On this page, you'll find the best RDR2 Hunting Requests animal locations for finding a perfect rabbit, squirrel, cardinal, rat, woodpecker, chipmunk, opossum, oriole, robin, songbird, sparrow, toad, skunk, bullfrog, cedar waxwing, bat, blue jay, crow, and beaver.
The Hunting Requests from Ms. Hobbs for the A Better World: A New Friend Strangers side mission are possibly the most time-consuming tasks on the path to 100% completion of Red Dead Redemption 2. If you’re not sure where to look, then you’re liable to spend hours, or days even, searching for those elusive 3-star carcasses.
Check this guide here for the quickest and easiest Hunting Requests animal location in RDR2, and save yourself some time and sanity.
RDR2 Hunting Requests Preparation
First, you're going to need Small Game Arrows, a lot of them. Load up on Arrows and Shotgun Shells at a Gunsmith (also pick up a Varmint Rifle if you haven't already). Then, use Dead Eye to shoot down entire flocks of geese, ducks, and other flying birds for their Flight Feathers. You will then be ready to craft your Small Game Arrows. It's best to craft as many as possible before heading out to the Hunting Request animal locations.
Additionally, you're going to want to bring a handful of Snake Oil tonics for your Dead Eye, as you'll be going after small and quick animals that can easily escape.
Respawning Animals
For the Hunting Requests animal locations listed below, if you don't see your target animal after looking around for a while, if it escapes from you, or if you accidentally destroy its carcass, then simply leave the area and come back in a day or two (an in-game day or two).
Alternatively, if you really want to finish the hunting requests quickly, you could just save and then reload your game. Or travel a little bit of a ways away and then sleep for the maximum amount of time that you can. Both of these actions will usually result in the animals repopulating at each of these Hunting Requests animal locations.
RDR2 Hunting Request #1
1 Perfect Squirrel Carcass
Squirrels are fairly easy to find. You'll find them anywhere that there are grass and trees. So basically, you'll find them anywhere in the wilderness aside from in snow, swamp, and plain environments. However, although they're easy to find, they're quite a bit more difficult to shoot.
Rather than trying to track these tiny critters through long grass, it's probably easier to just ride along roads or train tracks with your Bow out, and then quickly Dead Eye any squirrel that you see.
Like all of the birds and tiny critters in the Hunting Requests, you'll need to use Small Game Arrows to avoid ruining a 3-star carcass. In fact, it's best to have the maximum amount of Small Game Arrows anytime you are trying to collect 3-star carcasses for small animals and birds.
Small carcasses such as squirrel carcasses will be put into your satchel and they will never decompose in there.
WARNING: When crafting, the meat from animal carcasses in your satchel can be taken and used without your consent, thus destroying the carcasses. To be safe, try to avoid crafting anything that requires Gamey Bird Meat or Stringy Meat if you don't want to lose your precious 3-star carcasses in your satchel. It sucks to find this out the hard way.
1 Perfect Rabbit Carcass
Rabbits are even easier to find; they're basically anywhere there is grass. However, you're going to need to headshot one, which can be a bit of a challenge. Use your Varmint Rifle and quickly Dead Eye one in the head from your horse before it can hop away. Or use some Cover Scent Lotion and try and follow the track of a 3-star rabbit to catch it by surprise.
As with squirrels, it's easier to hunt rabbits along roads and train tracks, as they are difficult to see in tall grass. Get the rabbit carcass after you get the squirrel carcass, to avoid having your rabbit carcass rot on your horse while you're hunting for a squirrel (all carcasses for each Hunting Request must be sent together as a package).
Remember, DO NOT SKIN the perfect rabbit. Ms. Hobbs needs the entire carcass with the skin still attached.
RDR2 Hunting Request #2
1 Perfect Cardinal Carcass & 1 Perfect Woodpecker Carcass
Small birds don't like the rain, so try to hunt them around morning or noon on a sunny day.
Fort Brennand, the abandoned civil war fort in Roanoke Ridge, is a Hunting Request animal location that will allow you to easily get literally ALL the small birds needed for the Hunting Requests.
You can stand in the center of the fort, stand on a wall, or even climb up a tower.
Either way, just bring your Bow, some Small Game Arrows, and a few bottles of Snake Oil. Then, look up to the sky and use your Dead Eye to drop some small birds. Remember to pull your Bow back far enough so that your arrows can get up high enough to hit each bird. Small birds such as cardinals and woodpeckers generally fly overtop of the fort or around the general vicinity.
Also, while you're here, don't hesitate to shoot down any other 3-star small birds that you see. You're eventually going to need an oriole, robin, songbird, sparrow, cedar waxwing, and blue jay for future Hunting Requests, so if you find any of them now, then you can store them in your satchel until you need them later.
1 Perfect Rat Carcass
Rats are most often found in populated or abandoned areas, but they can also be seen in the wilderness sometimes as well. The easiest way to get a perfect rat carcass is during a random encounter at Doyle's Tavern, the dive bar in the slums of Saint Denis.
Also, Bolger Glade, the old civil war battlefield south of Rhodes and east of Braithwaite Manor, usually has a bunch of rats running around.
Use Small Game Arrows for these little guys.
RDR2 Hunting Request #3
1 Perfect Chipmunk Carcass
Chipmunks are a bit rarer and pickier about their habitat than squirrels. One location that they often spawn at and frolic around is the colorful Taxidermist House, just northeast of Strawberry in Big Valley. Quickly Dead Eye one, or quietly follow a 3-Star chipmunk track until it stops moving, and then hit it with a Small Game Arrow.
Alternatively, you could check around the nearby Appleseed Timber Company.
1 Perfect Oriole Carcass & 1 Perfect Robin Carcass
Again, head on up to the ultimate Hunting Requests animal location, Fort Brennand, and put your Bow to the sky. When you see a 3-star small bird, immediately activate Dead Eye and bring it down with a Small Game Arrow. If you think you see a robin or oriole in a group with other birds, bring them all down and then check the carcasses after.
Orioles and robins are two of the rarest birds in the game. You may need to leave the area and come back once or twice in order to get them to spawn amongst the more common cardinals, woodpeckers, songbirds, and sparrows.
1 Perfect Opossum Carcass
To prevent your opposum from rotting on your horse, hunt it after you've already collected your chipmunk, oriole, and robin.
Opossums are nocturnal; they often run around the hills immediately east of Emerald Ranch at night. Once you do a few laps of this area, you should see an opossum running around.
Ride right up to it, and it will play dead. This will present you with an excellent opportunity to shoot it in the head with your Varmint Rifle.
DO NOT SKIN the carcass, or you'll have to find another one.
RDR2 Hunting Request #4
1 Perfect Songbird Carcass & 1 Perfect Sparrow Carcass
These are actually two of the most common small birds on the map, so there's a pretty good chance that you've already seen a few in your travels. If not, check out Fort Brennand on a sunny day, and you'll most likely see each of them flying around near the fort before long.
1 Perfect Toad Carcass & 1 Perfect Bullfrog Carcass
A great Hunting Requests animal location for both toads and bullfrogs is in the muddy banks just northwest of Copperhead Landing, which is a location on the eastern end of Bluewater Marsh.
Bullfrogs are a bit rarer, so you may need to check this area more than once before you're able to find a 3-star bullfrog. As with all tiny animals, you'll want to use Small Game Arrows.
1 Perfect Skunk Carcass
To prevent your skunk carcass from decaying before you can send it to Ms. Hobbs, hunt for a skunk after you've already gotten your songbird, sparrow, toad, and bullfrog.
Like rabbits, skunks are fairly common across the country. However, they are nocturnal. So if you ride around at night, there's a pretty good chance that you'll run into one before long. Around Ringneck Creek north of Rhodes is especially a great Hunting Requests animal location to find a skunk.
Have your Varmint Rifle ready. If you scare it, you may want to follow it quietly and wait until it stops running before attempting to shoot its tiny head.
Be careful not to accidentally trample a perfect 3-star skunk in the dark, as that will damage it and bring it down to a 1-star skunk. Also, remember not to skin the skunk.
RDR2 Hunting Request #5
1 Perfect Cedar Waxwing Carcass & 1 Perfect Blue Jay Carcass
Head on back to, you guessed it, Fort Brennand. Although cedar waxwings are extremely uncommon throughout the world, you will often see a flock of about four of them flying around outside of the fort when you first arrive at the area. Dead Eye the entire flock and then check the bodies. Also, make sure that you're drawing your Small Game Arrows back far enough to kill, rather than only wound.
For your blue jay, if you go in and hang out in the middle of the fort, then you should see a blue jay flying overhead after a short wait.
Remember to go when it's not raining.
1 Perfect Crow Carcass
Hopefully, you still have a Small Game Arrow or two left at this point for a crow.
Crows are very common across the world. You'll often see them flying across the sky or on the ground scavenging carcasses. They look similar to ravens, but after aiming at it, you'll see the name of the bird in the bottom right of your screen.
1 Perfect Bat Carcass
A reliable Hunting Requests animal location for bats is at Elysian Pool. Two bats usually spawn behind the waterfall, and they almost always fly into a wall and kill themselves when approached. When they die in this way, it does not damage their carcass.
If you don't see them, or if neither one of them are 3 stars, just venture a bit deeper into the cave for a minute to give them a chance to respawn.
1 Perfect Beaver Carcass
Beavers are extremely rare. There are only a handful of locations where they can be found. One place to find three or four beavers at a time is on the southwestern bank of Owanjila Lake, which is west of Strawberry. Try to either creep up on them and then pop a 3-star beaver in the head quickly with a Varmint Rifle.
If they swim out too deep into the lake, you won't be able to recover the carcass, so try to shoot them before that happens. Also, remember not to accidentally skin the carcass.
On your way to the post office to turn in your carcasses, be careful that you don't get shot at; the bullets could ruin the beaver carcass strapped to the back of your horse.
The Hunting Requests in Red Dead Redemption 2 are challenging. But if you know where to look, then they don't need to be tedious.
Hopefully, this list helped you bag some of the more elusive animals needed for the requests. If it did, let's hear it in the comments below!