I suggest that wildlife attack you only if they are stronger than you and they can win the fight.
For example with HP or a group HP for multiples npc or animals. We can add gear, attributes, weapons …
Else they fear you and escape.
Why a goat or a croc attack me when I have heavy gear and weapons and I can kill them in 2 hits?
Because a goat and a croc don’t know what heavy gear and weapons are.
All that gear weighing you down probably makes you look weaker in the eyes of an animal.
Your current life might be a better indicator. If you are full of vitality, you will seem too strong for an animal, but if you are injured or just lacking in vitality, you are fair prey.
I definitely think animals should begin to run away as their health gets lower. Things like Elk and Goats will run away at roughly 50% health. Whereas Crocs and Wolves have to be much lower.
But as others said. Animals aren’t going to be able to discern how weak or strong you are at a glance.
There was one mechanic that used to be in the game (may still be, haven’t tried in years). Where if you held a torch, an attacking elephant wouldn’t close in. I wouldn’t mind seeing that added back in (if it was removed or broken) and for more animals.
Animals may not know what armor or swords are. But they all know to fear Fire.
This is why i think a fight or flight mechanic is needed with different creatures having a different percentage of a chance to stay and fight or just run away
I’m just happy that most animals will actually fight and kill each other, too, now. Used to be a mod only thing they added.
Wandering patrols is something i really want to see eventually, each camp should spawn a patrol that goes out and the bigger the npc camp the more patrol’s they send out.
The wanderers don’t really function any differently to normal thralls. They have specific spawn locations and don’t start wandering until a player comes near them.
In the real world, animals have better instincts. In the Hyborian Age, everything is trying to kill you, or at least inconvenience you unto death. Theirs, usually.
Well, they can ALL kill you if you’re AFK, if there are too many of them, if you’re caught naked or unarmed, if you’re dying of thirst or hunger, if you’re succumbing to heat or cold, or even if you are just paying more attention to their model or AI than you are your own health bar.
So I can’t see this suggestion as anything other than a bit silly. No reflection on you.
In the real world animals are unpredictable and do not exercise good instinctive logic or behavior as someone purported above! The term “dumb animal” is popular with people who live in the wilderness for a reason. 
I would go so far as to say that the terms “instinct” and “logic” are juxtaposed. Haven’t we learned anything from Star Trek? 
Animals have predictable behavior patterns and communicate in body language that can be understood by anyone who observes them. It’s not mystifying. Believe it or not, they don’t want to waste energy fighting competitors and will usually resolve their encounters by out-intimidating the other, or running away themselves.
I could see this working well with pack animals specifically, but I don’t think the pack sizes in the game are big enough to really accommodate it.
Basically my thought would be once a certain percentage of the animals are defeated the rest would run.
To make it more dynamic rather than having a set number, each time a member of the pack dies the remaining have to make a morale check that gets harder with each added defeat. The game could even assign one member as the alpha, and so long as it’s alive the others get a bonus to their morale
Im a bit worried that doing all this in real time might make CE catch on fire 
I makes more sense to assume that some rabies-like virus is so endemic to the Hyborian Age that all animals have it, and humans either have some tolerance or are affected to some degree. That would explain all the psychos running around, too.
It also could explain why even crocodiles avoid the water
K… ask anyone of us who have lived around mountain lions, other big cats, wolves, or coyotes. They have a territory, range, or herd and they mark or monitor it and if you’re in it, you’re food or an enemy to be dealt with. Retreat typically comes only at near defeat with most. You’re likely thinking of intraspecies communication, domesticated, or penned animals.
Oh look, you do understand. Wild cats and canines communicate their boundaries and give sufficient warning before attacking. Unless you behave like their natural prey, which gets people killed – failure to communicate. The really terrifying ones are territorial herbivores and omnivores, because they tend to have food security and the strength and energy to keep it secure. Predators have to conserve energy to get their food, so they won’t waste it on competitors if they don’t have to.