Are alpha beavers a threat or just a free meal?

[water]

So some alpha beavers just wandered into my area and the game says kill them or they will eat all the trees. My first thought was, "so what?". Usually I kill them and freeze them to eat later but these are really far away. Is there any reason I shouldn't let the beavers just do their thing?

[TheSilencedScream]

Depends on the size of the map. Especially on the larger maps, they're not threat at all, regardless of when they arrive.

Early on, though, on smaller maps, they can clear-cut the map after some time.

But, overall, no - they aren't a threat. Perhaps if they ate through trees more quickly, they might be.

[woolfoma]

Depends on the size of the map. Especially on the larger maps, they're not threat at all, regardless of when they arrive.

Early on, though, on smaller maps, they can clear-cut the map after some time.

But, overall, no - they aren't a threat. Perhaps if they ate through trees more quickly, they might be.

the real threat is when they spawn while you're under siege, cause then they eat all the trees and you colonist are too busy stopping your colony from burning to kill the beavers off.

[jasta85]

if you could somehow tame beavers or deer or something so that they would eat all the grass, shrubs and trees that grow inside your base then that would be awesome.  less fire hazards

hopefully domesticated animals are somewhere in the future

[FridayBiology]

early material for parka s

[water]

I was kinda hoping there was some kind of ecosystem at play here. Like, it would be neat if the  muffalo and boars lived off of the trees but the trees came back faster than they ate them. Then the alphabeavers would essentially be killing off your hunting sources by killing their food source.

[Mechanoid Hivemind]

I noticed with those little buggers that after a while the start to starve and leave the map (like winter was coming)

[b0rsuk]

It would be interesting if there were more things tied to trees, for example more animals to hunt if there are trees. Birds especially. Also alphabeavers would be more threatening if they ate raspberry bushes. They also ignore wooden walls for some reason. The flavor text implies they EAT wood rather than use it for dams, so why do they ignore wooden walls ?

[Monkfish]

They tend not to be a pain for me, though I'll often just mark them all for hunting as soon as they arrive and leave my colonists to it, though I often intervene when someone's blindly wandering into another hunter's line-of-sight.

I noticed with those little buggers that after a while the start to starve and leave the map (like winter was coming)

If you watch one whilst it is eating, the food bar doesn't increase a great deal when they eat a tree, but it drops very fast (they're usually starving again before they've finished the next tree). I don't think them being starving has any bearing on when they leave; it's more likely they leave after every tree has been eaten or after a preset time.

The flavor text implies they EAT wood rather than use it for dams, so why do they ignore wooden walls ?

I would guess they're set to only eat trees. Eating wooden walls as well would both make sense and add an interesting slant to things if they're near your base and you have wooden structures.

[SSS]

They've never bothered me. I went out of my way to kill them all the first time I saw them; after that I actually wanted less trees around the base I had at the time, so I let them do their thing. They didn't even clear a quarter of the (default) map before they had their fill. It might have been an eighth of the map.

Now that I'm playing on a bigger map than default, this would seem like a non-occurrence unless they're close by and I need meat.

[Teague]

Id say they would be a bit more of a threat if they were hostile things you make wood out of.

[Tynan]

I've rebalanced them somewhat in Alpha 10.

Id say they would be a bit more of a threat if they were hostile things you make wood out of.

That's actually a really clever idea!

[Silvador]

I had a beaver go after the logs in my stockpile back in A8.

[CheeseGromit]

Id say they would be a bit more of a threat if they were hostile things you make wood out of.

Only if we can get a piece of art dedicated to the day the alpha beavers ate the dinning room table and chairs whilst Joe Colonist was enjoying his fine meal and beer.

[Monkfish]

I'd buy that painting.