Gray Wolf Hearing

[WeeWoo316]

How good is their hearing? Not sure if it's a bug or if they can hear that well, but I'm getting warning calls from 330+ yards away.

[Woodyplank]

All animals have a degree of awareness/possible threats built into them. Predators have the highest base awareness when in a calm state. That level increases somewhat as the level of the animal goes up and when an animal is Alert, Nervous or Fleeing it is increased even further.

Having said that, 300+ yards still seems a bit much. What were you doing before you got a warning call? How visible were you? What direction was the wind blowing?

ATVs can spook calm animals 300+ meters just idling. If you have a full moon on the HUD for visibility calm animals can see you quite clearly at any range. Our stink can spook calm animals at 200 meters.

Running or fast traveling can spook most animals within 150 meters.

Spooked animals will run until they feel safe. Based upon what the devs' have said about that I believe their exact words were "about 200 meters" so it could be a little more or a little less. You might have spooked the animal and it ran off a ways before issuing a warning call.

If you are relying on what you read about distance when you investigate a call...that's kinda like expecting the distance you see when you use the spot on the animal to be accurate. It might be right and it might say 300 meters when it's actually only 200.

I've found that normally 200 meters is about when a warning call turns into a mating call when the animal is downwind. This is why whenever I get a mating call from a downwind animal I ignore it. First because if it's downwind in my stink fan it's got my scent and no amount of odor eliminator is going to change that and Second because 200 meters is out of calling distance (aside from the fact that once an animal has gotten your scent, calling is useless).

[WeeWoo316]

I was fast crouching when it happened. After I posted this though, I noticed something interesting. Different area so different wolves but I got a warning call from one around 120 yds. Then 180, 200+ & so forth like they were calling down a chain to warn all the others. Anywho, I was curious if it was a bug or not. Never tried chasing them at that distance though. Next time it happens, I'll take a screenie of the distance.

[WeeWoo316]

Granted this is an Iberian Wolf but this is basically what happens with the Gray Wolves.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2334622478594008556/899B3632CA4BC741ABEE2B0D2B1CEED8CA83356B/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

[Findus]

At least in the last screenshot, it might have been your scent. In case you are not aware, the "radar" in the lower right corner shows the wind cone and the direction you are facing.

300 yards seems kind of far even for that, but assuming this works correctly, I wonder if the wolves potentially being at a lower elevation than you might play a role for the distance estimate as well, just like shooting up or down increases the measured distance. But who knows, maybe that's just how far they can smell. That they hear you when crouching at that distance seems very unlikely, though, and I'd consider that almost certainly a bug.

Also, in my experience (but take this with a grain of salt) animals don't necessarily make a warning call before fleeing, and sometimes they can even move away or even flee first and then call (perhaps after noticing you again with now heightened senses).
Woodyplank mentioned that calm animals can spook from scent from up to 200m, so once spooked, that distance potentially increases.

The "warning chain" is a nice concept, but it was probably just a pack of wolves with the different animals of different levels calling/fleeing at several different times (unless there is a bit more time between the calls, then it might be the same wolve(s) repeatedly). The pack might be stretched out to begin with as well.

[ULTRA]

Scent is only supposed to go up to 100-150 m in the game on the absolute high end. They just specifically gave the wolves insane senses in this game compared to all the other animals. They will smell you literally through a mountain. It's like how the rabbits hear you from max distance on the ATV and vice versa. Some organisms in the reserve, yourself included, are just equipped with radar. In real life wolves will stumble upon you and go "whoops"

Originally posted by WeeWoo:

Granted this is an Iberian Wolf but this is basically what happens with the Gray Wolves.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2334622478594008556/899B3632CA4BC741ABEE2B0D2B1CEED8CA83356B/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

I have had psychic Iberian wolves in spades

[Kreigan]

I get a lot of this in Medved-Taiga only, mostly from bears, Reindeers and wolves.
Just got another one right now. Warning call 290 - 400m, proned, wind in my back.
And i entered the game like 2 minutes before this, didn't shoot anything before on this session.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3156671828