What's the spawn mechanics for animals? (Stags, wolves, rabbits, boars & crows)

[Commander_Idiot]

I was wondering the spawn mechanics for the animals as on my main save I had to travel all over the northern area of the map to find enough boars for a quest. I've heard that you need to keep at least 2 of each animals in an area for them to respawn but I've also heard that bandit respawn daily and don't know if they use the same respawn mechanics as each other.

[c-*****]

Animals respawn even if you kill them all off. It just may take longer. Like the wolf pack in the hills east of Haerndean: you kill all 3 and the same 3 respawn. It make take a winter or so, but just past them another pack can spawn as well - and those do respawn if you kill them all. I don't think animal packs fully respawn in a day, but maybe within an in-game week or year?

Animals do seem to have areas where they each appear, though I haven't confirmed how similar things are after the last update.

The number of bandit patrols really makes a difference for many areas of boars and wolves from what I've seen:

* across the road from the Haerndean herbalist, I don't see any boars and few wolves until I take out at 1-2 of the nearby bandit camps.

* north of the 2nd herbalist (near broken tower) doesn't spawn any boars until I've killed several patrols in that area

* I'll see a couple wolves sometimes in Padstow's herbalist's forest, but after killing some patrols I've had the wolfpacks there bloom to about a dozen wolves at a time.

* boars eventually appear by the 2 craftsmen near the starting area, but I'm not sure if the one by the lake is vying with the wolves in that area so don't show up for a couple years or what. The craftsman toward Padstow likely allows more boars to spawn after I've taken out several patrols in that area. Often I don't know boars are in either of those places until my Travel Posts are X'd.


I don't track rabbits as they tend to appear everywhere and I only use them for occasional target practice. That and I place maybe 10 traps and have my villagers watch them so I'm always full-up on small meat and pelts.

Stags are a bit of a mystery. They seem to respawn once every day or two in the same areas. I've never seen patrols attack them, but they're not hostile.

Crows... it feels like the last update reworked crows a little bit, including I think spawning more often. But after I kill one I often can't find the other 1-2 which were also circling. I feel like I've seen them spawn in most areas, though very infrequently.

I keep cutting trees for better sightlines for all the hunting.