"Vulcan children are never late with their sehlat's dinner."
- - T'Pol
A wild sehlat in the Forge
I-Chaya, a domesticated Vulcan sehlat
The sehlat is a giant "teddy bear"-like beast native to Vulcan. Sehlats have six-inch fangs and do not like to climb, preferring to remain on low ground. In 2154, Captain Jonathan Archer and Commander T'Pol were stalked by a wild sehlat in Vulcan's Forge.
Domesticated sehlats, which are only slightly smaller than wild sehlats, are a popular pet with Vulcan children. Sehlats, however, are very aggressive so Vulcan children learn early never to be late with their dinner. T'Pol had a pet sehlat in her youth. (ENT: "The Forge")
Syrran and T'Pau were able to imitate the screams of a sehlat, and the latter mislead Talok and two Vulcan commandos into the electric discharges of gallicite deposits. (ENT: "Kir'Shara")
Jonathan Archer compared the squeals of a sehlat to a Klingon opera that Hoshi Sato once made him listen to. (ENT: "The Forge")
Spock had a pet sehlat named I-Chaya during his youth that originally belonged to his father, Sarek. I-Chaya died in 2237, as a result of injuries inflicted from an attack by a le-matya. Because the venom of the le-matya was incurable by that point, Spock chose to have I-Chaya euthanized to end his suffering. (TOS: "Journey to Babel"; TAS: "Yesteryear")
Background information
- The sehlat seen in "The Forge" was a CGI character. It was never seen clearly because furry CGI characters are somewhat difficult to animate on a TV budget.
- The text commentary for "Yesteryear" on the Star Trek: The Animated Series DVDs, which was written by Michael and Denise Okuda, claims that Tuvok also had a pet sehlat. However, no canonical evidence confirming this from Star Trek: Voyager is immediately evident.
Apocrypha
The novelization for "Yesteryear" by Alan Dean Foster stated that sehlats originated in the rain forests of Vulcan's southern hemisphere.
Tuvok's pet sehlat was named Wari in The Lost Era novel, The Sundered. He also encountered a wild sehlat in Pathways, with whom he developed a mutual appreciation.
In Star Trek Online, players can have a pet Sehlat cub.
External link
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