There are a number of neutral mobs or "animals" in Minecraft who are not hostile and can be tamed. Aside from basic farm animals like pigs, cows and sheeps, players can have more exotic choices like ocelots, axolotls and squid, and even fictional animals like mooshrooms or glow squids.

However, all animals do not look the same. They vary in appearance and some variants are much rarer than the others. In this article, Gurugamer is going to showcase the 5 rarest animal variants in Minecraft 1.18.

1. Blue axolotls

The Axolotl is an actual real-life amphibian that lives in caves. They are incredibly rare and are actually critically endangered. The whole species are native to the Valley of Mexico. In Minecraft, Axolotls come in 5 different colors, with the baby axolotl inheriting the color from one of its two parents, at random. Unlike sheep, its color cannot be mixed.

Axolotl Colors
5 different Axolotl colors in Minecraft

Amongst the variants, the blue axolotl is the rarest. They cannot spawn naturally and can only be obtained via breeding. This is super difficult, as the chance to get a blue axolotl is only 0.083%. You would need a massive Axolotl breeding farm to get this variant.

2. Skeleton Horse

A skeleton horse in Minecraft is an undead variant of the horse that is made from bones and is one of the fastest methods of travel in the game. However, acquiring them is fairly tricky and is completely luck-based.

Minecraft Skeleton Horse
Skeleton Horse

They can only spawn from a "skeleton trap horse" that is generated naturally by a thunderstorm or by chance (0.75–1.5% chance on Easy, 1.5–4% on Normal, and 2.25–6.75% on Hard, depending on regional difficulty). After triggering one, 4 skeleton horse riders would appear. The only way for players to get the skeleton horse is to kill the riders without killing their rides.

3. Brown Mooshroom

Mooshrooms are mushroom-covered variants of cows exclusive to the rare mushroom fields biome. A red mooshroom transforms into a brown mooshroom (and vice versa) when it is struck by lightning. Brown mooshrooms never spawn naturally.

Mooshrooms Minecraft
Brown and red Mooshroom

The rarity of this mob is entirely attributed to the hard to find mushroom field biome. As soon as players locate one, creating a brown mooshroom is not that hard. Just wait for rain and place a lightning rod or use a channeling trident to summon lightning.

4. Pink Sheep

Pink Sheep is one of the earliest rare animal variants added to the game. Unlike previous entries on this list that require a specific biome or weather, Pink sheep are just rare spawns. There is only a 0.1558% chance that any adult sheep that spawns will spawn as a pink sheep. The second less common variant, brown, is also pretty low at only 2.85%.

Sheep In Minecraft
Pink Sheep

Furthermore, there is also the baby pink sheep, which is even rarer, at only 0.0082% of naturally spawning. However, there is a way to skip all these - players can just craft pink dye and recolor the sheep they want with it.

5. Polar bears

These animals are only found in Minecraft's icy biomes. While they are not rare by themselves, their spawning biomes are not that popular and players rarely get there.

Polar Bear Minecraft
Polar bears

You can see both baby and adult polar bears in the wild and both of them are tamable. However, polar bears that are traveling with their cubs are aggressive - the most effortless way to tame them is aiming at single bears who are alone.

>>> Read more: Top 5 Mobs With Highest Damage In Minecraft 1.19