Editing Animals

{{Move|reason=Suggest split entire [[Animals#Animal_husbandry|Animal Husbandry]] subsection to its own article, to reduce the WoT factor on this page. See [[Talk:Animals|Discussion page]].}}

Colonists assigned to [[Work#Tame]] receive 90 XP towards their [[Skills#Animals]] per training or taming attempt. When tamed "[[cute]]" animals nuzzle a colonist, the colonist receives a +3 mood [[thought]] for 16 hours. Animals can also form bonds with colonists, providing a permanent +5 thought.  

*'''Wandering:''' Animals will wander the area when their needs are satisfied, e.g. hunger and sleep. When wandering, some species of animals will tend to stay together in a herd. Others will spread out alone across the map.

*'''Roaming:''' Tame pen animals will occasionally attempt to leave the map if not in a pen or if a pen door is left open, with escape frequency determined by the animal's roam interval [[stat]].

*'''Filth:''' While walking on constructed floors, some animals produce animal filth. The rate of producing filth is proportional to body size and wildness stats. Farm animals tend to produce massive amounts of filth. This can be mitigated by [[straw matting]] floors or by simply keeping animals on dirt.

*Feeding: animals attempt to eat the nearest food source when hungry. Herbivores move to find mature plants and carnivores hunt. Animals will keep eating until their hunger bar reaches satiation.

*Mating: male and female adults of the same species occasionally mate, which may result in a female [[pregnancy]].

*'''Sleeping''': when tired or wounded, tamed animals prefer to sleep in an [[animal bed]] or animal sleeping spot.

*Combat: All animals can only melee attack. They will defend themselves in melee combat, and some animals can turn [[manhunter]] and chase your colonists, based on their Revenge Tame fail stat. A text warning pops up on the screen when a colonist is ordered to interact with a potentially dangerous animal.

*Fleeing: most wild animals and all tamed animals will erratically flee from ranged attacks in their immediate vicinity.

*Hauling: some animals, like the [[husky]], can be trained to haul items. Inside their assigned area, they will haul items into designated storage spots, similar to how colonists haul items.

*Following master: some animals, like [[elephants]], can be trained to follow their master when drafted or doing field work (mining or hunting). This turns the animal into a guardian for your colonist, and the beast will attack nearby enemies for you.

In order to maximize the rate of offspring for a given population size of adults, the ideal is that the moment one female becomes pregnant or fertilized, another gives birth or lays an egg and becomes available to be mated. If there was no randomness involved in mating, the female:male ratio that would achieve this is given by <code>awake_proportion×gestation_time/(2×mate_mtb)</code> for gestational animals, or <code>awake_proportion×egg_interval/mate_mtb</code> for egg-laying animals. As the proportion of [[Rest|time spent awake]] can be approximated to be about <code>2/3</code> for a rest effectiveness of 0.8, and <code>mate_mtb</code> is usually 12 hours, this can be simplified to <code>2/3×gestation_time</code> or <code>4/3×egg_interval</code> in most cases.  

However, as the randomness involved with mating becomes more significant with smaller population sizes, slightly more males will be desired for smaller populations. On the contrary, animals that can be milked will want more females than this ratio suggests, as the gains from milk will offset the losses from time spent not pregnant. Animals that can lay unfertilized eggs can similarly afford a higher female ratio.

Wild animals do not mate. Incest is common and has no effect on animal health.

Passive animals will sometimes flee from nearby ranged attacks, leaving their herd and even the map if their path intersects with the map edge.{{Check Tag|Detail needed}}

Sometimes a single animal may go mad, or every animal of the same species be driven mad by a psychic wave [[event]], and attack any humans not behind closed doors.  

If injured by a colonist or tamed pet, certain species of animals will become maddened into a [[Mental break#Manhunter|manhunter]] state and will relentlessly seek out humans to attack. Sometimes nearby animals of the same species will be simultaneously enraged. Unless otherwise neutralized, a maddened animal will eventually return to a normal mood after sleeping. Animals in manhunter state will attack doors if colonists try to go in and out of them.

Manhunter chances are listed in the Wildlife tab of the map screen with a red lightning bolt next to their name, and also on the Info tab of each individual animal's information window.

Most carnivores are predators. When hungry, a predator will prefer an easy meal. They'll first go for meals or food types within their diet. They may go for a downed or dead animal or a fresh human corpse.  

When a hungry predator has no other food nearby, they will hunt, kill and consume almost any animal smaller than them, including your tamed animals and your colonists. This can especially be a problem on maps with little wildlife, like on [[Biomes#Ice sheet|Ice sheets]] when a polar bear wanders in. Still, predators tend to prefer more vulnerable and weaker animals, and wisely avoid boomrats and boomalopes.

Predator attacks usually '''stun''' their prey, leaving the victim unable to fight back. A predator will focus all attacks on their prey, so if they do down your colonist or livestock, immediately order the nearest comrade to rescue the downed pawn. It's the difference between life and death.

It is not possible to view the Needs tab of a wild animal, so you may have to deduce whether or not a predator is hungry based on its behavior. They sometimes remain near the area where they last killed and ate an animal for about a day. Bloodstains or partially-consumed animal corpses on the ground are a fairly reliable guide, as well as a source of free leather and delicious leftovers. Be careful not to let a hauler take away a predator's food before it has finished eating. It will still be hungry and will hunt your colonist instead.

Remember that [[fence]]s and [[fence gate]]s do not count as impassable for all pawns except for farm animals, meaning that predators can leap over.

Animals will give out body heat, slightly heating up their surroundings. This is insignificant most of the time. In enclosed barns with many animals packed, the heat can become a problem in warm weather or hot biomes, and a benefit in cold biomes or during winter.

While most carnivorous and omnivorous animals (such as pigs and boars) can eat raw meat, corpses, kibble, and meals, [[Warg]]s can ''only'' eat raw meat and corpses.  

All herbivorous and omnivorous animals can eat live plants (except trees and agave), vegetables, liquor, drugs, meals, and haygrass. <br>

Dendrovorous animals such as the [[alphabeaver]] and [[thrumbo]] can eat trees, in addition to other herbivorous foods.

Because all animals except wargs can eat meals, [[kibble]], and [[pemmican]], it is possible to feed meat to herbivores and plants to carnivores if it is prepared first.

A tamed animal that requires tending will find the nearest animal bed or animal sleeping spot in their [[allowed area]] and rest there until it is either fully healed or dead. Pawns assigned to doctoring will tend its wounds or illnesses and feed it, just as they would do for a humanlike pawn. If all human colonists are absent or unable to care for a sick animal, it can die of starvation even if there is food nearby and it is capable of walking.

An [[Work#Handle|animal handler]] will attempt to tame marked animals using food fitting that animal's diet. The chance to tame an animal depends on the animal's wildness (displayed on the info window) and the handler's 'Tame animal chance' stat. This stat is determined by the colonist's [[Skills#Animals|animals skill]], [[Health#Manipulation|manipulation]], [[Health#Talking|talking]], and [[Health#Hearing|hearing]]. When a handler fails to tame an animal there is a cooldown period of {{ticks|30000}}, or {{#expr:30000/2500}} in-game [[Time|hours]], before another attempt can be made. There is also a chance it will turn [[manhunter]] and start attacking the handler and others. The revenge chance is shown on the [[Menu#Wildlife|Wildlife]] menu. After a while the handler may drop unused food. <br>

Pawns with the [[Ideoligion#Bonding|Bonding: Disapproved]] precept in their [[ideoligion]]{{IdeologyIcon}} cannot be bonded with, but they will not lose existing bonds, nor their mood effects, if the the precept is added via a fluid ideoligion's reformation.{{Check Tag|Conversion?|What about converting a bonded pawn into a no bonding ideoligion}}

! Animal !! Lays<br>Unfert.!! Nutrition<br>per Egg !! Avg Eggs<br>per Clutch !! Laying<br>Interval !! Avg Eggs<br>per Day !! Egg Nutrition<br>per Day !! Daily Hunger<br>Rate !! Daily Egg Nutrition<br>per Hunger{{ref label|Males|A}}

! Animal !! Milk Amount !! Milking Interval !! Daily Milk Average

[[File:SlaughterButton.png|52px|left]] Tamed animals may be slaughtered selecting the animal and clicking the Slaughter button, or by using the Slaughter tool from the Orders menu. An animal marked in this way will be slaughtered by an animal handler. The handler need not be equipped with a weapon. You can also set up an auto-slaughter order in the animals tab, configurable to limit the amount of male, female, and pregnant animals in a pen.

 

The "euthanize by cut" [[operation]], performed by a [[Doctoring|surgeon]], and the [[Rituals#Animal sacrifice|Animal Sacrifice]] ritual{{IdeologyIcon}} will also result in a careful slaughter and avoid the 66% modifier.

Each animal has a Social tab that lists that animal's bonds and relations. Clicking an entry jumps to that bond's counterpart. Bonded humans have a persistent mood bonus, unless they have the psychopath trait, while set as that animal's master. Animals do not have such thoughts or bonuses.

 

Certain tame animals, will nuzzle your colonists. Animals can nuzzle patients in bed. A colonist who is nuzzled receives a +4 mood buff for 1 day.

 

The following animals can nuzzle: [[cat]], [[guinea pig]], [[husky]], [[labrador retriever]], [[monkey]], and [[yorkshire terrier]].

! <abbr title="Units of nutrition of meat produced per female per day when babies are slaughtered, assuming constant pregnancy.">Meat Per Day</abbr>

! <abbr title="Units of nutrition consumed by a single adult per day. Note that this does not include the nutrition consumption of the father.">Consumption Per Day</abbr>

! <abbr title="(Milk + Meat)/Consumption">Overall Efficiency</abbr>

! <abbr title="Units of nutrition of meat produced per female per day when adults are slaughtered, assuming constant pregnancy.">Meat Per Day</abbr>

! <abbr title="Units of nutrition consumed per female per day, including the offspring's consumption up to adulthood. Note that this does not include the nutrition consumption the father.>Consumption Per Day</abbr>

! <abbr title="(Milk + Meat)/Consumption">Overall Efficiency</abbr>

|- {{Animal Rearing Row|Labrador retriever}}

|- {{Animal Rearing Row|Megascarab}}

|- {{Animal Rearing Row|Megaspider}}

|- {{Animal Rearing Row|Spelopede}}

|- {{Animal Rearing Row|Tortoise}}

|- {{Animal Rearing Row|Yak}}

|- {{Animal Rearing Row|Yorkshire terrier}}