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| Location : Hoth TAUNTAUN "Your tauntaun'll freeze before you reach the first marker" "Then I'll see you in Hell!" - Echo Base officer and Han Solo, The Empire Strikes Back |
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The tauntaun is a reptomammal native to the ice world of Hoth. Fur-covered and thick skinned, tauntauns make excellent mounts for the Rebel scouts exploring the frozen plains surrounding their new base. Tauntauns are the most populous of Hoth's meager life-forms, migrating in herds across the ice plains. Tauntauns are tall creatures, standing on two powerful hind legs capped by clawed feet. To survive in the freezing climate on Hoth, tauntauns have fur-covered bodies, underneath which is a layer of fat. While this keeps the tauntaun reasonably warm and hardy, the oils and waste products exuded from pores in a tauntaun's skin gives off a foul and distinctive odor. Tauntauns themselves have four nostrils on their furry muzzles, the largest of which are used to conduct oxygen to the bloodstream during physical exertion - though during the freezing nights, the larger pair seal to keep snow out. Despite a tauntaun's natural insulation, they are forced to seek shelter in ice caves and grottoes during the harsh nighttime, since the temperature drop is severe enough that even these hardy beasts cannot survive it. Tauntauns are omnivorous creatures, feeding mostly on a type of fungus growing beneath the snow layer, though they are known to eat small creatures such as ice scrabblers and Hoth hogs. Though hardly a threat to creatures larger than themselves, tauntauns are known to be ornery beasts, spitting and gurgling in protest when forced to do something against their wishes. The females are the most cantankerous, thanks to the fact that they outnumber the males and are constantly in competition for mates. Competing tauntauns use their curved horns in battle, though their most effective weapon is their spitting. Though not deadly, a tauntaun's gooey saliva is often aimed precisely at an opponent's eyes - and since the icy temperatures cause the liquid to freeze instantly, the effect can be particularly lethal. When the Rebel Alliance settled on Hoth, their engineers sent to scout for suitable transportation happened upon a tauntaun herd. After a week of baiting the tauntauns with sedative-injected ice scrabblers, the Rebels were able to break the tauntauns in by gaining the trust of the alpha female. After riding with a Rebel handler, the female apparently communicated to the herd, and from then on, the Rebels were able to employ tauntauns as mounts until they could adapt speeders to Hoth's climate. Rebel luminaries such as Han Solo and Luke Skywalker rode tauntauns on patrol missions in proximity to the Rebel base. Rebel recon soldiers also rode tauntauns as part of a delaying tactic against the Imperial invasion forces during the Battle of Hoth. Though the tauntaun used by the Rebel forces is the most prevalent on Hoth, there are a number of tauntaun sub-species ranged across the globe. Evolutionary variants include giant tauntauns and much smaller, more reptilian scaly tauntauns. Tauntauns also appear to have distant cousins on other worlds, most notably the cu-pa of Nam Chorios. At least one tauntaun is known to have left its homeworld of Hoth, though sadly, only as a stuffed head adorning the wall of Jabba the Hutt's throne room on Tatooine. Source: The Empire Strikes Back, Essential Guide to Alien Species, Wizards of the Coast _____________________________________________________________________________ -- Behind the Scenes -- The tauntaun was realized in Episode V as a stop-motion miniature, with a full-sized puppet used for close-ups. While the stop-motion tauntaun was animated and composited onto painted, miniature of live-action backgrounds, the articulated puppet was used on location in Finse, Norway. Though a track was built allowing the tauntaun to 'run' for a short distance, the puppet froze up during location shooting, and most of its features were left unworkable. -- Multimedia -- Image Gallery: tauntaun |
| DATA Type: lizard mount Designation: nonsentient Homeworld: Hoth Average Height: 1.6 m Diet: omnivore NOTABLE SUB-SPECIES - common tauntaun (giant tauntaun) - climbing tauntaun - scaly tauntaun - glacier tauntaun RELATED PAGES - Hoth - wampa ice creature - cu-pa |
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