So.. This happened. What do I do?

[Iscariot]

I was just killing a wild bighorn. And actually I do have a question about how they spawn. There have NEVER been Bighorns near my home. But after I nabbed a single ram, an ewe spawned nearby. And now rarely more will spawn. Is this some kind of prevention of getting like.. locked out of husbandry or something? Doesn't really matter since I'm gonna be on my second generation. More likely its just that they like to herd, and the area where they would spawn, I just never see, so they head down near the pens.

Anyways. Back on to the point. I freaked out. Bear was spotted. It began running after my piggies, so I was terrified, and hid.. but then.. It fell. I had made a chicken pen for when I trapped some and... I know they can't be domesticated.. But I've wanted to start a zoo once I get more established. Will this fella stay here? Or is there anyway i can keep em here? I'm currently digging the pen out deeper, since while it seems it can't reach through the fence since it has attempted to, it hasn't hurt any of the animals.

But I don't really wanna risk it. I'll relocate them eventually to a larger habitat since I think it'd be cute.

[Shoom]

Animals won't despawn as long they're in a lit area, I have a moose I've kept for around 300 hours inside a barn.

Also I don't know quite how spawns work, random animals seem to migrate through the place I live, I've had everything from deer, boars, bears, wolves, chickens and goats come and go, I think it might be tied to the different seasons.

Bears seem to wander into my area in winter and now during autumn I've noticed a lot of pigs wandering in 

[Broccoli Clock]

6 minutes ago, Shoom said:

Also I don't know quite how spawns work, random animals seem to migrate through the place I live, I've had everything from deer, boars, bears, wolves, chickens and goats come and go, I think it might be tied to the different seasons.

One time I put down a (large) animal feeder, in an area that only had a chicken spawn and a sheep then a pig spawned into the area and started feeding form it. I've also cleared a spawn area of wolves by constantly killing their cubs. I am sure there are more subtle reasons as to why and where animals spawn, but those two things seemed to "alter" that.

[Iscariot]

Update, it has hit the rams. One of the ewes passed :< though it was a wild one, the generation 1 ewe is still alive and I should have gen 2 sheep soon.

The bear is now in a 3 deep pit. and I'll look into making a habitat for it.

[Broccoli Clock]

9 minutes ago, Iscariot said:

The bear is now in a 3 deep pit. and I'll look into making a habitat for it.

To be fair, that is how most people "store" their bears!

I once let loose a wolf cub I had bought from a trader, the intention was to sell it to another trader for minor profit but I accidentally released it. I was worried it'd die from lack of food, as it was in a fairly small fenced in area. I tried using a trough, but it didn't eat from it, and in the end I resulted in throwing meat into it's enclosure. That worked as it showed it's weight increasing and the meat had vanished. I am guessing that is the same for bears, that they won't eat from a trough, but may eat meat off the ground. It'd probably take an in game year to "starve a bear to death" (if it's possible) so I wouldn't be worrying too much about it.

The caveat is that the above happened in 1.20, I am unsure if anything has changed for 1.21.

[Shoom]

25 minutes ago, Iscariot said:

Update, it has hit the rams. One of the ewes passed :< though it was a wild one, the generation 1 ewe is still alive and I should have gen 2 sheep soon.

The bear is now in a 3 deep pit. and I'll look into making a habitat for it.

Yeah, you probably want at least a 2 block high pen area for larger animals, when winter comes snow can also pile up high enough for animals to jump the fence, so mind that as well if you don't have a roof over them.

Another thing I've noted since the new animal animations in 1.21 deer seem to run a lot faster and I'm pretty sure I saw one clear a 1 block fence unassisted.

[Never Jhonsen]

45 minutes ago, Shoom said:

I have a moose I've kept for around 300 hours inside a barn.

There's a YouTuber who's done the same. Named him "Dog" even

 

[Bumber]

On 9/12/2025 at 1:06 AM, Broccoli Clock said:

and the meat had vanished.

Are you sure it didn't just despawn? Like, did it disappear immediately in front of you, or did you walk away?

Edited September 13, 2025 by Bumber

[Broccoli Clock]

35 minutes ago, Bumber said:

Are you sure it didn't just despawn? Like, did it disappear immediately in front of you, or did you walk away?

Yeah, so it definitely stopped existing. Did I see the wolf cub eating it? No. However the wolf cub's weight was decreasing until I put meat in its enclosure and that weight started increasing. The pen that it was finally corralled into was right next to the house and I was spending a lot of time in that chunk, and as you would expect I was regularly checking to see if the meat was gone. I never timed it, but it seems to disappear fairly quickly. Not sure of the official despawn timer for something dropped on the ground when that chunk is always active, so can't give you an idea if it despawned or not.

I should point out it was redmeat I was using. Not because I wasn't sure of a predator would eat bushmeat or not, just happened to be the meat I had at hand.

[Maelstrom]

While wild animals do spawn after initial world/chunk generation, it is more likely that animals will migrate.  Especially in the OP where a ram was captured and a ewe showed up.  Animals are programmed to roam around and will wander from spawn.   In my experience, wild animals spawn in existing chunks sometime in the spring season.

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Maelstrom said:

In my experience, wild animals spawn in existing chunks sometime in the spring season.

I think it also depends on when/if they were killed. The animals do roam around, but they seem to remain in the same general area they spawned in, so they typically don't stray too far. If killed, it seems like it takes at least a few days for them to respawn as well, provided the player isn't heavily active in the area. Or at least, I've had good luck hunting boar in certain areas, and returning a few days to a week later and finding more boar. That being said, I've also killed a bear that was after my chickens only to have another bear immediately spawn as soon as the old one had died. So...your mileage may vary.

[Michael Gates]

Sows and ewes will slowly follow boars and rams, so once you've got the boy you're going to get girls now and then. It's not hard to set up an extra pen with an open gate, and a food trough inside; they'll end up in there, you walk up and close the gate, and then it's just a matter of merging the pens.

Bears cannot reach up out of a 2-deep hole with fence around it, nor can they reach down into one from outside. I tested this on a flatworld, set up a pit with some sheep surrounded by bears, and a pit with a bear surrounded by sheep, and then going to survival mode. I've also caused it to happen in a "real" world, though that was more of an accident. Anyway, good times.

[Professor Dragon]

On 9/18/2025 at 7:49 AM, Michael Gates said:

Bears cannot reach up out of a 2-deep hole with fence around it, nor can they reach down into one from outside. I tested this on a flatworld, set up a pit with some sheep surrounded by bears, and a pit with a bear surrounded by sheep, and then going to survival mode. 

I dunno. I'd still be putting some two high fences around that bear hole if I were the original poster. Then a safety fence to keep ME away a few blocks from that. 

https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Bear
Brown bears, black bears and pandas can easily escape a pit 3 blocks deep. Polar bears and sun bears can only jump up 2 blocks. Polar bears are the only variant that cannot use ladders.
All bears can easily hit players/creatures over a fence 1 block high, but they can't jump over fences on level ground. Note: if the player puts a block such as a lantern on top of a fence, that creates a weak point where a bear could climb over.

Bears have a 0.01 chance to leap at their target.

People used to keep bears in a five deep hole because of the jumping . . . is that still a thing?

 

Edited September 19, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Echo Weaver]

I'd want to keep the bear at least a block from my other livestock as well. Bears can strike at the player over a fence, and I'm pretty sure they can strike livestock over a fence too.

[Thorfinn]

On 9/17/2025 at 4:49 PM, Michael Gates said:

so once you've got the boy you're going to get girls now and then.

As long as they didn't get killed. I had some really out of control wolves and bears a couple games ago, and by the time I got them all slaughtered, there was only the ram left. I corralled him in, and by next spring, still no ewes. I don't think they ever respawn. It's just that a new male and his posse will spawn.

Predators are a different story. Wish I could remember where, but Tyron commented on that a while back. Said the herbivore populations do respawn over time, but very slowly. Vastly lower rates than wolves.

[Professor Dragon]

9 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

As long as they didn't get killed. I had some really out of control wolves and bears a couple games ago, and by the time I got them all slaughtered, there was only the ram left. I corralled him in, and by next spring, still no ewes. I don't think they ever respawn. It's just that a new male and his posse will spawn.

Predators are a different story. Wish I could remember where, but Tyron commented on that a while back. Said the herbivore populations do respawn over time, but very slowly. Vastly lower rates than wolves.

Huh. That sounds very similar to my situation where I trapped a boar, but predators ate all the sows. I kept a pit trap with a filled trough near the boar for years, and never had another pig spawn in that region. 

I'd given up on pigs near my base, when one day I found a whole new family which must have spawned in, trapped inadvertently in my clay mine. I fenced them off quick smart.

Then wolves fell in the other side of the clay mine.

Then on the next update, a family of deer fell in . . .

All of the long distance travel and trapping attempts in an effort to get pigs near my base, and in the end doing nothing was the winning option.

At this point, I'm just waiting for a family of goats to drop from the sky, to complete the set.