MY ASWER: 5 animals

One rabbit saw six elephants while going to the river.

Clearly state and confirmed that the rabbit is going towards
the river. So, we count this as 1 animal going to the river.
The six elephants on the other hand, did not even mentioned
on the statement that they are going to the river or elsewhere.
Since the question is to count the confirmed animals going
towards the river, thus, we cannot include the six elephants and
we can assume that they are just standing nearby while the rabbit
is passing them.

Every elephant saw two monkeys going towards the river.

Logically, there are 6 x 2 = 12 monkeys saw by the six
elephants, however the statement does not explicitly say “The six
elephants saw two different monkeys”. Thus, there are only two
monkeys going to the river seen by all elephants. So, we count this
as 2 animals going to the river.
𝑬𝒍𝒆𝒑𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝟏
𝑬𝒍𝒆𝒑𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝟐
𝑬𝒍𝒆𝒑𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝟑 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒌𝒆𝒚 𝟏
𝑬𝒍𝒆𝒑𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝟒 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒌𝒆𝒚𝟐
𝑬𝒍𝒆𝒑𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝟓
𝑬𝒍𝒆𝒑𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝟔

Every monkey holds one parrot in their hands.

Since, every monkey holding 1 parrot, there are 2 x 1 = 2
parrots also going to the river considering parrot as animal.

How many animals are going towards the river?

Finally, there are 1 rabbit, 2 monkeys and 2 parrots going to the
river.