If an animal is killed by a lookout tower or town center, there will be no carcass left to be collected.
Unsure if this was intentional to remove wolf den farming or a bug.
Happened with bear and wolves as well, but doesnt seem to be 100%.
Just killed a bear with soldiers directly, it yielded a carcass.
But the previous bear i lured to my town center + lookout tower and it did not
There was, but the carcass itself was staying visible on the ground without the icon showing up.
Maybe they did snatch it and just had a visual bug leaving the carcass there.
The body does stay behind after the carcass is looted (until it eventually despawns), if that’s the confusion.
I’m running with the mark staying up (F3 and F4) but didnt see the carcass icon poping up, just the texture itself.
As you said, it might be that the nearby hunter instantly grabbed it before the icon could show.
I suppose keep an eye on it next time just to be sure! Also verifying game files is always safe to do just in case.