Giant animal

Giant animals are variants of normal animals, characterized by simply being much larger, and appearing in savage biomes. Giant animals are based on all kinds of animals, ranging from the smallest of vermin, to the largest of beasts; from peaceful grazers, to ferocious predators. The main exception to this are the domestic animals - there is no giant turkey. Creatures with no base in reality are also exempt from becoming giant animals.

Both the largest creature in the game, the giant sperm whale, and the largest land creature, the giant elephant are giant animals. Other giant animals, such as the giant orca, giant rhinoceros, giant elephant seal and giant walrus, are still larger than the fort-threatening monsters that are megabeasts, titans and forgotten beasts.

Three giant animals are called ”gigantic” instead of ”giant” to avoid confusion with real-life creatures. They are the gigantic panda, gigantic squid and gigantic tortoise.

History

Giant animals have existed since the 2D days of Dwarf Fortress. Initially, the only giant animals were giant bats, giant cave spiders, giant cheetahs, giant leopards, giant lions, giant moles, giant rats, giant tigers, and giant toads. The giant desert scorpion was also one of these.

More giant animals were added up until sometime during 0.31, when creature variations were added. After this, any new giant animal was added as a creature variant. Several new giant animals came with 0.34.01, due to the animals of the animal sponsorship drive receiving giant variants.

Sometime during DF2014, the original giant animals were refactored to be creature variants, instead of being defined separately from their common versions. The giant cave spider was an exception from this.

0.42.04 added many giant animals as variants of existing creatures, including the giant elephant. The giant desert scorpion was removed, as there existed no normal ”desert scorpion”.