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Skyrim Wildlife Overhaul

Welcome to Skyrim Wildlife Overhaul Version 1.3 (North American Animals)

All hides now tannable. You may need to drop/reaquire the new hides to get them to show up in the crafting menu.

New Animal Additions:
Giant Short-Faced Bear- This massive Pleistocene mammal can rarely be found on the tundra, chasing moose and Megaloceros. The Giant Short-Faced Bear was considered a running bear, and had long legs for coursing after game. They were a plains animal, and not adapted to dense forest. To recreate this, the Giant Short-Faced Bear will spawn only on the tundra and other open areas. New model.
Black Bear- Regular bears (not cave or snow) are now black bears! Modeled after the North American black bear, a shy forest dweller. Slightly less aggressive, but will attack you if you get too close.
Mountain Lion- Last seen in Oblivion, the Mountain Lion has returned to Tamriel with a new model and texture. Can be found in forested regions and in the Reach. Less aggressive than a sabrecat. Uses the sabrecat rig, so the feet do that horrible sink into the ground thing.
Cave Lion- Big, aggressive. Found on the tundra. No mane yet for the male.
Raccoon- Small, shy and adorable, raccoons now dwell in Skyrim’s forests. New model and texture, uses the skeever animations.
Beaver- Hand-placed around waterways, beavers are small, shy and rare. Currently, no beaver dams or lodges. I will add those later and create a few beaver ponds. New model and texture, uses the skeever rig.

Other Changes:
Moose are a bit bigger. Taller than a horse now.
New loot for all new animals. Includes caribou, elk, deer, lions, lynx, etc. All drops are usable in crafting and alchemy. Elk drop elk hide, deer drop deer hide, caribou drop caribou hide, etc. All fully usable in crafting.
More diversified leveled lists. Now you have a chance to encounter big, small, aggressive or cowardly versions of predators. This is still a work in progress, currently cave bears and sabrecats are done. This adds more realism, since not all animals behave exactly the same. Adds diversity as well. Planning to do this for every large predator, and some prey.
Changed leveled lists so that any animal can spawn at any level. In vanilla Skyrim, you won’t see a sabrecat until around level 6, now you can encounter one at level 1. Same with bears. This does make Skyrim more dangerous for low-level characters, but it’s not too extreme. The animals are still leveled, so it’s not like Prides of Skyrim where a level 1 character gets eaten by a level 50 lion. If you’re level 1, you’ll find a level 1 sabrecat. A follower is recommended, but not necessary. This is for the sake of realism. Gameplay-wise, it makes sense to not have certain animals show up until certain levels, but it’s not very realistic. I may put out a version of this mod that does not include this if it becomes too much of a problem for people. I tested this with a level 1 character and found it not too difficult.
Better wildlife interactions. Edited factions so predators will defend their territories from other species. I came across a bear and a sabrecat chilling out together in the Reach and thought that wasn’t very real. In real life, bears and wolves will fight each other, as will bears and mountain lions. Now they will in Skyrim too.

Previous Additions:
Dire Wolf
Lynx
Caribou (name change)
Whitetail Deer
Megaloceros
Moose


I made this mod to improve upon the rather dull vanilla wildlife of Skyrim. I generally play a ranger-type character who spends most of their time out in the wilderness, and I was a bit disappointed with the lack of diversity in the Skyrim wildlife. While a number of great mods out there add diversity to Skyrim’s wildlife, like SkyTest Realistic Animals and Predators, and Real Wildlife Skyrim, I wasn't completely satisfied. I'm a perfectionist, and if I perceive that something isn't quite right, it bugs me. So I made my own mod. I like it, so I'm putting it out here in case anyone else might like it as well. If you don\'t like some of my changes, feel free to let me know, or not use this mod.
This is the first release of a rather large project, as I intend to overhaul basically every aspect of Skyrim's wildlife and make it a bit more interesting and realistic. My goal is to reduce the number of mods needed to diversify Skyrim by combining some of the aspects of my favorite mods and adding a few new items as well. Because Skyrim has a rather prehistoric feel to it, with Mammoths and sabre-tooth tigers roaming about, I have started adding a few more ice-age megafauna.

What I intend to do:
Increase realism-Male and female animals, with unique models as necessary. For example, male and female wolves can share a model, but female deer need a new model (there's female elk in game, but no female deer).
Better spawn points-Elk will be found primarily in the forested regions of Skyrim, while the deer (caribou) will be found mostly on the tundra and the frozen marshes.
Better behavior-Wolves and ice wolves are now non-aggressive and avoid roads. Sorry, but I don't like perpetuating the stereotype of the "evil" wolf. They don't eat people. Bears are somewhat less aggressive, but they'll still come after you if you get too close.
Now, wolves in Skyrim are an early source of leather and skill-ups, so it wouldn't do to completely change them up without adding something in their place, which leads to:
Better Diversity-New creatures to populate the wilds of Skyrim. Currently, Dire Wolves have made their appearance. With a slightly new model, larger size, and aggressive behavior, these make the wilderness a more dangerous place. A new felid has been created as well to add diversity to the critters of Skyrim, the Lynx. This is a small, unaggressive cat (uses the fox behavior) with a shiny new model and texture. They are rare, but their pelts are quite valuable if you can get one. Currently, there is only one texture for the lynx, but more will be coming soon, once I get them done. More creatures will be added later. To be added later: Cave Lions, wild horses, Bison, mules and donkeys, birds like pheasant and grouse (why is pheasant breast a cooking mat when there are no pheasants anywhere to be found?), real deer (whitetail or mule deer, with a new model), Megaloceros (extinct Irish Elk, Google it), leopard, tiger, and snow leopard (models in progress), and a new model for the Snow Bear to make more like a polar bear. I would also like to add young versions of animals, like deer fawns, sabrecat cubs, wolf pups, and the like, with new models of course. Now that I've figured out how to get models into Skyrim and have them work, I'm eager to get going on this mod.

Compatibility:
WILL conflict with any other mod that changes creature behavior, i.e. SkyTest Realistic Animals and Predators, Real Wildlife Skyrim, Realistic Wolf Behavior, and the like.
Works fine with Prides of Skyrim and Birds of Skyrim. This may change as I add more stuff.
Lynxes and dire wolves are currently both tamable through Tame the Beasts of Skyrim and Skyrim Pets!

Known issues: Newly added creatures may not show up. A clean save (no mods) will usually do the trick.

Installation:
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Enjoy your diversified Skyrim!


Please remember that this mod is in its infancy and bugs are likely. Please report any bugs or oddities you encounter so I can get right on fixing them :)