Mountain goats? I don't know how common they are or if wolves can catch them at all, but bighorn sheep would be the alternative:
They could introduce a new platform/level of hunting to the game, i.e, mountain hunting. It would make use of the new jump function because your wolf would have to navigate the cliffs and jump from rock to rock, chasing the goat/sheep. Maybe mountain hunting could have an introductory mission, with a pop-up that gives you advice on how to hunt on the cliffs. It would be very fun because the current prey we have (elk, moose, etc) don't jump at all, and instead just run across flat ground. Mountain hunting would be a whole new skill for people to master ("mastery" is one of the gamer motivations you were talking about in the PvP thread). It would be essentially be a cool activity for people who have already mastered regular hunting and are looking for a new challenge, and it would add variety to the game to fit different preferences.
The jump action would have to be refined a lot for it to be fun though. It isn't very good right now because it forces you to stop while running, uses up a whole lot of stamina, and the animation isn't very smooth or naturalistic. But you did mention that it was being improved, so yay.
Edit:
loboLoco wrote:We've got a new and improved grizzly model, and a cub, in the works. Fighting competitors will be an (even) bigger part of WQ 3 than previously.
That's really cute, I can't wait to see them in Slough Creek! It would still prefer that the bear cub not be kill-able though, not just because of the little kids. According to this article grizzly cubs being killed by wolves is rare; only two dead cubs have been found in Yellowstone with evidence that they may have been killed by wolves, and even then, the evidence was circumstantial, and the cubs' mothers may not have been around to protect them at the time. The article is "Interactions between wolves and female grizzly bears with cubs in Yellowstone National Park" by Kerry A. Gunther and Douglas W. Smith. (
http://www.bearbiology.com/fileadmin/tp ... _15_2_.pdf)
Bear cubs could just be an ambience type of animal, for the sake of the atmosphere that spring is supposed to have. If you get too close the cub will retreat under his mother and the mother bear will become very aggressive and dangerous, more so than a normal bear. Even if the cub is not itself kill-able, chasing away the mother bear would be enough of a challenge on its own, and could be a new achievement in WQ 3. Maybe, unlike other bears in the game, the mother bear could be more explosive and have the ability to actually lurch forward and attack your wolf, instead of your wolf coming to the bear. Combined with the dodging action it would make the bear dangerous but fun to tackle.
Anyway, I think that bear cubs will make springtime really immersive.