Hunting Difficulty in Challenging Territories

I recently moved my pack to the Glacier territory and, despite it no longer being winter, my 100% synergy hunting party (each wolf is between 480-500 stats) is only being offered critter trails and fails them probably 60% of the time. Are challenging territories like the Glacier and Rainforest so much harder to hunt in on purpose, or is something wrong here? If so, what is the point of being in these territories (aside from different Raccoon Wares items) if my wolves are close to starving every day despite their stats and abilities?

At this rate I may as well move back to the starter biomes if it means I can actually feed my 25+ wolf pack. I would love to know what the actual benefits are to moving to the difficult biomes!

Desert here. Have a 100% stalker but easily 90% of my trails are critters. During winter I didn't see a single trail that wasn't a critter.

I failed hunts way too often (imo) in winter and downsized some wolves so I could feed everyone. In fall/spring I haven't risked starvation, but a lot of that may be the food items from Explore.

Yes, they're supposed to be substantially harder. You need better stat wolves as well as higher proficiency and synergy in harder biomes. I moved from the mountains to the coniferous forest (easy to medium) and saw a big difference in hunt difficulty. As for perks? Personally I just... like the coniferous forest better. I think it's prettier. That's the only 'perk' I really need. Other than that, I think I've seen that your hunters will level up faster in harder biomes. But yes, they're supposed to be that hard.

Also only finding critter trails since moving to the rainforest.

A piggyback question, does anyone know if hunting in the harder biomes gives more EXP?

500's are not really that high stats, especially not for the last two biomes. 

I heard from other beta testers, who tested scouting and hunting with 1000stat wolves that even those wolves had a little bit of struggle in Glacier/Rainforest.

The last two are meant to be the hardest biomes, and I don't think any of us will be able to perform well in those biomes for a long time.

@Sharky One benefit is that some herbs can only be found in Rainforest, granted you can trade for these in a 3:1 or 2:1 exchange.

@kahvinporo thats crazy, I didn't realize the ceiling was that high for hunting in those biomes