Local Wildlife
While you're exploring the outer areas of Echo Village, you may notice animals running about. These wild animals live in the Forest area, River area, and Mountain area. The animals won't attack you, but they will run away when they see you. They are scared of humans, but with a little bit of work you can earn their trust. Sometimes when you enter an area you won't see the wild animals if you've arrived too early for them to appear. Just exit the area and come back in to find them.
The areas outside of town aren't the only place that you'll find wild animals. When you use the Travel Agency to visit far away locations, you'll discover new types of skittish wild animals. There are 10 types of wild animals (+1 secret one) that live around Echo Village and 6 types that are unique to the vacation locations.
Friendship Basics
To raise your friendship with the wild animals you'll need to give them food. In this version of Harvest Moon you give the food just like a normal present; you don't throw it on the ground like in Tales of Two Towns. Different animals have different gift preferences, but none of them like cooked foods or non-edible items. Crops, fish, and animal products are all you need. Giving a Big or Giant sized crop will not earn you bonus animal Friendship Points.
The wild animal groups have a maximum friendship level of 1000 points. This friendship level is invisible, but you can get a general idea on how well you are progressing by watching how the animals react to you. If the animal runs away, it has less than 300 FP. If it tolerates you, then you have between 300 and 700 Friendship Points. When it walks towards you with music notes spewing out of its head, then you know you have more than 700 FP.
Once per day you can feed an animal and talk or lift it to increase your friendship. You only need to do this to one of the animals from a family of animals. For example, you only need to feed one of the brown sparrows to affect all of the brown sparrows' friendship for that day. Also, the different colors of animals are not linked together; feeding the orange boars will not impact your friendship with the brown boars. This means that the different colored animals might have different gift preferences than the basic versions.
- Give food: (+10 FP) Animals like a variety of food. If you see a squiggly mark appear when you try to hand over a gift, it is either a type of food that animal doesn't like.
- Pick up: (+5 FP) The small animals can be lifted above your head to raise their friendship. At the beginning you'll see an annoyed scribble icon appear, but that is okay; you are still affecting the group's friendship level.
- Talk: (+5 FP) Some of the animals are too big to pick up, so your only option is to stand next to them and press A to talk. The large animals are the boars, bears, ducks, and yetis.
- Wild Animal Friend: (+5 FP to all wild animals) You can make this potion using the Medicine Maker inside of your Maker Shed. It requires Forest Perfume (made using your Miller Machine), Honeycomb (foraged item), Bamboo (from the Land of the East), and a Clam Chowder (cooked recipe). You can eat more than one medicine per day. You might get free medicines from the villagers on your birthday!
There are ways you can decrease your friendship as well. If you hit an animal with a tool, you will lose 20 FP with that animal family. Hit it five times and that is -100 FP! Also, do not litter by throwing items into the River. Each item you toss into the water will result in a -10 FP hit for all of the wild animals. The villagers don't like litterbugs and neither do the wild animals.
The ducks and turtles are special because gifts to them are worth double; +20 FP for gifts and +10 for talk/lift. The ducks are hard to gift since they're always swimming around the River water (not easily accessible), and the turtles are necessary to befriend to reach the little island in the Southern Island.
Village Wild Animals
The wildlife around the village will appear when you walk into an area. The animals will appear on the hour-mark, so if you don't see an animal, then leave the area until X:00 am/pm and then walk back into the area.
- Bears: These bears won't attack you, aren't available during the Winter, only appear on sunny days from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, and come in two colors. The brown bears can be found in any of the three wilderness areas. The black bears will appear in the Forest or River areas once you reach 500 Friendship Points with the brown bears.
- Boars: The wild pigs come in two colors, and appear between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm on sunny or snowy days. The orange boars appear in all three areas. The brown boars will appear once you've reached 500 Friendship Points with the orange boars, and only appear in the Forest and River areas.
- Ducks: The ducks can only be found in the River area, where they randomly swim around. This makes it challenging to give them food gifts, because you have to wait until a duck swims close enough to hand over your present. The green ducks appears during sunny Spring and Summer days, and the white ducks are during sunny Fall and Winter days. The white ducks won't unlock until you have the required 500 points of friendship with the green ducks.
- Foxes: The foxes only live in the Forest area from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm. In Spring and Summer you'll find the yellow fox on sunny days in the flower patch east of the mine. In Fall and Winter you'll find the white foxes on the ledge next to the western Elder Tree. If you haven't raised the yellow foxes' friendship to at least 500 FP, you won't find the white foxes.
- Monkeys: The brown monkeys are around on sunny days in all three areas until 6:00 pm.
- Rabbits: These creatures will come out between 1:00 pm and 6:00 pm. The black rabbits are in the River area on sunny days during Spring, Summer, and Fall. The white rabbits are in the Mountain area on sunny Fall days and sunny or snowy Winter days, and require you to have 500 Friendship Points with the black rabbits to unlock.
- Sparrows: These little brown birds can be found in all three areas between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm on non-stormy days.
- Tanuki: These are evening animals and you'll find them after 6:00 pm. The orange tanukies are available all year long, but the brown tanukies only appears in Spring and Summer after you've raised your friendship with the orange tanukies to 500 or more Friendship Points.
- Weasel: There is only one color of weasel in the wild areas. It is an evening creature (6pm to midnight) and can be found in any of the three areas. It only comes out on sunny days.
After you have unlocked the alternative colors of bears, boars, ducks, foxes, rabbits, and tanukies, the panda will become unlocked. This bear will appear near the Honey Tree in the Forest area on sunny Spring, Summer, or Fall evenings between 9:00 pm and 12:00 am.
Village Animal Gift Preferences
- Bears (brown): All tree fruits, all honey, all field crops (except for Onion, Wheat, and Soybeans)
- Bears (black): All tree fruits, all honey, Salmon, Chum Salmon, all fruits, all field crops (except for Onion, Wheat, and Soybeans)
- Boars (orange): Turnip, Potato, Strawberry, Pineapple, Corn, Tomato, Watermelon, Carrot, Yam, Bok Choy, Daikon, Apple, Banana, Kiwi, Orange, Peach, Shiitake, Shimeji, Trumpet Mushroom, all eggs
- Boars (brown): Turnip, Potato, Strawberry, Pineapple, Corn, Tomato, Watermelon, Carrot, Yam, Bok Choy, Daikon, Apple, Banana, Kiwi, Orange, Peach, Coral Mushroom, Common Mushroom, Truffle, all eggs
- Ducks (green): Rice Stalk, Wheat, Soybeans, all field crops (except for Onion)
- Ducks (white): All field crops (except for Onion,Wheat, and Soybeans)
- Foxes: All mushrooms (except for Poisonous Mushroom), all field crops (except for Onion and Wheat), all eggs, all tree fruit
- Monkeys: All tree fruits, all mushrooms (except for Poisonous Mushroom), all eggs, all cheeses, Lotus Root, Wasabi, all field crops (except for Wheat)
- Panda: Turnip, Potato, Strawberry, Tomato, Corn, Carrot, Yam, Bok Choy, Wheat, Rice Stalk, Banana, Grape, Bamboo (not Bamboo Shoots)
- Rabbits: Fodder, Turnip, Potato, Cabbage, Strawberry, Tomato, Corn, Pumpkin, Pineapple, Carrot, Yam, Bok Choy, Broccoli, Apple, Banana, Cherry, Grape
- Sparrows: Corn, Wheat, Soybeans, Rice Stalk
- Tanukies: All field crops (except for Wheat and Soybeans), all tree fruit, all eggs
- Weasel: all eggs
Foreign Wild Animals
When you are traveling to the Southern Island, Snowland, the Land of the East, or the Ancient Ruins, you'll find these areas have wild animals as well:
- Southern Island: You'll find the brown monkeys and turtles here. The brown monkeys don't appear here during Winter, even though the area is always summery. The turtles can be found in the surf along the shoreline all year long. The turtles are important to befriend because they can take you to the secluded island where you can find Mango and Seaweed.
- Snowland: Some unique animals live here; the white bear, white weasel, and the yeti.
- Land of the East: The dark-brown sparrows live in this garden. You'll also find the white duck here after you've unlocked it by befriending the green duck in the River area.
- Ancient Ruins: The orange monkeys and elegant peacock live in the back area by the Sun Statue.
Foreign Wild Animal Gift Preferences
- Turtles: all fish (except for Sea Bream and Freshwater Prawn)
- Bears (white): Watermelon, Strawberry, all tree fruit, all fish
- Yeti: all field crops (except for Wheat and Soybeans), all fish
- Weasels (white): all eggs
- Sparrows (dark brown): Corn, Wheat, Soybeans, Rice Stalk
- Monkeys (orange): All tree fruits, all mushrooms (except for Poisonous Mushroom), all eggs, all cheeses, Lotus Root, Wasabi, all field crops (except for Wheat)
- Peacocks: all field crops (except for Strawberry), Rice Stalk
What's the point of the wild animals?!
The only important one is the turtle family; raising its friendship allows you to travel to the offshore island and collect Mango and Seaweed. The other animals are completely optional.
Once you reach at least 800 Friendship, there is a 5% chance that you'll trigger a gift giving event when you enter a specific area where the event takes place. The members of the animal family will gather together and hand you 10 of a specific item (except the peacock, who only hands over one). The items aren't terribly exciting; they are just animals, after all. The giving event can trigger when you are walking into the area. If you are riding your horse or using one of the ridable vehicles, the event won't occur. For most of the village wild animals, walking from the Village to the Forest can potentially trigger a gifting event, but the ducks' event triggers when you walk from the Village to the River (since that's where they live). The foreign animal gifting events can trigger after Charles' speech about the area when you arrive.
Village Animal Gifts
- Bears (brown): Tuesdays only, not Winter, 6:00 am to 2:00 pm, Sage x10
- Bears (black): Wednesdays only, not Winter, 6:00 am to 2:00 pm, Hydrangea x10
- Boars (orange): Thursday only, 6:00 am to 2:00 pm, Pink Rose x10
- Boars (brown): Fridays only, 6:00 am to 2:00 pm, Nadeshiko x10
- Ducks (green): Thursdays or Fridays, Spring or Summer, any time, Basil x10
- Ducks (white): Thursday through Sunday, Fall or Winter, any time, White Rose x10
- Foxes (yellow): Friday through Sunday, Spring or Summer, 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm, Rosemary x10
- Foxes (white): Friday through Sunday, Fall or Winter, 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm, Red Rose x10
- Monkeys (brown): Saturday or Sunday, Spring or Summer, 6:00 am to 2:00 pm, Bay Leaf x10
- Panda: Tuesdays only, 9:00 am to 12:00 am, Sunflower x10
- Rabbits (black): Monday through Thursday, Spring through Fall, 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm, Tulip x10
- Rabbits (white): Monday through Thursday, Fall or Winter, 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm, Lavender x10
- Sparrows (brown): Mondays only, 6:00 am to 2:00 pm, Mint x10
- Tanukies (orange): Wednesdays only, 9:00 pm to 12:00 am, Bergamot x10
- Tanukies (brown): Saturday or Sunday, 9:00 pm to 12:00 am, Gentian x10
- Weasels (brown): Mondays only, 9:00 pm to 12:00 am, Chamomile x10
Foreign Animal Gifts
- Turtles: Any day of the week, Summer only, Aloe x10
- Bears (white): Thursdays only, Blue Rose x10
- Yeti: Fridays only, Snowdrop x10
- Weasels (white): Monday or Tuesdays, arrive before 6:00 pm, Marguerite x10
- Sparrows (dark brown): Any day of the week, arrive before 6:00 pm, Thyme x10
- Monkeys (orange): Mondays or Tuesdays, Spring only, arrive before 6:00 pm, Gerbera x10
- Peacocks: Thursdays or Fridays, 1 Pink Diamond