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DF2014:Grazer

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This article is about an older version of DF.
It tastes like ramen to them.

Tame grazing animals (those with the [STANDARD_GRAZER] token) require a constant source of grass or cave moss to survive. Pastures are currently the easiest such source, however care must be taken to ensure that the pasture is large enough to provide food for all the assigned animals (and any auto-assigned babies). Other sources are animal caretakers feeding chained/caged creatures, and dwarves feeding their pets.

Grazing animals and pasture size

Grazing animals use the [STANDARD_GRAZER] which calculates a value from this formula:

GRAZER = 20000 × G × (max size)-3/4

G can be set in d_init (100 by default)

max size is the maximum size a creature can reach, divided by 10.

The minimum resulting GRAZER value is capped at 150, the maximum at 3 million.

For custom creatures, you could also set the value directly with the [GRAZER:<value>] token. In either case, this is an inverse number - the GRAZER value signifies how much hunger is reduced when eating a unit of grass. (Hunger increases every tick; a creature dies when it reaches 100,000). A creature with ten times the grazer value needs one tenth the amount of grass (and hence, pasture land) as a creature with a small grazer value. Because of this, it may be wise to give larger animals grazing areas separate from other animals, as the larger animals are likely to not leave enough grass for other animals, which can lead to them starving. If you started your fortress in an undead biome, you may need to assign more space for a pasture, as much of the grass is dead - animals will not eat dead grass and will only eat the still-living patches.

Animals which graze are typically good livestock candidates, as many of them can be milked and three also can be sheared for wool. Creatures with larger sizes consume more grass, but also produce more meat when butchered. Grazing animals who are pets will occasionally be fed by their owners, allowing them to roam free without the need of a pasture, however this is unreliable due to pet feeding being a very low-priority job, often leading to these pets starving and possibly dying if not supervised. If grazing animals consume all the grass on a tile, the tile will be reverted to the base layer material, which may be sand, clay or soil. In this way, you receive a visual clue as to the size of the pasture required.

List of grazing animals

Take the following numbers with a grain of salt; they ignore the differing abilities of various biomes to replenish grass and are instead based on a rule of thumb that 20000=Grazer*Required_tiles. Usually you can get along with way smaller pastures. Nevertheless, a fairly large herd can cause overgrazing fast, so keep an eye out for hungry animals and desolate grassless pastures.

Animal Grazer
value
Creature
Size
Milkable Shearable Recommended Pasture Size
per individual
Needed Tiles (per rule-of-thumb) Sqrt of Needed Tiles
Elephant 106.366 5,000,000 19 × 10 188.03 13.7
Giant bull moose 119.990 4,257,750 14 × 12 166.68 12.9
Rhinoceros 156.023 3,000,000 13 × 10 128.19 11.3
Giant moose cow 176.008 2,554,650 13 × 9 113.63 10.7
Draltha 178.885 2,500,000 14 × 8 111.80 10.6
Gigantic panda 318.005 1,160,900 9 × 7 62.89 7.9
Water buffalo 355.656 1,000,000 Yes 10 × 6 56.23 7.5
Giraffe 355.656 1,000,000 10 × 6 56.23 7.5
Yak 464.736 700,000 Yes 9 × 5 43.04 6.6
Cow 521.695 600,000 Yes 8 × 5 38.34 6.2
Unicorn 521.695 600,000 8 × 5 38.34 6.2
Bull moose 576.648 525,000 7 × 5 34.68 5.9
Giant capybara 578.011 523,350 7 × 5 34.60 5.9
Horse 598.140 500,000 Yes 7 × 5 33.44 5.8
Camel (both) 598.140 500,000 Yes 7 × 5 33.44 5.8
Mule 707.107 400,000 6 × 5 28.28 5.3
Cow moose 845.857 315,000 5 × 5 23.64 4.9
Donkey 877.383 300,000 Yes 5 × 5 22.80 4.8
Elk 877.383 300,000 5 × 5 22.80 4.8
Muskox 911.793 285,000 5 × 5 21.93 4.7
Giant red panda 1,053.393 235,100 5 × 4 18.99 4.4
Tapir 1,189.207 200,000 Yes 6 × 3 16.82 4.1
Llama 1,286.991 180,000 Yes Yes 4 × 4 15.54 3.9
Deer 1,553.939 140,000 5 × 3 12.87 3.6
Reindeer 1,642.754 130,000 Yes 5 × 3 12.17 3.5
Panda 1,642.754 130,000 5 × 3 12.17 3.5
Warthog 2,000.000 100,000 4 × 3 10.00 3.2
Elk bird 2,000.000 100,000 4 × 3 10.00 3.2
Kangaroo 2,164.453 90,000 Yes 4 × 3 9.24 3.0
Alpaca 2,613.403 70,000 Yes Yes 4 × 2 7.65 2.8
Goat 3,363.586 50,000 Yes 3 × 2 5.95 2.4
Mountain goat 3,363.586 50,000 3 × 2 5.95 2.4
Ibex 3,363.586 50,000 3 × 2 5.95 2.4
Impala 3,363.586 50,000 3 × 2 5.95 2.4
Sheep 3,363.586 50,000 Yes Yes 3 × 2 5.95 2.4
Capybara 3,640.161 45,000 3 × 2 5.49 2.3
Wombat 5,656.854 25,000 2 × 2 3.54 1.9
Gazelle 6,687.403 20,000 2 × 2 2.99 1.7
Hoary marmot 11,246.827 10,000 2 × 1 1.78 1.3
Red panda 18,914.832 5,000 2 × 1 1.06 1.0
Hare 24,716.044 3,500 1 × 1 0.81 0.9
Groundhog 27,745.276 3,000 1 × 1 0.72 0.8
Cavy 74767.439 800 1 × 1 0.27 0.5
Rabbit 106365.918 500 1 × 1 0.19 0.4
Key
♠ the four panda species will eat only bamboo (any type), in effect requiring much larger pasture areas even on maps where bamboo does grow, and modding to survive on maps where it doesn't

The giant animals not listed here are not included yet because that's a bunch more work, and it is uncertain how many of them (if any) are still bugged.

Bugs

  • Grass does not grow back on mountain biomes.Bug:4164
  • Egg-laying grazers will starve themselves sitting on a nest box.Bug:4637
  • Grazing juveniles tend to clump in the same tile as their mother, leading to starvation and overcrowding. This is particularly problematic for species with large litters, like giant capybaras.[Verify]
  • When a civilian alert is active, grazers outside of the alert burrow refuse to eat.Bug:6240