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[Frugal]

For some reason, groundhogs have been either spawning directly into the cage traps I have at my fortress entrance, or somehow sneaking into them.  They're never visible until the trap snags em.

My question is, do I have to attach the cage(s) to a lever to manually release them, or is there some way of setting them to be butchered directly from the cage?  Do they have to be tamed first for that to work?

[schnobs]

I'd be surprised if groundhogs were not butcherable, but I'm too lazy to look it up and maybe, just maybe you just can't get at them.

Also mind the difference between butchering a dead animal and slaughtering a live one: with some species you can do the one but not the other.

If they are slaughterable, they should show up in you list of animals. No need to tame them first. This may be blocked by a pending hauling task: the cage needs to be taken to your animal stockpile first.

I don't know if you can do anything to (or with) the beast if you don't have an animal pile. Could be that they only become available once they have been stored properly.

If all else fails, you should at any rate be able to either:
- chasm the beast (with cage? without?)
- assign it to another cage

That other cage may be part of a zoo, or linked to a lever so you can release the animal. Wether you release it back into the wild, or into a drowning chamber, or whatever, is of course totally up to you.

[Eiba]

quote:If they are slaughterable, they should show up in you list of animals. No need to tame them first. This may be blocked by a pending hauling task: the cage needs to be taken to your animal stockpile first.

As someone with a whole stockpile full of groundhogs... I'd say this hasn't been the case.

They've been sitting in the stockpile for a long time, and there's nothing I can do to kill the buggers. That is, without releasing them in a groundhog-hostile environment, perhaps in my barracks, or a drowning room or trap room if we're being boring.

As soon as I tame them, however, they can be lead to the slaughter without letting them out of their cages...

If there's actually a way to slaughter wild animals in cages without taming them, I'd love to know... Though I still like the idea of using them to train my soldiers...

[Jaqie Fox]

Just an idea: can they be drowned while still in their cages? you could have the animal stockpile full of wild-ghogs-in-cages near your butcher workshop, and inside a drowning room... that'd be a roundabout way of making a bunch of them ready to butcher albeit soaking wet  

[ctrlfrk]

You need to tame them before you can slaughter them. The option is under "tame large animal" in the kennel

[schnobs]

You need to tame them first? Pathetic. Bonus points to the first who comes up with a Fierce Creatures style quote about just how dangerous groundhogs are if they haven't been properly tamed by an approved beastmaster.

As to mass drowning, I once tried to rid myself of some living vermin. Rat? Can't remember. At any rate, I put the beast-cum-trap in a drowning room and guess what? The beast would curiously look out, blink at the water all round, and go back to sleep.

Animals tied to ropes would drown, that I remember. I can't recall wether I tried cages as well.

But given that you can keep live, submerged kitten in an aquarium I wouldn't be surprised if cages worked the other way round, that is, the beast won't drown unless released.

[Akael]

Bah.

I hold arena fights at MY fortress. Unleash five elephants and a spear goblin or two into the dome of stone...

Great way to watch the enemies of your fortress die violently in a bloody arena sport for the entertainment of you and your dorfs, and I imagine twenty groundhogs fighting a goblin swordmaster would be an interesting altercation.