Every Friday the Nerdist documents one of Earth’s bizarre animals in our series Miracles of Weird. This being May the 4th, we’ve decided to go outside our galaxy for a special edition of said series – documenting some of the stranger critters that have popped up in the Star Wars saga.

The Worrt

Home World: Tatooine, Tatoo Star System

Size: 0.5-1.5m tall

Appearances: Episode VI

This frog-like creature made its cinematic debut in Episode VI when it is seen feeding on smaller animals outside of Jabba’s palace. Worrts had voracious appetites and were sometimes forcibly domesticated and brought in doors as a means of pest control. Their often indiscriminate appetites served them poorly at times, however, like when they’d ingest rocks or pieces of metal and meet their end soon thereafter.

Tatooine isn’t the only planet with massive frogs. Check out the African bull frog, a hungry beast that grows to the size of a football and will eat seemingly anything it can fit in its mouth. There is even one documented case of a specimen eating 17 baby venomous cobras and suffering no ill-effects.

The Nuna

Home World: Naboo, Chommell Sector

Size: 0.5-0.75m tall

Appearances: Episode I

The nuna waddled along on a pair of big three-toed feet, and though they were flightless, they did possess the keel bone present in birds of both the Star Wars universe and our own. When agitated, the nuna could inflate a posterior body cavity, dramatically increasing the animal’s size. Unfortunately for the nuna, this caused Gungans to intentionally agitate them so they could kick them around in a sport dubbed “Nuna-ball”

There’s a creature here on Earth that acts like – and kind of looks like – the nuna. The female cane toad of Central and South America (and Australia, regrettably) will inflate herself to discourage small males from mounting her.

The Bogwing

Home World: Dagobah, Dagobah System

Size: Length: 1-5m, Wingspan: 1-3m

Appearances: Epsiodes V and VI

Bogwings could be found gracefully gliding through the swamps of Dagobah. There were actually two species of bogwing, the greater bogwing, which lived in the upper canopy and the lesser bogwing which lived closer to the ground. Both fed on small swamp creatures but were capable of carrying up to 9x their own body weight. One of the main predators of the bogwing was the Jubba bird, a colorful swamp bird prized for its song.

To see a real-life equivalent of the bogwing, check out Kryptodrakon progenitor, a flying reptile of about the same size that took flight on our planet “a long time ago…”

The Kaadu

Home World: Naboo, Chommell Sector

Size: 2.24m tall

Appearances: Episode I

The Gungan Grand Army used Kaadus as cavalry animals in the battle of Naboo against the Trade Federation. Kaadus could move quickly across the land (top speed: 50 mph), but were also adept at swimming, being able to hold their breath for up t0 2 hours. In the wild, Kaadu would travel in herds of up to 3.4 million animals.

Is it just me, or do these things look like much friendlier tyrannosaurids? Even being less fearsome, Kaadus are somehow easier to take seriously since they don’t have those ridiculous little fore-limbs.

The Ronto

Home World: Tatooine, Tatoo Star System

Size: 4-6m tall

Appearances: Episode I, Episode IV: Special Edition

Rontos were massive desert beasts often domesticated as pack animals by the Jawas of Tatooine.  Rontos had excellent hearing and vision, but poor eyesight. While they were easily domesticable, they were really better for open desert travel than moving goods through city streets as they were highly skittish around machinery, which Mos Eisley had plenty of.

Rontos, along with dewbacks, eopies and banthas, contribute to an impressive list of domesticable animals on Tatooine. Check out the list of characteristics a given animal here on Earth needs to have in order to be domesticable.

HT: Wookiepedia