Womp rat

For other uses, see Rat.

"It's those womp rats again. Are they trying to chew up all the cables on the planet or what?"

―Luke Skywalker, after shooting a womp rat^[5]

Womp rats were creatures native to Tatooine, and were considered pests by local moisture farmers who hunted them for sport.

Biology and appearance

"I used to bull's-eye womp rats in my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters."

―Luke Skywalker^[3]

Native to Tatooine, the womp rat evolved to withstand harsh desert climates. A breed of rodent,^[2] they were considered hairy, monstrous pests.^[6] They had lumpish, gray skin with tufts of spiky black hair running along their backs. They moved on four legs tipped with three-clawed paws, and had long tails and ears.^[4] Typically not much bigger than two meters,^[3] they possessed big, sharp fangs used to seize prey,^[7] and had large, yellow eyes.^[2]

Behavior

WompRatSunning-BoBFCh5 — A womp rat sunning itself in Beggar's Canyon.

Womp rats were not timid creatures,^[2] hunting in packs and using their fangs to seize prey. When alone, a single womp rat was known to devour the garbage left by moisture farmers.^[7] They lived in the Jawa Heights region^[8] and used Beggar's Canyon as their den, alongside the more fearsome krayt dragons.^[9] The smell of dead womp rats was known to attract krayts. Nesting in the desert, womp rats sometimes gathered in swarms to attack the inhabitants of Tatooine,^[10] and while these dangerous swarms were feared, inhabitants didn't hesitate to hunt the creatures for sport.^[9]

History

Womp rats evolved in the harsh desert climate of Tatooine, where they gathered in packs to attack locals. Tusken Raiders used womp rat tusks to decorate their clothing, and native dewbacks were known to eat the critters.^[2]

During the Clone Wars, when Anakin Skywalker was having trouble getting information out of Dr. Nuvo Vindi, Obi-Wan Kenobi told him to have patience, as there was "more than one way to skin a womp rat."^[11]

While living on Tatooine, Luke Skywalker used his T-16 skyhopper to hunt womp rats,^[3] blasting them with the vehicle's pneumatic projectile gun^[12] in the desert world's Jawa Heights region.^[8] Luke had the most hits on the monstrous pests of any of his group of friends on a skyhopper run through Beggar's Canyon.^[6] Shortly before the Battle of Yavin, when Col Takbright protested that the two-meter target on the Death Star was impossible to hit even for a computer, Skywalker countered that he used to "bulls-eye" womp rats that were not much bigger than two meters.^[3]

In 3 ABY, a Pyke was attacked by several womp rats while trying to find Jawas. When the thief Kay Vess found the Pyke, he asked her for bacta to treat the wound caused by the rat bite, which had become infected. The situation could either help Kay improve her reputation with the Pyke Syndicate, or worsen it, since the Pyke stated he would reveal that she didn't help him if that happened.^[13]

By 9 ABY,^[14] a womp rat attacked Peli Motto's BD unit. When Peli Motto attempted to rescue the droid, the womp rat attacked her too. Din Djarin had arrived and shot the womp rat with his IB-94 blaster, killing it. Later, a womp rat was present in Beggar's Canyon when Djarin tested his modified N-1 starfighter. The rat escaped when the starfighter flew nearby.^[15]