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[Dorf and Dumb]

It's cute that the game has thieves like rhesus macaques, which might deserve the rap, but why do mundane vultures go for expensive (and heavy) equipment?  They ought to, you know, descend on your refuse pile and consume the stuff (so there would be no need for a special weird feature that any refuse stockpile magically degrades steel armor in it)

[celem]

leather is food to a vulture mate.  it's just skin remember?  you scraped and buffed and added stuff, but its dead animal skin and it's a carrion eater.  Thats bang on.

If it takes steel then I raise issue

[Grahar]

I had a problem with keas once.
Steel shield? Why not. Forgotten beast bone shield? You're on. Steel armor? Nor problem. Gold-studded steel spear? Nice for the personal collection. War dog? Splatter his blood all over the Baron's throne room!
Fortunately, the method of catching enough keas and then letting them range free in an enclosed space with no escape was hinder new keas from spawning.

[LarsGerhard]

(so there would be no need for a special weird feature that any refuse stockpile magically degrades steel armor in it)

That's not a feature.

[Bumber]

(so there would be no need for a special weird feature that any refuse stockpile magically degrades steel armor in it)

That's not a feature.

Everything's a feature unless Toady says otherwise.

[LarsGerhard]

(so there would be no need for a special weird feature that any refuse stockpile magically degrades steel armor in it)

That's not a feature.

Everything's a feature unless Toady says otherwise.

...No. No that's simply not how bugs work.

[Swonnrr]

I had a problem with keas once.
Steel shield? Why not. Forgotten beast bone shield? You're on. Steel armor? Nor problem. Gold-studded steel spear? Nice for the personal collection. War dog? Splatter his blood all over the Baron's throne room!
Fortunately, the method of catching enough keas and then letting them range free in an enclosed space with no escape was hinder new keas from spawning.

That or a Dwarven Flak Tower, with marksdwarves and loads of ammos.

It trains your marksdwarves, while keeping the keas away and, if placed well can provide early-warning and first defence line against thieves and ambushes.

[greycat]

Bug #5711: Armor/clothing decays in an "everything" stockpile that includes refuse

[Tacomagic]

I had a group of wild boars do something similar.  They stubbornly kept pathing into my fort for no apparent reason.  Eventually, after being scared away numerous times, the pigs managed to get inside.  They promptly got panicked by the dorfs, and then spent the next few months running around in circles in the dining hall.

Eventually I managed to trap them all, but I found it interesting that they constantly pathed into my fortress even after being scared away numerous times.

I checked the raws and they're not even set up with the mischief or curiosity flags, so I have no idea what the deal was with all that. Was a good source of free pork though.

[SixOfSpades]

leather is food to a vulture mate.  it's just skin remember?  you scraped and buffed and added stuff, but its dead animal skin and it's a carrion eater.

Not only is tanned/boiled-in-oil leather nearly impossible to chew (especially for animals with jaws as weak as vultures'), but it doesn't smell like skin anymore. A vulture wouldn't even recognize leather armor as a potential source of nutrition, let alone consider it.

Thieves take what they take because they're programmed to, not necessarily because of any real-world dynamic. If you can figure out a logical reason why a raccoon would come into my fort, steal a large block of solid marble, and run away carrying the marble on its back, please let me know.

I had a group of wild boars do something similar.  They stubbornly kept pathing into my fort for no apparent reason.

Might they have been trying to path through your fort? Mine is set up with a huge curtain wall that encloses 98% of the map. Any wandering critter that chooses any spot in my ample pasturelands as its destination has to path right through my central keep (encountering loads of traps before it does so). If your fort is the only/easiest route to a similarly large zone (such as the caverns), it's likely that the pigs were just passing through.

[Saiko Kila]

My wild boars didn't try to get inside, but they were persistent in trying to walk their chosen path outside my fort  and couldn't be scared away, always returning. Finally I installed the traps and caged them all. They grow bigger than standard pigs and don't graze, so are a good choice for animal training.

[Dyrxaend]

Keas alwaes steal my anvils and picks. I swear, I have had to abandon multiple fortresses because I had no way to dig underground or  build anyhing.

[Ravendarksky]

Not only is tanned/boiled-in-oil leather nearly impossible to chew (especially for animals with jaws as weak as vultures'), but it doesn't smell like skin anymore. A vulture wouldn't even recognize leather armor as a potential source of nutrition, let alone consider it.

While you are probably right I think the vultures could probably digest it if it was in small enough pieces for them to eat. They can eat actual bones after all: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearded_vulture

[Button]

Not only is tanned/boiled-in-oil leather nearly impossible to chew (especially for animals with jaws as weak as vultures')

FYI, birds don't 'chew' with their beaks. The beak is for ripping off chunks, or cracking shells, or the like.The 'chewing' is done by a digestive organ called the gizzard in their throats.

If a bird tries to eat something too tough (or sticky, or whatever) to chew, the item just sort of languishes in the gizzard, taking up space. The animal may eventually starve to death, if enough of its gizzard is full of indigestible stuff. This is why you don't feed birds cheese, even though they love it and will gobble it up if allowed.

Take solace in the fact that the birds eating the shreds of your masterwork leather armor will slowly starve to death for their trouble.

[SixOfSpades]

FYI, birds don't 'chew' with their beaks. The beak is for ripping off chunks, or cracking shells, or the like.

I took it as read that any animal too weak to even gnaw tough leather to bits would be similarly unable to tear it to shreds, at least with its mouth. A large bird of prey like an eagle would probably be able to puncture leather armor with its talons, but even then I don't think they could "tear" said armor into pieces. Vultures aren't known for their tendency to rip through skin even before it's boiled, they'd rather just eat what the predator has already torn into convenient bite-size shreds for them.

Treated leather does have some nutritional value, there are numerous tales of people near starvation surviving by eating their belts and shoes. But in most cases, they had to cut them up with tools first.