When an animal dies in a lake or any other similar body of water, the animal will simply disappear and will be unable to be harvested. I have lost a Whitetail and Red Deer to this bug.
#Issue Harvesting Animals By Bodies of Water
nimble marlin
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Are you sure it’s not floating to where you shot it from?
swift hawk
I've had this happen as well. Sometimes you can lay in the prone position and crawl into the water and you see your animal on the floor of the lake or pond. Sometimes it let's me stay underwater and harvest it. I had a Moose on Yukon run into the water and die and it wouldn't float to me. It just stayed in the middle floating. I fast traveled to see if it would fix the floating moose and it disappeared when i returned without sleeping. This was all on single player.
meager pawn
I've had this happen as well. Sometimes you can lay in the prone position and cr...
I have notice that if you travel while the animal is still floating it will have disappeared when you return. Blood splatter will still be there but the animal is permanently gone. I sometimes would travel if the animal I had a long distance to float and I wanted to get on with my hunt and come back for it later, but the game just vanishes it.
paper cedar
swift hawk
I have notice that if you travel while the animal is still floating it will have...
That definitely seems to be the case sometimes. I have had animals laying on the floor of the lake and fast traveled out and when I came back it was on the bank.