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[Valthero]

I posted this on the Caverns talk page on the Wiki yesterday, but felt that I might get a faster response here.

So, I was having problems with creatures attacking my dwarves in the caverns. I had this bright idea to wall up every entrance with a little trap-filled doorway; caged creatures and meat from swarms. I even constructed flooring at the entrances to keep my dwarves from collecting ill-designated plants and trees, just in case a hostile creature was present.

In theory, it was the best idea I'd ever had. In effect, creatures  stopped spawning several months after I was finished.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Aside from the occasional Forgotten Beast, that is.

It has been several in-game years now. I am removing the flooring now to see if that is what is keeping creatures from entering the caverns through the sides. If not, does anybody have any helpful hints for me?

[Sphalerite]

Your local cavern biome had a finite population of wild animals.  You caught them all.

[i2amroy]

Guess the only option now is to start breeding your own herds of them. Then you can either just keep them locked up or re-populate the wild populations by releasing them off of the map edges.

[knutor]

I doubt you eliminated all the critter population. 

How did you determine nothings respawning?

I hope by Runesmith.  Otherwise you may be overlooking someone or something.

Goodluck,
Knutor

[Valthero]

Your local cavern biome had a finite population of wild animals.  You caught them all.

D:
That kinda bites. I ended up killing off quite a few creatures before it occurred to me to place cage traps. I wonder if there's any way to spawn in creatures?

I doubt you eliminated all the critter population. 

How did you determine nothings respawning?

I hope by Runesmith.  Otherwise you may be overlooking someone or something.

Goodluck,
Knutor

I do use Runesmith, but I determined that nothing was entering my caverns by keeping a close watch on battle reports (for the weapon traps) and my animal stockpile (for the cage traps).
As of the moment, the only wild/hostile creatures in my world are caged goblins and a couple of bugbats who seem to love the ceilings of my caverns.

[Sphalerite]

Try catching or killing the bugbats.  Sometimes new creatures won't spawn until the previous spawn is all killed or captured.

[Valthero]

Try catching or killing the bugbats.  Sometimes new creatures won't spawn until the previous spawn is all killed or captured.

Will do. I also have a number of tamed cavern creatures, such as giant moles and crundles in addition to a handful of bugbats. For the sake of the experiment, I'll butcher them all, but only after backing up my save file; bugbat vs goblin fights are hilarious.
I'll post back with the results.

[Valthero]

Alright..too lazy to wait for the creatures to butcher and die, I used the Runesmith genocide function on any and all creatures that spawn in caverns. As a result, three Plump Helmet Men and a Cave Crocodile were immediately spawned.
I'm going to let the game idle now to see for sure if the repopulation shall begin, but so far it looks splendid. Many thanks, Sphalerite.

[Quietust]

Try catching or killing the bugbats.  Sometimes new creatures won't spawn until the previous spawn is all killed or captured.

I had this happen with a group of bugbats once and they were there so long that they started breeding. Once I butchered the ones I had captured and tamed, the bugbatsplosion-in-progress promptly left the map.

[Valthero]

Alright — definite repopulation. Giant Olms and Crundles are spawning by the dozens. Time to load my backup and more selectively kill off wild creatures.
Thanks everybody for the help, it looks like this little mystery of mine is finally solved.