Wild Animals

Wildlife on Middle Earth, from the tiniest fly to the most massive Mûmak, is diverse, but which creatures a traveller may encounter highly depends on region and climate, as well as on time of year and day and the animal’s general tendency to show itself.

In the cold, forested North white wolves howl at night, frogs sing in the mild summer nights of the Shire in the Northwest, in the sunny West small lizards gather on warm white stone streets and around crushed overripe fruit, large flocks of birds dance above the windswept empty plains of Khand in the Southeast, wild horses on the fertile ones of Rohan North of Gondor, wild goats and sheep laugh at their pursuers from high up on sheer rock walls and between the rolling hills of Dunland West of the Misty Mountains, gulls in the storms of Umbar, hippopotamuses float lazily amidst white cranes near the shores of lakes in Haradwaith in the South, the dwarves of Khazad-dûm know not to lean in too close on bugs sparkling like precious gems, the elves of Imladris watch their otters with amusement, giant striped cats hunt for colorful songbirds and lean spotted deer in the light forests of Rhûn in the East and small, wide-eyed mice hide underneath the black rocks of Mordor.

Some animals are native to Middle Earth alone. Among them the noble Mearas horses of Rohan, the gigantic elephant-like Mûmakil of Far Harad, the hyena- and wolf-like Wargs and Crebain birds of Dunland, great Roäc ravens of Erebor and grey elven birds with golden beaks and feet.