~ FAUNA ~
Kaiila
"Kaiila and verr are found at the oases, but not in great numbers. The herds of these animals are found in the desert."
"Tribesmen of Gor" Page 37
Lelt
"Lelts are often attracted to the salt rafts, largely by the vibrations in the water, picked up by their abnormally developed lateral-line protrusions, and their fernlike cranial vibration receptors, from the cones and poles. Too, though they are blind, I think either the light, or the heat, perhaps, from our lamps, draws them. The tiny, eyeless heads will thrust from the water, and the fernlike filaments at the side of the head will open and lift, orienting themselves to one or the other of the lamps. The lelt is commonly five to seven inches in length. It is white, and long-finned. It swims slowly and smoothly, its fins moving the water very little, which apparently contributes to its own concealment in a blind environment and makes it easier to detect the vibrations of its prey, any of several varieties of tiny segmented creatures, predominantly isopods. The brain of the lelt is interesting, containing an unusually developed odor-perception center and two vibration-reception centers. Its organ of balance, or hidden "ear," is also unusually large, and is connected with an unusually large balance center in its brain. Its visual center, on the other hand, is stunted and undeveloped, a remnant, a vague genetic memory of an organ long discarded in its evolution."
"Tribesmen of Gor" page 247
Salamanders
"Among the lelts, too, were, here and there, tiny salamanders, they, too, white and blind. Like the lelts, they were, for their size, long-bodied, were capable of long periods of domancy and possessed a slow metabolism, useful in an environment in which food is not plentiful. Unlike the lelts, they had long stem like legs, but the filaments, in the case of the salamanders, interestingly, are not vibration receptors, but feather gills, an external gill system."
"Tribesmen of Gor" pages 247/8
Sand Flies
"Following such rains, great clouds of sand flies appear, wakened from dormancy. These feast on kaiila and men. Normally, flying insects are found only in the vicinity of the oasis."
"Tribesmen of Gor" page 152
Shark
"We saw the broad, blunt head, eyeless, white. On the whitish back, near the high dorsal fin, there was a long scar. Part of the dorsal fin itself was rent, and scarred. These were lance marks. At the top of the food chain in the pits, a descendant, dark-adapted, of the terrors of the ancient seas, stood the long-bodied, nine-gilled salt shark."
"Tribesmen of Gor" page 249
Verr
"Kaiila and verr are found at the oases, but not in great numbers. The herds of these animals are found in the desert."
"Tribesmen of Gor" Page 37
Vint
"I detected the odor of kort rinds, matted, drying, on the stones, where they had been scattered from my supper the evening before. Vints, insects, tiny, sand-colored, covered them."
"Tribesmen of Gor" page 115
Zad
"I heard, a short time later, wings, the alighting of one or more large birds. Such birds, broad-winged, black and white, from afar, follow the marches to Klima; their beaks, yellowish, narrow, are long and slightly hooked at the end, useful for probing and tearing. The birds scattered, squawking, as a Kaiila sped past. The birds are called zads."
"Tribesmen of Gor" page 232
Zadit
"The zadit is a small, tawny-feathered, sharp-billed bird. It feeds on insects. When sand flies and other insects, emergent after rains, infest kaiila, they frequently light on the animals, and remain for some hours, hunting insects. This relieves the kaiila of the insects but leaves it with numerous small wounds, which are unpleasant and irritating, where the bird had dug insects out of its hide."
"Tribesmen of Gor" page 152
kaiila (southern) -large, 20-22 hands. 3 eyelids, a long neck, silky fur, can cover alot of territory in a day. The southern variety do not suckle their young.
kailla (desert) same as southern variety except they suckle their young.
Animal Farming
"Kaiila and verr are found at the oases, but not in great numbers. The herds of these animals are found in the desert. They are kept by nomads, who move them from one area of verr grass to another or from one water hole to another, as the holes, for the season, go dry. Smaller water sources are used in the spring, for these are the first to go dry, larger ones later in the year. No grass grows about these water holes because many animals are brought to them and graze it to the earth. They are usually muddy ponds, with some stunted trees about, centered in the midst of an extensive radius of grassless, cracked, dry earth."
"Tribesmen of Gor" Page 37
The nomads are the primary herders of kaiila. The nomads eat little meat. They
consider their animals too precious because of their hair, milk and trade value. The
nomadic raiders though eat much meat. The salt Ubars themselves once slaves that
had made the march to Klima. These nomadic people live in tents, at night hobbling
both their kaiila and slave girls. Kaiila are a major source of transportation as their
eyes are well protected with the lids against the raging dry sand. The Taharians will
kill anyone that attempts to make maps of the land, they are a secretive people. Any
who do have such maps of their lands are those whow join one of the tribal families.
The war kaiila, rearing on its hind legs, its claws, however, sheathed, lunged at the
other animal, its clawed back feet thrusting with an explosion of sand away from
the ground; the long neck darted forward, the long, graceful head, its fanged jaws
bound shut with leather, struck at the man astride the other beast. He thrust the
jaws away with the buckler, and, rearing in the stirrups of his high saddle, slashed
at me with the leather-sheathed, curved blade. I turned the stroke with my own
sheathed blade, it, too, in the light, ornamented exercise sheath.
The kaiila, both of them, with the swiftness, the agility of cats, spun, half crouching,
squealing in frustration, and again lunged toward one another. With the light rein I
pulled my kaiila to the left as we passed, and the man, trying to reach me, was,
startled, off balance. With a backward sweeping cut the sheathed blade struck him,
as he hung from his saddle, on the back of the neck.
He swept past me and spun his kaiila, then jerked it up short, back on its haunches in
the sand.