40d:Captured creatures

You can capture creatures in a variety of ways, including animal traps for vermin, cage traps for wild animals and hostiles (like goblins), forcibly caging tame animals (see below), and you can also buy caged animals from the elves. Caged animals do not require food or nourishment as of .33g. The only case when a caged creature is fed is during its taming.

Below is a collection of some things you can do with creatures in cages or other holding devices.

Training and taming

A dwarf with the Animal Training labor enabled will train dogs in a kennel to become hunting dogs and war dogs. Vermin and other animals can also be tamed. A tame animal has the tag (Tame) after its name and is safe to be released into the fortress. According to a forum post, a tamed tiger purchased from the elves will act as a guard, attacking hostile creatures. This is supposedly also true for other animals. Dragons and other megabeasts may also be tamed, but this requires a Dungeon master. Tamed vermin and animals may be adopted as pets by the dwarves, and animals may also be slaughtered for food. A colony of Muskoxen or some other peaceful animal can be used as a food source, by allowing them to breed, waiting for them to grow and then cutting down some of them in a Butchery.

Holding

An indefinite number of creatures can be fitted in a single cage. You can lock together some animals to 1.) facilitate breeding, 2.) reduce traffic and therefore reduce lag.

If you wish to fit your own tame animals into cages, you can do this by building a cage, and assigning some animals to it via the Building properties window (accessible by [q]). "Large animal caging" jobs will then be created, and dwarves will lock the hapless animals into the cage. Any offspring they give birth to is also born in the cage (but is not assigned to the cage, so if the cage isn't behind forbidden doors, your dwarves will immediately free it).

Zoo

Zoo areas might be defined from cages for the enjoyment of your dwarves.

Execution

Imaginative methods have been discovered for the abuse of caged creatures.

• Execution tower: One method is the execution tower; the caged critter is brought on top of a very tall (~10 Z-levels) tower or to the edge of a chasm; the the edge of the tower (some of the tower and some of the abyss) is designated as a Pit/Pond; the animal in the cage is assigned to be in the pit/pond and unassigned from the cage. A dwarf will run up to the tower, pull the creature out of its cage and throw it down into the depth.

• Alternative execution: Instead of executing the trapped creature, one could execute a noble by placing a caged megabeast (which will remain hostile even when tamed) in its quarters and release the beast.

• Death chambers: A cage can be opened remotely by attaching a lever to it. This allows for some horrible traps, such as the drowning chamber or magma death chamber. A room is set up next to a water or magma pool, separated from it by a floodgate; a cage is put into the room, and a lever is attached to it; doors leading into the chamber are locked down; the cage and the floodgate are opened remotely. The creatures will then drown or burn. (The cage must be opened for this to work, as animals in cages do not drown. I don't currently know whether magma will melt non-magma-resistant cages along with it's owner.)

• Arenas: Remote cage opening can also be used to set up arenas; a tame animal such as a tiger or dogs is locked into the arena; a cage containing a hostile animal, such as a goblin (presumably stripped of its weapons and armor) is also brought in the arena; doors are locked down and the cage is opened. The animals will shred the goblin (or in a worse case, the creatures will kill off your animals - therefore it is wise to assign some guards to the doorways to put down any breakout attempts).