Jungle rancor

"We don't want to scare 'em."

- Anakin Skywalker, to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano in an encounter with a herd of jungle rancors

The jungle rancor was a subspecies of the reptilian, semi-sentient rancor species that featured orange and gray spines that ran along their bodies and the sides of their tongues, brightly colored blue and gray skin, brown eyes, beaked mouths, and webbed hands and feet. Though native to the jungles of the planet Felucia, where they lived in herds and co-existed in relative harmony with the local Felucian farmers, jungle rancors could also be found on Teth. In the year 21 BBY, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano encountered a herd of jungle rancors on Felucia, which they were careful not to startle.

Behind the scenes
"It had a clearly defined shell. The proportions looked more like a turtle, and it had a much bigger head relative to the test of its body. All these little bumps and stuff give it some scale, so you could believe that this thing was forty feet high."

- Kilian Plunkett, on the design of the jungle rancor

The jungle rancor was originally developed for the Star Wars: The Clone Wars feature film, where it was set to appear in a scene set during the Battle of Teth where a dramatic lightsaber duel between Anakin Skywalker and Asajj Ventress was staged on top of it, though it was ultimately cut from the final film. Despite this, it eventually appeared in "Bounty Hunters," the seventeenth episode of the canon animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars' second season, which originally aired on April 2, 2010. The jungle rancor began as a cartoon version of the classic rancor from Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, but at Dave Filoni's suggestion, lead artist Kilian Plunkett gave it a horny shell, developing the creature into a new breed resembling Gamera, a Godzilla-like Japanese movie monster. Plunkett brought in a sea turtle to give Tim Brock, The Clone Wars lead texture artist, ideas for texture, so it would be similar to what you would see in nature. The design had several names before jungle rancor was decided upon, including "snapper rancor," "sea rancor," "swamp rancor," "ranc-turtle," and "turt-ancor."

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars film