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Triceratops

2026-08-16T06:36:36Z

121.138.245.203: Size info updated to recent update.

{{Quality|Tattered}}
{{Creaturelookup/0
|image=triceratops_sprites.png
|portrait=triceratops_portrait_anim.gif
|wiki=yes}}
{{av}}
{{creaturedesc}}
'''Triceratops''' are enormous reptilian [[creature]]s found in [[Surroundings#Savage|savage]] [[temperate]] [[biome]]s, appearing in packs of 3-5. They are benign meanderers who will nonetheless crush and gore any dwarves stupid enough to [[Creature#Agitation|agitate]] them. While [[Extinction#Extinct creatures|extinct]] in real life, their appearance is dependent on the settings chosen when [[World generation#Real world extinct creatures|creating a world]]. They are the fourth largest true dinosaur in the game and the fifth largest prehistoric creature overall. A young triceratops is called a ''hatchling''.

Triceratops can be captured in [[cage]] [[trap]]s and [[Animal trainer|trained]] into exotic [[pet]]s. They can be further trained into war beasts; their bulk, quick maturity rate, rapid growth, and staggering clutch size arguably make them one of the most powerful available options for armies, and their lack of a [[Grazer|grazing token]] trumps the more powerful but ultimately impractical [[giant rhinoceros]] and [[giant elephant]]. Theoretically, one could have a legion of over 120 adult triceratops as soon as two years after a breeding pair is acquired. While prolific egg-layers, their eggs are currently no different in size from those of much smaller dinosaur species, making the [[meat industry]] a more effective use of product. Triceratops become adults after 1 year and reach their full size after 50.

Triceratops may appear with [[caravan]]s as pack animals or wagon pullers. They can also appear as exotic [[mount]]s during [[siege]]s, in which case you should either hope your traps don't jam or pray to Armok for a swift death.

Some dwarves [[Preferences|like]] triceratops for their ''three horns''.

{{gamedata}}
{{Creatures}}

Animal trainer

2026-08-16T06:33:53Z

121.138.245.203: /* Trainable war/hunting animals */ Ceratosaurus, Anteosaurus name correction

{{Quality|Fine}}
{{av}}
{{v50_skill
| color = 2:0
| graphic = [[File:green_sprite_icon.png]]
| graphicmargin = 106px
| skill = Animal Trainer
| profession = [[Ranger]]
| job name = [[Animal training]]
| tasks =
* Train [[dog|war animal]]
* Train [[dog|hunting animal]]
* Train large animal
* Train small animal
| workshop = [[Vermin catcher's shop]]
| attributes =
* Agility
* Toughness
* Endurance
* Intuition
* Patience
* Empathy
}}

'''Animal trainer''' is the skill associated with the '''animal training''' [[labor]]. An animal trainer works with [[animal]]s, either taming wild ones or training certain tame species for war or hunting. They also tame certain kinds of captured live [[vermin]].

The Pets/Livestock tab of the citizen information menu ({{menu icon|u}}) has a list of all animals that belong to your fortress, and are tame, trained, or trainable. Each animal on the list can be assigned a trainer, who will then tame the animal or increase its training (if not already fully tame), or train it for war or hunting (if selected for that). Which animals are known and how well can be checked with the {{DFtext|Overall Training|7:2:1}} button in the lower right corner of this tab.

An [[Activity_zone#Animal_training|animal training zone]] or [[Activity_zone#Pen/Pasture|pasture]] is required for all training activities for animals. Taming vermin instead requires a [[vermin catcher's shop]].

== Taming wild animals ==
=== Capture ===
[[File:animal_train_comic.png|thumb|200px|right|The butchers have it worse, they gotta 'obtain' the dogs' leather. Art by p3ach_tea]]To tame a wild animal, you must capture them. Which animals can appear at your fortress varies by region, which depends on [[surroundings]] and [[biome]], and a fortress map can have multiple regions; populations are chosen randomly per region, so regions with the same surroundings and biome might not have the same fauna (or flora). This is also true in the [[cavern]]s, however caverns do not have surroundings or biomes, although different creatures (and plants) are restricted to certain levels.

Wild [[creature]]s can only be captured by [[cage trap]]s; as creatures can enter and exit the map from any direction, and as above-ground traffic is mostly unrestricted, the most reliable way to force wildlife into your cages is to build a lot of them. Another way is to build many walls to try to funnel them to choke points. The same is true of the [[caverns]], although since they are usually less expansive, capturing passing creatures is a little easier; on the other hand, you have to be much more worried about exposing your dwarves to the various subterranean nasties. Note that [[animal trap]]s are ''not'' used in this role, but are instead used by [[trapper]]s to capture live [[vermin]], and thus, surprisingly enough, trappers are not involved in the trapping of actual creatures. Additionally, {{token|TRAPAVOID|c}} creatures ignore cage traps, unless there is a web on the same tile, although creatures also ignore those.

Just because you have a creature stowed away in your animal [[stockpile]], does not mean that it can be tamed, as only creatures with the {{token|PET|c}} or {{token|PET_EXOTIC|c}} [[creature token]] can be. Most creatures have one of the two flags, but there are exceptions, notably some underground creatures. Sentient creatures (such as [[goblin]]s or [[animal people]]), and [[forgotten beast]]s and [[titan]]s are among the creatures that can never be tamed or trained. Captured [[siege|war]] [[mount]]s and any other [[name]]d enemies of your civilization can also be trained, but they will, regardless of training level, remain hostile to your civilization and will, if released from bondage, attack your units without mercy; even worse, these creatures [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=111357.0 may cause] a [[loyalty cascade]] if you order your [[military]] to deal with the situation.{{bug|6051}} To make use of captured creatures that you cannot or do not want to tame, see [[live training]] and [[mass pitting]].

=== Training ===
{| style="text-align:center; float:right; margin:8px;" class=wikitable
! '''Designation'''
! '''Description'''
|-
| Wild || Not Tame
|-
| Semi-wild || Semi-wild
|-
| Trained || Trained
|-
| -Trained- || Well-trained
|-
| +Trained+ || Skillfully trained
|-
| *Trained* ||Expertly trained
|-
| ≡Trained≡ || Exceptionally trained
|-
| ☼Trained☼ || Masterfully trained
|-
| Tame || Tame
|}

Once you have a captured, tamable creature trapped in a cage, you can start taming it. You will need an [[Zone#Animal Training|animal training zone]] and some [[plants]] or [[meat]] depending on whether the animal is herbivorous or carnivorous. To have your animal trainer begin taming a wild animal, use {{menu icon|u}} to open the citizen information screen and select the Pets/Livestock tab. Scroll through, or filter the list until your captured wild animal is selected and use the whistle icon to set a trainer to tame it (the cursor keys and {{k|Ctrl|t|sep=+}} also work).

The trainer will bring food to the cage and perform the initial training, setting the animal to one of the trained levels (see table at right). A fully wild animal must be trained from its cage, but once an animal has been initially trained and it is no longer wild, it may be safely released from its cage (and preferably assigned to an enclosed [[pasture]] or [[restraint]], to keep it contained in case problems arise later). When a caged animal is fed a plant, [[seed]]s will be left in the cage. This has no effect on taming, but if you later release the animal, you will need to [[Activity zone#Garbage Dump|dump]] the seeds from the cage before it can be reused.

A notable exception from "training levels" are animals which are a member of a species your civilization already has domesticated. Only a few of them can occur in the wild to be captured - e.g. [[water buffalo]] and [[turkey]]. Such creatures become fully tame upon the completion of taming, and after that they will never require or receive training again, even if assigned to a trainer.

Only wild animals can be trained in a cage. If you want your animal trainer to provide further training you must release the trained animal. Alternatively, with a difficult-to-train animal or a poor trainer, you may want to leave the animal in its cage. A caged animal will eventually revert to its wild state, at which point your trainer will perform the initial training again, safely giving your trainer experience and your civilization more knowledge about the animal. Note that {{token|GRAZER|c}}animals need a pasture to survive, and will die if left to linger in a cage for too long.

The overall difficulty and time required to tame an animal is roughly proportional to its [[List of creatures by pet value|pet value]]. As a general guideline, animals with pet values of less than 100 are easy to train, those with values of 100+ take some effort and a few years to train well, and creatures with pet values of 1000+ such as [[dragon]]s are very slow to train.

Adult trained animals will slowly revert to their wild origins over time, and must be regularly re-trained. Trained animals have a quality associated to their training that affects how long they will retain composure before reverting to the wild, but which may have other effects as well. The last state an animal reaches before it becomes fully wild is semi-wild, which prompts an [[announcement]]. Dwarves will instinctively know when their assigned animals need retraining, and will prioritize doing so, but will obviously not be able to if they are [[wound|injured]], experiencing a [[strange mood]], or are otherwise unable to reach their trainees. If you assign a single dwarf to an animal (Any available trainer is also an option) only that dwarf will ever attempt to train or retrain the creature, so care must be taken to keep that trainers healthy and available.

Animals acquired from [[merchants]] will be fully tame and will never revert to a wild state. This is also true when you seize the animals, or kill all the merchants. These animals will be in cages, so you will have to release them in some way; this is very important if they are grazers as they will starve due to the lack of grass in the cage. To do this you can either assign them to a pasture, or build the cage, link lever to it, and have the lever pulled. Killing all the merchants will '''not''' make the pack animals a part of your civilization, instead they will become "friendly" and wander around the map.

=== Animal knowledge ===
When training animals that your [[civilization]] has not domesticated, successful training will result in some knowledge being transferred to your civilization every time the dwarven [[caravan]] returns to the mountainhomes. Although a number of farm animals are domesticated by your civilization from the beginning of the game, your fortress cannot individually "civilization-level" domesticate a species.{{cite forum|169696/7990286}}{{cite forum|169696/8134419}}

Every tame animal job increases overall fort training points for that animal by 10, and the fort training knowledge levels are attained at 30, 100, 250 and 500 (it zeroes points when it increases level). War and hunting jobs are also worth 10 points, but a maintenance job is only worth 3. If your fort level is higher than the civ level for a given animal, 10 points of knowledge are transferred with each caravan that gets off the map (so it'd take 88 years worth of caravans to bring the civ all the way up to "expert", but just 3 years to get every subsequent fort to start at "few facts").

The fort level of knowledge has a strong effect on in-fort training. When attempting to train an animal, a skill roll will be matched against a threshold that depends on animal knowledge. For instance, if you know nothing about the animal, the animal training roll must be 30 to get past semi-wild and 100 to be masterfully trained (with 40/50/65/80 for the others). As you gain knowledge, the thresholds become lower and easier to attain:
{|class="wikitable" style="width:80%; align:center"
! Announcement
! Fortress training knowledge level
! Creature training level thresholds
|-
| {{Gametext|The dwarves of (civ) now know a few facts about (animal) training.|cyan}}
| {{DFtext|A few facts|red}}
| style="text-align:right;" | 20/30/40/60/70/90
|-
| {{Gametext|The dwarves of (civ) have attained a general familiarity with (animal) training methods.|cyan}}
| {{DFtext|General familiarity|yellow}}
| style="text-align:right;" | 15/20/30/50/60/80
|-
| {{Gametext|The dwarves of (civ) are now quite knowledgeable (animal) trainers.|cyan}}
| {{DFtext|Knowledgeable|white}}
| style="text-align:right;" | 10/15/25/40/50/70
|-
| {{Gametext|The dwarves of (civ) are now expert (animal) trainers.|cyan}}
| {{DFtext|Expert|cyan}}
| style="text-align:right;" | 5/10/20/30/40/60
|-
| {{center|(no announcement since this cannot happen in a player fortress)}}
|{{DFtext|Domesticated|lime}}
|}
The calculations for skill rolls are complicated, but by these numbers, your trainers are almost twice as good at expert-level fort knowledge, if they weren't already great trainers in their own right (in which case they'll probably crack 100 most times without help).

=== Taming children ===
Animals who can be tamed and possess a child state (allowed by the {{token|CHILD}} token) can produce a fully tamed population. Note that animals cannot get pregnant in cages (in fact, this is one of the ''few'' times they can't), so you'll have to move past the initial training stage to have them.

Animals born from a partially-trained mother will not revert to a wild state while they are still children: for example, if a wild female [[wolf]] is captured and trained up to the +T+ level, and gives birth, the pups may forget this "inherited" training, but will never go lower than Semi-Wild while they're still pups. They will revert to a wild state when they become adult wolves, though going back to a fully wild state will still take some time after they've reached adulthood. The training level of the father does not count for anything when it comes to the child.

Animal children always become fully tame upon receiving training ''once''. This not only allows making children of trained mothers fully tame, it also allows instant taming of caught animal children or of children born in captivity to fully wild mothers. Only children can be permanently tamed, and once the young animal grows up the opportunity for this will no longer be available.[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=121150.0 1] Once an animal child becomes fully tame, it will never require training again, nor will it receive any even if assigned to a trainer - this means taming children gives you a fully tame population at the cost of removing a source of experience from your trainers.

Animals fully tamed as a child behave as adults similar to animals (of the same species) who are bonded with a trainer.

Animals in ''Dwarf Fortress'' give birth in one of two ways, either with live birth, or by laying and incubating [[egg]]s. Child-bearing animals that give birth to their young is easy: with an adjacent male of the species, children may be conceived, inheriting their mother's pasture status in the process. Egg-layers are more complicated: The female must be adjacent to a male for fertilization, there must be an open constructed [[nest box]] for the female to occupy and lay a clutch of eggs in, and they and the mother must remain undisturbed during the process as the mother must incubate her eggs; even training is inadmissible. Thus the eggs must be [[forbid]]den and the mother should have her trainer de-assigned during the duration of her stay; they also will ''not'' inherit their mother's pasture status.[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=121150.0 1] The resultant children will have the taming status of their mother when they were ''laid'', not hatched.

Creatures missing the {{token|CHILD}} token are considered adults at birth, thus they can never be rendered fully tame and will require re-training for the rest of their lives {{bug|7983}}. Examples of such creatures include [[crundle]]s, [[giant cave spider]]s and [[hydra]]s. Previously [[dragon]]s could not be tamed, however with the release of the steam version, they were given the {{token|CHILD}} token and are now considered adults at age 10, thus allowing [[dragon]]s to be fully tamed by a fortress.

==Animal AI==
If a tamed animal is "stray", that is, it's not a pet, it will (usually), if not assigned to a pen/pasture, wander around your fortress randomly, spending most of its time in meeting areas, and attacking any hostiles that it comes across or wild animals that are attacking citizens. Animals with the {{token|LARGE_PREDATOR}} token are somewhat more aggressive than animals lacking this token, and are more likely to attack hostiles, while animals with a {{token|BENIGN}} token will simply run away from any hostiles, which makes them useless for [[Attack|dwarven]] defense, but they can be used as arrow fodder to keep the enemy entertained while you're bunkering in. Grazing animals should be assigned to a [[pasture]] because they will otherwise starve to death.

An animal which did either bond with a trainer or was tamed (after birth) by a trainer, or was hunting/war trained (but is not yet assigned to a dwarf as a work animal), will usually have its following link set to the corresponding trainer (eg. the dwarf who bonded with the animal or tamed the animal or war/hunting trained the animal) and thus comes to the trainer, if the trainer approaches the pen/pasture the animal is assigned to, follow the trainer around (if not assigned to a pen/pasture) and might even follow the trainer from an assigned pen/pasture (after the trainer leaves the pasture). But animals with the {{token|VERMINHUNTER}} token (read: peregrine falcons), who are domesticated after birth, will not necessarily display that behaviour (ie. if the following link is retained seems to be random). Bonded animals - even with the vermin hunter token - will still follow their trainer.

A pet or work animal, if not assigned to a pasture, will alternate between following its owner and visiting [[meeting area]]s. Should their owner die, the animal may instead be seen alternating between meeting areas and visiting the site of their death (even if their body is no longer there).

Additionally adult females with the egg-laying token will (usually) once a season claim an unclaimed (but accessible) nest box and try to reach the nest box, even leaving a pen/pasture (if the nest box is somewhere else) or even break free from a hauler, while being led somewhere else, in order to reach the nest box. (Female egg-layers which are released from a cage and are led to being slaughtered will only claim an unclaimed, but accessible, nestbox but will not break free from a handler).

==Hunting/War training==
Some tamed animals can receive additional training for hunting or for war, for which you need a [[Zone#Animal_Training|training zone]] and a dwarf with the animal training labor enabled, but animals in a pasture can be trained for hunting/war without any animal training zone overlapping the zone. Then you can go to your Pets/Livestock list and find your trainable animal. Trainable animals are those where you see either war training or hunting training icons in the middle column. If you wish you can also select a particular trainer to perform this task with the first icon in the column.

Some domesticated animal juveniles, such as puppies, are unable to be trained until they reach adulthood, at which point they only need hunting/war training once in their training zone (or assigned pasture).

War and hunting trained animals can be assigned to a character, either via the pet/livestock tab of the unit list or via the work animals sub-tab of the character sheet. If the pet/livestock tab (of the unit list) is used, then children and babies appear in the list of possible characters the animal can be assigned to. But work animals currently assigned to a dwarf cannot be unassigned via the pet/livestock tab of the unit list, still unassigning (or re-assigning) of work animals is possible via the work animals sub-tab (of the labors tab) of the character sheet. (Note that work animals assigned to children or babies need first to be assigned to another character before the animal can be unassigned, as the work animal sub tabs of children and babies - incorrectly - claims that work animals cannot be assigned to the character).

A work animal which is not a pet, receives a name the first time the animal is assigned as a work animal to a character.

===Train a hunting animal===
''This Animal hunts at will.''

This requires an [[Cage|uncaged]] trainable animal with {{token|TRAINABLE|c}} or {{token|TRAINABLE_HUNTING|c}}, an animal training activity zone, and an animal trainer. Note that an animal that is in a pasture does not need an additional overlapping animal training zone to receive hunting training. Hunting animals can be assigned to follow a hunter and assist in the hunting process (see above for assignment and unassignment of hunting animals). They are intrinsically faster and more agile than a regular animal, and can [[ambusher|sneak]] alongside their partner, but are not as strong as a war animal.

=== Train a war animal ===
''This Animal is waiting for conflict.''

This requires an [[Cage|uncaged]] trainable animal with {{token|TRAINABLE|c}} or {{token|TRAINABLE_WAR|c}}, an animal training activity zone, and an animal trainer. [[Pasture|Pastured]] animals do not need an additional animal training zone overlapping the pasture. War animals are significantly stronger than their untrained counterparts; war dogs make excellent companions when starting a fortress, when you can't spare many dwarves for fighting.

Like hunting animals, they can be assigned (unassigned and re-assigned) to individual dwarves the same way; combined with their strength, this makes them effective expendable bodyguards for any dwarf likely to see danger or who you feel is valuable enough to be worth protecting. Even if they fail to defeat an attacker, they can often buy their charge time to escape, or for additional reinforcements to arrive.

== Bonding ==
As animal trainers work with an animal, they may become [[Relationships|bonded]] to it ("formed a bond with an animal training partner"), and this relationship is visible in the dwarf's relationships screen. This happens even if the dwarf is not specifically assigned to the animal and appears to disregard training quality. The death of a bonded animal results in a bad thought for the trainer ("has lost an animal training partner to tragedy"), whose exact severity is unknown but fairly significant. It is unknown whether working with a bonded animal gives a happy thought similar to the one gained from talking to a friend.

An animal trainer with a preference for the animal may adopt and name the animal at the time of training, even if the animal is not designated for adoption. This leaves the trainer highly susceptible to the bad "pet death" thought, renders the animal inedible, and eventually requires an extra coffin. It may be advisable to disable animal training on any trainer with such a preference, especially for war training.

Bonded animals can be traded. In that case the bonded animals will currently live happily ever after, as the game does not let them die (neither when they reach their max age nor when they reach the max possible age for that species). So it is currently an open question as to whether the death of an off-site bonded animal would cause a bad thought for the on-site bonded trainer.

== Trainable war/hunting animals ==
The following creatures can be trained into war or hunting animals once they are tamed. Bigger animals ''tend'' to be stronger in combat. For comparison, an average adult dwarf is size 60,000.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Animal
! Size (cm³)
! Pet value
! Notes
|-
|[[Buitreraptor]]
|3,000
|50
|♫ Hunting only
|-
|[[Bobcat]]
|8,000
|75
|Too small ≈
|-
|[[Velociraptor]]
|17,000
|50
|♫
|-
|[[Thylacine]]
|19,000
|50
|♫
|-
|[[Mandrill]]
|20,000
|50
|^
|-
|[[Lynx]]
|25,000
|75
|^ ≈
|-
|[[Ocelot]]
|25,000
|100
|^ ≈
|-
|[[Dog]]
|30,000
|30
|^ ♪
|-
|[[Cheetah]]
|50,000
|200
|^ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Leopard]]
|50,000
|100
|^ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Jaguar]]
|75,000
|100
|† ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Deinonychus]]
|100,000
|100
|♫
|-
|[[Kelenken]]
|100,000
|100
|♫
|-
|[[Dimetrodon]]
|139,000
|100
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Gorilla]]
|150,000
|500
|† ≈
|-
|[[Giant bat]]
|200,000
|750
|♪ Hunting only
|-
|[[Giant cave swallow]]
|200,000
|700
|♪ Hunting only
|-
|[[Grizzly bear]]
|200,000
|500
|† ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Lion]]
|200,000
|200
|† ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Quetzalcoatlus]]
|225,000
|200
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Tiger]]
|225,000
|200
|† ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Giant bobcat]]
|256,320
|500
|☼ ≈
|-
|[[Entelodon]]
|272,000
|200
|♫
|-
|[[Smilodon]]
|328,000
|200
|♫
|-
|[[Giant mandrill]]
|341,800
|500
|☼
|-
|[[Diadectes]]
|375,000
|200
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Giant lynx]]
|377,750
|500
|☼ ≈
|-
|[[Giant ocelot]]
|377,750
|500
|☼ ≈
|-
|[[Dilophosaurus]]
|400,000
|200
|♫
|-
|[[Polar bear]]
|400,000
|500
|☼ ≈
|-
|[[Pachycephalosaurus]]
|410,000
|200
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Megalania]]
|450,000
|200
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Utahraptor]]
|500,000
|300
|♫
|-
|[[Giant cheetah]]
|560,000
|200
|☼ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Giant leopard]]
|560,000
|100
|☼ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Anteosaurus]]
|600,000
|300
|♫
|-
|[[Ceratosaurus]]
|750,000
|300
|♫
|-
|[[Giant jaguar]]
|750,000
|100
|☼ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Andrewsarchus]]
|850,000
|300
|♫
|-
|[[Afrovenator]]
|950,000
|300
|♫
|-
|[[Nothronychus]]
|1,000,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Pygmy mammoth]]
|1,055,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Gigantic panda]]
|1,160,900
|1,000
|☼ ‼ ≈
|-
|[[Kosmoceratops]]
|1,179,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Kentrosaurus]]
|1,600,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Carnotaurus]]
|1,700,000
|400
|♫
|-
|[[Giant grizzly bear]]
|1,700,000
|500
|☼ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Giant lion]]
|1,700,000
|200
|☼ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Giant tiger]]
|1,900,000
|200
|☼ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Allosaurus]]
|2,000,000
|400
|♫
|-
|[[Torvosaurus]]
|2,177,000
|400
|♫
|-
|[[Suzhousaurus]]
|2,200,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Tsintaosaurus]]
|2,500,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Woolly rhinoceros]]
|2,650,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Rhinoceros]]
|3,000,000
|500
|☼ ♪ ‼ ≈ War only
|-
|[[Giant polar bear]]
|3,268,000
|500
|☼ ≈
|-
|[[Nodosaurus]]
|3,500,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Platybelodon]]
|3,500,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Parasaurolophus]]
|3,742,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Jabberer]]
|4,500,000
|1,500
|☼
|-
|[[Iguanodon]]
|4,536,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Stegosaurus]]
|4,990,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Elephant]]
|5,000,000
|500
|☼ ‼ ≈
|-
|[[Therizinosaurus]]
|5,000,000
|500
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Woolly mammoth]]
|6,045,000
|500
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Tyrannosaurus]]
|6,250,000
|500
|♫
|-
|[[Ankylosaurus]]
|6,396,000
|500
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Spinosaurus aegyptiacus]]
|7,400,000
|500
|♫
|-
|[[Spinosaurus mirabilis]]
|7,400,000
|500
|♫
|-
|[[Triceratops]]
|9,000,000
|500
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Deinotherium]]
|11,793,000
|1000
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Cave dragon]]
|15,000,000
|10,000
|☼ ○
|-
|[[Paraceratherium]]
|18,000,000
|1000
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Roc]]
|20,000,000
|10,000
|☼ ♪ [[Megabeast]]
|-
|[[Giant rhinoceros]]
|24,000,000
|500
|☼ ♪ ‼ ≈ War only
|-
|[[Dragon]]
|25,000,000
|10,000
|☼ [[Megabeast]]
|-
|[[Giant elephant]]
|40,000,000
|500
|☼ ‼ ≈
|}

: ☼ — ''Recommended choice for armies due to their great size.''
: † — ''Recommended choice for bodyguards, stalls most creatures enough to give dwarves time to escape safely.''
: ^ — ''Recommended choice for fort patrols and supporting dwarves in small skirmishes. Effective in very large numbers.''
: ♪ — ''Recommended hunting companions for their speed and mobility. Smaller animals also sneak more successfully.''
: ♫ - ''Added in the dino update. Possibly extinct (depending on world gen settings)''
: ‼ — ''Poor choice for training due to their voracious appetites for [[grass]].''
: ≈ — <s>''Possesses the {{token|MEANDERER}} token, which severely slows their movement speed. Will likely fall behind any moving squad and miss offensive combat situations due to it.''</s> As of version 52.05 meandering behavior stops for animals that are trained for war or hunting.
: ○ — ''Offspring are born adults and cannot be fully tamed. They also grow extremely slowly.''
: [[Megabeast]]s — ''While extremely powerful, megabeasts are currently hostile to all military dwarves, regardless of training level.''{{Verify}} {{bug|10731}}

Remember to keep a breeding pair out of harm's way if you want more of a particular animal, in case the ones in service die.

==Training water creatures==
With a great deal of effort and some clever engineering, it is possible to capture, train, and butcher water creatures.[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=75780.0 2] Water creatures can survive indefinitely in [[cage]]s, but will drown at water levels below 4/7 while dwarves will cancel tasks at water levels at or above 4/7, making training extremely tricky. This basic problem can be solved with one of the more interesting bugs in the game: [[ghost]] trainers.[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=127659 3] It is currently unknown what bug causes this, but some animal trainers that are killed and never [[burial|buried]] or [[memorial]]ized will continue to perform their job from the grave. This removes the fundamental problem of water depth incompatibility and makes the task much easier. An easier solution, however, would be [[vampire]] animal trainers: they are unbreathing and will path through such water normally, so long as there is no flow. Taming water creatures in vanilla is fairly useless, however, as without [[modding]] they never have children, nor can they receive war (or hunting, however that would work) training.

==Training hostile creatures==
Training hostile creatures like enemy [[mount]]s does not cancel their hostility. While the job is completed and the animal trainer gains experience, the trained creature remains hostile to your civilization and will attack your dwarves. A creature will also be hostile if it becomes an enemy of your civilization, for instance if it killed one of your dwarves before. The rule of thumb is: if it has a [[name]], it's hostile, don't release it from its cage. Though, if you know how it got the name, wild animals that get names from killing other named entities like forgotten beasts, invaders, uninvited guests, etc. will still be friendly after training.

However, it does seem that the offspring of hostile creatures belong to your civilization, because trained mounts <s>amusingly</s> disturbingly attack and subsequently kill their offspring at birth. If you are careful and [[stupid dwarf trick|ingenious]] enough, you can separate the parents and children at birth.

Note that hostile egg-layers, such as [[cave crocodile]]s, might not use [[nest box]]es and therefore generate no offspring.

==Handling dangerous creatures==
Only dwarves with the animal trainer labor active will move non-trained (wild or hostile) captive creatures to a chain or to another cage. This restriction only applies to non-trained creatures and only to the "chain large creature" and "cage large creature" jobs. Throwing such a creature into a pit or pond can be done by anybody, and the chaining and caging of trained creatures is similarly unrestricted.

==Taming vermin==
First, a [[trapper]] needs to catch vermin in an animal trap. A few types of vermin can escape from wooden traps, such as the [[hamster]], so it might be a good idea to use only metal traps. An animal trainer will tame a vermin at a vermin catcher's shop. Unlike animals, vermin do not have training levels - they are either tame or not tame. Taming vermin does not pass civilization-wide experience with that vermin to the parent civilization, like taming animals does. Taming requires a food item. Vermin cannot be trained for war or hunting.

There isn't much purpose to taming vermin. It allows vermin to be adopted as pets, but few dwarves have a preference for vermin, so they will rarely be adopted. Vermin don't breed like animals do, so there is no need to have a tame pair to produce offspring. [[Animal dissector]]s can't make [[extract]]s from tame vermin, though there isn't much reason to make extracts either. Tame vermin have little value so they aren't of much use for export either. Taming vermin does give experience to animal trainers, so they can improve their skill in a fort with few animals, especially since vermin are inexhaustible.

==Taming intelligent creatures==
If you mod the game to have trainable intelligent creatures (or if you find a [[gremlin]]) they may be captured in cage traps and tamed. However, several things differ from when training other creatures, as training sapients display a number of strange behaviors.

First off, the game will consider any tamed (or semi-wild) sentient an inhabitant of your fortress (or at least partially so). This will increase your population count, which likely has the same effects as when the count is increased by [[immigration|immigrants]] arriving or [[children|babies]] being born. The trained creature will be considered a peasant in the z-screen. Despite this, the trained creature cannot work, as it is impossible to set any labor preferences. Neither can they be enlisted to the militia or have any pets. Once trained, they will be subject to hunger, thirst and drowsiness, and as such will require food, drink and sleep to survive. The creature will pick up and wear [[clothes]], but only if they are the right [[size]].

It is impossible to view their general stats screen, trying to do so will only bring you to a simple description of the creature as with any other non-inhabitant of your fort. It might not be possible to view the creature's thoughts, but they still exist, proven by the fact that the trained creature can become [[insane]]. Having the creatures socialize with your dwarves, and each other, as well as [[Keeping_your_dwarves_unstressed|all the other countermeasures to prevent insanity]] seems to prevent this though. As caged creatures cannot do any of these actions, keeping trained creatures in [[cage]]s for elongated periods of time is advised against.

It is normally impossible to give the trained creature a nickname, causing individuals of the same species to be difficult to tell apart, but if you train them for hunting or war and then assign them to one of your dwarves, they will obtain a [[name]]. The further implications of doing so are not known as of yet. Trained sapients may be assigned for butchering (which is otherwise impossible), but their returns are completely unusable and will just be taken to the nearest [[refuse]] [[stockpile]] to rot away.

Because they tend to go wherever they please, a trained intelligent creature will rarely be at a training zone out of their own volition, making re-training them difficult. Depending on how well they're trained, it brings the risk of them going wild again, potentially leading to their escape or for them to attack your dwarves due to becoming hostile. The animal trainer assigned to train these creatures may also be stuck at the training zone waiting for the creature's arrival, potentially leading to hunger and thirst. Making use of [[burrow]]s to force the creature into the training zone is an option, as the training itself will be done as long as the creature and the trainer are within the zone for a few moments.

A trained intelligent creature will only become fully controllable if it applies for [[citizenship]] in your fortress, in which case they'll be able to perform labors and their stats screen will give you full descriptions of their person and personalities. Whether trained sapients apply for citizenship in the same manner as [[visitor]]s do (2 years after becoming part of the fortress) and if they still require training after applying for citizenship requires verification.

==Bugs==
* Capturing and training [[siege|war]] [[mount]]s [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=111357.0 may cause] a [[loyalty cascade]] if your [[military]] has to put them down.{{bug|6051}}
* Trained [[flying|fliers]] may swap positions with dwarves, leaving the dwarves stranded in an inaccessible area.{{bug|3371}}
* Taming herbivores leaves [[seed]]s in [[cage]]s, which must be manually removed.{{bug|201}}
* Creatures lacking the {{token|CHILD}} tag are impossible to tame. {{bug|7983}} You can work around this by adding {{token|CHILD|c|X}} to the raws for that animal. Replace X with years creature is a child.
* [[Megabeast]]s and active [[squad]]s attack each other on sight, regardless of the former's training level, making [[dragon]]s, [[hydra]]s and [[roc]]s unusable without excessive micromanaging.{{Verify}} {{bug|10731}}

{{skills}}

Animal trainer

2026-08-16T06:31:47Z

121.138.245.203: /* Trainable war/hunting animals */ Deinotherium name correction

{{Quality|Fine}}
{{av}}
{{v50_skill
| color = 2:0
| graphic = [[File:green_sprite_icon.png]]
| graphicmargin = 106px
| skill = Animal Trainer
| profession = [[Ranger]]
| job name = [[Animal training]]
| tasks =
* Train [[dog|war animal]]
* Train [[dog|hunting animal]]
* Train large animal
* Train small animal
| workshop = [[Vermin catcher's shop]]
| attributes =
* Agility
* Toughness
* Endurance
* Intuition
* Patience
* Empathy
}}

'''Animal trainer''' is the skill associated with the '''animal training''' [[labor]]. An animal trainer works with [[animal]]s, either taming wild ones or training certain tame species for war or hunting. They also tame certain kinds of captured live [[vermin]].

The Pets/Livestock tab of the citizen information menu ({{menu icon|u}}) has a list of all animals that belong to your fortress, and are tame, trained, or trainable. Each animal on the list can be assigned a trainer, who will then tame the animal or increase its training (if not already fully tame), or train it for war or hunting (if selected for that). Which animals are known and how well can be checked with the {{DFtext|Overall Training|7:2:1}} button in the lower right corner of this tab.

An [[Activity_zone#Animal_training|animal training zone]] or [[Activity_zone#Pen/Pasture|pasture]] is required for all training activities for animals. Taming vermin instead requires a [[vermin catcher's shop]].

== Taming wild animals ==
=== Capture ===
[[File:animal_train_comic.png|thumb|200px|right|The butchers have it worse, they gotta 'obtain' the dogs' leather. Art by p3ach_tea]]To tame a wild animal, you must capture them. Which animals can appear at your fortress varies by region, which depends on [[surroundings]] and [[biome]], and a fortress map can have multiple regions; populations are chosen randomly per region, so regions with the same surroundings and biome might not have the same fauna (or flora). This is also true in the [[cavern]]s, however caverns do not have surroundings or biomes, although different creatures (and plants) are restricted to certain levels.

Wild [[creature]]s can only be captured by [[cage trap]]s; as creatures can enter and exit the map from any direction, and as above-ground traffic is mostly unrestricted, the most reliable way to force wildlife into your cages is to build a lot of them. Another way is to build many walls to try to funnel them to choke points. The same is true of the [[caverns]], although since they are usually less expansive, capturing passing creatures is a little easier; on the other hand, you have to be much more worried about exposing your dwarves to the various subterranean nasties. Note that [[animal trap]]s are ''not'' used in this role, but are instead used by [[trapper]]s to capture live [[vermin]], and thus, surprisingly enough, trappers are not involved in the trapping of actual creatures. Additionally, {{token|TRAPAVOID|c}} creatures ignore cage traps, unless there is a web on the same tile, although creatures also ignore those.

Just because you have a creature stowed away in your animal [[stockpile]], does not mean that it can be tamed, as only creatures with the {{token|PET|c}} or {{token|PET_EXOTIC|c}} [[creature token]] can be. Most creatures have one of the two flags, but there are exceptions, notably some underground creatures. Sentient creatures (such as [[goblin]]s or [[animal people]]), and [[forgotten beast]]s and [[titan]]s are among the creatures that can never be tamed or trained. Captured [[siege|war]] [[mount]]s and any other [[name]]d enemies of your civilization can also be trained, but they will, regardless of training level, remain hostile to your civilization and will, if released from bondage, attack your units without mercy; even worse, these creatures [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=111357.0 may cause] a [[loyalty cascade]] if you order your [[military]] to deal with the situation.{{bug|6051}} To make use of captured creatures that you cannot or do not want to tame, see [[live training]] and [[mass pitting]].

=== Training ===
{| style="text-align:center; float:right; margin:8px;" class=wikitable
! '''Designation'''
! '''Description'''
|-
| Wild || Not Tame
|-
| Semi-wild || Semi-wild
|-
| Trained || Trained
|-
| -Trained- || Well-trained
|-
| +Trained+ || Skillfully trained
|-
| *Trained* ||Expertly trained
|-
| ≡Trained≡ || Exceptionally trained
|-
| ☼Trained☼ || Masterfully trained
|-
| Tame || Tame
|}

Once you have a captured, tamable creature trapped in a cage, you can start taming it. You will need an [[Zone#Animal Training|animal training zone]] and some [[plants]] or [[meat]] depending on whether the animal is herbivorous or carnivorous. To have your animal trainer begin taming a wild animal, use {{menu icon|u}} to open the citizen information screen and select the Pets/Livestock tab. Scroll through, or filter the list until your captured wild animal is selected and use the whistle icon to set a trainer to tame it (the cursor keys and {{k|Ctrl|t|sep=+}} also work).

The trainer will bring food to the cage and perform the initial training, setting the animal to one of the trained levels (see table at right). A fully wild animal must be trained from its cage, but once an animal has been initially trained and it is no longer wild, it may be safely released from its cage (and preferably assigned to an enclosed [[pasture]] or [[restraint]], to keep it contained in case problems arise later). When a caged animal is fed a plant, [[seed]]s will be left in the cage. This has no effect on taming, but if you later release the animal, you will need to [[Activity zone#Garbage Dump|dump]] the seeds from the cage before it can be reused.

A notable exception from "training levels" are animals which are a member of a species your civilization already has domesticated. Only a few of them can occur in the wild to be captured - e.g. [[water buffalo]] and [[turkey]]. Such creatures become fully tame upon the completion of taming, and after that they will never require or receive training again, even if assigned to a trainer.

Only wild animals can be trained in a cage. If you want your animal trainer to provide further training you must release the trained animal. Alternatively, with a difficult-to-train animal or a poor trainer, you may want to leave the animal in its cage. A caged animal will eventually revert to its wild state, at which point your trainer will perform the initial training again, safely giving your trainer experience and your civilization more knowledge about the animal. Note that {{token|GRAZER|c}}animals need a pasture to survive, and will die if left to linger in a cage for too long.

The overall difficulty and time required to tame an animal is roughly proportional to its [[List of creatures by pet value|pet value]]. As a general guideline, animals with pet values of less than 100 are easy to train, those with values of 100+ take some effort and a few years to train well, and creatures with pet values of 1000+ such as [[dragon]]s are very slow to train.

Adult trained animals will slowly revert to their wild origins over time, and must be regularly re-trained. Trained animals have a quality associated to their training that affects how long they will retain composure before reverting to the wild, but which may have other effects as well. The last state an animal reaches before it becomes fully wild is semi-wild, which prompts an [[announcement]]. Dwarves will instinctively know when their assigned animals need retraining, and will prioritize doing so, but will obviously not be able to if they are [[wound|injured]], experiencing a [[strange mood]], or are otherwise unable to reach their trainees. If you assign a single dwarf to an animal (Any available trainer is also an option) only that dwarf will ever attempt to train or retrain the creature, so care must be taken to keep that trainers healthy and available.

Animals acquired from [[merchants]] will be fully tame and will never revert to a wild state. This is also true when you seize the animals, or kill all the merchants. These animals will be in cages, so you will have to release them in some way; this is very important if they are grazers as they will starve due to the lack of grass in the cage. To do this you can either assign them to a pasture, or build the cage, link lever to it, and have the lever pulled. Killing all the merchants will '''not''' make the pack animals a part of your civilization, instead they will become "friendly" and wander around the map.

=== Animal knowledge ===
When training animals that your [[civilization]] has not domesticated, successful training will result in some knowledge being transferred to your civilization every time the dwarven [[caravan]] returns to the mountainhomes. Although a number of farm animals are domesticated by your civilization from the beginning of the game, your fortress cannot individually "civilization-level" domesticate a species.{{cite forum|169696/7990286}}{{cite forum|169696/8134419}}

Every tame animal job increases overall fort training points for that animal by 10, and the fort training knowledge levels are attained at 30, 100, 250 and 500 (it zeroes points when it increases level). War and hunting jobs are also worth 10 points, but a maintenance job is only worth 3. If your fort level is higher than the civ level for a given animal, 10 points of knowledge are transferred with each caravan that gets off the map (so it'd take 88 years worth of caravans to bring the civ all the way up to "expert", but just 3 years to get every subsequent fort to start at "few facts").

The fort level of knowledge has a strong effect on in-fort training. When attempting to train an animal, a skill roll will be matched against a threshold that depends on animal knowledge. For instance, if you know nothing about the animal, the animal training roll must be 30 to get past semi-wild and 100 to be masterfully trained (with 40/50/65/80 for the others). As you gain knowledge, the thresholds become lower and easier to attain:
{|class="wikitable" style="width:80%; align:center"
! Announcement
! Fortress training knowledge level
! Creature training level thresholds
|-
| {{Gametext|The dwarves of (civ) now know a few facts about (animal) training.|cyan}}
| {{DFtext|A few facts|red}}
| style="text-align:right;" | 20/30/40/60/70/90
|-
| {{Gametext|The dwarves of (civ) have attained a general familiarity with (animal) training methods.|cyan}}
| {{DFtext|General familiarity|yellow}}
| style="text-align:right;" | 15/20/30/50/60/80
|-
| {{Gametext|The dwarves of (civ) are now quite knowledgeable (animal) trainers.|cyan}}
| {{DFtext|Knowledgeable|white}}
| style="text-align:right;" | 10/15/25/40/50/70
|-
| {{Gametext|The dwarves of (civ) are now expert (animal) trainers.|cyan}}
| {{DFtext|Expert|cyan}}
| style="text-align:right;" | 5/10/20/30/40/60
|-
| {{center|(no announcement since this cannot happen in a player fortress)}}
|{{DFtext|Domesticated|lime}}
|}
The calculations for skill rolls are complicated, but by these numbers, your trainers are almost twice as good at expert-level fort knowledge, if they weren't already great trainers in their own right (in which case they'll probably crack 100 most times without help).

=== Taming children ===
Animals who can be tamed and possess a child state (allowed by the {{token|CHILD}} token) can produce a fully tamed population. Note that animals cannot get pregnant in cages (in fact, this is one of the ''few'' times they can't), so you'll have to move past the initial training stage to have them.

Animals born from a partially-trained mother will not revert to a wild state while they are still children: for example, if a wild female [[wolf]] is captured and trained up to the +T+ level, and gives birth, the pups may forget this "inherited" training, but will never go lower than Semi-Wild while they're still pups. They will revert to a wild state when they become adult wolves, though going back to a fully wild state will still take some time after they've reached adulthood. The training level of the father does not count for anything when it comes to the child.

Animal children always become fully tame upon receiving training ''once''. This not only allows making children of trained mothers fully tame, it also allows instant taming of caught animal children or of children born in captivity to fully wild mothers. Only children can be permanently tamed, and once the young animal grows up the opportunity for this will no longer be available.[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=121150.0 1] Once an animal child becomes fully tame, it will never require training again, nor will it receive any even if assigned to a trainer - this means taming children gives you a fully tame population at the cost of removing a source of experience from your trainers.

Animals fully tamed as a child behave as adults similar to animals (of the same species) who are bonded with a trainer.

Animals in ''Dwarf Fortress'' give birth in one of two ways, either with live birth, or by laying and incubating [[egg]]s. Child-bearing animals that give birth to their young is easy: with an adjacent male of the species, children may be conceived, inheriting their mother's pasture status in the process. Egg-layers are more complicated: The female must be adjacent to a male for fertilization, there must be an open constructed [[nest box]] for the female to occupy and lay a clutch of eggs in, and they and the mother must remain undisturbed during the process as the mother must incubate her eggs; even training is inadmissible. Thus the eggs must be [[forbid]]den and the mother should have her trainer de-assigned during the duration of her stay; they also will ''not'' inherit their mother's pasture status.[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=121150.0 1] The resultant children will have the taming status of their mother when they were ''laid'', not hatched.

Creatures missing the {{token|CHILD}} token are considered adults at birth, thus they can never be rendered fully tame and will require re-training for the rest of their lives {{bug|7983}}. Examples of such creatures include [[crundle]]s, [[giant cave spider]]s and [[hydra]]s. Previously [[dragon]]s could not be tamed, however with the release of the steam version, they were given the {{token|CHILD}} token and are now considered adults at age 10, thus allowing [[dragon]]s to be fully tamed by a fortress.

==Animal AI==
If a tamed animal is "stray", that is, it's not a pet, it will (usually), if not assigned to a pen/pasture, wander around your fortress randomly, spending most of its time in meeting areas, and attacking any hostiles that it comes across or wild animals that are attacking citizens. Animals with the {{token|LARGE_PREDATOR}} token are somewhat more aggressive than animals lacking this token, and are more likely to attack hostiles, while animals with a {{token|BENIGN}} token will simply run away from any hostiles, which makes them useless for [[Attack|dwarven]] defense, but they can be used as arrow fodder to keep the enemy entertained while you're bunkering in. Grazing animals should be assigned to a [[pasture]] because they will otherwise starve to death.

An animal which did either bond with a trainer or was tamed (after birth) by a trainer, or was hunting/war trained (but is not yet assigned to a dwarf as a work animal), will usually have its following link set to the corresponding trainer (eg. the dwarf who bonded with the animal or tamed the animal or war/hunting trained the animal) and thus comes to the trainer, if the trainer approaches the pen/pasture the animal is assigned to, follow the trainer around (if not assigned to a pen/pasture) and might even follow the trainer from an assigned pen/pasture (after the trainer leaves the pasture). But animals with the {{token|VERMINHUNTER}} token (read: peregrine falcons), who are domesticated after birth, will not necessarily display that behaviour (ie. if the following link is retained seems to be random). Bonded animals - even with the vermin hunter token - will still follow their trainer.

A pet or work animal, if not assigned to a pasture, will alternate between following its owner and visiting [[meeting area]]s. Should their owner die, the animal may instead be seen alternating between meeting areas and visiting the site of their death (even if their body is no longer there).

Additionally adult females with the egg-laying token will (usually) once a season claim an unclaimed (but accessible) nest box and try to reach the nest box, even leaving a pen/pasture (if the nest box is somewhere else) or even break free from a hauler, while being led somewhere else, in order to reach the nest box. (Female egg-layers which are released from a cage and are led to being slaughtered will only claim an unclaimed, but accessible, nestbox but will not break free from a handler).

==Hunting/War training==
Some tamed animals can receive additional training for hunting or for war, for which you need a [[Zone#Animal_Training|training zone]] and a dwarf with the animal training labor enabled, but animals in a pasture can be trained for hunting/war without any animal training zone overlapping the zone. Then you can go to your Pets/Livestock list and find your trainable animal. Trainable animals are those where you see either war training or hunting training icons in the middle column. If you wish you can also select a particular trainer to perform this task with the first icon in the column.

Some domesticated animal juveniles, such as puppies, are unable to be trained until they reach adulthood, at which point they only need hunting/war training once in their training zone (or assigned pasture).

War and hunting trained animals can be assigned to a character, either via the pet/livestock tab of the unit list or via the work animals sub-tab of the character sheet. If the pet/livestock tab (of the unit list) is used, then children and babies appear in the list of possible characters the animal can be assigned to. But work animals currently assigned to a dwarf cannot be unassigned via the pet/livestock tab of the unit list, still unassigning (or re-assigning) of work animals is possible via the work animals sub-tab (of the labors tab) of the character sheet. (Note that work animals assigned to children or babies need first to be assigned to another character before the animal can be unassigned, as the work animal sub tabs of children and babies - incorrectly - claims that work animals cannot be assigned to the character).

A work animal which is not a pet, receives a name the first time the animal is assigned as a work animal to a character.

===Train a hunting animal===
''This Animal hunts at will.''

This requires an [[Cage|uncaged]] trainable animal with {{token|TRAINABLE|c}} or {{token|TRAINABLE_HUNTING|c}}, an animal training activity zone, and an animal trainer. Note that an animal that is in a pasture does not need an additional overlapping animal training zone to receive hunting training. Hunting animals can be assigned to follow a hunter and assist in the hunting process (see above for assignment and unassignment of hunting animals). They are intrinsically faster and more agile than a regular animal, and can [[ambusher|sneak]] alongside their partner, but are not as strong as a war animal.

=== Train a war animal ===
''This Animal is waiting for conflict.''

This requires an [[Cage|uncaged]] trainable animal with {{token|TRAINABLE|c}} or {{token|TRAINABLE_WAR|c}}, an animal training activity zone, and an animal trainer. [[Pasture|Pastured]] animals do not need an additional animal training zone overlapping the pasture. War animals are significantly stronger than their untrained counterparts; war dogs make excellent companions when starting a fortress, when you can't spare many dwarves for fighting.

Like hunting animals, they can be assigned (unassigned and re-assigned) to individual dwarves the same way; combined with their strength, this makes them effective expendable bodyguards for any dwarf likely to see danger or who you feel is valuable enough to be worth protecting. Even if they fail to defeat an attacker, they can often buy their charge time to escape, or for additional reinforcements to arrive.

== Bonding ==
As animal trainers work with an animal, they may become [[Relationships|bonded]] to it ("formed a bond with an animal training partner"), and this relationship is visible in the dwarf's relationships screen. This happens even if the dwarf is not specifically assigned to the animal and appears to disregard training quality. The death of a bonded animal results in a bad thought for the trainer ("has lost an animal training partner to tragedy"), whose exact severity is unknown but fairly significant. It is unknown whether working with a bonded animal gives a happy thought similar to the one gained from talking to a friend.

An animal trainer with a preference for the animal may adopt and name the animal at the time of training, even if the animal is not designated for adoption. This leaves the trainer highly susceptible to the bad "pet death" thought, renders the animal inedible, and eventually requires an extra coffin. It may be advisable to disable animal training on any trainer with such a preference, especially for war training.

Bonded animals can be traded. In that case the bonded animals will currently live happily ever after, as the game does not let them die (neither when they reach their max age nor when they reach the max possible age for that species). So it is currently an open question as to whether the death of an off-site bonded animal would cause a bad thought for the on-site bonded trainer.

== Trainable war/hunting animals ==
The following creatures can be trained into war or hunting animals once they are tamed. Bigger animals ''tend'' to be stronger in combat. For comparison, an average adult dwarf is size 60,000.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Animal
! Size (cm³)
! Pet value
! Notes
|-
|[[Buitreraptor]]
|3,000
|50
|♫ Hunting only
|-
|[[Bobcat]]
|8,000
|75
|Too small ≈
|-
|[[Velociraptor]]
|17,000
|50
|♫
|-
|[[Thylacine]]
|19,000
|50
|♫
|-
|[[Mandrill]]
|20,000
|50
|^
|-
|[[Lynx]]
|25,000
|75
|^ ≈
|-
|[[Ocelot]]
|25,000
|100
|^ ≈
|-
|[[Dog]]
|30,000
|30
|^ ♪
|-
|[[Cheetah]]
|50,000
|200
|^ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Leopard]]
|50,000
|100
|^ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Jaguar]]
|75,000
|100
|† ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Deinonychus]]
|100,000
|100
|♫
|-
|[[Kelenken]]
|100,000
|100
|♫
|-
|[[Dimetrodon]]
|139,000
|100
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Gorilla]]
|150,000
|500
|† ≈
|-
|[[Giant bat]]
|200,000
|750
|♪ Hunting only
|-
|[[Giant cave swallow]]
|200,000
|700
|♪ Hunting only
|-
|[[Grizzly bear]]
|200,000
|500
|† ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Lion]]
|200,000
|200
|† ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Quetzalcoatlus]]
|225,000
|200
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Tiger]]
|225,000
|200
|† ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Giant bobcat]]
|256,320
|500
|☼ ≈
|-
|[[Entelodon]]
|272,000
|200
|♫
|-
|[[Smilodon]]
|328,000
|200
|♫
|-
|[[Giant mandrill]]
|341,800
|500
|☼
|-
|[[Diadectes]]
|375,000
|200
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Giant lynx]]
|377,750
|500
|☼ ≈
|-
|[[Giant ocelot]]
|377,750
|500
|☼ ≈
|-
|[[Dilophosaurus]]
|400,000
|200
|♫
|-
|[[Polar bear]]
|400,000
|500
|☼ ≈
|-
|[[Pachycephalosaurus]]
|410,000
|200
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Megalania]]
|450,000
|200
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Utahraptor]]
|500,000
|300
|♫
|-
|[[Giant cheetah]]
|560,000
|200
|☼ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Giant leopard]]
|560,000
|100
|☼ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Anteosausrus]]
|600,000
|300
|♫
|-
|[[Ceraosaurus]]
|750,000
|300
|♫
|-
|[[Giant jaguar]]
|750,000
|100
|☼ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Andrewsarchus]]
|850,000
|300
|♫
|-
|[[Afrovenator]]
|950,000
|300
|♫
|-
|[[Nothronychus]]
|1,000,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Pygmy mammoth]]
|1,055,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Gigantic panda]]
|1,160,900
|1,000
|☼ ‼ ≈
|-
|[[Kosmoceratops]]
|1,179,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Kentrosaurus]]
|1,600,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Carnotaurus]]
|1,700,000
|400
|♫
|-
|[[Giant grizzly bear]]
|1,700,000
|500
|☼ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Giant lion]]
|1,700,000
|200
|☼ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Giant tiger]]
|1,900,000
|200
|☼ ♪ ≈
|-
|[[Allosaurus]]
|2,000,000
|400
|♫
|-
|[[Torvosaurus]]
|2,177,000
|400
|♫
|-
|[[Suzhousaurus]]
|2,200,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Tsintaosaurus]]
|2,500,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Woolly rhinoceros]]
|2,650,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Rhinoceros]]
|3,000,000
|500
|☼ ♪ ‼ ≈ War only
|-
|[[Giant polar bear]]
|3,268,000
|500
|☼ ≈
|-
|[[Nodosaurus]]
|3,500,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Platybelodon]]
|3,500,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Parasaurolophus]]
|3,742,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Jabberer]]
|4,500,000
|1,500
|☼
|-
|[[Iguanodon]]
|4,536,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Stegosaurus]]
|4,990,000
|400
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Elephant]]
|5,000,000
|500
|☼ ‼ ≈
|-
|[[Therizinosaurus]]
|5,000,000
|500
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Woolly mammoth]]
|6,045,000
|500
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Tyrannosaurus]]
|6,250,000
|500
|♫
|-
|[[Ankylosaurus]]
|6,396,000
|500
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Spinosaurus aegyptiacus]]
|7,400,000
|500
|♫
|-
|[[Spinosaurus mirabilis]]
|7,400,000
|500
|♫
|-
|[[Triceratops]]
|9,000,000
|500
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Deinotherium]]
|11,793,000
|1000
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Cave dragon]]
|15,000,000
|10,000
|☼ ○
|-
|[[Paraceratherium]]
|18,000,000
|1000
|♫ War only
|-
|[[Roc]]
|20,000,000
|10,000
|☼ ♪ [[Megabeast]]
|-
|[[Giant rhinoceros]]
|24,000,000
|500
|☼ ♪ ‼ ≈ War only
|-
|[[Dragon]]
|25,000,000
|10,000
|☼ [[Megabeast]]
|-
|[[Giant elephant]]
|40,000,000
|500
|☼ ‼ ≈
|}

: ☼ — ''Recommended choice for armies due to their great size.''
: † — ''Recommended choice for bodyguards, stalls most creatures enough to give dwarves time to escape safely.''
: ^ — ''Recommended choice for fort patrols and supporting dwarves in small skirmishes. Effective in very large numbers.''
: ♪ — ''Recommended hunting companions for their speed and mobility. Smaller animals also sneak more successfully.''
: ♫ - ''Added in the dino update. Possibly extinct (depending on world gen settings)''
: ‼ — ''Poor choice for training due to their voracious appetites for [[grass]].''
: ≈ — <s>''Possesses the {{token|MEANDERER}} token, which severely slows their movement speed. Will likely fall behind any moving squad and miss offensive combat situations due to it.''</s> As of version 52.05 meandering behavior stops for animals that are trained for war or hunting.
: ○ — ''Offspring are born adults and cannot be fully tamed. They also grow extremely slowly.''
: [[Megabeast]]s — ''While extremely powerful, megabeasts are currently hostile to all military dwarves, regardless of training level.''{{Verify}} {{bug|10731}}

Remember to keep a breeding pair out of harm's way if you want more of a particular animal, in case the ones in service die.

==Training water creatures==
With a great deal of effort and some clever engineering, it is possible to capture, train, and butcher water creatures.[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=75780.0 2] Water creatures can survive indefinitely in [[cage]]s, but will drown at water levels below 4/7 while dwarves will cancel tasks at water levels at or above 4/7, making training extremely tricky. This basic problem can be solved with one of the more interesting bugs in the game: [[ghost]] trainers.[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=127659 3] It is currently unknown what bug causes this, but some animal trainers that are killed and never [[burial|buried]] or [[memorial]]ized will continue to perform their job from the grave. This removes the fundamental problem of water depth incompatibility and makes the task much easier. An easier solution, however, would be [[vampire]] animal trainers: they are unbreathing and will path through such water normally, so long as there is no flow. Taming water creatures in vanilla is fairly useless, however, as without [[modding]] they never have children, nor can they receive war (or hunting, however that would work) training.

==Training hostile creatures==
Training hostile creatures like enemy [[mount]]s does not cancel their hostility. While the job is completed and the animal trainer gains experience, the trained creature remains hostile to your civilization and will attack your dwarves. A creature will also be hostile if it becomes an enemy of your civilization, for instance if it killed one of your dwarves before. The rule of thumb is: if it has a [[name]], it's hostile, don't release it from its cage. Though, if you know how it got the name, wild animals that get names from killing other named entities like forgotten beasts, invaders, uninvited guests, etc. will still be friendly after training.

However, it does seem that the offspring of hostile creatures belong to your civilization, because trained mounts <s>amusingly</s> disturbingly attack and subsequently kill their offspring at birth. If you are careful and [[stupid dwarf trick|ingenious]] enough, you can separate the parents and children at birth.

Note that hostile egg-layers, such as [[cave crocodile]]s, might not use [[nest box]]es and therefore generate no offspring.

==Handling dangerous creatures==
Only dwarves with the animal trainer labor active will move non-trained (wild or hostile) captive creatures to a chain or to another cage. This restriction only applies to non-trained creatures and only to the "chain large creature" and "cage large creature" jobs. Throwing such a creature into a pit or pond can be done by anybody, and the chaining and caging of trained creatures is similarly unrestricted.

==Taming vermin==
First, a [[trapper]] needs to catch vermin in an animal trap. A few types of vermin can escape from wooden traps, such as the [[hamster]], so it might be a good idea to use only metal traps. An animal trainer will tame a vermin at a vermin catcher's shop. Unlike animals, vermin do not have training levels - they are either tame or not tame. Taming vermin does not pass civilization-wide experience with that vermin to the parent civilization, like taming animals does. Taming requires a food item. Vermin cannot be trained for war or hunting.

There isn't much purpose to taming vermin. It allows vermin to be adopted as pets, but few dwarves have a preference for vermin, so they will rarely be adopted. Vermin don't breed like animals do, so there is no need to have a tame pair to produce offspring. [[Animal dissector]]s can't make [[extract]]s from tame vermin, though there isn't much reason to make extracts either. Tame vermin have little value so they aren't of much use for export either. Taming vermin does give experience to animal trainers, so they can improve their skill in a fort with few animals, especially since vermin are inexhaustible.

==Taming intelligent creatures==
If you mod the game to have trainable intelligent creatures (or if you find a [[gremlin]]) they may be captured in cage traps and tamed. However, several things differ from when training other creatures, as training sapients display a number of strange behaviors.

First off, the game will consider any tamed (or semi-wild) sentient an inhabitant of your fortress (or at least partially so). This will increase your population count, which likely has the same effects as when the count is increased by [[immigration|immigrants]] arriving or [[children|babies]] being born. The trained creature will be considered a peasant in the z-screen. Despite this, the trained creature cannot work, as it is impossible to set any labor preferences. Neither can they be enlisted to the militia or have any pets. Once trained, they will be subject to hunger, thirst and drowsiness, and as such will require food, drink and sleep to survive. The creature will pick up and wear [[clothes]], but only if they are the right [[size]].

It is impossible to view their general stats screen, trying to do so will only bring you to a simple description of the creature as with any other non-inhabitant of your fort. It might not be possible to view the creature's thoughts, but they still exist, proven by the fact that the trained creature can become [[insane]]. Having the creatures socialize with your dwarves, and each other, as well as [[Keeping_your_dwarves_unstressed|all the other countermeasures to prevent insanity]] seems to prevent this though. As caged creatures cannot do any of these actions, keeping trained creatures in [[cage]]s for elongated periods of time is advised against.

It is normally impossible to give the trained creature a nickname, causing individuals of the same species to be difficult to tell apart, but if you train them for hunting or war and then assign them to one of your dwarves, they will obtain a [[name]]. The further implications of doing so are not known as of yet. Trained sapients may be assigned for butchering (which is otherwise impossible), but their returns are completely unusable and will just be taken to the nearest [[refuse]] [[stockpile]] to rot away.

Because they tend to go wherever they please, a trained intelligent creature will rarely be at a training zone out of their own volition, making re-training them difficult. Depending on how well they're trained, it brings the risk of them going wild again, potentially leading to their escape or for them to attack your dwarves due to becoming hostile. The animal trainer assigned to train these creatures may also be stuck at the training zone waiting for the creature's arrival, potentially leading to hunger and thirst. Making use of [[burrow]]s to force the creature into the training zone is an option, as the training itself will be done as long as the creature and the trainer are within the zone for a few moments.

A trained intelligent creature will only become fully controllable if it applies for [[citizenship]] in your fortress, in which case they'll be able to perform labors and their stats screen will give you full descriptions of their person and personalities. Whether trained sapients apply for citizenship in the same manner as [[visitor]]s do (2 years after becoming part of the fortress) and if they still require training after applying for citizenship requires verification.

==Bugs==
* Capturing and training [[siege|war]] [[mount]]s [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=111357.0 may cause] a [[loyalty cascade]] if your [[military]] has to put them down.{{bug|6051}}
* Trained [[flying|fliers]] may swap positions with dwarves, leaving the dwarves stranded in an inaccessible area.{{bug|3371}}
* Taming herbivores leaves [[seed]]s in [[cage]]s, which must be manually removed.{{bug|201}}
* Creatures lacking the {{token|CHILD}} tag are impossible to tame. {{bug|7983}} You can work around this by adding {{token|CHILD|c|X}} to the raws for that animal. Replace X with years creature is a child.
* [[Megabeast]]s and active [[squad]]s attack each other on sight, regardless of the former's training level, making [[dragon]]s, [[hydra]]s and [[roc]]s unusable without excessive micromanaging.{{Verify}} {{bug|10731}}

{{skills}}