They have despawned on me if I let them out of sight at all (when they were night spawns). First I was leading a 1 star to a pen I built to tame it, and it disappeared from behind my back, trying to bite me. I went back to the spawn point the following evening and waited until night to locate it and try again. It worked fine.

When I encountered a 2 star wolf, I had no meat with me, but neither did my husband. Again we returned to the spot where we saw it, and I made a taming pit for it. A blizzard that lasted most of the night meant the 2 star wolf spawned very close to dawn. There was just enough time to get him into the pit and drop in some food. But then it became morning and the wolf didn't take any food first.

He wasn't taming at all, and I wasn't taking any chances! I found a location far enough away to crouch and keep it from seeing me, but it didn't do anything if it did see me (indicated by my sneaking status). We never left that spot, but rather helped each other maintain our rested bonus while watching that wolf constantly. We had a cave and campfire about 80 m away, and took turns watching when the other needed to rest.

The wolf didn't even eat until nightfall, but then the taming process began. I knew for sure we had to keep up our routine until the wolf was fully tamed, which took that team effort.

I think that if you do it solo, you would be better off losing your rested bonus and doing nothing but watch the wolf until it's tamed.

The wolf, once tamed, never despawned. It behaved like all our other tamed wolves.


TL/DR Untamed wolves will despawn if they were spawned at night and you let them out of your site before starting the taming process, or you go away while they are taming. After they're tamed, they will not despawn or behave any different than your other tamed wolves.

EDIT for spelling