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[Brilliand]

I just got the message "(Tame Bat) has gnawed its way out of confinement!".  I zoomed to the message, and there's a vermin called "(Tame Bat)" flying around the incoming elf caravan.

I didn't think it was possible for a creature to escape a cage like this.  Can this happen if the cage is destroyed?  I think I read somewhere that destroying a cage destroys the creature, but that was for an older version of DF.

[BlackFlyme]

Bats have the [GNAWER] token, which allows them to escape from cages and animal traps, though I don't know any specific information around gnawing.

I'd assume that quality and material may affect how easy it is for an animal with gnawer to escape, but I'm not positive on that.

It's not unheard of for there to be unmarked vermin in the cages that caravans often bring, but I've never seen anything escape from them before.

[Repseki]

Are the animal traps made of wood?

I'm pretty sure any metal would keep them in. I caught like 15 rats a few forts back with wooden traps not thinking about it only to be spammed by escaping rats and a messy cat frenzy.

[Gargomaxthalus]

Many vermin have the ability to gnaw through things so that they can better threaten your food stores, this is why you make drums, pots, and jugs. The cages are an unfortunate side effect. This is of course unless you give the tag to a large predator, then it's a great source of hilarity FUN. Bonus points for giving them Candy teeth.

[Urist Da Vinci]

See this bug report - vermin should only escape from artifact containers due to a bug.
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=6117

However if you patch the bug:

This patch could lead to hilarity with Elven caravans - they bring all sorts of vermin in wooden cages, and any with [GNAWER] would immediately escape upon arrival

[Brilliand]

See this bug report - vermin should only escape from artifact containers due to a bug.
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=6117

However if you patch the bug:

This patch could lead to hilarity with Elven caravans - they bring all sorts of vermin in wooden cages, and any with [GNAWER] would immediately escape upon arrival

I'm using Masterwork Mod, so... pretty good chance it's patched.

Also, the horse that was carrying the bat died for some random reason shortly afterward (probably a boiling rock syndrome), and the merchants fled by heading down my main stairwell and exiting through the first cavern.  I'm gonna have to start thinking of the elves as my annual shipment of weirdness.

I wonder if they'll go to war over their suicidal merchants...

[Tirion]

Wait, so this works with big creatures too?

[Bumber]

You can look forward to having (Tame Bat) grace your animals screen and pasture list forever. It won't go away even after the bat leaves the map. I'm up to two in my game so far.

[Drazinononda]

You must not have any cats then. I tried to give a dwarf a pet cardinal one time and one of the pet cats ate it.