Animal (as Character or Attachment)

You want to play an animal? Knock yourself out! The creative minds have already supplied so many wonderfully crafted Avatars in Animal-shape that you can look really like the Jaguar or the Horse that you wish to be. Please consider though these points, because while everything is possible in SL, we would like to maintain a bit of realism:

Animals that were not domesticated in RL can not be suddenly cozy pets in your Amazon Roleplay. While there are some examples of indigenous peoples' interactions with jaguars who were raised as cubs, it was mostly of a spiritual and cultural significance and not about keeping that animal as a pet. Another example are wolves, there is a reason why man was breeding dogs as split off from the wolf. And every dog owner who knows what they are doing can tell you the difference between a dog and a wolf. So, in short, if you want to play a pet, educate yourself about: is it really common? You are not mowgli.

Animals that do not exist in South America should not really roam around. It is simple: Lions are African, Tigers are Asian. Elephants are on both of thouse continents. The Rainforest we are talking about is in South America. There are way more animals existing in the Amazon than you can imagine. Wikipedia is your friend if you want to check whether this is feasible.

Roleplaying an animal requires seriously advanced roleplay-skills. You can not talk and even your emotes are limited. And cheat-arounds like "the jaguar looks at the human, hoping the human would somehow understand that the jaguar now wants this and that" are very lame. So, if in any case you wish to be an animal, make sure you really really really know how to roleplay. 

Why do we have these rules in place? Because it is one important point for every roleplay area to make a decision about "what do we want to be?". If we would allow everything then within days, everyone would have a majestic feral feline on a leash or ride on elephants or giant panda bears through the jungle. There would be no fun in that.

you will find that a roleplay area that tries to cater to each and every whim and taste is in every single case i know exactly that: empty. And that, we are not. 

Speaking of this i want to show you a possible way, if you badly want to be that Jaguar: if you are a very good roleplayer, if you understand that your role is by definition a sideshow and not the main attraction and you are fine with that, you can educate yourself about the Yanomami, the Achuar and Shuar Tribes and the Guarani. These are some examples of tribes who raised cubs (!). The grown animal was then seeking the freedom of the forest on its own. And occasional/accidental visits on ceremonies were and are interpreted as "signs" from higher powers. That is in no way though the full grown Jaguar mingling with 50 people on an event. But as excellent RPer you surely know that.

Thank you and enjoy!

PS: i wrote in the headline "as character or as attachment". all of the above is also true if you play a human and plan to get one of those really beautiful animesh pets as add on to your human avatar (so called "followers" in SL marketplace)