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[Overspeculated]

Just thought I would share this little anecdote from my fortress, which I found particularly amusing.

On several occasions have I noticed that wild camels were running around in my fortress proper.
The first time I noticed it, I sent a soldier to deal with it, but it must have moved to a different location before he arrived since when I checked up on him again he didn't have any camel kills listed.
I saw them on and off in the less well-travelled areas of my fort every now and then, but I left them alone since they didn't seem to do any harm (no death by camel yet) and it seemed pretty cool to have a "mascot" community of camels roaming around in the base, fighting the tamed animals in a turf war.

Of course, they occasionally come across my black bear or my giant eagle or even the fortress / royal guards, and get their ass handed to them.

Currently there are sadly only two wild camels left in my base (and the entire map) (a third wandered into a cage trap and I will be releasing it shortly), of which one, the female, is seriously injured and the male is hovering around her. I doubt it will survive, and since the one in the cage is a male, this means the end for the wild camel settlement / infestation here at Inkstaff. Oh well, they will be missed.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pictured: the male is standing over the female (on the same spot, male is visible, female's wounds are shown)

[darkflagrance]

Capture them both, release them into a breeding pen, perhaps buy other camels from elves, and let them breed by spores until the population recovers, then restore them to the wild and let them torment your animals again.

I have found camels useful for ambush detection myself.

[Kanddak]

I had a fort that suffered from a bug where a certain line across the middle of the map seemed to be treated like a map edge, inasmuch as animals, merchants, and invaders would sometimes spawn on it. Naturally, the line bisected my fort. Every few months there would be a sudden plague of "dwarf cancels everything and freaks out: interrupted by entire herd of wild camels magically appearing in the middle of the fort."

[Quietust]

I had a fort that suffered from a bug where a certain line across the middle of the map seemed to be treated like a map edge, inasmuch as animals, merchants, and invaders would sometimes spawn on it.

By any chance were some of those animals Perfectly Normal Beasts?

[Ieb]

I've noticed this same thing, but with mammoths.
It occurred shortly after I managed to catch one in a cage, and tamed it.

Then the rest of the herd decided to follow their now-tamed sister, and all they got was trunk full of axes and bolts.

It was funny at the least.
"Why are there mammoths in my hallway?"

[Count Dorku]

I had a fort that suffered from a bug where a certain line across the middle of the map seemed to be treated like a map edge, inasmuch as animals, merchants, and invaders would sometimes spawn on it.

By any chance were some of those animals Perfectly Normal Beasts?

Count Dorku cancels Post: Sigging.

[Tcei]

You may get lucky, she may be pregnant and give birth before she dies. If at all possible I'd recomend herding them into a pen for breeding.

I wish things like this would happen in my fort. Closest I've ever come was a giant cave lizard that snuck in and killed all but 2 of my starting dwarves..

[Aspgren]

I once commited the mistake of building a fort on the edge of the map. In a haunted terrain.

It seemed that all the friggin time, herds of skeletal and zombie mountain goats found their way inside, I eventually had to wall of the entire area and evacuate it. It quickly turned into an undead goat den. I left some furniture behind, which they enjoyed destroying... bastards.

That save has been lost to time, though.

[Cheshire Cat]

my best megaproject was a giant dam in a badlands map with giant natural valleys that had a brook at the top.

camels were forever getting into the inside of the dam, and around all the tight corners my hunters could not crossbow them, and would get slaughtered.

once a camel has tasted blood, it becomes a terrifying force of nature. i had to dispatch my champions to deal with several camels that got inside and managed to kill a hunter who tried to bash them with a crossbow.

also, in the ages ago fort where i caught a titan and tried to use it to kill off my tame animal population, the camels killed it.

so yeah, camels. the desert version of elephants, sortof.

[Count Dorku]

my best megaproject was a giant dam in a badlands map with giant natural valleys that had a brook at the top.

camels were forever getting into the inside of the dam, and around all the tight corners my hunters could not crossbow them, and would get slaughtered.

once a camel has tasted blood, it becomes a terrifying force of nature. i had to dispatch my champions to deal with several camels that got inside and managed to kill a hunter who tried to bash them with a crossbow.

also, in the ages ago fort where i caught a titan and tried to use it to kill off my tame animal population, the camels killed it.

so yeah, camels. the desert version of elephants, sortof.

This was about to scare me, since I'm Australian and we have one of the largest camel populations in the world.

Then I remembered that all I need to do is hide in a tree and chuck drop bears at them.

[Aldaris]

This is awesome, fill up every part of the fake map edge, except one room, build an adamatine vertical ring there, build a stargate command around it.

[Innominate]

Now I need to test something: will tamed/untamed creatures fall pregnant while chained/caged?
To test:

• tamed creatures while chained
• tamed creatures while caged
• untamed creatures while chained
• untamed creatures while caged

Can almost certainly cross all the caged ones off - I've never seen a cage pregnancy before, and information from the wiki suggests only extremely low-level processing is done on caged creatures. The other two however I haven't tested.

If it turns out that untamed creatures give birth while chained, chain up several female camels at your designated "camel source". Design a one-way valve system leading from this area (optional).

[Grendus]

Caged animals won't get pregnant but will give birth. Chained animals are just like released animals just with limited mobility (I've even seen them escape the chain in fear, and being smashed or thrown more than the maximum distance from their restraint definitely unchains them).

Untamed creatures get pregnant and give birth just like tamed ones, you just rarely see it because they don't usually stay on a map long enough to give birth. However, if you capture them and put them into a storage pen untamed they will breed normally. Martin had to do this to train Morul to legendary ambusher, it just takes a lot of planning.

[loser]

This was about to scare me, since I'm Australian and we have one of the largest camel populations in the world.

Then I remembered that all I need to do is hide in a tree and chuck drop bears at them.

What the hell are "drop bears?"

[Skorpion]

This was about to scare me, since I'm Australian and we have one of the largest camel populations in the world.

Then I remembered that all I need to do is hide in a tree and chuck drop bears at them.

What the hell are "drop bears?"

Think koala bears, only bigger and heavier, and with big teeth and claws. They drop out of trees onto unsuspecting tourists, knocking them out, then proceed to eat them.