Does flashlight spook animals?

[Razamanaz]

I know this has been brought up several times before but always with conflicting answers. I have never seen a Dev respond to this. My experience is that it spooks Black Bears 100% of the time and higher level bucks often. I have changed to going lights out once the general proximity of the animal is known and only using the headlamp for harvesting and to find new tracks.

[Emperor]

Hmmmmm... i would have to say yes. i am gonna test now

[PicSoul]

No, unfortunately, it does not seem to have any effect on the animals. I think I also remember one of the Devs confirming this during a live stream.

[Razamanaz]

Well, I just went to test this out again since I came to that conclusion shortly after starting the game. I believe you are right Pic Soul. I may have thought that was the case due to not knowing about the concealment meter at the bottom right at the time.

Timeline of test:
1: Honed in on bear warning call.
2: Snuck to location of bear with lights out.
3: Shined bear from around 35M with him looking straight at me. (no reaction)
4: Decided this might be a good time to try out the .357 I just bought.
5: Sneak to about 10M and take a perfectly good shot at the bear that was just sitting like he was a stuffed animal on my daughters bed.
6: Bear takes off like Winnie the Pooh that has just put his paws in the wrong tree.
7: Find blood trail that says flesh wound.
8: Can't find the trail and do a couple circles when all of a sudden there is a bear charging straight at me.
9: Pull out the .270 only to find he is too close because of the scope but fire a shot anyway.(He runs me over.)
10: Remove the scope and turn to shoot at him again. (3M away? He runs me over yet again but this time I get the kill shot.)
11: Track the body down about 25M away and decide that maybe a .357 isn't so good to use on a bear.

10/10 Would shoot bear with a .357 again but making a video is a must. This was a hoot. You just can't make this stuff up.

[funz]

I've sat in the middle of many groups of black and white tails at night (usually with 2 bucks in group minimum) with head lamp on (hidden in shrubs though) bow in hand, shoot one, animal call, rinse and repeat this until all in group were killed (biggest group so far has been 9). Have done same with bears/moose/elk/boar etc, can't say i've had any animals spooked by headlamp, but also I tend to utilise the foliage around me even when closer range (many kills less than 5m with bow) so maybe it's a "visual" presense thing?

[SubTonic]

It doesn't, and unless they add NV at some point, I'd like it to stay that way. Night hunting would be incredibly frustrating otherwise.

[shywiseowl]

No it doesnt spook the animals but it does make it near on impossible to see anything unless it is up really close.

[KaiEr]

I've seen it confuse them. I've been running through the woods with it and crossed into a field where a doe was looking right at me and didn't move until I nearly ran into her. Then there was the time a large group of animals seemed to run in circles, not knowing which way to go... but I'm beginning to learn that might just be a conditional glitch in game (see my "Did someone say 'Spawn'" post)