Museum completion and wildlife
Museum completion and wildlife for Animal Crossing: Wild World on Nintendo DS.
Original Nintendo DS game; New Leaf and New Horizons features do not apply.
Donation categories
The museum has four donation categories: fish, bugs, fossils, and paintings.
Catching fish
Choose the correct month, time, and location, then cast in front of the shadow. Wait for the actual bite rather than reacting to a nibble. River, pond, river-mouth, and ocean species have different requirements. Weather matters for certain fish, including the coelacanth.
Catching bugs
Search flowers, tree trunks, stumps, the ground, rocks, and villagers. Some require special conditions or actions: digging for mole crickets, catching fleas from villagers, and finding dung beetles around winter snowballs.
Identifying fossils
Dig marked spots and have Blathers identify the fossils. There are 42 pieces belonging to 14 multipart displays, plus 10 standalone fossils. Donate missing pieces and sell or display duplicates.
The 20 paintings
The 20 are Amazing, Basic, Calm, Common, Dainty, Famous, Fine, Flowery, Lovely, Moving, Nice, Opulent, Perfect, Quaint, Rare, Scary, Solemn, Strange, Warm, and Worthy.
Forgeries
You cannot reliably identify Redd's forgeries before buying them in Wild World. They lack the visual authentication system of later games, and Redd's dialogue does not reliably reveal authenticity. Blathers can check the purchase afterward. Famous and Fine paintings also have shop-based sources.
Caught versus donated
Recommended collection rule: donate your first specimen and sell duplicates. Keep separate records for "caught" and "donated": catching something does not automatically put it in the museum.
Nintendo DS mechanics. Wii U differences and historical distribution restrictions are noted where relevant. Based on the supplied Wild World guide (23 September 2026).