There are seven groups of animals, each have three animals in it. Animals give your Chao different abilities, and can give your Chao animal parts, but the main thing they do is give your Chao stat boosts. Some people say that the Chao "eats" the animal, but it clearly doesn't because the Chao puts the animal down after hugging it (which is what the Chao does to get the stat boost). Here's a list of all 21 animals:

	Name	Ability	Group
	Seal	Rolls Around	Yellow: Swimming
	Otter	Does the Backstroke when Swimming	Yellow: Swimming
	Penguin	Slides About on Belly	Yellow: Swimming
	Parrot	Sings	Purple: Fly
	Peacock	Struts About	Purple: Fly
	Condor	Flaps About	Purple: Fly
	Warthog	Dashes	Green: Run
	Rabbit	Hops About	Green: Run
	Cheetah	Licks its Face	Green: Run
	Tiger	Sharpens its Nails	Red: Power
	Bear	Roars	Red: Power
	Gorilla	Beats its Chest	Red: Power
	Raccoon	Spins Around	Blue: Random
	Skunk	Farts	Blue: Random
	Sheep	Does Forward Somersaults	Blue: Random
	Unicorn	Bucks its Feet	Gold: Mythical
	Dragon	Breathes Fire	Gold: Mythical
	Phoenix	Wags its Tail	Gold: Mythical
	Bat	Makes your Chao's legs disappear	Black: Ghost
	Skeleton Dog	Removes Animal Features from Chao, Allows Hats to be Worn	Black: Ghost
	Half Fish	Turns the Chao's floating ball into a Flame	Black: Ghost

This is a list of what animals can be found in each stage:

Sonic

City Escape
Metal Harbor
Green Forest
Pyramid Cave
Crazy Gadget
Final Rush
Cannons Core

Tails

Prison Lane
Mission Street
Hidden Base
Eternal Engine
Cannons Core

Knuckles

Wild Canyon
Pumpkin Hill
Aquatic Mine
Death Chamber
Meteor Herd
Cannons Core

Shadow

Radical Highway
White Jungle
Sky Rail
Final Chase

Eggman

Iron Gate
Sand Ocean
Lost Colony
Weapons Bed
Cosmic Wall
Cannons Core

Rouge

Dry Lagoon
Egg Quarters
Security Hall
Mad Space
Cannons Core