Common Animals

Ambient Animals, in the definition used here, are animals that are abundantly present in many biomes and/or larger regions of Middle-Earth.

The main motive for this page is to reduce the long lists of animals in the biome infoboxes on the biome pages. The main purpose is to provides info on the occurence of these animals in biomes of Middle-Earth and to provide links to more detailed information on any ambient animal. The 'animals' section of the biome infoboxes will in many cases contain one or more link(s) to the groups of ambient animals mentioned below.

The 'ambient animals' are divided in a number of logical groups that correspond to the occurence of these groups in larger regions of Middle-Earth. This division may change as more animals are added with new mod updates. For now, we distinguish between the following groups of ambient animals:

General: bird, bat and butterfly.

Temperate: farm animals, deer, boar, rabbit.

Tropical: rhino, giraffe, crocodile, lion, zebra, gemsbok, dik-dik and flamingo.

A number of biomes/regions, particularly evil and/or very inhospitable lands, has no ambient animals at all, except bats. These are: Brown Lands, Dagorlad, Dead Marshes, Emyn Muil, Far Harad Volcano, Forodwaith, Meneltarma, Midgewater, Misty Mountains, Mordor, Near Harad Desert and Utumno.

General
The ambient animals in this category are spread across entire Middle-Earth. At the moment, all of them are airborne creatures.

Note that Midges are not included in this list. The reason for this is that they occur in only a very limited number of biomes. Their occurence is mentioned specifically in every relevant biome infobox.

Bird
Birds are found throughout Middle-Earth with the exception of the following biomes: Angmar, Far Harad Arid Savannah, Far Harad Mangrove, Far Harad Swampland, Far Harad Volcano, Mirkwood Corrupted, Nindalf, Ocean Islands, Pertorogwaith and Tundra.

Bat
Bats are the only animal that can be found in all biomes of Middle-Earth.

Butterfly
Butterflies can be found in many biomes, but there are notable exceptions: Angmar, Far Harad Arid Savannah, Far Harad Mangrove, Far Harad Swampland, Far Harad Volcano, Nindalf, Ocean Islands, Pertorogwaith and Tundra.

Temperate
The animals in this group are typically found in all the biomes in between the Forodwaith to the north and Far Harad to the south.

Note that Elk, Horse and Wolf are not included in this list despite their occurence in quite a few biomes in the temperate regions. The reason for this is that they occur in less than half of the biomes in the temperate zone. Their occurence is mentioned specifically in every relevant biome infobox and on the dedicated pages on these animals.

Farm Animals
This group of animals contains the vanilla passive mobs 'cow', 'pig', 'sheep' and 'chicken'. They are included in two groups of 'ambient animals' for the temperate Biomes:
 * Domesticated: Cows, Deer, Pigs, Sheep and Chickens
 * Non-Domesticated: Deer, Boar, Sheep and Chickens

The Non-Domesticated group is used as default for most temperate Biomes. The Domesticated animal set is only used for the Shire, Breeland and the Pelennor Fields. Rohan is the only biome that has an abundance of cows, next to the animals of the Non-Domesticated set.

None of the vanilla farm animals occur in the Ettenmoors.

Deer
Deer are the predominant herbivorous animal in the temperate biomes. The only biomes where they cannot be found are those listed in the introduction. The page on Deer lists a number of biomes where they are especially succesful.

Wild Boar
Wild Boar are the predominant omnivorous animal in the temperate biomes. The only biomes where they cannot be found are those listed in the introduction. Their vitality is exceptionally high in the Iron Hills, where they outnumber most other game.

Rabbit
Rabbits are numerous wherever they are present ... which is almost everywhere in the temperate Biomes. The only area's where these tender loving creatures do not thrive in are Ettenmoors, Lothlorien and Tundra, presumably for different reasons.

Tropical
This region includes all of Far Harad and Pertorogwaith.

Rhino
Rhinos shun dense woods and treacherous swamps and do not occur in: Far Harad Cloud Forest, Far Harad Jungle and Far Harad Swampland. Other than that, they thrive throughout the rest of the region.

Giraffe
These majestic Acacia grazers prefer a wide view and solid soils. They have not populated: Far Harad Cloud Forest, Far Harad Jungle, Far Harad Swampland and Pertorogwaith.

Crocodile
These top predators have colonized nearly any Far Harad biome and are the only ambient animals that live in the Far Harad Swampland, where they practically exterminated any other life forms. They do not occur in: Far Harad Cloud Forest and Pertorogwaith.

Lion
This is the top predator of the dry lands. They leave these biomes to other dominant carnivores: Far Harad Cloud Forest, Far Harad Jungle, Far Harad Swampland and Pertorogwaith.

Zebra
The Zebras of Far Harad are the main herbivorous animals grazing the plains and valleys. They do not occur in: Far Harad Cloud Forest, Far Harad Jungle, Far Harad Swampland and Pertorogwaith.

Gemsbok
Gemsbok are the next big herbivore in Far Harad where they coexist with Rhinos. They do not occur in: Far Harad Cloud Forest, Far Harad Jungle and Far Harad Swampland.

Dik-dik
Dik-diks run around through the undergrowth throughout much of Far Harad, but they do not occur in: Far Harad Cloud Forest, Far Harad Jungle, Far Harad Swampland and Pertorogwaith.

Flamingo
These flamboyantly feathered phenomena can be encountered in the Far Harad Cloud Forest, the Far Harad Jungle and along the banks of all Far Harad Rivers.