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[AdeleneDawner]

We need some !!science!!, here.

I've been playing with animals, and here's what I've observed so far:

- 11 birds in a 126-square zone do fine. I haven't let any eggs hatch yet. They don't eat the grass at all.

- Animals do eat in underground grassy areas. I read on another thread that having doors in or next to the pastures may interfere with this - I haven't tested that.

I set up several underground pasture zones, each 21x2 squares. They were about 2/3 covered with grass when I put the animals in them a few seasons ago. Here's what's in them now:

• One horse, not hungry. 2 dense, 2 plain, 16 sparse grass; 19 squares no grass; 2 dead shrubs, 1 live sapling.
• One horse, not hungry. 4 dense, 2 plain, 14 sparse grass; 21 squares no grass, 1 live shrub.
• One cow, not hungry. 5 dense, 2 plain, 12 sparse grass; 22 squares no grass; 1 dead sapling.
• One cow, not hungry. 2 dense, 4 plain, 18 sparse grass; 16 squares no grass; 1 live shrub, 1 dead shrub.
• One cow, not hungry. 3 plain, 23 sparse grass; 16 squares no grass.
• One llama, not hungry. 5 dense, 7 plain, 17 sparse grass; 8 squares no grass; 2 live shrubs, 2 dead shrubs, 1 dead sapling.
• One llama, not hungry. 4 dense, 7 plain, 22 sparse grass; 9 squares no grass.
• Four cavies, not hungry. 4 dense, 8 plain, 20 sparse grass; 9 squares no grass; 1 dead sapling.
• Three rabbits, not hungry. 7 dense, 8 plain, 19 sparse grass; 3 squares no grass; 1 dead shrub, 4 live saplings.
• No animals (control). 4 dense, 7 plain, 26 sparse grass; 4 squares no grass; 1 sapling.

Horses and cows seem to need more than 40 squares of pasture each. Llamas seem to do okay in that size pasture. The primary concern for rabbits and cavies is probably having the ability to leave a litter in there for a while until you get around to butchering it, rather than actually running out of food. (I removed all babies to my aboveground pasture as soon as they were born, so that wasn't an issue in this case.) Sparse grass appears to be either normal in general or a sign of young grass - I'll leave my control pasture alone for another couple seasons and see if the grass thickens up at all - and the presence of dense grass doesn't seem to be a sign that the animal has plenty of pasture.

My next test: Is there a difference between giving a cow one 60-square pasture and moving it back and forth between two 30-square pastures on a seasonal basis?