Muhfuggin Timberwolves.

[EchinusRosso]

What am I supposed to do about them? Seems like every year I lose 2-3 wolves going on the hunt. And unlike mad animals, there's no notification, and they go right for the kill.

I've now got all of my colonists equipped with weapons, But even my 10+ meleeers dong stand a chance against them. What's the strategy here?

[Palec]

You have to hunt them before they will hunt you. You should check your map 1-2x per season to see how many wolves are on the map, draft your soldiers and hunt them down

[Sad Cat]

Someone with 10+ animal skill has a relatively decent chance at taming them. On one game I made a pretty decent chunk of silver breeding timberwolves and selling their puppies to traders. They also make really good defenders against raids if you assign them to someone. I was also able to take down a pair of thrumbos with 6 adult timberwolves and a guy with a sniper rifle. Unfortunately 3 of the timberwolves died during the fight and the other three were horribly maimed, two of which needed to be put down because they no longer had any legs and couldn't move any more.

[Griggers]

Unless you don't like mods you might want to try the 'Wildlife tab' mod to make it easier to find animals on your map or the 'Manager' mod to automaticly assign predators to be hunted.

[[FuFo] Mortucus]

gather you team arm them with bows or guns take direct control and make them kill the wolves then when they are injured rescue them and make them you're own

[Giltirn]

Kill wolves. Kill polar bears. Unless your map is teeming with wildlife these little turds are eventually going to attack your colonists, which means death and/or dismemberment unless they have a good weapon like a charge rifle.

[BanDHMO]

Kill them all preemptively. They are not cute cuddly pets, they are a big threat to your colonists, even if you are very advanced, because like you said they attack without warning.

Get a "Wildlife" tab mod (all it does is adds a new tab that lists wild animals on the map), so you can easily monitor the map for predators. Check it periodically, and when you see wolves or bears, mobilize 3-4 pawns with ranged weapons and take them out. They have too much of an advantage when surprise-attacking a single colonist to allow that to happen.

If you let the predators choose the time of the attack, you are taking a big risk. Even with best weapons and skills, top-notch hospital and doctor at the ready, and many armed guards nearby to jump to your defence, you can still lose fingers, toes, ears, nose, etc, which the animal can destroy in a single bite before you even react.