Animals affected by the aurora.

[PrincessAutumn]

Are aurora bears invincible or something? I was at the house that's up the hill from the Quonset and there was an aurora bear on the road coming toward me. I shot him in the head, I seen the blood splatter and the skill increase and I went in and slept through the night and in the morning he still wasn't dead because my "bears killed" count was still at 6. Found him again at the Quonset station and shot him again, this time in the chest and did the same thing, passed time and he still didn't die, what the heck? I'm positive it's the same bear because the other one was near the misanthrope's homestead.

Found him again near the abandoned trailer near the coastal townsite and shot him again and because he didn't see me, he ran and when I went inside to kill time, he finally died. .. I get that when you shoot a bear in it's leg or limb it will take 8 hours to bleed out but I shot him in the head and in the chest, give me a break  

[Lord of the Long Dark]

It’s not the aurora as much as it was your going inside to sleep. This often “resets” the animals that bleed out. It also can reset the moose to- I have lost 5 arrows to a moose when it finally got too cold and I had no fuel and had no choice but to go inside.  Coming out after warming up, moose was gone so I tried again next day and he was reset with all arrows gone. 
   A blizzard will also cause the phenomenon as well. If blizzard is setting in its best not to try to squeeze in a hunt. 

[MrWolf]

On 10/4/2021 at 10:44 PM, PrincessAutumn said:

I seen the blood splatter and the skill increase and I went in and slept through the night and in the morning he still wasn't dead

I read somewhere that spending more than a couple hours indoors (or after passing through a loading screen) causes the bear to despawn if it had not yet died.  If your shot did enough damage that the bear died within the first hour or so, you would probably come out to find the bear dead somewhere.  

The safest bet is to remain outside after shooting a bear.  If you have to go inside, I would pass time for less than an hour and come back out.  I don't think that's guaranteed to work - the only way to make sure the animal dies is to stay outside until it does.

If you shot the bear with an arrow and the bear despawned, at least you should find your arrow where ever the bear was when it despawned.