There are many more mammals in the books than are shown on this page for a variety of reasons. One reason being to save space but the more important one being that many animals listed in John Norman's works were done without any type of description other than a name and the climate it lives in. For this page we have tried to stick to animals with some basic type of description, leaving the multitude of undescribed animals to be discovered as you read the books.
more than six varieties inhabit the rainforests of Schendi. The great spined anteater grows to 20 ft in length and feeds on white ants or termites breaking apart their towering nests of toughened clay with mighty claws then darting it's 4 foot saliva coated tongue, drawing thousands into it's narrow tubelike mouth.
A great spined anteater, more than twenty feet in length, shuffled about
the edges of the camp. We saw its long, thin tongue dart in and out of its mouth.
The blond-haired barbarian crept closer to me.
"It is harmless," I said, "unless you cross its path or disturb it."
It lived on the white ants, or termites, of the vicinity, breaking apart their high,
towering nests of toughened clay, some of them thirty-five feet in height, with its mighty
claws, then darting its four-foot-long tongue, coated with adhesive saliva, among the
nest's startled occupants, drawing thousands in a matter of moments into its narrow,
tubelike mouth.
Explorers of Gor, page 293
More than six varieties of anteater are also found here..
Explorers of Gor, page 312
a marsupial mammal that inhabits the rainforests inland of Schendi.
On the floor itself are also found several varieties of animal life, in
particular marsupails, such as the armored gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground
urts.
Explorers of Gor, page 312
a huge, shambling animal, with a thick, humped neck and long, shaggy hair. It has a wide head and tiny red eyes, a fearful temper, and two long, wicked, curved and pointed horns. The horns, from tip to tip, may measure as much as two spears in length in the larger animals. The bosk cow may be milked. The Wagon Peoples base their survival on this animal, using all of it for various things much like the Native Americans of Earth used the buffalo.
The bosk, without which the Wagon Peoples could not live, is an oxlike
creature. It is a huge, shambling animal, with a thick, humped neck and long, shaggy hair.
It has a wide head and tiny red eyes, a temper to match that of a sleen, and two long,
wicked horns that reach out from its head and suddenly curve forward to terminate in
fearful points. Some of these horns, on the larger animals, measured from tip to tip,
exceed the length of two spears.
Not only does the flesh of the bosk and the milk of its cows furnish the Wagon Peoples
with food and drink, but its hides cover the domelike wagons in which they dwell; its
tanned and dewn skins cover their bodies; the leather of its hump is used for their
shields; its sinews forms their thread; its bones and horns are split and tooled into
implements of a hundred sorts, from awls, punches and spoons to drinking flagons and
weapon tips; its hoofs are used for glues; its oils are used to grease their bodies
against the cold. Even the dung of the bosk finds its uses on the treeless prairies, being
dried and used for fuel.
Nomads of Gor, page 5
small quick mammal, an insectivore that is kept in some homes for insect control.
The small animal skittered backward, with a sound of claws on the
boards. Its eyes gleamed in the reflected light of the lamp. "Generally, too, they do
not come this high," said the proprietor. "That is a frevet." The frevet is
a small, quick, mammalian insectivore. "We have several in the house," he said.
"They control the insects, the beetles and lice, and such."
Mercenaries of Gor, page 276
tiny cat-sized panther of solitary habits that inhabits the low branches of ground level in rainforests inland of Schendi.
In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also,
small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf
urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not
dangerous to man.
Explorers of Gor, page 312
found in the jungle along the Ua river; recognized by their chattering sound.
We could hear the chattering of guernon monkeys about.
Explorers of Gor, page 307
a domesticated marsupial raised on large fenced ranches in several of Gor's northern cities. It is a two-legged animal and has wool that is sheared four times a year by slaves. It is herded by domesticated sleen.
Cernus of Ar wore a coarse black robe, woven probably from the wool of
the bounding, two-legged Hurt, a domesticated marsupail raised in large numbers in the
environs of several of Gor's northern cities. The Hurt, raised on large, fenced ranches,
herded by domesticated sleen and sheared by chained slaves, replaces its wool four times a
year.
Assassin of Gor, page 39
a simian mammal that inhabits the rainforests inland of Schendi; nocturnal
In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also,
small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf
urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not
dangerous to man.
Explorers of Gor, page 312
also known as sand kaiila; this omnivorous animal is related to the southern kaiila and similar in most aspects barring pelt color and rearing of young; pelt color is tawny or black and young are suckled for a length of time. The men of the Tahari Desert use this mount. Its milk can be drunk, it is reddish and salty due to the amount of ferrous sulfate within it.
The sand kaiila, or desert kaiila, is a kaiila, and handles similarly,
but it is not identically the same animal which is indigenous, domestic and wild, in the
middle latitudes of Gor's southern hemisphere; that animal, used as a mount by the Wagon
Peoples, is not found in the Northern hemisphere of Gor; there is obviously a phylogenetic
affinity between the two varieties, or species; I conjecture, though I do not know, that
the sand kaiila is a desert-adapted mutation of the subeuatorial stock; both animals are
lofty, proud, silken creatures, long-necked and smooth-gaited; both are triply lidded, the
third lid being a transparent membrane, of great utility in te blasts of the dry storms of
the southern plains or the Tahari; both creatures are comparable in size, ranging from
some twenty to twenty-two hands at the shoulder; both are swift; both have incredible
stamina; under ideal conditions both can range six hundred pasangs in a day; in the dune
country, of course, in the heavy, sliding sands, a march of fifty pasangs is considered
good; both, too, I might mention are high-strung, vicious-tempered animals; in pelt the
southern kaiila ranges from a rich gold to black; the sand kaiila, on the other hand, are
almost all tawny, though I have seen some black sand kaiila; differences, some of them
striking and important, however, exist between the animals; most notably, perhaps, the
sand kailla suckles its young; the southern kaiila are viviparous, but the young, within
hours after birth, hunt by instinct; the mother delivers the young in the vicinity of
game; whereas there is game in the Tahari, birds, small mammals, an occasional sand sleen,
and some species of tabuk, it is rare; the suckling of the young in the sand kaiila is a
valuable trait in the survival of the animal; kaiila milk, which is used, like verr milk,
by the peoples of the Tahari, is reddish, and has a strong, salty taste; it contains much
ferrous sulfate; a similar difference between the two animals, or two sorts of kaiila, is
that the sand kaiila is omnivorous, whereas the southern kaiila is strictly carnivorous;
both have storage tissues; if necessary, both can go several days without water; the
souther kaiila also, however, has a stoage stomach and acn go several days without meat;
the sand kaiila, unfortunitely, must feed more frequently; some of the pack animals in a
caravan are used in carrying fodder; whatever is needed, and is not available enroute,
must be carried; sometimes, with a mounted herdsman, caravan kaiila are released to hunt
tabuk; a more trivial difference between the sand kaiila and the southern kaiila is that
the paws of the sand kaiila are much broader, the digits even webbed with leathery fibers,
and heavily padded, than those of its southern counterpart.
Tribesmen of Gor, page 71
large (20-22 hands) carnivorous mammal with long neck and silky fur; its eyes have 3 lids; is viviparous has incredible stamina (capable of covering 600 in a day) and can be domesticated for riding in spite of its vicious temper. It has a rich gold to black pelt. The kaiila is a mammal, but there is no suckling of the young, who begin hunt within hours of birth.
The mount of the Wagon Peoples, unknown in the northern hemisphere of
Gor, is the terrifying but beautiful kaiila. It is a silken, carnivorous, lofty creature,
graceful, long-necked, smooth-gaited. It is viviparous and undoubtedly mammalian, though
there is no suckling of the young. The young are born vicious and by instinct, as soon as
they can struggle to their feet, they hunt. It is an instinct of the mother, sensing the
birth, to deliver the young animal in the vicinity of game. I suppose, with domesticated
kaiila, a bound verr or a prisoner might be cast to the newborn animal. The kaiila, once
it eats its fill, does not touch food for several days.
The kaiila is extremely agile, and can easily outmaneuver the slower, more ponderous high
tharlarion. It requires less food, of course, than the tarn. A kaiila, which normally
stands about twenty to twenty-two hands at the shoulder, can cover as much as six hundred
pasangs in a single day's riding.
The head of the kaiila bears two large eyes, one on each side, but these eyes are triply
lidded, probably an adaptation to the environment which occasionally is wracked by severe
storms of wind and dust; the adaptation, actually a transparent third lid, permits the
animal to move as it wishes under conditions that force other prairie animals to back into
the wind or, like the sleen, to burrow into the ground. The kaiila is most dangerous under
such conditions, and, as if it knew this, often uses such times for its hunt.
Nomads of Gor, page 13
gigantic, dangerous beast that stands 20-25 hands at the shoulder and weighing as much as 4,000 lbs., they migrate across the Barrens in massive herds, hunted by Red Savages and those who trade in their hides. They have a trident horn.
The kailiauk in question, incidentally, is the kailiauk of the Barrens.
It is a gigantic, dangerous beast, often standing from twenty to twenty-five hands at the
shoulder and weighing as much as four thousand pounds. It is almost never hunted on foot
except in deep snow, in which it is almost helpless. From kaiilaback, riding beside the
stampeded animal, however, the skilled hunter can kill one with a single arrow. He rides
close to the animal, not a yard from its side, just outside the hooking range of the
trident, to supplement the striking power of his small bow. At this range the arrow can
sink in to the feathers. Ideally it strikes into the intestinal cavity behind the last
rib, producing large-scale internal hemorrhaging, or closely behind the left shoulder
blade, thence piercing the eight-valved heart.
Savages of Gor, page 40
four-legged wide-headed, lumbering, stocky ruminants, described as short trunked and tawny. The males have 3 trident-like horns, with brown and reddish bars on the haunches. The males are 400 to 500 Gorean stone (1600-2000lbs) and are 10 hands at the shoulder. The females are 8 hands and weigh 300 - 400 Gorean stone (1200-1600 lbs.). Their horns and tooled hides are major exports of the port of Schendi.
Kailauk are four-legged, wide-headed, lumbering stocky ruminants. Their
herds are usually found in the savannahs and plains north and south of the rain forests,
but some herds feruent the forests as well. These animals are short trunked and tawny.
They commonly have brown and reddish bars on the haunches. The males, tridentlike, have
three horns. These horns bristle from their foreheads. The males are usually about ten
hands at the shoulders and the females about eight hands. The males average about four
hundred to five hundred Gorean stone in weight, some sixteen hundred to two thousand
pounds, and the females average about three to four hundred Gorean stone in weight, some
twelve hundred to sixteen hundred pounds.
Explorers of Gor, page 93
short-trunked, stocky, awkward ruminant of the plains. Their color is tawny with haunches marked in red and brown bars. Their wide heads bear a trident horn. They instinctively circle when resting, their females and young protected within.
Even past me there thundered a lumbering herd of startled, short-trunked
kailiauk, a stocky, awkward ruminant of the plains, tawny, wild, heavy, their haunches
marked in red and brown bars, their wide heads bristling with a trident of horns; they had
not stood and formed their circle, shes and young within the circle of tridents.
Nomads of Gor, page 2
a large (7 ft. at shoulder) feline with a broad viper shaped head and cat-like slitted pupils; carnivorous; the females of the species tend to be smaller than the males.
The larl is a predator, clawed and fanged, quite large, often standing
seven feet at the shoulder.I think it would be fair to say that it is substantially
feline; at any rate its grace and sinuous power remind me of the smaller but similarly
fearsome jungle cats of my old world.
The resemblance is, I suppose, due to the mechanics of convergent evolution, both animals
having been shaped by the exigencies of the chase, the stealth of the approach and the
sudden charge, and by the requirement of the swift and devastating kill. If there is an
optimum configuration for a land perdator, I suppose on my old world the palm must go to
the Bengal tiger; but on Gor the prize belongs indisputably to the mountain larl; and I
cannot but believe that the stuctural similarities between the two animals, though of
different worlds, are more than a matter of accident.
The larl's head is broad, sometimes more than two feet across, and shaped roughly like a
triangle, giving its skull something of the cast of a viper's save that of course it is
furred and the pupils of the eyes like the cat's and unlike the viper's, can range from
knifelike slits in the broad daylight to dark, inquisitive moons in the night.
Priest Kings of Gor, page 18
predominately nocturnal larl which is sable coated and maned both male and female.
The black larl, which is predominantly nocturnal, is maned, both male
and female. The red larl, which hunts whenever it is hungry, regardless of the hour, and
is the more common variety, possesses no mane. Females of both varieties tend generally to
be slightly smaller than the males, but are quite as aggressive and sometimes even more
dangerous, particularly in the late fall and winter of the year when they are likely to be
hunting for their cubs.
Priest Kings of Gor, page 18
larl that is tawny-red coated and has no mane in either male or female. It hunts either day or night, whenever it is hungry.
The black larl, which is predominantly nocturnal, is maned, both male
and female. The red larl, which hunts whenever it is hungry, regardless of the hour, and
is the more common variety, possesses no mane. Females of both varieties tend generally to
be slightly smaller than the males, but are quite as aggressive and sometimes even more
dangerous, particularly in the late fall and winter of the year when they are likely to be
hunting for their cubs.
Priest Kings of Gor, page 18
seen in icy mountains of the Sardar they are the largest of the big cats standing 8 feet; upper canines extending below their jaws very similar to saber-toothed tiger; long tails are tufted at the ends.
I was struck with wonder, though I was careful to keep beyond the range
of their chains, for I had never seen white larls before.
They were gigantic beasts, superb specimens, perhaps eight feet at the shoulder.
Their upper canine fangs, like daggers mounted in their jaws, must have been at least a
foot in length and extended well below their jaws in the manner of ancient saber-toothed
tigers. The four nostril slits of each animal were flared and their great chests lifted
and fell with the intensity of their excitement. Their tails, long and tufted at the end,
lashed back and forth.
Priest Kings of Gor, page 22
a small 4-legged mammal, about 10 inches high, weighing between 8 and 12 pounds. The snow lart has two stomachs and hunts in summer, filling the second stomach in the fall to last the animal through winter. Its pelt is snowy white and thick. It is considered valuable, selling in Ar for half a silver tarsk. They are found in the Polar North.
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Beasts of Gor, page 74
Inhabitant of the floor of the jungle. No true description given but it is inferred that there is more than one type.
On the jungle floor, as well, are found jungle larls and jungle
panthers, of diverse kinds, and many smaller catlike predators.
Explorers of Gor, page 312
(pl. qualae) tiny, three-toed mammal, dun-colored with a stiff, brushy mane of black hair.
Near one of the green stretches I saw what I first thought was a shadow,
but as the tarn passed, it scattered into a scampering flock of tiny creatures, probably
the small, three-toed mammals called qualae, dun-colored and with a stiff brushy mane of
black hair.
Tarnsman of Gor, page 141
long sleek mammal with flippers and six legs and double fanged jaws can weigh as much as 1000 pounds.. and as much as 20 feet in length hunted by the Red Hunters for food and pelt.
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Beasts of Gor, page 285
one of the four main types of sea sleen found in the polar north.
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Beasts of Gor, page 38
one of the four main types of sea sleen found in the polar north.
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Beasts of Gor, page 38
one of the four main types of sea sleen found in the polar north.
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Beasts of Gor, page 38
rare broader headed more dangerous variety of sea sleen found in the Polar North.
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Beasts of Gor, page 283
one of the four main types of sea sleen found in the polar north.
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Beasts of Gor, page 38
It is long, up to 20 feet, sinuous, black or brown in color. It resembles a lizard, except it is furred and mammalian. In its attack frenzy it is one of the most dangerous animals on Gor.
The sleen has six legs. It is long, sinuous; it resembles a lizard, save
that it is furred and mammalian. In its attack frenzy it is one of the most dangerous
animals on Gor.
Captive of Gor, page 155
said to be Gor's finest tracker, this six-legged sleen is a furred mammal with silver gray fur. It has an agile, sinuous body, thick as a drum and is 14-15 feet long. The gray sleen has a broad triangular head and a huge jaw with two rows of fangs and a dark tongue. Its widely set eyes have slit-like pupils. This breed is relentless and tenacious. It can follow a scent that is weeks old for a thousand pasangs.
To my terror, then, pushing over my body, to thrust its great jaws and
head, so large I could scarcely have put my arms about them, into the hands and arms of my
master, was an incredible beast. It had an extremely agile, active, sinuous body, as thick
as a rum, and perhaps fourteen or fifteen feet long. It might have weight a thousand
pounds. Its broad head was traingular, almost viperlike, but it was furred. This thing was
a mammal, or mammalian. Its eyes now had pupils like slits, like those of a cat in
sunlight. So quickly then might its adaptive mechanisms have functioned. About its muzzle
were gray hairs, grayer than the silvered gray of its fur. It had six legs.
Dancer of Gor, page 160
I was silent. I was frightened with those huge jaws, the two rings of
fangs, the long, dark tongue, over me.
Dancer of Gor, page 161
"The sleen," he said, "and especially the gray sleen, is
Gor's finest tracker. It is a relentless, tenacious tracker. It can follow a scent that is
weeks old, for a thousand pasangs.
Dancer of Gor, page 161
the hunting sleen is a hunter of men. It is 20 feet in length and weighs eleven hundred pounds. This domesticated forest sleen is double fanged and six-footed. It's tail tends to switch back and forth, getting rigid, as it hunts, it's ears flatten against it's head just prior to it's final 'charge' attack on it's prey.
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Beasts of Gor, pages 12-13
the prairie sleen is tawny in color, and are smaller than the forest sleen, but quite as unpredictable and vicious. Domesticated prairie sleen are used for hunting and nocturnal herd sleen are used as shepherds and sentinels. They are released from their cages with the falling of darkness, responding only to the voice of their master. They are killed with their owner dies.
farther to one side I saw a pair of prairie sleen, smaller than the
forest sleen but uite as unpredictable and vicious, each about seven feet in length,
furred, six-legged, mammalian, moving in their undulating gait with their viper's heads
moving form side to side, continually testing the wind
Nomads of Gor, page 2
a kind of antelope, yellow in color with a single horn found in many areas’s of Gor. It travels in fleet footed herds and haunts the ka-la-na thickets of the planet. Men use its meat as food. It is a favorite prey of Tarns.
The tabuk is the most common Gorean antelope, a small graceful animal, one-horned and yellow, that haunts the Ka-la-na thickets of the planet and occasionally vertures daintily into its meadows in search of berries and salt. It is also one of the favorite kills of a tarn.
massive, tawny and swift is much larger than its smaller southern variety; standing ten hands at the shoulders. They have a single spiraling ivory horn, which at its base can be 2 1/2 inches in diameter and over a yard in length. The Red Hunters are tied to the tabuk for sustenance and the devices of daily living much like the Wagon Peoples and the bosk, and the Red Savages and the kailiauk.
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described as tawny and gazelle-like with a single horn, it responds to threat by scurrying away or lying down. Presumably this response is useful because of the high grass of the Barrens as most predators depend on vision to detect and locate its prey.
(Searching for quote, please be patient)Blood Brothers of Gor, page 316
fat, grunting, shaggy-maned, hoofed, flat-snorted, rooting, short-legged quadruped, having a bristly mane which runs down its spine to the base of the tail. In the wild, it is viciously aggressive. A common source of meat, and is often roasted whole. Market of Semris is famed for it's tarsk markets.
Still later that afternoon some groups of small, fat, frunting, bristly, brindled, shaggy-maned, hoofed, flat-snouted, rooting animals had been herded in, also with pointed sticks, and they, too, had been guided into identical cages. We had looked out of our cage, our fingers hooked in the mesh, to the other cages, some of them with girls in them, some with the fat, flat-snouted, grunting, short-legged, brindled quadrupeds.
presumably similar to the common tarsk, however it stands 10 hands at the shoulder and is hunted with lances from tarnback.
The giant tarsk, which can stand ten hands at the shoulder, is even hunted with lances from tarnback.
rapid moving water mammal living along canals; abundant in Port Kar, where they are hunted to decrease the population.
Behind the man, in the stern, lay the bloody, white-furred bodies of two
canal urts. One would have weight about sixty pounds, and the other, I speculate, about
seventy-five or eighty pounds.
Savages of Gor, page 67
fat, sleek, and white, it has 3 rows of needle-like white teeth and 4 horns. Large enough to drag a man in its jaws.
It was a giant urt, fat, sleek and white; it bared its three rows of
needlelike white teeth at me and suealed in anger; two horns, tusks like flat crescents
curved fom its jaw; another two horns, similar to the first, modifications of the body
tissue forming the upper ridge of the eye socket, protruded over those gleaming eyes that
seemed to feast themselves upon me, as if waiting the permission of the keeper to hurl
itself on its feeding trough. Its fat body trembled with anticipation.
The whip cracked again, and another command was uttered, and the animal, its long hairless
tail lashing in frustration, slunk into another tunnel.
Outlaw of Gor, page 86
nocturnal animal living in the forests, hunted by the hook-billed night crying fleer.
From through the tress, on the other side of the camp, came what I took
to be the sound of a bird, the hook-billed, night-crying fleer, which preys on nocturnal
forest urts.
Slave Girl of Gor, page 117
carnivorous; a small, sharp-toothed mammal that flies in flocks. Raised on Tyros in vart caves to be used as weapons.
Perhaps most I dreaded those nights filled with the shrieks of the vart
pack, a blind, batlike swarm of flying rodents, each the size of a small dog, They could
strip a carcass in a matter of minutes, each carrying back some fluttering ribbon of flesh
to the recesses of whatever dark cave the swarm had chosen for its home. Moreover, some
vart packs were rabid.
Outlaw of Gor, page 26
carnivorous animals that rest clinging upside down on branches.
I could, however, recognize a row of brown varts, clinging upside down
like large matted fists of teeth and fur and leather on the heavy, bare, scarred branch in
their case. I saw bones, perhaps human bones, in the bottom of their case.
Priest Kings of Gor, page 191
a mountain goat indigenous to the Voltai Mountains; wild, agile, ill-tempered with long hair and spiraling horns; source of a form of wool; its milk is potable as well as being used for cheese. Its meat is sometimes eaten by men.
The verr was a mountain goat indigenous to the Voltai. It was a wild,
agile, ill-tempered beast, long-haired and spiral-horned. Among the Voltai crags it would
be worth one's life to come within twenty yards of one.
Priest-Kings of Gor, page 63
a small, sleen-like, carnivorous mammal that inhabits the Ua River area. It grows to about 2 feet in length, and weighs 8-10 lbs. It is diurnal can swim very well, and builds a stick and mud nest in the branches of a tree where it spends the night.
There is, however, a sleenlike animal, though much smaller, about two
feet in length and some eight to ten pounds in weight, the zeder, which requents the Ua
and her tributaries. It knifes through the water by day and, at night, returns to its
nest, built from sticks and mud in the branches of a tree overlooking the water.
Explorers of Gor, page 312
