Avatar: The Last Airbender is beloved by viewers for its powerful themes, its goofy humor, and perhaps above all, its boundless creativity in creating the bending world. The world of Avatar is filled with diverse populations, ecosystems, and various, often inventive forms of element-bending that Aang and friends discover across the series.
But another crucial aspect of the Avatar universe is the innumerable variety of hybridized animal species to be found roaming across the four nations. While some of these creatures are undeniably cute, others take a turn for the weird by merging unusual pairings of real-life animals.
10 Lion Vulture
In "Appa's Lost Days," Aang's gentle sky bison has been captured by sandbenders and ends up at a circus in the Fire Nation. Among the plethora of animals kept there is this beast, which boasts a brown big cat's body and clawing paws, but also giant, eagle-like wings, a ruffle of white feathers on the chest, and a long, almost reptilian neck with a vulture's head.
The strange but fearsome creature is forced to perform tricks in the circus thanks to a tyrannical bender who manipulates a fiery whip.
9 Hippo Cow
There's something not quite right about this hulking beast native to the Fire Nation. This domesticated animal boasts the horns, hooves, and perhaps most oddly the udders of a cow, with the swollen body, tiny legs, and massive maw of a hippopotamus.
One of their most odd features is that, as Sokka learns in Book Three's "The Headband," despite itself being kept as a food source (and unlike its real-life counterparts) the hippo cow is happily omnivorous and known to eat meat. Fans may also recognize Ozai riding one of the beasts in Aang's nightmarish vision in "Nightmares and Daydreams."
8 Iguana Seal
Native to the Fire Nation, this odd reptile-mammal hybrid has the body and coloration of a green iguana, but with a face and flat fins reminiscent of an arctic seal. Fans might remember seeing these creatures when Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph travel around the volcanic nation in disguise at the beginning of Book Three.
Even more strange than their appearance is these creatures' ability to emit a loud call that sounds remarkably like a human voice.
7 Dragon Moose
While this Fire Nation workhorse vaguely resembles a moose at first glance, it gets much weirder upon closer inspection. With bright pink frills extending on either side of its face, an elongated reptilian snout, and tentacle-like whiskers, this beast is an unusual combination of reptile and mammal.
In Book Three's "The Runaway," viewers encounter dragon moose in Fire Fountain City, an industrial Fire Nation town where the gaang is pursued by Combustion Man.
6 Wolf Bat
As if the real world's cave-dwelling bats weren't spooky enough, Avatar: The Last Airbender introduces a far weirder adaptation in Book Two's "The Cave of Two Lovers." While traveling through the titular tunnels, Aang's group stumbles upon a nest of beasts with the bodies and temperaments of wolves, but the faces and wingspan of giant bats.
Luckily, Sokka discovers that the wily animals are not only afraid of the intimidating badgermoles that roam the caves, but also of their trusty companion Appa.
5 Spider Cat
In "The Library," Aang and friends venture into the Si Wong desert to find Wan Shi Tong's library, where they learn of the critically important impending solar eclipse.
Amidst the artifacts collected by the powerful spirit is the head of a spider cat. With a feline shaped (and sized) visage and furry ears but the bulbous, glassy eyes and pincers of a spider, this briefly glimpsed creature is nonetheless thoroughly unsettling.
4 Ostrich Horse
One of the Avatar world's most common mounts is also one of its weirdest. With a notable absence of horses, a fantasy staple, civilians and military in both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom can be seen riding these avian-equine hybrids. These odd mutants have the posture and (feather-covered) body of a horse, but a face that tapers into a bird's beak and only two legs with talon-tipped feet.
They're often seen across the series, notably when Zuko steals one from an Earth Kingdom village for he and Iroh to use as transportation.
3 Goat Gorilla
Fans know this beast from Aang and friends' trip to Omashu in Book One. King Bumi subjects Aang to three challenges to earn his group's freedom, with one involving retrieving Bumi's pet (ostensibly a bunny) from a giant pen also inhabited by a huge primate with floppy ears and sharp horns. The goat gorilla is of course Bumi's real pet, and despite its scary appearance, a very friendly animal.
A hulking frame, a gorilla's flat nose, large tusks, and a goat's creepy square-pupilled eyes make this bizarre creature stands out amongst the rest.
2 Canyon Crawler
This Earth Kingdom creature is by far one of Avatar's scariest, and a horde of them proves to be Team Avatar's major antagonist in the less-than-beloved Book One Episode "The Great Divide."
Canyon crawlers resemble giant spiders, with furry arachnoid abdomens, long spindly legs, and multiple pairs of glassy red eyes. But like alligators or crocodiles, they have only four limbs and a giant, chomping maw along with a snakelike forked tongue. The gaang and the feuding clans they're traveling with are able to escape the canyon by using their food bags as muzzles for the crawlers, a trick that allows them to scale the cliff walls atop the creatures.
1 Shirshu
Viewers recognize this creature as the Earth Kingdom bounty hunter June's mount and companion Nyla. A hulking creature first introduced in "Bato of the Water Tribe" when Zuko hires June to track down Aang, the shirshu possesses a giant wolflike body, a large sweeping tail, and most bizarrely, no eyes and a mole's tendrilled snout. The beast makes the perfect pet for June, as its superior sense of smell allows it to track nearly anyone across the entire Four Nations.
Its other standout feature is a long, whip-like tongue that can paralyze any creature it touches, and outsmarting the dangerous animal turns out to be a challenge.
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January 22, 2021 at 04:30AM
