The Monstrefact: The Wampas of Hoth

In this episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses the wampas of Hoth, from the Star Wars universe… 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi, my name is Robert Lamb And This is the
Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Your Mind, focusing on non mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters
in time. The Star Wars universe is home to many
monstrous creatures, but few are as iconic as the mighty Wampa.

(00:30):
This horned, yetty like bipedal brute makes its home on
Frigid Hoth, where it preys on abundant ton Tons as
well as the occasional extraplanetary visitor. One even managed to
get its pause on Jedi in training Luke Skywalker and
very nearly succeeded in killing the legendary warrior. The Star

(00:52):
Wars Alien Archive, one of my favorite books, is light
on Wampa details, but an earlier book, The Wildlife of
Star Wars, A Field Guide by Terrell Whitlatch and Bob
caraw provides a great deal more information. Both of these authors,
by the way, are interesting figures in the history of
Star Wars. Carau Co wrote nineteen eighty four's The Ewok Adventure,

(01:14):
and Whitlatch, an illustrator with a background in zoology, served
as principal creature designer for Star Wars episode one, The
Phantom Menace, a film that is just absolutely overflowing with
amazing creatures. The book in question, however, is from two
thousand and one. It's still available from used booksellers and
well worth picking up if you're into Star Wars and

(01:35):
or bestiaries, and in addition to providing robust details on
the creatures of Naboo, it also covers the likes of
the rain Corps and the Wampa. The authors describe the
wampa as an apex ambush predator, as its body is
not ideal for prolonged chases against speedy ton tons. No,

(01:55):
its locomotion seems similar to that of a mountain gorilla,
capable of bipedal and quadrupedal movement, but it's going to
need to wait and ambush its prey to leap out
and overpower it in the Empire strikes back. Luke, of course,
his frozen feet first in the ceiling of a wampa's
ice cave, seemingly via the creature's saliva, so we imagine

(02:19):
it must have taken a comatose Luke, licked his boots
up real good and then stuck him up there and
allowed the saliva to set and turn to ice, though
we don't get to witness this process in the film,
of course. Now, while this method seems to work for
small prey like humans, whitlatch and caraal present a far

(02:40):
more grizzly storage method. For the wampa's primary prey, the
ton ton quote prey is impaled on large icicles or
stuck to cavern ceilings with saliva to keep the meat fresh.
Saliva acts as an anesthetic in victims. Indeed, one of

(03:01):
the book's three wampa illustrations depicts a mother wampa tending
to her younglings in a cave where no fewer than
four ton tons hang, pierced through the lower legs by
meat hook like upward thrusting ice spikes. This behavior, of course,
brings to mind terrestrial butcher birds, which use plant thorns

(03:22):
to tear and store the impaled bodies of insects and
small rodents, as well as to detoxify certain insects by
letting them cure on the spike, if you will. The
authors don't explore this, but I can't help but wonder
if tontons, given their famous odor, are not to some
degree toxic, and their bodies must cure a while on

(03:45):
the ice spikes before they can be consumed. Or perhaps
wampas simply have to make the best out of surplus
kills and store up the meat, especially for the growing
little ones. As for the ice spikes, well, various terrestrial mammals, birds,
and fish do manipulate ice or snow in their environments,
and is pointed out by Gloria Dickey in a twenty

(04:08):
twenty one Science News article, polar bears have been observed
to throw blocks of ice at seals, and indigenous accounts
report that polar bears sometimes use blocks of stone or
ice to bash in the heads of walruses. As the
article explains, scientists take this possibility very seriously, especially given

(04:31):
similar behavior concerning ice observed in wild and captive polar bears.
So if shaggy apex predators in our own frozen environments
are using ice as a tool, then perhaps it's not
too much of a fantasy to imagine wampas using ice
spikes as meat hooks in a galaxy far far away.

(04:55):
Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week,
and as always, you can email us at time. Contact
at stuffd Blow Your Mind dot com.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
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