Cataclysm beta testing continues apace, and although we are still very far from pinning down talents, skills, and pet skills, Blizzard is marking more and more of the old Azeroth zones as ready for testing.

Now ready for testing does not mean done. These zones are going to see additional changes, I’m sure, even outside the necessary bug-fixes.

But we’re beginning to have enough information to get a decent feel for the distribution of beasts in the post-Cataclysm world.

For example: if a revamped zone has a big population of a particular new creature then it is likely — but not certain — that those creatures will be staying until launch. Similarly, if a big population of a particular old beast has disappeared, it’s not terribly likely that they will make a comeback. But it’s not impossible.

Two major caveats:

1. Rare beasts, named beasts, and quest-spawned beasts are more likely to see more changes in the future. Rares are often one of the later enemy types to be added — and in this case possibly removed. And quests are still undergoing some changes, so any beasts that are related to quests may also change.
2. Many new beasts are currently untameable. Don’t worry too much about this: Blizzard hasn’t started their design pass on hunter pets yet. Not all of the new pets will be made tameable, but I suspect that the majority of them will.

If you’d like to keep up with the changes as we learn about them, please check out the Petopia Cataclysm Pet Changes spreadsheet (of doom!) on Google Docs.