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tantumuna · 10 months

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Thoughts on Zora Biology

In this essay I will combine all the information I’ve gathered from the game with all the information I know about the real-life counterparts to the animals Zora are based on and from there I will not only make completely accurate assumptions about how they must be but also bring up a few things that are deeply concerning from an evolutionary standpoint.

Below a read more for your sanity and mine.

Overview

This is based solely on the Zora as they appear in Breath of the Wild/Tears of the kingdom with only minor consideration for how they’ve appeared in other installments. While chronically, BotW/TotK is very early in the Zelda timeline, the designs are the most recent iteration and likely a good representation for what Zora are supposed to be

The faults of this research -

They are obviously a fantasy species and may not correspond directly with their real-life counterparts, however, it’s about all we have to go on so this is what I’ll use

There is not a lot of diversity shown in the Zora, but the inclusion of a mysterious domain far far away in TotK implies there is more than meets the eye

I’m refusing to cite any sources because this is mostly me rambling about a niche interest so. allow me my peculiarities

This is very unorganized and stream of thought so godspeed

Methods include:

Research from the game, including both written and physical

I am a 3D modeler who likes to make fanart of these games, so I use the in game 3D models as reference

Research on real life counterpart animals and oceanology

Key Takeaways

Zora come in three main species

Dolphin (the most prevalent)

Ray

Only Yona and Muzu appear in the series, but Yona coming from another domain implies there are other Rays, for this reason, I am ranking them as the second most common type

Shark

Sidon is the only shark Zora present in the series, and based on the shape of his nose, I have deduced he is likely of the Hammerhead family, more specifically the Bonnethead shark, which has the curved nose crest, whereas most Hammerheads have a straight crest.

Side notes:

Other variations of zora have appeared in different installments and look most closely related to jelly fish, but we are counting this as an outlier for the moment because they are not even remotely related to any of the other species so what am I supposed to do with that

Dorephan is a whale and is likewise the only whale that is present in the series; however, all dolphins are whales. It might be more correct to say that Whale is the most prevalent type of Zora but since they look more similarly to dolphins (all dolphins are whales, not all whales are dolphins) i’m just gonna say Dolphin

Despite their difference in appearance, all Zora are of the same species or of at least close enough resemblance that they are able to intermingle - this is especially important to note for means of reproduction, as if they were all different species too far apart to reproduce, it would not make sense for Yona and Sidon to get married, as they wouldn’t be able to have children. More will be explained on this later down, including thoughts on lineage.

Physical Appearance

Teeth:

Dolphin Zora appear to have the most humanoid sets of teeth, including all flat teeth save for 4 canines in the 4 corners of the mouth

Shark and Ray Zora have all sharp teeth, implying they are primarily carnivores, as sharp teeth are not designed to chew on vegetation.

Outliers:

Dorephan has entirely flat teeth; he appears most similarly to a Blue Whale, which filter feed, but it is important to note that Dorephan does not have baleen

Mipha also has entirely flat teeth despite being more obviously a dolphin

Mipha’s model also does not include a bottom row of teeth, though this was likely done as a game optimization choice; her mouth is so small we never see bottom teeth and therefore it makes no sense to have the game load extra mesh when there’s no use for it

Neck:

All Zora wear some type of neck ornamentation

It’s also worth noting that despite not having much of a neck, Dorephan still wears neck ornamentation. not really sure what his deal is

Necks appear to be very long and very thin, which I believe makes the neck ornamentation entirely necessary. Zora have very large heads, and the size of their necks would not be enough to support them outside of water

Zora likely began to wear neck ornamentation as they left the water in early evolution in order to hold their heads upright. In water, the length/size of their neck would be less of a detriment

There are real societies today that practice elongating the neck and thusly wear rings their whole live to support their heads, so it’s not that crazy to think that the Zora either do it out of necessity or have a similar tradition

Zora cannot go without neck ornamentation or they will not be able to hold up their heads outside of water and would suffer a neck break.

Ray Zora have notably shorter necks, but they have much larger heads which accounts for them still having ornamentation, but it is shorter, as they likely need less support because their heads are closer to their shoulders.

Gills:

Zora can breath in and out of water, so they likely have a developed set of lungs in addition to gills

They have less gills than their counterpart animals tend to, but this is likely because they have the addition of lungs

Comparatively, species like sharks have the ability to breathe through their skin. Some can only breathe like this (which is where the rumor that sharks can never stop moving came from, though this is only true for some species), which would be applicable for Sidon and any other shark Zora we don’t see

We don’t know how much deep-sea swimming, if any, zora are capable of. This might be because they need to make up for having less gills by breathing actual air, or it might just be a weird oversight.

I believe in other installments, the Zora have been entirely under water; because of this, I think the less gills is probably just an aesthetic choice of not wanting to cover their torsos in gills (especially cuz some people find gills to be unsettling looking)

Zora can likely spend as long under water as they want.

The Dots:

I know it’s a common headcannon that the dots are bio-luminescent but I really just think they’re a cute way to tie all the Zora together; i can’t imagine what they actually provide from an evolutionary perspective

Furthermore, there is no IRL counterpart to show mammals emitting true bioluminesence

That being said they are a fantasy race so whatever who cares have your headcanons this is one i just don’t personally agree with.

Eyes:

Because Zora have eyes more or less on the side of their heads, they probably don’t rely on eyesight (especially in the water)

Dolphins and Sharks both have real life counterparts showing the use of electrolocation (the ability to detect electric-magnetic fields in order to navigate) or echolocation, so I’d like to think that the Zora have this ability as well

Yes, I know you can successfully scare Sidon if you ascend into the throne room in totk - i don’t think that disproves my theory, as these seem to be more manual things to use and not just natural things happening all the time

Dorsal Fins:

Despite IRL dolphins having dorsal fins, none of the dolphin Zora do. Sidon is again the only Zora with a dorsal fin, and he actally has two

Because of this, I don’t think Zora have any real use for Dorsal Fins and they’re likely just ornamentation/vestigial

Reproduction

The Physicality

Dolphins/Whales are mammals, but Rays and Sharks are not, however in order for the Zora population to thrive, they likely all need to be able to reproduce together, not just like with like

Because of this (and that they don’t really appear to be mammals in LoZ, even the dolphin/whale inspired Zora), I think it makes sense that they have more ~fish~ related genitals

Males would have claspers and a cloaca; similarly, females would have a cloaca

traditionally, species with claspers have two of them; only one is ever active at a time but go nuts idc

The process

Most Sharks, Rays, Dolphins, and Whales have live births, and because they all need to be compatible, it makes the most sense to assume they all give birth the same way

For the purposes of my long thought process - Zora have live births, but can likely have anywhere from 1-4 pups at once

Yes, I’m choosing to call them pups. Whale babies are called calves so i think pups is better

These species all have WILDLY different gestation periods, so to combine it all into one species, I’ll average it out and say about a 6 month gestation period.

Some sharks/whales have a gestation period of 11-12 months, some longer

some also have incredibly short gestation periods, for instance, the bonnethead shark’s gestation period is only 4-5 months

Obviously, just like IRL, there will be differences from Zora to Zora

Likely gestation period is 7-9 months depending on the Zora

However i could GENUINELY see arguments for Zora having much longer gestation periods especially considering we see so few babies in the actual game

That was a really long way to say They probably just have a normal 9 month gestation period like people do but whatever

Unfortunately, this is really hard to gauge since we don’t have a real gauge on how old any of the Zora are or when they reach maturity

We know Dorephan has been leading for 200 some years but that doesn’t tell us how old he was when he took the throne

we know Sidon is 100+ years old but we don’t know how old he was in his child appearances

It’s just as likely that they have 2-3 year gestation periods and take 50 years just to fully mature but WE WON’T KNWO UNLESS NINTENDO TELLS ME

Development

THIS IS ALL JUST PERSONAL HEADCANON IN ATTEMPTS TO COMBINE HOW THESE IRL SPECIES DEVELOP

I think Zora are born in a sort of tadpole state where they are MOSTLY just their heads + tiny stubby legs that haven’t developed fully yet

Baby zora would be kept in a communal nursery pool (incredibly shallow) while the rest of their development takes place outside of the birther

Kinda just think they develop like frogs do. eventually grow in the rest of their bodies and their legs/arms come in and as they get bigger they are transferred to deeper and deeper pool. they’re free to roam probably slightly smaller than we see the canon kids running around

Some of the kids in totk appear to be quiet young, as their head-side-fins are still growing in and haven’t reached full length

fins are likely one of the last things to develop as Zora get older because all they REALLY need to swim is the big head-tail but we like ornamentation in this species

So to put it simply, here is the development cycle

Vital development happens while still inside the birther, including gills and lungs and head-tail for swimming

Once outside - the head is the first thing to finish developing

While the head is developing, the stubby legs develop out into an actual body with legs and arms

the head finishes developing first and the body has to catch up (see: how fucking massive baby Sidon’s head is compared to his body i mean his head-tail drags on the ground!!! he’s so cute!!!!)

the side-fins will also develop faster than the body

Their development/growth likely never stops, but they will only grow as large as their eating habits can support

This would support Dorephan being a true herbivore as herbivores tend to grow the largest (the largest whales are baleen whales and dolphins, which are whales, tend to be carnivores and much smaller

Hard to say how long it takes them to fully develop or reach maturity, so I’m not even gonna take a guess. it takes however long to work for your fanfic tbqh

Diet

The difference in teeth makes it hard to pin-down an exact Zora diet, and it’s likely entirely decided by what kind of teeth they have

Shark and Ray Zora

They have sharp teeth exclusively, which hints that they may be carnivores

If they do eat any vegetation, they likely need to swallow it in large chunks or whole, as you do require flat teeth to grind vegetation down

Dolphin/Whale Zora

We have instances of omnivore teeth and herbivore teeth

to me, this only makes sense for Dorephan to be a herbivore since he is clearly based off a baleen whale; Mipha’s teeth I think are entirely a weird decision choice given that there are no recorded herbivore dolphins

With this in mind, the Dolphin Zora have likely developed an omnivore diet in order to better survive in their multi-environmental life (ocean and land); they also have the longer necks which to me says that land-life is a bit more important to them

Rays have likely spent more time in the water and their secret far away not-plot relevant domain may even be more akin to the domains we see in other Zelda games, where it’s mostly if not entirely underwater

What do they eat?

Probably fish.

For vegetation, it’s probably limited to larger vegetation for our poor sharp teethed friends whereas the omnivore Zora can eat anything they want; probably a diet similar to Hylians, though the Zora would eat more fish and Hylians eat more land-meat

Zora likely don’t need as much vegetation to survive/be healthy as other groups might given that they seem to have evolved from carnivores

Conclusion

This is meant just to be a fun deep-dive into fantasy biology; no offense is meant towards anyone who disagrees with me and I will take no offense from anyone who disagrees with me

Mipha’s lack of a bottom row of teeth haunts me

I think Sidon and Mipha had a shark mom because otherwise how did Sidon happen

#legend of zelda #loz #zora #zora loz #zora totk #zora botw #i apologize for how rambly this is #i just wanted to get it out of my head #i had a crisis this morning discovering that all the zora have different fucking teeth #definitely feel free to inbox me about zora biology because clearly i care deeply

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