Life Forms of the Twelve Colonies

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There are too many to bother wasting our time listing. So here's a list of pages that link here. This article is a list of fictional and real animals and plants mentioned in the re-imagined series as existing on the Twelve Colonies. For the most part, the colonies appear to have the same organisms as present-day earth, with the exceptions noted below.

In keeping with the naturalistic science fiction concepts that Ron D. Moore uses to model the series, it is unlikely that we may see any life forms outside of those found on any of the Earth-like planets of the Twelve Colonies.

Ron D. Moore has essentially made it a point to avoid addressing the issue in a direct way (i.e. no live dogs will appear on the series, etc.). In the commentary for the Miniseries, RDM elaborates:

..."David and I, we had discussed, at an early point; well, do they have dogs and cats and things like that? And we said, "No, no, no", let's not go there, 'cause that locks us into a whole Terrestrial-kind of like thing. We'll just avoid any mention of it. Nobody will even, like, register that we had "Chicken pie" the whole time, and in retrospect "Oh, I guess there are chickens"."

However, over the course of the series various stray comments have established that more than a few "terrestrial" (real world Earth) life forms also exist in the series:

Fictional

Plants

• Chamalla

Roslin: I would like to explore alternative treatment. [...] Have you ever heard of Chamalla extract? (Act of Contrition)

Resembles (somewhat) herbal cannabinoids and opioids in its pain-killing and hallucinogenic effects, which are found in the plant cannabis and the opium poppy, respectively.

• Fumarella leaf

Baltar: A parting gift: hand-rolled from some of the finest Fumarella leaf on Caprica. It's also one of the last left in the universe. (Water)

An homage to the original series, in which Starbuck's cigars are referred to as "fumarellos". This plant may be similar or identical to tobacco.

Real

Animals

Mammals

• Cat

Adama: ...then grab your gun and bring in the cat. (Miniseries)

• Dog

Cally: "She said the engine powerup sequence began by squeezing something that looks like a red ligament with blue veins on the right side coming out of a sack of gooey fluid, shaped like a... dog." (Six Degrees of Separation)

• Elephant

Hallucination-Baltar: "Start with the elephants..." (Downloaded)

• Goat

Starbuck: "A horse. Why not a goat? I mean, that's good, right? Think of it as a goat." (Six Degrees of Separation)

• Gorilla

Starbuck: "I'm gonna need some of those gorillas you call Marines." (Sacrifice)

• Horse

Tyrol: "Take it for a ride. Treat it like a horse." (Six Degrees of Separation)

• Jackrabbit

Starbuck: "This is the Viper Mark II. It's as maneuverable as a jackrabbit and can flip end for end in .35 seconds". ("Act of Contrition")

• Panther

Adama: "I'm a Picon Panthers fan myself". (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II)

• Pig

Phelan: "Fisk was a pig. He tried to force us to renegotiate".

• Rat

Helo: Frakkin' rats! (Bastille Day)

Rats have actually been seen on screen, in "Bastille Day"

• Tiger

Gaeta revealed an ugly tattoo of a tiger on his upper right chest in the episode "Final Cut"

Birds

• Birds of Prey

While the animals have never been specifically mentioned, it's reasonable to assume the Raptor is named after them.

• Blackbird

Namesake of the Blackbird experimental stealth fighter (Flight of the Phoenix)

• Chicken

Cami: "We're going out for dinner, and I'm having chicken pie, and then we're going home, and then Daddy's going to read to me, and then I'm going to bed." (Miniseries)

• Ducks

Palacios: "Wouldn't we be like ducks in a Cylon shooting gallery?" ("The Hand of God")

• Geese

Col. Tigh: "They're coming up with big goose eggs" ("Water")

• Parakeet

Jammer: I don't care if they put a giant parakeet in here. If the colonel says build a cell, we build a cell. (Resistance)

Reptiles

• Python

Adama: "Betrayal has such a powerful grip on the mind. It's almost like a python. You can squeeze out the thought, suffocate all other emotion until everything is dead except for the rage." (Home, Part I)

• Viper

While the animal has never been specifically mentioned, it's reasonable to assume the Viper is named after it.

Fish

• Salmon

Baltar: "There was an off-road bridge, over the Euclid river. I used to go there, when I was a boy. Watch the fish try and swim upstream. They were mesmerizing." (Home, Part I)

What Baltar describes, without naming, are anadromous fish - almost certainly a type of salmon.

• Shark

ECO Lyla "Shark" Ellway (The Captain's Hand) presumably took her callsign from these creaetures.

Invertebrates

• Ant

Crashdown: "Someone else feel like they have ants crawling behind their frakking eyeballs?" ("33")

• Cockroach

Starbuck: "...even a cockroach needs to breathe..." (You Can't Go Home Again)

• Oyster

Caprica-Sharon: "I remember the first day I met you, Starbuck. You were puking your guts out in the head after you ate some bad oysters." (Scattered)

Plants

• Apple

Roslin: I need you to send my ID code on the exact same frequency: D, as in dog, dash, 456, dash, 345, dash, A as in apple. (Miniseries)

• Blueberry

Starbuck: You look like a blueberry. (Flight of the Phoenix)

• Carrot

Baltar: "Simply put, Admiral, you have already used the stick. It's time to use a carrot". (Pegasus)

• Coffee plant

Gaeta: Seven other container ships are refusing to release their supplies. Food, medicine, even coffee. (Resistance)

• Lemon

Col. Tigh: "A couple of lemons, we could make lemonade". (Bastille Day)

• Licorice

Roslin: Chamalla and Licorice. Would you like some? (Resistance)

• Walnut

Adama cracks walnuts while going over potential CAGs in the episode "Home, Part I"

• Beans
• Maize
• Peanut
• Chile pepper

Helo: You hungry? I don't know, what do we got? Peanut butter... baked beans, corn. How about some chili? (The Hand of God)

Helo is probably referring to the common Haricot bean.

Official Statements

• In an interview with BattlestarGalactica.com on December 28th, 2005 RDM was asked about the possibility of animals actually appearing in future episodes:

"Q: Boxey's been more or less written out of the series, but there's always a chance that we might one day see the return of Muffit, or some other form of Man's Best Friend. Might we see the introduction of animals (including Cylon animals) into the Galactica universe? Where would Cylon animals fit in with the Cylon plan (especially in light of "The Farm")? Can Cylon animals reproduce?

RDM: The presence of animals in the rag-tag fleet was something that came up in early discussions, but we kinda dropped it from the conversation as the year went on. I don't know if we'll ever get around to doing something in this area or not. It mostly depends on finding a story that supports it in some interesting fashion other than Gaeta finds a kitty. I don't think the Cylons are creating animals as we would define them, but they certainly see the Raiders and other craft as animals vis a vis their relationship with the humanoid Cylons."

Galactica 1980 definition:  When John Steadman asks if the Warriors know anything about these creatures, Dillon looks this up (1980: "Space Croppers")

crew member handling electronic countermeasures of a craft; ECOs are standard crew aboard Raptors (see: ECO)

Re-imagined Series definition: a nickname used as a substitute for an aviator's given name in wireless communications and in conversation

Re-imagined Series definition: all-purpose vulgarism; Colonial version of "fuck" (see: frak)

Galactica 1980 definition:  Dillon looks up this term after Jamie Hamilton orders a coffee at a diner, upon their return to 1980 Earth (1980: "Galactica Discovers Earth, Part III").