My goats. They've vanished

[CharlieisUncreative]

So as the title says, my goats are gone. Vanished. No more. And I can't comprehend why.

They had a lantern that lit up their whole pen. The fence was two tall just in case. There were no blocks for them to climb over. I noticed they were gone after a heavy temporal storm but they may have vanished sooner. I have some mods but only one of them actually affect the goats (as well as other livestock, but my chickens are just fine).

Just in case it IS a mod, here's the list:
Wolf Taming
Cats
PetAI
ChickenSitReloaded
BloodTrail
Footprints
Animal Cages
Buzzwords
OrekiWolf's Simple Immersive Beehives
OrekiWolf's Roaming Bees
Particles Plug
Universal Husbandry
Temporal gears stack

I'm tempted to give myself my goats back with creative but I don't want to lose my nutrition. I can just find more goats but it's about the injustice of it all lol. Also I want to make sure they don't just disappear again.

[williams_482]

Did you go near their pen during the temporal storm?

One possibility (although an unlikely one) is that drifters spawned in their pen during the temporal storm and attempted to throw rocks at you, but hit the goats instead. Drifters and animals normally don't fight, but they will retaliate against each other when damaged. Male goats would have aggroed against the drifters, and could plausibly have been killed when the drifters hit back. 

Or a slightly more mundane explanation, bears are capable of attacking and killing animals directly next to a fence under certain circumstances. Solid block walls will reliably prevent this. Did you see a bear nearby around the time the goats disappeared?

If the goats were killed by any means, you would have found corpses in their pen unless you waited months to check in on them. If there were no corpses, this is probably a bug of some sort. 

[Demoncyborg]

was your fence up against or near any walls? some animals scale 2-3 block walls like it's nothin', including pigs for some reason. if they got out, you can try to keep food troughs around to lure them back.

[CharlieisUncreative]

26 minutes ago, williams_482 said:

Did you go near their pen during the temporal storm?

Nah, I was in my cellar during the storm. There was nothing around the goat pen when I left.

27 minutes ago, williams_482 said:

If the goats were killed by any means, you would have found corpses in their pen unless you waited months to check in on them. If there were no corpses, this is probably a bug of some sort. 

It was like a day or two post-storm. Their pen is nearby so I pass it often and never saw any corpses.

15 minutes ago, Demoncyborg said:

was your fence up against or near any walls? some animals scale 2-3 block walls like it's nothin', including pigs for some reason. if they got out, you can try to keep food troughs around to lure them back.

No, it wasn't near any walls. I had two-tall birch logs at the corners, but the goats never scaled those in a year so I don't think they would've figured out how to do that now of all times.

[williams_482]

2 minutes ago, CharlieisUncreative said:

I had two-tall birch logs at the corners, but the goats never scaled those in a year so I don't think they would've figured out how to do that now of all times.

They have to wander into a very specific space to climb a block in a fence corner, but they can do it. A perfect setup to see no problems for a while until the seemingly inexplicable escape. 

I'd bet this is what happened. With luck they should still be around unless they fell down a sinkhole or wandered into a dark cave. 

[CharlieisUncreative]

14 minutes ago, williams_482 said:

They have to wander into a very specific space to climb a block in a fence corner, but they can do it. A perfect setup to see no problems for a while until the seemingly inexplicable escape. 

The perfect tragedy

Thank you, I'll fix the corners. I think my goats may be gone because I haven't heard them at all and there happens to be a few dark holes nearby. I'll set up troughs just in case though.

[Valsalan]

Sadness. Good luck finding new goats.

[Broccoli Clock]

This seems an appropriate thread to ask this question, but what are the rules with despawning of animals? I see lots of people putting torches up and claiming animals need light otherwise they will despawn, yet I've never done that and I've never lost an animal (I've farmed chickens and deer).

Am I missing something here? Is the "despawn without light" still a thing and are there specifics where that light source is explicitly needed?

It seems something I'd encounter over the hours in game, yet I only really see people mention it on forums or in streams.

[Lithembia]

I think it matters if they go into a cave or you lock them in a dark room. They can be outside at night without a problem. 

[Lithembia]

On 4/3/2026 at 10:02 AM, CharlieisUncreative said:

So as the title says, my goats are gone. Vanished. No more. And I can't comprehend why.

Did they stay gone?  Sometimes my animals vanish if I am returning from a trip away. I walk up and the pen is empty and then after a few minutes they appear. Bonus:  Wolves and bears are invisible too. 

[williams_482]

5 hours ago, Broccoli Clock said:

This seems an appropriate thread to ask this question, but what are the rules with despawning of animals? I see lots of people putting torches up and claiming animals need light otherwise they will despawn, yet I've never done that and I've never lost an animal (I've farmed chickens and deer).

Am I missing something here? Is the "despawn without light" still a thing and are there specifics where that light source is explicitly needed?

It seems something I'd encounter over the hours in game, yet I only really see people mention it on forums or in streams.

If animals are in a dark, covered space (not exposed to sunlight) they will despawn. If you never put an enclosed roof over your animal pens you won't run into this issue. 

[Vinni_Pukh]

We ended up digging a trench around our whole base area on my little multiplayer run, and so when the goats inevitably escaped, or the chickens... those damn chickens... they'd end up in the trench at least so we'd be able to find them there and haul their fuzzy butts back home.