adults you find in the wild will still have 29 or 30 speed at minimum due to a custom stat card. The giant Elder Beak Things are still stupidly fast regardless. Their attacks also have had their area of effect reduced to three entities hit, whereas previously it was uncapped leading to a single hit hurting everyone even if they aren't anywhere near where the beak strikes; similar AOE limitations for other animal attack animations such as gorillo swipes as well.

Bonedogs and boneyard wolves capable of the fastest speeds of any animal. Your average dog will be slower or equivalent to beak things, but with training they can exceed them by a few MPH. To reflect this, both have received a 1.2 stat experience gain for athletics. All dogs have a sense of smell on par with blood spiders and landbats, attracting them to even small skirmishes. They also have the most interesting relationships with other factions compared to other animals. Being intelligent animals, they recognize and typically avoid coming into conflict with dangerous animal species that are just not worth fighting, such as landbats, skimmers and crabs, while lone bonedogs will avoid attacking neutral squads entirely. Additionally, they have a symbiotic relationship with Gorillos. If one is in a fight, and wolves are nearby, they will often join in the hunt. In certain zones, you can also find lost pups that can be adopted if healed from injury and then interacted with.

Typical bonedogs have spread across most of the map, following the various herds and scavenging from fields of slaughter. They have a small bonus in combat against other animals and an additional 25% damage bonus against goats, their favored prey. They are active at both day and night.

Mountain Dogs are a larger species of dog with a subtly different coat. Tend to be active during the daylight hours. Same stats otherwise. Small solo or duo groups can be found that will ignore the player, but the larger packs are still hostile.

Horse Dogs are a previously orphaned character profile in Kenshi's code. They are midway between bonedogs and mountain dogs in size and I gave them a role as domestic animals, so you'll find them guarding holy farms, acting as body guards for bounty hunters and rebel farmers, and for sale by Nomads and UC pet shops. Both they and the mountain dogs have a chance to spawn instead of the standard bonedog in the 'Guy and his dog' game start'.

Boneyard Wolves are not your friend. They will attack anyone regardless of how heavily armed they are and unlike the bonedogs, they WILL eat you alive. Instead of having a bonus against goats, they have one against bulls and garru, and can be found hunting the megaherds in both the Bonefields and as far north as Skinner's Roam.

Lastly Gorillos. Both white and black varieties have been given a major boost in combat. No longer are they just a damage sponge to train against, but a very lethal threat to be avoided or hunted with caution. Gorillos are moderately resistant to bloodloss, and can actually passively heal now like every other animal in game. They also hit much harder, doing double blunt damage, full cut damage, 50% piercing damage damage which they didn't previously have and a bonus to armor piercing. As a result of this boost, I've greatly increased the rewards for the two gorillo boss animals, and given them all extra death items in general (meat, teeth, claws).

White Gorillos range pretty far, along the temperate coastlines, tropics and desolate areas between the map edges, they've adapted to multiple harsh locales, such as the Floodlands and Fog Islands. To reflect this nomadic life, you may find small wandering family units of gorillos and their cubs; unlike most they will not immediately charge, but roar to deter you away from their young. Ignore it at your own peril.

Black Gorillos stay to their section of the map and tend to be more hostile. While white gorillos can coexist alongside gutters, the larger variety will not tolerate any competition as apex predator and won't hesitate to come to blows with the beak things or large prey species.

There is one other thing to discuss, but it's not an animal, it's a robot. Crimpers have made a return and can be found in the Deadlands and Ashlands as a rare spawns. They have a new weapon type identical to the old gorillo type they previously used, otherwise they'd be absolutely bonkers to fight with their already high stats. Both the generic ones and the King have been given a dearth of new death items similar to Cleanser units, to make the fights worth it. Also, their vanilla run animation is hilarious and terrifying in equal measure; I refuse to alter that!