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[Marlowe]

Note that Kobolds are carnivourous, and HAVE to do this to survive, since they're also bad hunters. People have made functioning kobold fortresses.

Also, muskoxen seem to be buggy, and reproduce even without a male.

[GlyphGryph]

Life finds a way.

[pushy]

Frog DNA?

[Shadowlord]

I also keep only one or two males of each species, but I do the opposite of what most of you have said you do as far as choosing which animals to butcher:

I don't butcher any young female animals (except kittens if we have a ton already), and generally wait for young males to mature, and butcher the older ones instead of the newly matured ones (most of you said you butcher the youngest)
I butcher all adult male animals except for one or two of each species (which most of you said you do)
I butcher the adult females too, starting with the oldest, but if I wanted them to have a stable population I'd keep a bunch who aren't marked for butchering, or regulate the number of butcher's shops I have.

By the time I start doing this the dwarves are saying "OH CARP WE HAVE 200 ANIMALS TROMPING AROUND THE DINING ROOM," so I end up running something like 5 butcher's shops simultaneously while only slowly reducing the number of animals (which was the real reason I started doing this).

[slink]

Butchering the oldest is the only way that makes sense to me, the old saying about "killing the fatted calf" not withstanding.  This is especially true with the lower yields for young animals, of which I was not even aware.  If calves gave veal, which was of higher perceived value than beef, then there might be some reason to slaughter calves.

[numerobis]

Also, muskoxen seem to be buggy, and reproduce even without a male.

Your animals will shag accept spores from the caravan's pack animals.

[numerobis]

Butchering the oldest is the only way that makes sense to me

Indeed.  It's the easiest thing, because the old show up at the top; it means you don't lose animals to old age; and butchering the young is like eating your seed corn.

[Marlowe]

Also, muskoxen seem to be buggy, and reproduce even without a male.

Your animals will shag accept spores from the caravan's pack animals.

They WERE the pack animals. There weren't any others.

[Skanky]

What happens off-map doesn't always stay off-map.

[Kate Wissen]

butchering the young is like eating your seed corn.

But the seed corn is the best corn of the lot, of course you want to eat it.

Equivalently, mmmm veal.

[Dadamh]

Wait, seriously, why is there all this talk of cows?  Cats breed like wildfire.  Just start a fort with two dozen cats, then every time there are kittens, slaughter them all and eat like kings.

[Marlowe]

What happens off-map doesn't always stay off-map.

Thanks Skanky. I'll be in my room.