A long-favored story trope. Typically this focuses on telepathic dogs—both on SOL and in classic main-stream publications—with a few references to telepathic cats and of course the infamous Willard (1971) and The Rats of NIMN (1982), a little young for my taste, and of course the seminal A Boy And His Dog (1973) by Harlan Ellison (book and film).
Still, I'm wondering which I may have missed or forgotten over the years, especially on SOL.
On SOL, CESavage's Nexus stories have animals communicating mentally with some humans.
In classic SF/Fantasy, dragons seem to frequently be shown as telepathic — see McCaffrey's Pern stories, for example.
Not a specific story, but Familiars frequently communicate telepathically with their witch/wizard/warlock/magic user of your choice.
There are the Telzey Amberdon stories by James H. Schmitz. The character is a xenotelepath, who can do telepathy with animals but not people.
All Telzey Amberdon stories are collected in two books by Baen (available in print and eBook):
Telzey Amberdon;
T.N.T: Telzey Amberdon & Trigger Argee Together;
both books edited by Eric Flint.
Telzey is bonded with Tick-Tock, a young female member of an intelligent cat race. Neither Telzey nor any other human in the galactic cluster called "The Hub" knows that this cat race is intelligent and telepathic, but they will find out.
Being a sentient cat-like alien race, these stories may not quite match the OP's criteria of telepathic animals even as they are regarded by the Humans as wild animals.
HM.
Sorry, seeing this author's name after such a long time is a good thing. My favorite always was the Witches of Karres. No telepathic animals, but an excellent story. Always wished for a sequel to that one.
My favorite always was the Witches of Karres. [...] Always wished for a sequel to that one.
You do know there are three more books in this series, don't you? But not written by James H. Schmitz.
The Wizard of Karres (2004) by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer;
The Sorceress of Karres (2010) by Eric Flint and Dave Freer;
The Shaman of Karres (2020) by Eric Flint and Dave Freer;
all four books available from Baen.
HM.
You do know there are three more books in this series, don't you? But not written by James H. Schmitz.
Unfortunately, Schmitz's actual sequel draft was lost.
For some odd reason, my "Permanent Membership" no longer applies to Storeroom, so for now, the story is unavailable.
A E van Vogt's "The War Against the Rull" is mostly about "Ezwals". They weigh 3 tons, have 6 legs and are telepathic.
Andre Norton (dead tree author) wrote several stories and even complete series with telepaths that could communicate with animals. I can't remember if any animals were actually telepathic themselves.
Misguided Child's set of three stories 'Wizard a Love Story' starts with Sean David Kilpatrick Flynn. On Stroryroom they are listed as a series.
Larry Niven's Known Space series has Thrintun slavers and Grogs, a carnivorous sessile life form. Both use telepathic control to sieze their prey.
Do the Thrints count as "animals"? They used telepathic control to enslave members of other races, thinking of which: https://storiesonline.net/s/52407/the-quatyl (unfinished) by Lazlo Zalezac.
If I ever encounter one I'll consider it a dangerous animal. I'm not going to get touchy feely or worry about semantics with a carnivorous telepathic alien slaver.
Old Man with a Pen (what has happened to him?) often includes sentient felines in his stories.
AJ
Check his blog. He was homeless for a while, recently moved out of a shelter into his own place.
I faintly remember a story about a small Terran scout ship and it's crew of Terrans: a Human, a Bird of prey (don't remember which species, Eagle or Hawk or...), a Leopard (or another big cat), a Robot and a few more. All of them mentally enhanced and communicated telepathically with each other.
Sorry, I can't remember the author and neither the original title nor the German title. I read the story in the 'sixties or early 'seventies.
HM.
No clue, but you just reminded me of The Game of Rat & Dragon by Cordwainer Smith, featuring telepathic human and cat combat teams.
Bruce Bretthauer's Firestar series has a number of species -- humans, cats, coyotes, whales -- modified to do something kinda like telepathy. It's a mind-machine interface, and the actual communication needs wires or a radio. It's alot like a phone call, but doesn't require vocal anatomy.
20-25 years ago there was a dead tree author Tara K(?) Harper who I think had telepathic animals. Wolfwalker? and Cat Scratch Fever were two separate series
It took me a while to find but here's a couple of stories. The main character is a Shaman who can talk to animals.
The Waabanow — A Universe from the Mind of Harry Carton
https://storiesonline.net/universe/948/the-waabanow
Lonny
IIRC, The Ghost Whisperer by Duncan7 on storyroom has a protagonist who can eventually converse with animals.
AJ