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[Imp]

I went back to vanilla DF after getting my fill of orcs on Dig Deeper, least for now.  The map I picked is a mix of evil and normal savage biomes, mountain and badlands.  Was watching my dwarves run around inside their encampment, several minutes after the caravans left, when suddenly most of them headed outside.  I followed and they were after camel bones and skulls, four camels worth.  This puzzled me, as I have all refuse gathering on, and have storage space for corpses by my butcher shop - and the dwarves were not all busy.  Corpses have been hauled in before and butchered, so I expect they should have brought the corpses inside, long before they rotted down to bones.  And I really would have liked the hides.

When I checked the units list, the only dead camels were four zombie ones.  There were five smatterings of blood by the bones.

It's possible that the caravan killed those zombie camels since I didn't watch the caravan leave (and there's no friendly deaths on my unit list), but why didn't my guys go after the corpses before they rotted if so?  Would those zombies have rotted to bones that fast?  On other maps my dwarves have brought back rotting zombie corpses to decay in my refuse pits.  This map has had several 'odd animal deaths' even long before my caravan came, my dwarves running out to get corpses for butchering and when I check the units list and the area the corpses are at I don't see anything to explain what killed those animals, and my dwarves are not being attacked on the way there or back.

No dwarves are set to soldier or hunt, and these corpses are all fairly near the map edges and fairly far from my dwarves' encampment. My civ screen only shows dwarves and there have been no messages about ambushes, so I don't think other races or hidden creatures are killing the beasts and wandering off/hiding again either.

Any ideas?

[ohgoditburns]

I routinely have chasm creatures die before I even breach. I have no idea what causes this.

Subterranean river creatures sometimes die from falling, I think. I can't be sure of that either.

[Time Kitten]

Zombies drop pre-rotted corpses.

And cats, that's just as likely as anything else to take out zombie camels.

[Imp]

Yeah, I'm used to chasm and underground river critters dying, I assumed they were fighting each other down there, and this map already has a couple pages of dead underground critters I cant see yet.  I haven't seen surface creatures just 'dropping dead' before though.  The dead animals my dwarves butchered both mountain goats, brought back from two different locations, but neither was close to the exposed bottomless pit.  The map also has a still hidden underground river, chasm, HFS, and magma vent.  The camel skeletons were grouped in a line close to each other but quite far from where the goats died and from the open pit.

No cats on the map, I have two dogs chilling peacefully in my interior meeting area, don't think it's possible for my pets to have killed the camels or the goats.

[Holy Mittens]

Chasm creatures die of old age. Many of them have very short life spans, of only a few years at max, so when you first embark chances are there are at least a few close to death. Underground river creatures are frequently swept into the river's chasm by the water flow and die that way.

It was most likely the caravan that killed the zombies. Or other wild animals on the map. I am fairly certain undead will attack any random animal that they spot. That would also explain the other random dead animals on the map.

[Skorpion]

You might have a GCS. Or if there's undead, a skeletal GCS.

I don't know how something with no bones can be skeletal. Maybe it's just a hollow exoskeleton.

[ungulateman]

Invisible carp.

Which walk on land and breathe fire.

[Urist Imiknorris]

You might have a GCS. Or if there's undead, a skeletal GCS.

I don't know how something with no bones can be skeletal. Maybe it's just a hollow exoskeleton.

Skeletal GCS are fun, Fun and FUN.

[Imp]

I finally spotted the animal killer, thanks to a marmot that gave an enraged message before it died.  There is a wandering batman  attacking animals, then moving away from my dwarves as they approached to get the corpses.  It seems to like to fly up and away, so I never noticed it.

[Lord Dakoth]

Huh. I was going to say that you should check if "Dwarves Gather Outside Refuse" was turned on, but I guess that wasn't the problem.

Now that you have a Batman, you need to defeat it with a Legendary comedian.

*dodges brick*

[gtmattz]

I finally spotted the animal killer, thanks to a marmot that gave an enraged message before it died.  There is a wandering batman  attacking animals, then moving away from my dwarves as they approached to get the corpses.  It seems to like to fly up and away, so I never noticed it.

Hahahah that is awesome, a 'batman' clearing out baddies from your map, and conveiniently dissapearing when you go to investigate.  do you have a dwarf named bruce wayne? 

[psychologicalshock]

It might have been a skeletal camel those are a lot worse than zombies, in my current fort I have like 200 deaths in 5 years (not that many mine actually) from orcs, camels and traders constantly fighting.

[monk12]

Huh. I was going to say that you should check if "Dwarves Gather Outside Refuse" was turned on, but I guess that wasn't the problem.

Now that you have a Batman, you need to defeat it with a Legendary comedian.

*dodges brick*

Whoever threw that brick needs to chill out. Why so serious, guys?

[silhouette]

*throws two bricks*
I wanna know how you got those scars.

[Hobbie]

Skeletal GCS would be worship-worthy. I'd have to center my fort around that theme.