Originally Posted by
Urpriest
Not only are they tracked separately, but it's explicitly an additional creature. Further, animal companions must be unmodified when chosen, so you have to choose it as an animal companion before choosing it as a wild cohort. Then the animal you're choosing for a wild cohort has bonus hit dice etc. The question then becomes, is it possible to gain a wild cohort with arbitrary bonus hit dice? If so, then just gaining a wild cohort with maximum advancement would be more effective, and could be done by any character.