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[rufio]

So, I know that there is nothing you can do to prevent pets breeding with each other if you wind up with a male and female of the same species, but it seems that all livestock are considered the same species for these purposes; either that, or some kind of parthenogenesis is going on, here.

My fort started out with a female horse and a male donkey (with the wagon).  The next spring, the horse gave birth to horse foals - I figured that whatever was going on, I didn't want anything to do with it and had them all slaughtered.  Later, some migrants came in with livestock pets.  Specifically, there are two [female] cows, and a mule.  I thought mules were supposed to be sterile, but apparently this one isn't because there is a regular explosion of calves every spring.  There are no bulls in my fort - whenever one of the calves grows up it is immediately slaughtered.  There are also no wild animals on my map, as migrant rangers have long since hunted them all to extinction (though if mules can impregnate cows, I wouldn't be surprised if mountain goats could do the same).

This doesn't seem to be mentioned in the wiki.  Is it normal, or is my game just special like that?  Is there a way to stop it?

[Murphy]

Don't forget about the traders' pack animals. Though I'm not sure whether they bring bulls as pack animals or not.

[rufio]

I don't think I've seen any, though that might have accounted for the horse. 

I guess it's probably a good thing in the context, though, since otherwise there would be no meat (although there are enough plump helmets to last twenty years, at this point).

[smjjames]

If you have a grassland type biome (can also be savanna and scrubland), you can get wild horses which are one of only three domestic animals that show up wild. The other two bieng muskoxen and the camels.

[rufio]

No wild horses.  Before they were all killed, my wildlife was mountain goats, hoary marmots, naked mole dogs, wolves, and antmen, maybe a cougar or two.  They don't seem to be respawning, either.

[smjjames]

Chasm critters never respawn (although I've heard that they will on reclam).

Traders are your most likely source.

[rufio]

Huh - antmen and naked mole dogs are chasm critters, apparently.  I didn't think I even had a chasm.  I don't think I actually saw any, either - I just saw them on the units list as "deceased" and in my finished goods bin as "*<<*naked mole dog skull totem*>>*".  Does that mean there's a chasm somewhere that I haven't found yet?

[dakenho]

likely

[JamPet]

Dead animals from pits and underground water sources show up in the unit list if they get killed somehow.  Although I'm not quite clear on how the dwarves could have gotten a naked mole dog skull back to the fortress to make into a totem if you hadn't discovered the pit.

[rufio]

There's actually about a page worth of dead naked mole dogs and antmen.  I have no idea where they came from - I pretty much ignored the migrants who came in with the hunting labor, and only one of them actually died.  Is it possible that they occur in other places besides chasms?

[shadowsofwhite]

I have had this same discovery when working on a hermetically sealed fort. I had two female muskoxen (one of which was eaten rather quickly), and yet, almost immediately after the first year had passed, the muskox gave birth to calves! And so began my food supply of inbred muskoxen.

[Satarus]

If your pack animals mysteriously start breeding then it's probably because the traders brought a male pack animal to pull a cart or carry something.  It happens from time to time.

[Skorpion]

It's a chasm that doesen't pierce the surface. Go diggy, there's skulls aplenty and probably a GCS or five.

[Chewykittens]

The female animals were pregnant when they came onto your map.  They weren't breeding with each other at all, your female horse had one last special night with her boyfriend before embarking for your fort.  She probably promised him that she'll be there with his beautiful kid(s)  when he eventually arrives via migrants or traders. But now she won't be, she'll never be there when he arrives.  And as it being dwarf fort, the male horse knew it the moments she and his foals were killed by the butcher.  I see the horse from time to time, he's taken up drinking, and he's an angry drunk.  Last time I saw him was on the news, he was arrested for a bar fight or something like that...

Way to go, you ruined a young stallion's life you bastard.

[Viprince]

Horse pets are bastards for that, merchant pack animals AND wild horses will happily share their spores around and impregnant anything on the map of the female gender of their race. If your that bothered with it arrange an accident for the female horse pets.

Cows/Bulls don;t have the [PACK ANIMAL] (or whatever it is) so I can't see how your cows got pregnant in the first place. Inter-species breeding is impossible. Possibly they or just one of them were pregnant prior to coming onto your map. I can however explain how they keep getting pregnant again. You let the calves reach maturation. It doesn't take more then a single frame (maybe 10? is it an action?) for a male to impregnant the whole female population. as soon as the lil bulls come of age they produce in-bred calves with their mom. To solve this, kill them whilst their still babies and impotent.

Could be you just missed a bull in your pet list or tamed animal list or something too.