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[GoldenShadow]

Just noticed something useful. I have a cage stockpile full of assorted wild (untamed) creatures saved up. A lot of them have died from starving or old age?

I noticed the butcher will empty those cages automatically and produce unrotten parts, no longer how long ago the creature in the cage died.  The corpse doesn't start to rot until it is put outside of the cage. What determines why some creatures die in cages and some don't? I have a leapard, some plump helmet men among others that I think have been around for years and are not dead yet.

[proxn_punkd]

Untamed animals don't starve, tamed animals can't be butchered if they're already dead, and starved animals can't be butchered anyway, so it's probably old age. Some animals have short lifespans and some animals have long lifespans.

[Tirion]

That, and injuries still have their effect inside cages, so they can die of infection, blood loss, syndromes, etc contacted before they walked into the cage trap.

[Quietust]

Another oddity is that items stored in cages do not rot. This proved useful in one of my fortresses from 40d, where the HFS contained a cage containing "elf skin" which I was able to tan into leather (and later turn into an artifact harp) even after a year had passed (since some bars of coal had been ignited by spirits of fire).