how do i script in my animations for custom animal models?

so i'm making an animal simulator (wild savannah, era of terror to give you some examples) that takes place in a non-descript area around wyoming/montana.

an issue that i've run into is that i have no idea how to apply the animations i've made to the script so that they actually play with the animal runs/walks/eats/etc, and i don't even know where to start. i have the animations, the model is rigged and ready to go, i just don't know how to make them play in-game.

the tutorials i looked up are all for human based humanoid root parts, and are more for replacing animations that are already there, so i couldn't find anything useful anywhere. i know that i need to copy the id of the animation, but i don't know how to use it to make it activate.