View source for Talk:Animal Spawning/@comment-26355197-20150604045649/@comment-25207710-20150604130758

Nobody has done serious experiments to test it yet but it does seem so. They only despawn if you are far enough away for a long enough time. We don't know what 'far enough' or 'long enough' is though.

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Kaalus said animals only spawn within the sight distance, so it makes sense that they won't despawn within it as well. Personally I have seen them spawning - even right on my head - but never seen one despawn.