Hi!
First, I really have to get something off my chest:
AWESOME! AWESOME! AWESOME! AWESOME!
In my 31.03 fortress (experimenting with a relatively wet world in hope of fighting the curse of blood), I have followed my usual habit of buying the interesting animals from the elven traders. It is now the third or fourth year (so second or third elven caravan), and I was able to get my broker to do the trading rather quickly, even before summer began. From the offered items, I went with a giant eagle, a wolf, an elephant (I am not sure about that one, it was hard bargaining, so I may have skipped it to save money), and several giant tigers, giant leopards, and giant jaguars.
My second habit is releasing the animals right after buying them (they help guard my fortress, uncover thieves, snatchers, ambushers, other noteworthy hostiles).
However, this time, something was different. Even before summer came (that means, just one or two days after releasing them!!!) I saw the red C in the left bar. I was worried that some of my dwarves may have offended the local wildlife, so I checked:
Nope, it was one of the giant jaguars or leopards (sorry, I forgot which) I just bought which had spontaneously turned on a wild elephant cow! Not even a week in my fortress, and the feline was already doing some serious hunting there!
However, it was not able to finish off the elephant cow, and she recovered from that fight, only to get into trouble with others of the felines. Right now, she is lying there unconscious in a big red zone, exhausted, her right ear and tusk ripped out and a giant tiger lying next to her, over-exerted. Besides the missing parts, her entire body is full of serious wounds, so I am hopeful the tiger will be able to finish the job (I don't want to steal the fame, so I am not sending the military in).
I noticed that the felines will not co-operate in hunting: If one of them is chasing prey, none of the others will attack that specific prey unit, even when the chase moves close by. However, once prey and predator are not together anymore, another predator may take up the baton.
While the elephant cow has been lying there a while, another giant feline chased an elephant bull around the map. Unfortunately, their chase led them into the entrance area of my fortress which is neither trapped nor walled yet.
The elephant quickly realized that the tunnels were a dead end and left again, but not before kicking my broker in the right (I think) hand!
While I am feeling sorry for my broker, I am excited about my first real experience with the health care system (I had only one previous encounter in 31.01, and that ended fatally because of what I think is a bug). Of course, I don't have soap or plaster, but my medical dwarf still cleaned the wound and is currently suturing it (in between, I removed her from the post remembering that people mentioned that otherwise health care would be bugged). Someone also gave my broker water right after she entered the hospital, so I am very pleased with how the healthcare system has worked thus far.
So, this spring/early summer (now) has thus far been simply awesome. And I am looking forward to making those ivory crafts once the tigers are done.
Deathworks