Some artist's tutorials are very specific on mixing certain colours in certain ratios to use but I think it is much more useful to develop your own colour mixing skills from a base palette rather than buying a vast array of colours you may only use rarely.
Primaries
The vast majority of colours can be mixed from the three primaries: red, blue, and yellow. In painting there is a warm and cool version of each primary which lends itself to creating different shades such as a deep emerald green and a light lime green. The most basic palette in painting that allows you to create a vast amount of colours accurate to what you need to paint would be these six primaries and white - you can create a decent black through colour mixing. Here are the colours I was taught to use back in art college:
RED: Cadmium red (cool), Alizarin crimson (warm)
BLUE: Cadium blue (cool), Ultramarine blue (warm)
YELLOW: Lemon yellow (cool) Cadmium yellow (warm)
WHITE: Titanium white (make sure to get an opaque white to avoid unwanted transparency)
Some artists prefer to mix their own blacks, others find it helpful to have a black around to certain areas though it is important not to overuse. I also find adding a little black and white to colours creates grey/muted colours which are useful in some circumstances. Lamp black is the colour I use.
Wildlife colours
In terms of wildlife painting, particularly with mammals the browns (or earth colours) are very useful as all fur shades are made up of brown or lack of it. The browns that I find are very useful are:
Yellow Ochre
Burnt Sienna
Burnt Umber
Try these colours out, only then if you find yourself unable to mix the colour you want for your painting should you consider buying it. This should save you a fair bit in both paint and money as oil paints can be particularly expensive!
I have started some new artwork here's a sneak peak at the sketch stage for the start of one.
Sneak peek:
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