avatar-animals

[avatar-animals]

In Chapter 3: The Southern Air Temple, Sokka mentions “blubbered seal jerky.” It’s very likely that these tiger seals, which are plentiful around the home they had just left, are the ones to which he is referring.

Avatar the Last Airbender Book 1: Water - Chapter 1: The Boy in the Iceberg (@5:36) Habitat: South Pole Though some sources of dubious canonicity dub these Zebra Seals, their feline faces and ears make it very clear to me that they are Tiger Seals. The little one right below the beam is the cutest!

[avatar-animals]

Avatar the Last Airbender Book 1: Water - Chapter 3: The Southern Air Temple

Habitat: Southern Air Temple

Once upon a time, sky bison were plentiful at the Southern Air Temple as well, though Appa himself came from the Eastern Temple. There are some younger bison to be glimpsed here as well, which look like... smaller sky bison, amazingly enough.

Avatar the Last Airbender Book 1: Water - Chapter 1: The Boy in the Iceberg

Habitat: Eastern Air Temple (as revealed in Book 2: Earth, Chapter 16: Appa’s Lost Days)

Referred to primarily as a Flying Bison or Sky Bison, though occasionally called names like Wind Buffalo, the basis for these creatures is a combination of bison and manatees, though neither explains the extra set of legs. Sky Bison are also capable of airbending, primarily with their tail and mouth. Appa, a sky bison, is Avatar Aang’s spirit companion and plays a major role in Avatar: The Last Airbender, appearing in nearly every episode.

[avatar-animals]

Avatar the Last Airbender Book 1: Water - Chapter 3: The Southern Air Temple

Habitat: Patola Mountain Range

Flying lemurs were another creature common at the Southern Air Temple, though at the end of the Hundred Year War, only one was known to have survived - Momo, who became Aang’s companion. While they mostly resemble sifakas, a species of lemur, their large ears and membranous wings identify them as a cross between lemur and bat.

[avatar-animals]

Avatar the Last Airbender Book 1: Water - Chapter 3: The Southern Air Temple

The statue of this waterbender Avatar depicts him wearing a headdress made from some kind of furry, polar carnivore. If I had to guess, this is a polar bear wolf, which are implied to exist both by the presence of polar bear dogs later on, and by the traditional Southern Water Tribe hairstyle Sokka wears, a “warrior’s wolf tail.”

I hesitate to include this, but I insist on being thorough.

[avatar-animals]

Avatar the Last Airbender Book 1: Water - Chapter 3: The Southern Air Temple

Habitat: Patola Mountain Range

Aang rouses Sokka from slumber by suggesting that there is a “prickle snake” in his sleeping bag, which might feel like being drubbed with a pointed stick. While it is possible that this is something Aang made up and Sokka only believed it due to the descriptive name and his restful slumber, it seems likely to me that prickle snakes - which might be a hybrid of a snake and any number of unpleasantly pointy animals (horned lizards, sea urchins, echidna?) - are some kind of real thing in the world of Avatar that Aang is referencing. Maybe.

[avatar-animals]

Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 1: Water - Chapter 2: The Avatar Returns

Though no new animals or spirits appear in this episode, at the very end, Aang mentions several by name and points to their locations: Hopping llamas at the tip of the southern penninsula on the Earth Kingdom’s continent, giant koi fish (which we’ll see and discuss again in two episodes) in an archipelago just north of the South Pole, and hog-monkeys (which we will also see later on) in the middle of the Earth Kingdom.

[avatar-animals]

Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 1: Water - Chapter 1: The Boy in the Iceberg

Habitat: South Pole

Seen only briefly on the abandoned fire navy vessel, these tiny squeaking mammals scurry on an overhead level. Their behavior is clearly mouselike, but their tails and ears very clearly evoke cats, making these some sort of Catmouse.

[avatar-animals]

Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 1: Water - Chapter 1: The Boy in the Iceberg

Habitat: South Pole

This small, dead fish which Katara gives Aang to attract the otter penguins is never referred to by name, but appears to be some kind of anchovy.

[avatar-animals]

Avatar: the Last Airbender Book 1: Water - Chapter 1: The Boy in the Iceberg

Habitat: South Pole

Though Aang and Katara mostly refer to these as merely “penguin”, these creatures are clearly a hybrid of penguins and otters, though they are seen exhibiting much more penguin-like behavior than otter-like behavior.

[avatar-animals]

Avatar: the Last Airbender Book 1: Water - Chapter 1: The Boy in the Iceberg

Iroh claims to be eating “roast duck”, which could be shorthand for any number of hybrid duck creatures, such as turtle duck or turkey duck, or may refer to a yet-unseen purebred form of duck. 

[avatar-animals]

Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 1: Water - Chapter 1: The Boy in the Iceberg

Habitat: Southern Water Tribe

Never referred to by name, this domesticated mammal bears resemblances to the Alaskan Malamute breed of dog, though its face, paws and posture seem feline to me - “Tiger Husky” might be a good name for it? 

[avatar-animals]

Avatar the Last Airbender Book 1: Water - Chapter 1: The Boy in the Iceberg

Habitat: Eastern Air Temple (as revealed in Book 2: Earth, Chapter 16: Appa’s Lost Days)

Referred to primarily as a Flying Bison or Sky Bison, though occasionally called names like Wind Buffalo, the basis for these creatures is a combination of bison and manatees, though neither explains the extra set of legs. Sky Bison are also capable of airbending, primarily with their tail and mouth. Appa, a sky bison, is Avatar Aang’s spirit companion and plays a major role in Avatar: The Last Airbender, appearing in nearly every episode.

[avatar-animals]

Avatar the Last Airbender Book 1: Water - Chapter 1: The Boy in the Iceberg (@5:36) Habitat: South Pole Though some sources of dubious canonicity dub these Zebra Seals, their feline faces and ears make it very clear to me that they are Tiger Seals. The little one right below the beam is the cutest!

[avatar-animals]

Avatar the Last Airbender

Book 1: Water

Chapter 1: The Boy in the Iceberg (@2:05)

Habitat: South Pole ice floes

Only referred to as a “fish”.