I love how the civilizations interact with each other and I think maybe it's time to make some changes with the animal people and give them a proper civilization instead of just walking around in the wilderness and unify all kinds of animal people in single civ instead of a serpent man civ and repitile man civ.
You could make them act like the south american tribes since the animal people live in forests and rarely join human civs it would be nice to give their own tribal civ.
In fort mode,if the player manage to live in peace with them,they will leave piles of meat and other goods in your door as a gesture of peace.If otherwise they will start to ambush dwarves in the woods until the point where a army can be send to besiege your fortress.
In adventure a player can play as animal people if world does not have any civ besides goblins and kobolds or if only animal people exist.
These tribes should be superior than kobolds but weaker than elves.Their ethics are totally different from the other races:they only value craftsmanship for the construction of ritual items(dolls,totems,sacrificial knifes,etc)and hunting weapons such as bows and daggers.They wear little to no clothing.They don't worship deity's or forces and believe that their origin is related to the Great Spirits of nature.Lastly animal people will often make duels and rituals to appeal said Spirits, like dances,offerings,and sacrifices.
"A medium-sized creature that is half-men and half-animal.They believe in hunt and family.Better let them alone than provoke any conflict."
(In the meantime can anyone link me a mod that make them a actual civ?)