Winter's Feast Bearger despawned?

When winter's feast Bearger spawned on me, I led him to the swamp to clear out a reed trap for me and he went to town on the tentacles. My base was maybe two screens away so I ran back to grab extra food and when I returned, Bearger was gone. Nothing was near the reed trap, no meats, no fur, no figure sketch. I searched the surrounding area and he was no where to be seen. I was the only one on the server at the time, and I know he's pretty slow when not charging at someone (i also had zoom out mod, so it was a pretty thorough scan). What could have happened? Is this intentional game design? I know that vanilla Bearger is meant to never despawn.