Platform: PC
Game mode: Singleplayer
Version: 95365/17742
Problem: Drops
Crash dump link: N/A
Re: creatures in the NE jungle biome. Every salamander drops a head. So does every panther. Literally each kill gives a head. But, NO jungle birds give one. I’ve killed dozens of birds just in case it’s rare. I can open a feather store. Zero jungle bird heads.
Edit: and it seems that apes don’t have heads either.
i will come and visit your shop then… 
Same with jaguars: stacks upon stacks of claws, zero heads.
I’ve also noticed this. Must be an oversight, since we have jungle trophies as a feat.
Feats are how I know that they should drop heads too.
While we’re on the subject of loot tables, maybe the drop rate of the shaleback shell could be looked at as well? There are many issues with it. First, the drop rate is extremely low. I mean early EQ1-level low. Second, it only drops from the baby shalebacks, while the resulting trophy itself is unmistakably the size of an adult one. IMHO, seeing how cool the trophy looks, it would make more sense if the King Shaleback would drop this one. And use something else for the shield. With the current drop rate, 3 shells for a shield is overkill. By the time three have dropped, they shield is way outgrown.
I killed so many baby shalebacks and never saw a shell. I thought they were removed from the game. The first time I saw them was as drops from NPCs up north in New Asagard…
I do remember getting a lot of shells a year ago though. But recently, I’ve gotten 0 from baby shalebacks.
I spent hours upon hours slaughtering babies a few days before release, I needed 1 for the trophy and 3 for the shield to hang on the wall. Only got 3 total but couldn’t take it anymore. Then got pleasantly surprised, a level 2 armorer I got in the meantime reduced the cost of the shield to 2 shells, so I could do it all. Nevertheless, the experience of one or two-shotting very low level shalebacks for literally hours was not fun at all. I wish they raised the drop rate.
Correction: the Grey Apes around Xel-ha do drop heads, on every kill. I confused these apes with the darker ones to the north, west of Buccaneers Bay. The latter ones do not drop drop heads, and apparently there is no trophy for them. Which is another kind of oversight: please make a trophy then add head drops :).
I finally got one jungle trophy head from the salamander lizards, but I used a common hatchet, not the cleaver.
Well, don’t be a rebel, user a cleaver, because, as I’ve said in the OP:
I am unable to get heads from Gorillas, birds, and the jaguars.
I got heads from salamanders and panthers using a cleaver on the first hit.