What do lion/puma growls mean?

[Ho Lee Schitt]

So if you've ever hunted Vurongha or Parque Fernando, you might have encountered a lion/puma. The question isnt about the animal call you can track, but I've had it where the animal will growl with no marker/explanation frequently; especially when I'm using a caller.
What exactly does that mean? Cause it's not a warning or mating call cause you can track those.

[DopaTrain]

Im finding that lion growls come out of my left headset speaker when in reality the lion is in a different direction. Same with dog barks. That maybe what youre experiencing.

[SouthernMan1972]

There are a few animal sounds on different maps that you can't track. I hear wolves howling on wolf maps, and I often see wolves not long after that, but not always. I hear flocks of geese on Revontuli that sound like they're about to land next to me, but rarely see them.

I think the "non-trackable" animal sounds are just ambient sounds the game does that may or may not be triggered when you're within a certain distance of that animal.

That's my best guess anyway. It might just be random as I also hear turkeys on Hirschfelden.... no turkeys.

[yogisgoat]

If an animal calls and there's no marker either it's ambient noise or an animal that's VERY close.
On Yukon there's an ambient wolf pack effect that pops off fairly often. On the African map you will often hear a wildebeest stampede nearby but if you hurry to the top of the ridge and look around you won't see a herd.

[Geronimo]

There has definitely been a few changes recently, with the last update, and also after/during this interim since that update.

I think some changes involve things pertaining to the upcoming New England DLC.

Recently I'm likewise finding animal sounds that are not the norm. And some of those are large killers that are nearby, often within 30 yards. It used to be that if you didn't back away or move in the right direction, after a couple of growls or roars they would either attack or flee. Which seemed to depend on how you have been interacting.

Yesterday, I was on the shoreline of a lake, and a puma was growling from within the bulrushes, and invisible.

And in some cases, like this one above, it seems there is no HUD or directional indicator.

So, depending on a person's sound system settings, this type of indiscernible growling might be distinguished in only one ear, and directionally inaccurately. If so, than this would be confusing and conflicting, and therefore needing resolution; a bug.

The puma did seem to be moving around under cover, unseen, and continuing to grow. And I stood in one place for a few minutes trying to spot it. Sometimes the sound seemed to be coming from a certain area like the bulrushes, and other times it seemed to be from somewhere else.

It is possible there were two animals. But I was unable to actually see anything.

In other places and circumstances I've encountered similar effects, but was able to spot the animal hiding in the cover.

In the instances where I am able to spot the animals it seems they will more often flee and there will be signature left behind.

So the question in my mind is, "do they only leave sign or flee if spotted?"

Is it possible that, where there is no sign, no directional indication, and no visible presence, this means the sound is just an ambient feature no different than a bird in a bush.

We need to keep recording in this thread to try to figure this out, so it can be reported if necessary.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by yogisgoat:

If an animal calls and there's no marker either it's ambient noise or an animal that's VERY close.
On Yukon there's an ambient wolf pack effect that pops off fairly often. On the African map you will often hear a wildebeest stampede nearby but if you hurry to the top of the ridge and look around you won't see a herd.

In the wildebeast incident that could be instigated by those 450 yard spawns that will change to another location as you move closer. Which is why behind a ridge you won't see them as you cross over it. And some animals seem to project those sounds over a longer distance than usual.

For example, the chase sound that lions produce can be difficult to determine in distance.