Animal trap - Dwarf Fortress Wiki (2024)

An animal trap is furniture used to catch live vermin. They are created at a carpenter's workshop with 1 log, or a metalsmith's forge (in the Furniture menu) with 1 bar, by a dwarf with the trapping labor enabled. An animal trap can be made from wood or metal. Animal traps are unrelated to other traps. To capture creature-sized animals, a cage is required.

Like cages, animal traps are stored in an animal stockpile. To set the pile to accept only empty traps, go to its Custom settings and click None in the top left to block all items, then click "Empty animal traps" in the animals tab.

Use[edit]

To catch vermin on land, order the task "Capture a Live Land Animal" from a vermin catcher's shop or butcher's shop. A trapper will grab an available animal trap and begin to pursue and capture wild vermin from there. This can cause the dwarves to only pursue certain vermin i.e. cave spiders if those are the only vermin near the stockpile. Or, to catch vermin in water, order the task "Capture a Live Fish" from a fishery. A fisherdwarf will then take a trap and capture an aquatic vermin from a fishing zone (that has available fish to catch). You may want to put the task on high priority. so that fisherdwarves will prioritize the task over regular fishing.

Animal traps can also be built adjacent to any walkable tile using b-r-t or build-"Cages/Restraints"-"Animal trap". After the trap is placed, it must be baited with fish or meat (the "large gem" option is useless at the moment). Click on a placed trap to select its bait type, or set it to not be baited. When a bait is selected, trapper will automatically go and bait the trap (you cannot remove the bait afterwards). In Classic graphics, a baited animal trap flashes between the trap and bait symbols, while Premium requires you to click on the trap to view its contents. When it successfully captures (or fails to capture) a vermin, the game will make an announcement showing a cage trap icon in Premium and cd in Classic. A trap with caught vermin will automatically be slated for removal, and subsequently be hauled back to a stockpile.

Make sure to build the trap in an area with available vermin, otherwise the trap will be unable to capture anything. If the bait is left for too long, it will begin to rot, and the building must be removed to prevent miasma.

The main advantage of building an animal trap over using a kennel or butcher's shop is the ability to specify the location or biome. It also allows trappers to perform other tasks while the trap is set up. The disadvantage is that built traps require bait to function, and you cannot set baited traps underwater to capture aquatic vermin (although it is possible to place the animal traps on the surface of the water as long as it is adjacent to an walkable tile).

When a vermin is caught, the trap containing the vermin will be brought to an animal stockpile which accepts vermin of that type by a dwarf with the animal hauling labor enabled. A caught vermin is treated as if it were an item. Marking it for dumping will send it to a nearby garbage dump, and once dumped, it will disappear back to the wild. Caught vermin are viewable in the animal Citizens u-Pets/Livestock tab. To tame one, go to a kennel and select Tame a small animal. A dwarf with animal training enabled will take a trap containing an untamed vermin to the kennel and train it with raw meat or fish (although none is actually consumed). After taming it, a dwarf will haul the animal trap containing the now-tamed vermin back to an animal stockpile. unless assigned to a constructed cage or aquarium.

Any captured vermin will remain in the animal trap permanently unless it is assigned to an installed cage or aquarium (thus freeing the trap for reuse). Unfortunately, vermin cannot be assigned to a pasture, so a mechanized cage is required to release them into the game world (e.g. for a cave spider silk farm). For hateable vermin, it is recommended to have any installed cages in a faraway place, to reduce the chance of passing dwarves getting unhappy thoughts.

Vermin with [GNAWER] can break free from wooden animal traps. This does not destroy the trap. The game makes an announcement whenever this happens; if it occurs too often, you are better off getting rid of wooden traps and replacing them with metal ones.

Success chance[edit]

There is a chance that a baited animal trap may be robbed, and the trap will need to be rebaited by a trapper. The item quality affects the success chance of catching a vermin. To compare, a normal trap has a 50% chance of failing, while masterwork traps will never fail.

See also[edit]

• Terrarium and aquarium – used to put vermin on display. Aquariums are required in order to store aquatic vermin, otherwise they will die.