Animals and Plants


 * This article is written from an out-of-universe perspective.

Many different kinds of Animals and Plants are found across the Known World, in the three continents Westeros, Essos, and Sothoryos.

This article is a listing of those present within the TV series.

Animals

 * Basilisks
 * Direwolves
 * Dragons
 * Krakens
 * Lizard-lions
 * Mammoths
 * Manticores
 * Shadowcats
 * Snow bears

Plants

 * Weirwood trees
 * Blue winter rose
 * Ghost grass
 * Ironwood trees
 * "Ironwood" is a general term used in real-life to refer to a wide variety of tree species - it isn't clear if "Ironwood" in Westeros is supposed to be one of these real-life analogues, or if it is, which one.
 * Dusk Rose
 * Lady's Lace
 * Harpy's Gold
 * South of the Riverlands in Westeros, particularly in the Reach, trees shift to being predominantly maple, elm, beech, and poplar, with a few willows as well.

Animals and Plants which are currently found on real-life Earth
Note: a few of these are significant enough within the story to merit their own article (such as "Horses"), but most do not. Sheep in Westeros are the same as sheep in real-life. This section is a cited list of different animals and plants specifically mentioned in dialogue in the TV series.

Animals

 * Beetles
 * Bears
 * Cats (domesticated)
 * Cattle
 * Chickens
 * Deer - large male deer are termed "stags", such as those in the heraldry of House Baratheon.
 * Dogs (domesticated)
 * Dolphins
 * Donkeys
 * Ducks
 * Frogs
 * Geese
 * Goats
 * Gyrfalcons (the largest species of falcon)
 * Honey bees
 * Horses
 * Dornish sand steed (similar to the real-life Arabian horse breed)
 * Lampreys - eaten in Lamprey pie
 * Lemurs
 * Lions
 * Owls
 * Oysters, Clams, and Cockles
 * Parrots
 * Pigeons - eaten in Pigeon pie
 * Pigs (domesticated)
 * Rams
 * Ravens
 * Rabbits
 * Sheep
 * Scorpions
 * Sharks
 * Snakes
 * Vipers
 * Stoats
 * Trout - appears on the sigil of House Tully
 * Wild boars
 * Wolves

Plants

 * Almonds
 * Apples
 * Barley
 * Cherries
 * Gillyflowers - Gilly is named after them.
 * Grapes - used to make various wine vintages.
 * Lemons - used in Lemon cake
 * Oats
 * Onions
 * Opium poppy ("Milk of the poppy")
 * Pears - a popular pear brandy is made in Tyrosh
 * Plums
 * Pomegranates
 * Potatoes - see "In the books"
 * Roses - as seen in the sigil of House Tyrell
 * Rye
 * Wheat

In the books
New World Crops apparently don't exist in Westeros, because it is loosely based on the medieval British Isles (and Essos is based on Eurasia in general, and Sothoryos is loosely analogous to Africa). Tobacco specifically is not present in Westeros: instead people chew the leaves of a plant known as "sourleaf", which is much like chewing tobacco, but not quite the same as it stains teeth blood-red.

Potatoes are never mentioned in the books. The TV series, however, has casually mentioned potatoes several times.

One detail that the TV series has not mentioned so far is that the Aurochs is still alive and commonly raised as a domesticated animal. Aurochs were the precursor of modern cattle breeds, but were much larger than them, comparable to the difference between a direwolf and a common grey wolf. In real life, aurochs were not even Pleistocene megafauna the way that dire wolves and mammoths were: the last pure-strain aurochs died in 1627. It is recorded that the dragon Balerion the Black Dread grew so large that he could swallow an aurochs whole. Grenn is nicknamed "Aurochs" by his fellow recruits in the Night's Watch, due to his large size and slow speed (comparable to calling him "Ox").

Syrio Forel mentions to Arya Stark that the Sealord of Braavos maintains a menagerie of exotic animals collected from the far corners of the world (perhaps, by being sold from one trader to another, from well beyond the regions of the world known to men in Westeros and the Free Cities. Forel describes seeing giraffes and thylacines in the menagerie - though where they originally came from is unknown (perhaps even to the Sealord). Forel gives a literal description, as the words "giraffe" and "thylacine" do not exist in their world:


 * "Hear me. The ships of Braavos sail as far as the winds blow, to lands strange and wonderful, and when they return, their captains fetch queer animals to the Sealord's menagerie. Such animals as you have never seen, striped horses, great spotted things with necks as long as stilts, hairy mouse-pigs as big as cows, stinging manticores, tigers that carry their cubs in a pouch, terrible walking lizards with scythes for claws. Syrio Forel has seen these things." (A Game of Thrones, Arya IV)

The thylacine (also known as the "Tasmanian tiger") was a large striped marsupial found in Australia, which was driven to extinction in the early 20th century. They somewhat resembled wolves or predatory big cats, but this is simply due to convergent evolution as apex predators. Thylacines therefore basically resembled "tigers that carry their cubs in a pouch". Thylacines are not extinct in Martin's fictional world, though they don't seem to be native to Essos, instead coming from lands far beyond it.

Popular myths say that unicorns live on the island of Skagos, a barbarous large isle off the east coast of the North but which only gave nominal allegiance to Winterfell (much of Skagos actually extends north of where the Wall is on the mainland). There is a small kernel of truth to this, but the "Skagosi Unicorn" is essentially just an enormous one-horned species of goat.

As George R.R. Martin himself has pointed out, Heraldry used in the story isn't always a good guide for what animals exist in his fantasy world, because characters sometimes use heraldry which contains creatures which are mythical to them, within the storyverse. For example, Martin cited that one minor character actually uses a winged pig as his personal sigil - but flying pigs are not a real animal within the world of Westeros.