Nehtdx

Is there a list anywhere that shows the general locations of all the rare pets? I have also heard that time of day and weather condition can be a factor too.

Just to be clear, I'm talking about the pets that are not always present, or only present at special times, when youre in each map zone. This site has a few good guides but I could only find two, and they are for specific creatures.

I'm going to list every endemic life marked with a special border in the Hunter's Notes.

Terrestrial Life

• 
  Pilot Hare: a red-pink hare found in the Ancient Forest (area 1, area 2, area 8, and area 15) and the Wildspire Waste (area 1 and area 4). Found much more commonly during sunny days, however I have found one during night time as well.


• 
  Moonlight Gekko: a glowing purple reptile, found next to Brightmoss in the Rotten Vale (area 11 and area 13) and the Elder's Recess (area 8 and area 8 again, inside the camp).


• 
  Wiggler Queen: an orange variant of the regular Wiggler, found during the night in the Coral Highlands (area 1 and area 3).


• 
  Emerald Helmcrab: a large, green helmcrab, found in the Wildspire Waste (area 4 and area 10) and the Rotten Vale (area 6 and area 9), more commonly during bad weather.


• 
  Shiny Gold Helmcrab: a very large and shiny helmcrab, found on the sunny ledges in area 1 of the Caverns of El Dorado (screenshot 1, screenshot 2).


• 
  Gold Calappa: a large golden crab with a red gem on its carapace, found near Kulve's tunnels in area 1 of the Caverns of El Dorado (screenshot 1, screenshot 2, screenshot 3).


• 
  Tsuchinoko: a flat, crawling snake found near the cannons (screenshot 1, screenshot 2, screenshot 3), in the upper parts of area 1 (screenshot*), and down the long slide in the Caverns of El Dorado.
  _{* Walk to the left side of the ledge to get it to notice you}

Aquatic Life

• 
  Petricanth: a dark fish with glowing blue spots, found in the Rotten Vale (area 15, near the Plunderers) and the Elder's Recess (inside the camp in area 8).


• 
  King Marlin: a large swordfish, found in the ocean of area 4 of the Ancient Forest.

Airborne Life

• 
  Phantom Flutterfly: a single, large, green and yellow butterfly found in area 6 and area 11 of the Ancient Forest.


• 
  Augurfly: a blue-winged insect, found in the Ancient Forest (area 11, area 14, and area 16), the Wildspire Waste (area 2, area 10, and area 11), the Coral Highlands (area 3, area 5, area 7, area 8, and area 14), the Rotten Vale (area 11, area 12, and area 15), and the Elder's Recess (area 7, area 8, and area 16). More common while it's raining.


• 
  Dapper Coralbird: a darker, almost purple Coralbird found together with Elegant Coralbirds in area 1 (screenshot 1, screenshot 2), area 5, and area 6 of the Coral Highlands.

Treetop Life

• 
  Forest Pteryx: a bright, blue and red flying beast found leaping from tree to tree in area 5 and area 15 of the Ancient Forest.


• 
  Gold Hercudrome: a gold beetle, found during the night on trees in the Ancient Forest (area 6) and the Wildspire Waste (area 5).


• 
  Prism Hercudrome: an iridescent beetle, found at dusk and dawn in the Ancient Forest (area 1), the Wildspire Waste (area 10), the Coral Highlands (area 11), the Rotten Vale (area 11), and the Elder's Recess (area 3).

Unclassified Life

• 
  Downy Crake: a small, white, round bird, found in flocks on the back of Aptonoth in the Ancient Forest (screenshot 1, screenshot 2), on the back of Apceros in the Wildspire Waste (screenshot 1, screenshot 2, screenshot 3), and on the back of Grandfather Mantagrell in the Coral Highlands (screenshot) Ghillie Mantle is highly recommended.


• 
  Bristly Crake: a large, black bird, found on the back of Mosswine in the Rotten Vale, and on the back of Gastodon in the Elder's Recess. Ghillie Mantle is highly recommended.


• 
  Cactuar: a cactus with legs, found as a hazard in area 4, area 7, and area 8 of the Wildspire Waste. Shows up on the map.


• 
  Cactuar Cutting: a cactus with legs, found running around area 1, area 4, one spot in area 6, a second spot in area 6, and area 8 of the Wildspire Waste.


• 
  Flowering Cactuar Cutting: a cactus with legs and a pink flower on its head, found hopping on top of area 5 or running around the cacti in area 6 of the Wildspire Waste.


• 
  Nekker: a short bipedal creature that spawns during the night in area 2 of the Ancient Forest, when Great Jagras regurgitates food to give to its young. (PS4 and Xbox One. Coming to PC at a later date)

In addition, some fish can spawn in a Great Size variant, which offers more research points and better items:

• 
  Great Pink Parexus: found in the Ancient Forest (area 1, area 4, area 9, area 11, area 11 again, and area 14), the Wildspire Waste (area 6), the Coral Highlands (area 7 and area 11), the Rotten Vale (area 9) and the Elder's Recess (area 1, area 1 again, and area 7).


• 
  Great Burst Arowana: found in the Wildspire Waste (area 1 and area 10) and the Rotten Vale (area 10).


• 
  Great Bomb Arowana: found in the Coral Highlands (area 6), the Rotten Vale (area 10), and the Elder's Recess (area 8).


• 
  Great Whetfish: found in the Ancient Forest (area 9 and area 11), the Wildspire Waste (area 1 and area 6), the Rotten Vale (area 10), and the Elder's Recess (area 1, area 1 again, and area 8).


• 
  Great Gastronome Tuna: found in the Wildspire Waste (area 6), and the Elder's Recess (area 8).


• 
  Great King Marlin: found in the Ancient Forest (area 4).


• 
  Great Goldenfish: found in the Coral Highlands (area 14) and the Rotten Vale (area 15).


• 
  Great Platinumfish: found in the Elder's Recess (area 7 and area 8).


• 
  Great Goldenfry: found in the Ancient Forest (area 11), the Coral Highlands (area 14), and the Rotten Vale (area 15).


• 
  Great Sushifish: found in the Ancient Forest (area 11), the Wildspire Waste (area 10), the Coral Highlands (area 7 and area 11), the Rotten Vale (area 10), and the Elder's Recess (area 1 and area 7).


• 
  Great Gunpowderfish: found in the Elder's Recess (area 8).

In addition to being larger, Great Size fish are also noticeably brighter than their regular counterparts.

When a Great Size fish spawns, it appears in addition to all the fish that are normally found at a fishing spot. If you see more than the usual number of fish, one of them is a Great fish.

With the addition of the limited-time Kulve Taroth siege and the Caverns of El Dorado, at least two new rare pets have been added:

• The Tsuchinoko is a flat, snake-lizard like animal based on a real-life cryptid. You can find it in area 2 or 3 scuttling out of the tunnels Kulve Taroth creates along with the Callabros.


• The Golden Calappa is a much larger, golden variant of the bronze crabs that scuttle around on the floor. Seems like it will spawn where-ever the regular Bronze Calappa do.

The four trophy related pets are:

• 
  Downy Crake (Snuggles for All): A fuzzy bird that rides on the back of Aptonoths or Apceros in the Ancient Forest of Wildspire Waste.


• 
  Bristly Crake (Bristles for All): Only available in the Rotten Vale in a single location, start at Area 11 and move towards Vaal Hazak's lair. There is a blue pond with goldenfish that sometimes has the Piscine Researcher or First Wyverian; the Bristly Crake will be seen riding on the back of the Mosswine on the cliff above.


• 
  Petricanths (A Living Fossil): Attainable in the game quite rarely, in a blue lake in the Rotten Vale past some rocks or camp 8 in Elder's Recess. A quick walk from Area 11's camp, and past the Bristly Crake spawn.


• 
  Prism Hercudrome (Rainbow Bright): As the guide lists, this beetle only appears at dawn or dusk in the Ancient Forest or the Wildspire Waste. I caught it in the Waste, twice, on a tree overlooking Jyuratodus' regular spawn point. Also on dead tree in northeastern-most overlook in Ancient Forest.

Here's a decent video guide for visuals of where to find these four and what they look like.

In addition to these four, there are many forms of endemic life that have unique borders in the Hunter's Notes, designating them as rare variants. I'll list the ones I have after 110 hours of gameplay. Among these are:

• 
  Pilot Hare, a pink variant of the regular Hare that spawns in the starting area of Wildspire Waste and also near a northern camp in the Ancient Forest


• 
  Giant Vigorwasp, a huge Vigorwasp carrying a massive payload; this doesn't have a special border but seems to be fairly uncommon


• 
  Forest Pteryx, an emerald Woodland Pteryx with a red crest rarely found on the trees in the Ancient Forest


• 
  King Marlin, a giant marlin found off of the coast of the Ancient Forest where the Kestodon lounge.


• 
  Emerald Helmcrab, a larger, green iron Helmcrab found on the floor of the Rotten Vale and Wildspire Waste


• 
  Moonlight Gecko, a larger gecko from the Rotten Vale that frequently spawns near the Area 11 camp. Very noticeable, glows in the dark. Purple and blue spotted.


• 
  Augurfly, an emerald Omenfly that seems to appear where-ever Omenflies can. I've caught them in the Ancient Forest, Wildspire Waste, and Rotten Vale.


• 
  Wiggler Queen, a bright orange Wiggler from the Coral Highlands. Notes say they spawn at night. Hard to miss.

From digging around online, there also appears to be:

• 
  Dapper Coralbird from the Coral Highlands (probably found among the regular kind)


• 
  Phantom Flutterfly, a large prismatic yellow Flutterfly in the Ancient Forest.


• 
  Grandfather Mantagrell, the large manta-ray type insect from the Coral Highlands near Sector 11 with the Grimalkynes


• 
  Gold Hercudrome, found near Area 5 in the Wildspire Waste

I wouldn't be surprised if there were a rare variant of the Golden Helmcrabs either, considering every other Helmcrab location seems to have a rare variant.

Here is a video showing some of the rare pet locations across the Ancient Forest, Wildspire Waste, and Coral Highlands.