There are many animals that appear in The Last of Us series. Some of them play an important role in the story, while others serve as simple scenery in the environment.
List of animals[]
Deer[]
Deer appear in The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II, first seen at the woods in Silver Lake and later again in the forests near Jackson County while Ellie and Tommy were out hunting together. In the winter of 2033, Ellie Williams tries to hunt one with a bow. She manages to kill it on the edge of the woods after wounding it with an arrow. However, she later trades the carcass to David in exchange for medicine for Joel Miller.[1] While living in Austin prior to the Cordyceps brain infection outbreak, Joel had a picture of a deer in a snow-covered forest in his bedroom, foreshadowing Ellie's subsequent encounter with one.[2]
Dogs[]
Buckley, a dog as seen in Part II.
Dogs are recurring animals in The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II. In The Last of Us, several dogs can be seen or heard and only appear passively. A dog lived in Joel and Sarah Miller's neighborhood, which barked and was seemingly killed by infected.[2] A dog named Gadget belonged to a family who resided in the town of Lincoln, mentioned in a boy's diary.[3]
In 2033, dogs are available to buy in the Boston quarantine zone; smugglers trade ration cards for them before giving them to buyers in the slums. Joel and Tess pass two dogs in a kennel in the slums. They bark and scratch against the fence as their owner remarks they have been sold earlier in the day.[4] Two stray dogs are seen in the streets of the Pittsburgh suburbs; they run away as Joel approaches them.[5] Buckley is a named dog who can be pet and is found at Tommy's dam. Tommy describes him as "not much of a guard dog, but is good to have [him] around", a clear contrast to those seen earlier in the game; he indirectly characterizes Tommy's community as calm and peaceful compared to Boston's violent and rattled occupants.[6]
Dogs reappear in The Last of Us Part II, some of which are now introduced and serve as attack dogs that are regularly encountered as enemies while playing as Ellie.[7][8] Soldiers of the Washington Liberation Front in Seattle, Washington have trained several dogs, which include Alice and Bear, to track down the scent of nearby enemies and attack them on sight. This requires Ellie to take extra precaution and not stay in one area for too long when facing enemies with dogs. While playing as Abby Anderson, she is greeted by Alice and Bear while passing through a fenced area at the SoundView Stadium. Abby can pet Bear and play fetch with a tennis ball, while Alice joins her, Mel, and Manny on their mission. Alice assists the group when fighting both infected and the Seraphites, jumping on them to maul them to death.[9]
Giraffes[]
The giraffe Joel and Ellie encounter in Salt Lake City.
Giraffes appear as a recurring motif within the series, especially in the first game. They appear as toys and even posters at different points in The Last of Us, which foreshadows Joel and Ellie's encounter with a herd of them in Salt Lake City,[10] and they are later referenced in The Last of Us Part II.[11]
The meaning behind the giraffes in The Last of Us seem to represent the idea of innocence in such devastating times, illustrated by how they are associated with children like Joel's daughter, Sarah (she had a toy giraffe in her room[2]), and Ellie. Pictures of giraffes are found in children's rooms in certain buildings (notably in Bill's town[12] and Ish's settlement in Pittsburgh[5]) and plush toys of giraffes are commonly seen (a young girl in Boston holds one, in a Pittsburgh toy store and the sewers, and among a collection of stuffed animals in the ranch house near Jackson). A film titled Giraffic Park (a reference to Jurassic Park) was listed at a movie theater in Austin and zoo advertisements featuring giraffes can be seen in Salt Lake City.
These hints foreshadow Joel and Ellie's encounter with a herd of them in Salt Lake City. They serve to create a structural parallel in the story, as when Joel and Ellie are viewing the giraffe herd, they both subconsciously reiterate their first genuine interaction back in a Boston skyline while viewing the sunset. Joel once again asks Ellie, "This everything you were hoping for?" to which Ellie replies in the exact same manner as she did the first time; "It's got it ups and downs. You can't deny the view, though." This foreshadowed encounter is also the last moment Ellie reflects her child-like traits, not repeating such for the rest of the game. The herd of giraffes serves to display that "life goes on"; they contrast the beauty of nature with horrors of the infected and mankind, reminding Ellie there is good in the world and something to look forward to.[10] Giraffes are also painted on the walls in the pediatrics unit of the hospital while Joel is escaping with Ellie.[13]
Giraffe toys also appear in the crane game machine and lucky pick game in Raja's Arcade.[14] In The Last of Us Part II, Ellie has a plush giraffe toy on her bed at her house in Jackson.[15] Another toy can be found at the library that Eugene Linden used as a residence. Here, Ellie makes a journal entry upon players noticing it.[11]
Horses[]
Horses are recurring animals in the series. They are featured as rideable mounts in both The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II, and make brief appearances in The Last of Us: American Dreams and The Last of Us: Left Behind. They primarily serve as transportation for survivors.
In The Last of Us, Tommy's group owns several horses,[6] one of them being Callus, the horse that takes Joel and Ellie to the University of Eastern Colorado and Silver Lake.[16][1] He is later shot dead and scavenged by a group of cannibals. Callus also appears in Left Behind, however, he cannot be ridden and he is only present inside a store where Joel is unconscious.[14] In American Dreams, a Boston soldier named Winston Asher owns a horse named Princess, which he lets Ellie ride. She is later mentioned in Left Behind.[17]
Horses reappear as rideable mounts in The Last of Us Part II, notably Japan and Shimmer. In both games, horses serve to assist players in moving through large areas, notably the large forests in Jackson and wider open spaces, like Seattle. They can also jump over barbed wire fences and large log barriers that players are unable to traverse without them.[18][19]
Monkeys[]
A group of monkeys can be seen at the University of Eastern Colorado as Joel and Ellie pass through a courtyard, which they comment on. Joel asks Ellie if it's her first time seeing monkeys, to which she replies yes. Three more monkeys are found as Joel opens the door to a room in science building. A nearby lab recorder reveals that some monkeys were part of some tests involving the Cordyceps brain infection and some of them were infected. One even bit a member of the Fireflies, causing him to commit suicide to avoid turning in to an infected. This did not prevent a second outbreak there, however. No infected monkeys are seen in the actual game. Joel comments after listening to the recorder, saying "I'm glad we didn't mess with those monkeys."[16]
Sheep[]
Sheep appear in The Last of Us Part II. Sometime after the events in Seattle, Ellie and Dina own a farm near Jackson. With it, they own at least fourteen sheep; among those named include Snowy, Daisy, Ewe-gene, and Todd.
Dina asks Ellie to herd the sheep while she finishes the laundry. Ellie, along with JJ, herds all the sheep into the barn, but a lamb gets out and hides behind some tools. The lamb knocks over a shovel, and the clanking sound triggers Ellie's post-traumatic stress disorder, giving her a hallucination of Joel's death. She screams, which causes JJ to start crying. Dina rushes in and calms the pair down.[20]
Zebras[]
Zebras make a brief appearance in The Last of Us Part II. During April 2034, Abby Anderson searches for her father at a nearby park in Salt Lake City. After finding him, he reveals his plans to check in on a nearby pregnant zebra who is "due any day now."
The pair begin walking through the park while following the zebra's tracks until Abby finds the remains of the zebra's afterbirth and a new set of tracks. The two hear the zebra cry nearby and find her stuck in a barbed wire fence. With the help of Owen, Jerry holds the zebra as he attempts to calm her down and free her. After Abby uses a pair of pliers to cut her free, Jerry chases after the zebra. The three of them emerge from the forest and find the mother zebra with her newborn by a river, now at peace.[21]
Other animals[]
There are many other animals that appear in The Last of Us series.
An assortment of different farming animals are found in SoundView Stadium's livestock pens and paddocks, among them include cattle, pigs, chickens, horses and sheep.
A cat can be seen in Left Behind, where it scares Ellie twice by running on the ventilation, perhaps associating itself with its symbolism of the devil; Ellie jokes that's it's "trying to kill [her]". Dina mentions caring for two feral cats, Gooney and Ghost, before she came to Jackson.[18]
Crabs can be seen at the beach outside Pittsburgh, particularly near Ish's fishing boat. In the sewers nearby, clumps of roaches can be seen on the walls.[5]
Crows can be heard in some certain parts of the game. Typical of its symbolism of death, they are seen roaming around an RV filled with corpses in Salt Lake City.[10] Underneath the city, Fish can be seen in the flooded tunnels. Joel encounters them while heading toward the Fireflies base in the city, Saint Mary's Hospital.
Fireflies can be seen flying around Ellie when Joel goes to set up the wooden plank before entering Lincoln. Ellie comments on the creatures, momentarily frustrating Joel as he thought Ellie meant the human faction. Further, just before entering the town, an egret is visible.[12] Rabbits are also seen in the woods area outside Lincoln and around the dam in Jackson.[6] When Ellie sees them, she is fascinated by it. Paradoxically, when she sees one looking around the area in Lakeside, she kills it with a bow.[1] Ellie catches another rabbit while hunting in the woods outside her and Dina's farm.[20]
Rats can be seen in most parts of the first game, mainly in Boston,[4] the hotel lobby in Pittsburgh,[22] the sewers that Ish lived in,[5] and in the ranch house Ellie fled to in Jackson.[6] Ellie appears to hate rats, since she mentions that she used to shoot rats with an air rifle and says "Yeesh, that is a big rat" when she faces one in the sewers.[22][5]
Joel and Ellie briefly pass several squirrels when entering the University of Eastern Colorado. Squirrels also live in the woods around Jackson.[23]
Behind the scenes[]
- Live dogs and horses were used for motion capture in The Last of Us Part II.[24][25] The dogs were also used as motion capture for the deer that appear in Part II, leaping over hurdles to simulate a deer gallop.[26]
- While Cordyceps has been shown to infect animals such as monkeys, none are shown to turn into infected like humans. They can pass on the infection to humans nonetheless, though the only known incident was when a Firefly scientist was bitten by a monkey.[27]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Lakeside Resort"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Hometown"
- ↑ Boy's diary
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "The Quarantine Zone"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "The Suburbs"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Tommy's Dam"
- ↑ "Seattle Day 2"
- ↑ "Seattle Day 3"
- ↑ "Seattle Day 1"
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Bus Depot"
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Jackson"
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Bill's Town"
- ↑ "The Firefly Lab"
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Back in a Flash"
- ↑ The Last of Us: One Night Live and "Jackson"
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 "The University"
- ↑ "Fun and Games"
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Seattle Day 1"
- ↑ "Seattle Day 3"
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 "The Farm"
- ↑ "The Park"
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 "Pittsburgh"
- ↑ "Jackson
- ↑ GamesRadar, The Last of Us 2 lead animator reveals real horses were mo-capped at Sony
- ↑ Push Square, Meet the Adorable, Mocapped Dogs of The Last of Us 2
- ↑ Jeremy Yates, animation director. "We used this set up for deer galloping. 👌"
- ↑ Lab recorder