Why do animals disappear some days.

[Treeman]

Took 3 guys hunting, lovely evening big ghostly full moon and veeeery cold. The fire was good and the evening fantastic. Woke up to a cold, perhaps fresh morning with the sun mostly behind thin clouds.
I expected to have a 6 - 7 animal hunt, but zero, nothing to be seen. This whole weekend not one ram was seen and the maybe 12-15 ewes seen were in a hurry to be elsewhere. The animals were wild, wild and not to be seen mostly.
There has been no hunting for at least  3 weeks and even then the hunts were gently and not very disturbing.
What causes this "disappearing" to happen and where is it they disappear to?
IMG-20250810-WA0011 by David Frank Allen, on Flickr
 

[Mohamed]

I've been on hunts where you don't see much game. They are there, in the thick, so you don't see them. Why they in the thick, no idea. Maybe full moon, weather? This year with all the rain, the bush was thick and there was water available where there wasn't before, so not much game was seen/shot in the early part of the season. Once the cold fronts set in from around the end of June till now, it has helped and more game can be seen. The weeds have died down and the bush has opened up. I know on the farm I go to, if you driving in the game vehicle they use for hunting, the game disappear, but use the workers bakkie and they don't run, with the tractor they will sometimes come to see what's happening.

[Ds J]

It happens to me all the time   

Seriously though, I have thought about it as well. Some ideas:

- It might have to do with the moon phase. In our area, wild animals forage at night during full moon, leaving them sluggish by day.

- Windy days seem to make them skittish, at least sometimes

- Illegal/unknown activity. Poachers or other predatory activity?

[Tripodmvr]

Full moon makes it possible for them to feed at night. They can thus hide in the bush during the day. You are then the one that needs to move and they spot you easily. Drinking water at night is also quite likely.