Do creature spawns vary by location?

Finding a particular creature is a travel problem before it is a combat one. Cross into a different biome and the encounter pool changes with it, so the useful answer to "where do I get this one" is a place, not more hours in the same field.

Location is only one input. Real-time weather shifts what appears, the day-night cycle shifts it again, and limited-time climatic events put creatures on the map that are not there the rest of the time. The same conditions also influence the form a creature turns up in, which means a second visit to a spot you have already cleared, at a different hour or in different weather, is not a repeat of the first visit. Plan routes around that instead of treating a biome as a fixed list.

Once something has actually spawned, catching it is a separate job. Weakening or stunning a creature increases its capture rate, so anything you found under conditions you cannot easily line up again is worth taking down to low health first rather than gambling on a clean catch.

Not settled: How far you have to travel before the spawn pool actually changes, and where one biome's encounter table stops and the next begins, is not spelled out for the player.