Cougar (mountain lion)

What we know

A mountain lion slips through one shot of Trailer 2, and Dexerto places it in Mount Kalaga National Park, Leonida's northern wilderness. IGN includes the cougar in its list of about 50 animals seen in Rockstar's trailers, the Extended Look and screenshots. Rockstar has not described how cougars behave, but its own pitch for Mount Kalaga is "prime hunting, fishing, and off-road trails" (as IGN quotes Rockstar's site).

Florida's own cougar lives somewhere else

Real Florida does have cougars. The Florida panther is a subspecies of puma, the same animal as the cougar or mountain lion, and it is the only puma population east of the Mississippi, according to FWC, the state's wildlife agency. Only about 120 to 230 adults remain, mostly in southwest Florida, and most breeding happens south of the Caloosahatchee River. Panthers and bobcats are Florida's only two wild cats; IGN has spotted bobcats in GTA 6 footage as well.

Leonida turns that map upside down. Rockstar's cat was shown in the north, in a park Game Informer places on the game's version of the Florida-Georgia line (as Screen Rant reports), while real panthers live in the far south around the Everglades. Rockstar has not called its animal a panther, so it may simply be a cougar placed where the hunting is.

Compared with Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 had cougars too, including a Legendary Cougar you could track west of Tumbleweed in New Austin (IGN). GTA 6 brings back Red Dead's tracking and its Rare, Discoverable and Legendary tiers, Game Informer reports, without saying which animals are in them.

Our take: if you head into Mount Kalaga on foot early, go armed and keep your eyes on the treeline. Rockstar showed its big cat in the same region it sells for hunting and off-roading, and big predators in Rockstar games are rarely there just to look pretty. We'd put a cougar high on the list of possible Legendary animals, since Red Dead had one, but Rockstar is keeping that list secret. The Florida mismatch also tells you something: Leonida is built for play first and maps second, so don't expect every animal to live where it does in real life.

What to watch for at launch

• Whether cougars attack on sight or only when provoked.
• Whether they appear outside Mount Kalaga, for example in Grassrivers, where real panthers live.
• Whether a cougar counts toward hunting income, which Rob Nelson confirmed exists (GameSpot).