Summary
One of the most appealing aspects of theAnimal Crossingseries is that it’s filled with various anthropomorphic villagers that can move into your town to become a staple of your community. While you can only have a certain number of folk living in your area, it’s always exciting to see who might move in next.
There are currently 35 different species in the series, and many of them have different numbers of villagers for you to choose from. While there are more than 20 distinct cat villagers, some species have fewer than a dozen candidates for you to choose from, making them harder to find.
We are including the total number of villagers for each species, even the ones that haven’t appeared outside of Japan.
Anteater
Anteaters aren’t nearly as common as other animals like dogs or birds, but their inclusion in the Animal Crossing series allows you to add some unique personalities to the mix. Even though anteaters have been around since the first game, there are still only ten of them.
Seven of them were introduced before Animal Crossing: Wild World, while the other three made their debut in both Wild World and New Leaf. Having one of these colorful creatures in your village is always a great choice as long as you can sniff one out before you’re out of space.
Goat
Despite being much more common than anteaters, there are also only ten goat villagers in the Animal Crossing series. The two species share a similar history; many villagers were introduced in the first game, some were removed and never seen again, and a few more fan-favorites have been introduced along the way.
Goats might not stand out as much as other species you could invite to your neighborhood, but most of them provide a calming aura that washes over you whenever you run into them. They might not be the greatest species of all time, but you may never go wrong with having at least one goat as a friend.
Hamster
Hamsters are one of the newest species in the series, with the first horde of villagers appearing in Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the 3DS. Despite the ten-year gap between the original game and New Leaf, there are already just as many hamster villagers as there are for iconic species like anteaters and goats.
Of the ten hamster villagers, only three are women, making it a predominantly male species. Many of these adorable critters are worth having around just for the “awe” that will inevitably come from your mouth whenever you see them, but a few of them can be surprisingly creepy at night, especially Apple.
Hippopotamus
Hippos have been around since the original Animal Crossing, but unfortunately, three of them haven’t been seen since then. So, while there are technically ten villagers, only seven of them are available to recruit in New Horizons, making them one of the rarest species to find in the entire series.
Nine of the hippos were introduced in the first Animal Crossing, and the tenth was added as a new character in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. It’s almost strange how little the hippo species has evolved since the start of the series, but at least they’re still around and haven’t gone extinct.
Monkey
Monkeys are an interesting species in the world of Animal Crossing. There was one monkey NPC in the original Animal Crossing, but he operated the train station and couldn’t move in as a villager. In the sequel, Wild World, six monkey villagers were included as a new species, and that number has grown since then.
While one monkey, Champ, has been left behind since his appearance in City Folk, this species has been pretty consistent in introducing at least one or two new characters with each entry. There are a bunch of memorable monkey villagers, and each one feels distinct from the other.
Alligator
Inviting an alligator to live in your village full of unassuming prey may sound like a bad idea on the surface, but these reliable reptiles are just as fun to have as a neighbor as any other species. Despite being around since the beginning of the series, there have only been nine alligator villagers so far.
Six alligators were introduced in the original Animal Crossing and its expansion, while the other three were brought in as new villagers in New Leaf for the 3DS. Similar to hamsters, alligators are mostly a male species, but there are two females, Alli and Gayle, that are worth seeking out for their unique appearances.
Bull
The bull species has been around since the first Animal Crossing, but it still has fewer villagers compared to newer types like hamsters. It doesn’t help that bulls and cows are considered to be two distinct species, unlike chickens, which have both male and female villagers instead of separating the guys into a rooster category.
Every bull villager is a male, and themajority of them tend to have a cranky personality. This might not sound very appealing at first, but if you may grab one of these villagers by the horns and wrangle them into a close friendship, they’ll always have your back and could grow to become the heart of your community.
Lion
Lions are very similar to the bull species in many ways. Both were introduced in the original Animal Crossing, and they are the only kind of villagers that are only male. While there are cows to balance the bulls out, there has not been a female equivalent to the lion species in the Animal Crossing series just yet.
About half of the lion villagersshare a jock personalitythat almost makes them feel more like enthusiastic father figures. While lions are technically just massive cats, the most common villager species in Animal Crossing, they each have unique appearances that make them stand out from the other felines in the game.
Rhinoceros
The rhinoceros species has been roaming around since the first Animal Crossing, but there still aren’t that many of them to find. It’s not as bad as the hippos, but six rhinoceros villagers were around before Wild World, and only three more have been introduced since then.
Unlike hamsters and alligators, the majority of rhino villagers are female, with only three of them being male. Two of the original rhinos haven’t reappeared since their debut, leaving only seven rhinos left in the rotation. It’s always fun to see how different each rhino villager looks, so hopefully more of them show up eventually.
Cow
Depending on where you live, cows can be more common than other living creatures, including humans. Despite this, the cow species in Animal Crossing has introduced a shockingly low number of villagers over the years, and most of them aren’t even around anymore.
While there have been a total of eight cow villagers since the species was introduced in the first Animal Crossing, half of them have been left behind, leaving only four as potential neighbors in New Horizons. Maybe cows and bulls will merge into one species someday, but until then, cows are one of the hardest species to find.
