Nuclear flamingos and deep-fried elephants invade Fallout 4's Nuka World

Irradiated elephant
(Image credit: Bethesda)

Grab the biggest shotgun you can find because there's a new reason to revisit Bethesda's final expansion for Fallout 4. The Mutant Menagerie—Nuclear Safari mod populates Nuka World with lots of new animals and creatures to hunt including giraffes, flamingos, zebras, and best of all, elephants.

Granted, these animals are all gross and mutated—the flamingos have a few extra eyes and the elephants in particular look like they'd been deep fried in orange juice—but that sort of thing tends to happen when a bunch of nukes get dropped on the world.

If it's been a while since you've played Fallout 4, Nuka World was the last expansion for the game and included a massive, raider-controlled amusement park for high-level (30 and above) characters. As for why the mod adds a bunch of new animals, it's because Nuka World also features a zoo, and these modded creatures will randomly spawn in the area as if they escaped during the war and mutated—like Fallout's ghouls, they got extremely ugly yet could live for centuries. Makes sense to me: If radiation can make hermit crabs the size of a city bus, I don't see why there can't be a few crispy elephants running around, too.

Not everything in the mod is hostile. There are some passive creatures who won't cause you trouble, like the flamingos and giraffes. Some creatures, like elephants, will only become hostile if you attack first. And there are plenty of beasts eager to kill you on sight, like several variations of rats, irradiated hyenas, and "nighthunters," which are a deadly hybrid of a mountain lion and rattlesnake. On the plus side, killing some of these horrifying creatures will provide you with resources and recipes fit for a theme park, like "bug nuggets" and nuka burgers. Yum!

Nuclear Safari is itself an expansion to the long-running Mutant Menagerie mod series, which has steadily brought new creatures and horrors to Fallout 4's map, including areas added by DLC packs like Far Harbor. You can see some of the creatures in Nuclear Safari in this video by Degenerate Dak on YouTube below, and you'll find the earlier Mutant Menagerie mods here

Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

Read more
Chief Hanlon sits in his usual spot at Camp Golf.
If you want Fallout: New Vegas to look a little more lived-in, these mods have you covered
Ghoul in sunglasses
After years of playing as stupid, boring humans in Fallout, you can finally channel your inner Walton Goggins and become a ghoul in Fallout 76
In-game shot of Dinky the Dinosaur, a roadside attraction repurposed into a Sniper's nest in Fallout: New Vegas.
Alleged Fallout season 2 set photo reveals the return of New Vegas' beloved roadside attraction turned sniper nest, Dinky the T-Rex
Official Doom Guy art superimposed over Vault 666 Fallout-themed background.
Fallout-themed Doom mod Vault 666 has multiple endings, an OP Dogmeat companion, and a Ron Perlman-impersonating narrator so good, I was worried it was AI-generated at first
Natarkveld, a horrific amalgamation of Nata and Arkveld, screeches like a creature in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Monster Hunter Wilds player spits in the face of creation, fuses Nata with Arkveld like they're doing a Full Metal Alchemist villain speedrun
Kitty Big mod for Monster Hunter Wilds
Monster Hunter Wilds already has more than 30 mods, with 2,600 downloads between them
Latest in Fallout
Ghoul in sunglasses
I'm convinced being a ghoul in Fallout 76 is the best way to vibe in West Virginia, thanks to these powerful perk cards and my new true love: Radiation
Fallout 76 ghoul screenshots
Getting to level 50 in Fallout 76 to become a ghoul actually isn't as daunting as it seems, which is why I created a new character
Scorched person with their hands on their head
Ghoul players in Fallout 76 are starting to place their camps in the most radioactive areas of the map, and regular humans aren't happy: 'I had to inject 30+ radaway into my veins'
Fallout 76 ghoul screenshots
How to become a ghoul in Fallout 76
Ghoul in sunglasses
Some Fallout 76 players have encountered a 'major game-breaking bug' which either makes it impossible to complete the ghoul quest or just makes you temporarily invisible
A ghoul player character standing next to another ghoul
'You are hereby conscripted': Fallout 76 players demand newly-transformed ghoul players help them mine radioactive ore
Latest in News
Two brightly colored stormtroopers dressed like Run-DMC stand in front of PAX Australia's WELCOME HOME banner.
Tickets for PAX Australia 2025 are on sale now
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again