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[Ostrich Knight]

For some reason, my dwarves won't butcher any dead animals. I had some water buffaloes and a yak calf hanging around my fortress and they died of thirst or hunger or something. So I want to make useful stuff out of their bones, meat, etc. and I add the "Butcher an animal" task to the butcher's shop, and then I always get "Dwarf blah cancels Butcher an Animal: Needs butcherable unrotten nearby item" even though there's plenty of corpses littering the nearby refuse pile and they're not rotten. I even tried building a butcher's shop right next to the refuse pile, but nope. I have no idea what could be causing this, a glitch, maybe?

Also, I'm pretty sure starving my animals to make them die is not the best way to get meat and other stuff from them but it seems like the only way right now, because my dwarves also won't hunt. I got a dwarf's labour set to hunt only and he won't do anything. He just sits around in the dining hall all day. Do I need to get him a bow and arrows or something? Because I got a crossbow and also assigned two dogs to him (one of them by accident).

By the way, I'm a new player in the very unlikely case you couldn't tell. So why are my dwarves being animal lovers?

[Mushroo]

It's a known bug. Dwarves will not butcher animals that starved to death. You need to designate them for butchery while they are still alive from your (z) Animals screen.

Make an (i) pasture zone and they will not starve to death next time.

[Ostrich Knight]

Ah, I see. Thank you very much. Any idea why my dwarf is not hunting?

[Mushroo]

To answer your hunting question, you need: a crossbow, bolts, and a quiver
The dwarf must have the hunting labor enabled, must be able to access the surface (not prevented from access by a burrow, locked door, drawbridge, etc.) and obviously... there must be wild animals to hunt!

Also if you are new to the game I hope you are farming and/or gathering plants in addition to your meat industry. Meat is nice but you can't brew alcohol from it.

[Ostrich Knight]

Hmm... But I have an iron crossbow, as well as bolts and several quivers. My hunter dwarf only has "hunter" labor enabled, has access to the surface and there's about 4 deer and one cow moose waiting to be killed. What's going on?

[RAKninja]

Ah, I see. Thank you very much. Any idea why my dwarf is not hunting?

hunting is a decent way to skill up marksdwarves, but i do not know where it lies on the priority scale.  it is also unreliable, as eventually you'll hunt all the populations of animals to extinction.  it's more noticeable with fishing, but still happens with hunting.  try disabling all other labours besides hunting.  i am not sure, but the hunting may somehow be linked to how much food you have.

a more reliable source of meat is keeping livestock.  if you breach a cavern layer with underground plants, those plants start to grow on all muddied or soil tiles on the map.  you can then keep indoor pastures.

i keep alpacas myself.  they are shearable, milkable, and provide great meat.  they mature in about a year or so (but i think full growth is achieved after two years).

[Ostrich Knight]

I'll keep that in mind, but I'm still bothered that my dwarf won't hunt. He has no labour on other than hunting. By the way, to keep livestock, I'd have to add the task "Catch live land animal" from kennels, right? If so, I have another problem. Everytime I add the task, the dwarf seems to get to it and then I get "Dwarf bleblebleh cancels Catch Live Animal: Could not find path". I'm beginning to think I should blame it all on my map and start over.

[Quietust]

Dwarves will not butcher animals that starved to death.

This isn't the entire story - dwarves will never butcher a dead tame creature, regardless of how they died (could be starvation, injury, or old age). Tame creatures can only be Slaughtered while they are still alive.

[Mushroo]

I'll keep that in mind, but I'm still bothered that my dwarf won't hunt. He has no labour on other than hunting. By the way, to keep livestock, I'd have to add the task "Catch live land animal" from kennels, right? If so, I have another problem. Everytime I add the task, the dwarf seems to get to it and then I get "Dwarf bleblebleh cancels Catch Live Animal: Could not find path". I'm beginning to think I should blame it all on my map and start over.

This suggests there is a problem with your fortress layout and your dwarfs can't find a path to the surface. Double-check the design of your stairs, doors, bridges, etc. to make sure your hunter can access the surface.

Also make sure you (o)rders, (r)efuse, dwarves gather refuse from (o)utside. This will make sure they bring the carcasses to the butchers shop.

[RAKninja]

I'll keep that in mind, but I'm still bothered that my dwarf won't hunt. He has no labour on other than hunting. By the way, to keep livestock, I'd have to add the task "Catch live land animal" from kennels, right? If so, I have another problem. Everytime I add the task, the dwarf seems to get to it and then I get "Dwarf bleblebleh cancels Catch Live Animal: Could not find path". I'm beginning to think I should blame it all on my map and start over.

"catch a live animal" relates to vermin, not large animals.  to tame large animals (anything not vermin) you need to capture it in a cage trap, and then "tame a large animal" from the kennels.

try forbidding all of your food for a short time, and see if your hunter hunts.  i have no evidence, but my experiences lead me to believe if you have more than x food for y dwarves, the hunters wont hunt.

[Sphalerite]

try forbidding all of your food for a short time, and see if your hunter hunts.  i have no evidence, but my experiences lead me to believe if you have more than x food for y dwarves, the hunters wont hunt.

I am certain this is not true.  In my experience, a hunter will hunt so long as he has the right equipment (crossbow and crossbow bolts) and can path to a wild animal.  If there aren't any animals to hunt, the hunter will just hang out at the meeting room and do nothing.

[Sutremaine]

there's about 4 deer and one cow moose waiting to be killed.

Where are these animals? And does your hunter have bolts in their quiver?

[Tov01]

Have you tried disabling and then re-enabling the hunting labor. I noticed that sometimes my woodcutters won't collect an axe and cut wood until I do this. Maybe this is a similar issue.

[Ostrich Knight]

Where are these animals? And does your hunter have bolts in their quiver?

Actually, they just disappeared for some reason. Now I only see a fox and a turkey gobbler, but my new hunter should have no problem getting to them. (I just drafted my hunter for my first squad so I decided to give someone else the hunter labour). He's carrying a quiver but for some reason has no crossbow or bolts. He has access to them, I even crafted a new set.

Now I'm beginning to think this game is trolling me. I also have two plots set up to grow plump helmets and prickle berries, but for some reason my farmer doesn't seem to care about them. There's only one plump helmet growing and the prickle berry plot is empty. Yes, I do have seeds (60 prickle berry seeds and 64 plump helmet spawns). As a result, I only have seeds and drinks in my food stores, nothing else.

As I'm typing this, one of my farmers is "hunting for small creature" while he doesn't even have the proper equipment or the hunting labour on. What the heck?

[RAKninja]

Where are these animals? And does your hunter have bolts in their quiver?

Actually, they just disappeared for some reason. Now I only see a fox and a turkey gobbler, but my new hunter should have no problem getting to them. (I just drafted my hunter for my first squad so I decided to give someone else the hunter labour). He's carrying a quiver but for some reason has no crossbow or bolts. He has access to them, I even crafted a new set.

Now I'm beginning to think this game is trolling me. I also have two plots set up to grow plump helmets and prickle berries, but for some reason my farmer doesn't seem to care about them. There's only one plump helmet growing and the prickle berry plot is empty. Yes, I do have seeds (60 prickle berry seeds and 64 plump helmet spawns). As a result, I only have seeds and drinks in my food stores, nothing else.

As I'm typing this, one of my farmers is "hunting for small creature" while he doesn't even have the proper equipment or the hunting labour on. What the heck?

he's starving.  he'll eat the vermin that he catches.  that's perhaps why he isnt farming.