Animals

## Permanently Huntable Species

The following animals are permanently huntable, i.e. all year. Huntable means that the animals...

* leave clues in the game ( tracks and calls)
* can be shot and harvested with the HunterMate
* appear in the player's statistics

## Non-Huntable Animals

There are many animals in the environment that merely add to the atmosphere, but are not really huntable

* The Rat - can be shot but not harvested
* Fish in ponds and rivers, not the oceans
* Butterflies
* Birds - fitting into their location
* Circling crows over carcasses in Timbergold Trails
* Scorpions in Bushrangers Run
* Spiders in Piccabeen Bay
* Other animals only represented by their sounds (bugs, eagles, frogs, cicadas, etc.)

## Attraction Zones and Roaming

This article is based on this developer post in the game forum.

* Animals do not wander aimlessly through the EHR. Each species has different goals during different times of the day.
* Attraction areas attract the animals to suitable areas for completing their needs.
* The needs are: Feeding, Drinking & Resting. Species X may for instance choose to drink at 9am while species Y prefers to drink at 5pm.

## Animal Vision

This article is based on this and this developer thread in the game forum and subsequent developer posts.

### Field of View

* The animal's view originates in the actual eye placement.
* The direction of the eyes are always in the direction of the head and not the general direction of the body (although these two are often the same).
* A creature's FOV is not two-dimensional (humans e.g. have 180 degrees FOV in the horizontal plane, but only 100 degrees in the vertical plane).
* Every animal has a certain vertical and horizontal FOV.
	+ The vertical FOV is set to about 90-100 degrees for most animals.
	+ Herbivores such as deer tend to have a huge FOV (about 310 degrees horizontal), so even though it's head may be facing away it may still be able to detect you unless you are in it's rather tight 80 degree blind-spot.
	+ This means that following the head direction is more of an issue when hunting carnivores such as bears and coyotes that have a tighter field of view.
	+ The reasoning why herbivores have such an insane FOV while predators do not is that a huge FOV is advantageous when trying to detect creatures that want to eat you while these hungry beasts have a greater advantage of binocular vision that helps them conduct that very same business.
	+ Tighter FOV means more overlap between the vision field of each eye which in turn contributes to better binocular vision and binocular vision is vital when trying to measure the distance to your dinner in preparation for that final leap.
* The biological reasoning behind limited VFOV is that most ground-based animals have no natural reason to monitor the world above them at all time.
	+ It makes sense for a deer to keep an eye on the horizontal plane where wolves and other predators lurk, but there are not that many natural threats that may attack from above.
* The exception to this rule are birds that tend to have a more extreme VFOV.
* The effect of the tighter VFOV is felt in treestands, towers and natural elevated positions which offer better visual camo, especially when animals are close to the players position.

### Player Detection

* An animal can partially spot a player.
	+ The more an animal can see of a player the increased chance the animal will spot and react.
	+ Other factors are involved, such as distance and probability.
* Vision detection considers if the player rotates (without movement) or changes stance.
* It does simulate that movements/rotations may be seen with peripheral vision while if the player is standing still the field of view for spotting the player is narrower.
* Animals do not detect the loading of weapons, the charging of stands, etc.
* Animals detect camera movements like walking, running, changing stance and looking around.
* Only fast camera rotations count as movement. If you are careful and look around slowly you increase your chance of not being detected.
* Movement speed effects the probability of detection. For instance the chance of detection when running is twice that of when walking.
* A rule of thumb is to move slowly and stay behind solid objects as much as possible.
* Animals can detect movements in free look mode.

## Animal Interaction

In real life animals interact with other animals, be their from the same or from other species. In theHunter Classic, some animal interaction can be observed.

### Herding and Regrouping

Some animals travel in groups. Every herd has a leading animal. This is not necessarily the highest scoring animal in the group. It could even be a female animal among a mixed gender group. If luring attracts the leader, the rest of the group will follow. After you spook the herd either by shooting or your presence being detected, the herd will scatter. When the animals have calmed down, they will attempt to regroup. This is often done by trotting in order to catch up with the leader again. Especially if all animals have run into the same direction, the herd will likely regroup. If they get completely separated (running away in a star pattern), they won't be able to fully regroup and continue as loaners or in smaller groups.

### Spooking Others by Running

When an animal spooks and runs, it will trigger other animals to run as well if they see it. However only animals that were spooked by a player will spook other animals. Such other animals will not spook a third group of animals to avoid a chain reaction. If you see an animal X dash past another animal Y, if animal Y does not run, that means animal X was not spooked by the player but by another animal that you might not be aware of.

### Spooking Others by Threat

Certain animals become nervous when other species are around. This will be expressed by trotting around aimlessly. There are no predator situations where animals will kill other animals, and animal chasing only happens with grey wolves and rocky mountain elk.

The following table shows what animals have been observed making other animals nervous. Most information is unofficial.

## Related Topics

* Animal Scoring - how species are scored for competitions and leaderboards
* Animal Spawning Facts - how animal spawn on the maps
* Animal Weights - list of the known maximum weights of all animals
* Harvest Value - including the single components that make up this value
* Animal Fur Variations - all animal rares and fur variations
* Non-Typical Antlers - see what deer species can appear with non-typical antlers
* Super Rare Animal Gallery - "once in a lifetime" animal findings
* Reserves - what animal appears where
* Permitted Ammo - what ammo can be used for what animals
* Hunting Tactics - how to go about successfully hunting the different species