Animals
Animals in Eco roam free on the Surface of the World. They can be hunted with a Bow to get Meat, Hide, Fur and Tallow. The world of Eco is filled with wild animals. These animals are essential not only to your progression in the game but also to the well-being of the ecosystem you live in. Will you live in harmony with the creatures of Eco or wipe them out through industrialization in a survival of the fittest society? The choice is yours.
List of Animals
Animals
Animals in Eco produce a carcass to be butchered or processed for Meat.
Aesthetic Animals
These Animals exist currently in Early Access simply as aesthetically pleasing animals. They cannot be killed or otherwise interacted with.
The following Aesthetic Animals exist:
Fish
For a separate list containing only fish animals. However, they are also present in the animals list above.
Ecosystem Effects
Animals play an integral role in the ecosystem. Below are some of the key foundations as to how they contribute to the Eco environment:
Harvesting Meat
Harvesting Meat is done by killing animals (excluding aesthetic animals) using a Bow and some Arrows. Usually, animals will take 1–2 shots to take down and you can obtain anywhere between 1–5 Meat by doing so (provided you have room in your inventory). Naturally, by killing a certain animal—you should take precautions as to how you can alter the ecosystem. Killing too many of a single type of animal will cause their population numbers to drop and could affect how the ecosystem continues as discussed in Population.
Pollution
If the environment animals are living has Pollution (caused by Tailings generated when Smelting, Sewage, or Garbage) - this may cause them to die (or in terms of aesthetic animals, it is speculated their numbers will appear less often). Currently Pollution does not affect Mammals (which have not yet been implemented) that live in the Ocean but can be spread into the Ocean.
Population
The ecosystem of Eco is a very balanced environment. Your actions of harvesting animals or berries can affect how the Ecosystem is played out and you should take precautions of the consequences your actions can have on the ecosystem. For example, if you killed all the Elk on the server - the number of berries consumed by animals would decrease, meaning more berries would be available to harvest. However, in doing so - you should note that the population of Wolves would decrease too because they have fewer animals to hunt. As such, it is advised that you should hunt animals evenly, avoid foraging in the wilderness and Farm your own self-created Crops. In future updates, it is speculated that Breeding will allow you to increase the numbers of animals and another precaution we should take is to avoid overpopulation to avoid upsetting the balance of the ecosystem. This speculation has been proved in the Eco Alpha Trailer.
