Forum:SH:Project Creatures: Wookieepedia's Seventh Barn-Burner!

Welcome to the seventh Wookieepedia Barn-Burner! This is the latest in a series of highly successful, short-term projects where we focus on improving articles that fall under a general theme. This time around, it's the Creature Feature! Per a community discussion, let's get to work on those fauna, varmints, critters, and steeds.

The Barn-Burner will run during January and February, 2014. We are going live a couple of weeks early, though, so feel fee to start researching, writing, and nominating!

Purpose and overview
There are several goals that drive Barn-Burners. First, they bring the community together to focus on a topic that otherwise has been overlooked. There are relatively few creature-related FAs, GAs, and CAs on Wookieepedia, so this is our chance to swell their ranks a bit. Second, the Barn-Burners are a great opportunity for folks to work toward a common goal. We have WookieeProjects, of course, but the idea here is to focus on topics that don't have their own projects already. If a permanent project develops out of the Barn-Burner, all the better!

Before you dive in, a few words on what we mean by creature. Think non-sentient species, or something that is most likely non-sentient. You can find technical definitions of all these terms at the Sentience page, but as a rule of thumb, if it's alive, if it can move, if it doesn't wear clothes, if it doesn't fire blasters or throw spears, and if it can't talk, it's probably a non-sentient creature. In other words, if a layperson would call it an animal, It's probably fair game for our purposes. Heck, even some plants may fit in here if they are able to move.

A few caveats, though. There are lots of critters in Star Wars that fit the above rule of thumb but which have never been "officially" labeled non-sentient. An example might be something that only appears in the background of a comic book. Maybe the hero swats a pesky bug on her arm. If the comic doesn't say that bug was non-sentient, can we rule out the possibility that it might have been a member of an intelligent species? Nope. There's thus a gray area here in whether to categorize that bug as Category:Species of undefined sentience or not; this is arguably something that needs to be hashed out in a consensus track discussion. But what role did the bug play in the story? Was it that of an unintelligent animal? Yep. Here, we'll go with the spirit of things; it's fine to write up that pesky biter here if you want and count it as a Barn-Burner nomination.

One final note: Star Wars is also full of "semi-sentient" creatures. Generally, this either means a really smart animal that can't talk, or a really dumb species that can talk. Technically, semi-sentient creatures are covered under the purview of WookieeProject Aliens, so they are beyond our scope here. If you have a question about the level of sentience of a particular species, don't hesitate to ask in the "Discussion" area below.

Ideas for projects
Below are some ideas for articles that would fit the theme of this Barn-Burner. "Simpler" projects are those that would probably be good for a Comprehensive Article or a shorter Good Article. "Moderate" projects are those that are probably in the Good Article or shorter Featured Article range. "More difficult" projects are still doable, but they are almost certainly Featured Article-level projects.

Simpler

 * Akul
 * Can-cell
 * Dactillion
 * Endorian chicken
 * Felucian bird
 * Ghhhk
 * Ginntho
 * Gondar
 * Gooberfish
 * Gualaar
 * Houjix
 * Ng'ok
 * Nudj
 * Odupiendo
 * Rock wart
 * Ruhau-whale

Moderate

 * Churi
 * Guarlara (creature)
 * Gurreck
 * Jerba
 * Klatooine paddy frog
 * K'lor'slug
 * Lava flea
 * Orray
 * Pikobi
 * Sleen
 * Swamp slug

More difficult

 * Colo claw fish
 * Dianoga
 * Exogorth
 * Falumpaset
 * Gorg
 * Kaadu
 * Krayt dragon
 * Massiff
 * Nexu
 * Nuna
 * Rat
 * Reek
 * Ronto
 * Womp rat
 * Worrt

Other creatures from movie planets
Maybe something from one of the films seems too intimidating? You're in luck, because there are plenty of other creatures on the planets featured in the six Star Wars films. Note that some of these are breeds or subtypes of movie critters; these are good alternatives for folks who like something in the films but can't commit to writing up the species as a whole.

Simpler

 * Airsquid
 * Arch grub
 * Ashfall tauntaun, climbing tauntaun, glacier tauntaun, scaly tauntaun
 * Awor
 * Bantha tick
 * Beetle moth
 * Coruscant game fowl
 * Dwarf bantha
 * Fanteel
 * Habogad
 * Hoth whale
 * Kikla
 * Mip
 * Rock-vulture
 * Roga
 * Sand louse, sand tick, sandflea, sandfly, sandmaggot, sand-rat: There's a lot of sand on Tatooine.
 * Snowmouse

Moderate

 * Accipiptero
 * Butcherbug
 * Cliffborer worm
 * Conduit worm
 * Gravel-maggot
 * Griagh
 * Hoth hog
 * Howler
 * Ice scrabbler
 * Jubba bird
 * Knobby white spider
 * Kreetle
 * Neebray
 * Nos monster
 * Rakazzak beast
 * Squill
 * Temptor
 * Veermok
 * Velker
 * Woolamander

More difficult

 * Anooba
 * Beldon
 * Blurrg
 * Boar-wolf
 * Condor dragon
 * Crystal snake
 * Floater (creature)
 * Hanadak
 * Hawk-bat
 * Katarn
 * Kybuck
 * Piranha beetle
 * Rawwk
 * Stintaril

Simpler

 * Airborne zooplankton
 * Alderaan beach snail
 * Alderaan furry moth
 * Alderaan night bird
 * Alderaanian flare-wing
 * Alderaanian swan
 * Corellian banshee bird
 * Glimmerfish
 * Orokeet
 * Rotworm
 * Wonat

Moderate

 * Dire-cat
 * Grazer
 * Humbaba
 * Iraida
 * Pittin

More difficult

 * Corellian sand panther
 * Manka cat
 * Nerf
 * Terentatek
 * Thranta
 * Ysalamir

They have those in Star Wars?

 * Anything listed here is fair game. Here are some suggestions from that list:

Simpler

 * Buzzard
 * Deer
 * Dung beetle
 * Dust mite
 * Frog
 * Giant squid
 * Hamster
 * Hermit crab
 * Manta ray
 * Owl
 * Panda (creature)
 * Piranha
 * Pterosaur
 * Sea cow
 * Trout

Moderate

 * Bat
 * Bee
 * Cat
 * Dinosaur
 * Duck
 * Flea
 * Horse
 * Jellyfish
 * Rabbit
 * Raven
 * Scorpion
 * Sheep
 * Wolf

More difficult

 * Dog

Named creatures
For people who may not be interested in writing up entire species of critters, the movies and EU also provide plenty of named non-sentients who can be treated as characters rather than species. Check out Category:Named creatures and Category:Pets for more ideas (and note that those categories need a serious cleanup, sending much of the "Named creatures category" to the "Pets" category. Perhaps a task for someone who wants to pitch in but isn't able to write up articles at the moment?)

Simpler

 * Beast of Marka Ragnos
 * Boshuda
 * Howler (Jurgoran)
 * Luke Skywalker's dog
 * Mistress Dragon
 * Snowblind

Moderate

 * Anji
 * Ingey
 * Sturm and Drang
 * Yoda's kybuck
 * Zeebo

More difficult

 * Boga
 * Boogie
 * Jabba's rancor
 * Lord Mirdalan
 * Rrr'ur'R

Sign ups
Ready to research something and write it up? Let us know what you're working on!


 * Unidentified multi-legged Endor creature

Current nominations
Once you have nominated an article for status, please record your nomination in the appropriate field. It's the best way to keep track of who nominated what, and which nominations still need reviews. Remember, try to help each other out by reviewing one another's nominations.

Promoted articles
The articles below are a good source of models for your own creature-article nominations. After a creature-related article passes because of the Barn Burner, please place it and its new status in the second set of boxes below. Let's bloat those suckers up!

Don't forget to tag your article's talk page with Creature barnburner once it's promoted to status: