Gungans farmed shaaks for their meat and hide. They were also sometimes used as pack animals. Their scat was a popular fertilizer used by Naboo farmers on their fields.
Shaak leg was a delicacy on Pijal and they were raised as livestock for consumption by some residents of the planet Batuu. Shaak steak was another type of dish made from Shaak meat.
In 22 BBY, when he was on Naboo during an assignment to protect Padmé Amidala, Anakin Skywalker haphazardly rode a shaak through the majestic grasslands near the lake country, while on a picnic with Padmé. He fell off, and after being stepped over by the shaak, pretended to be hurt in order to amuse her. At least twelve shaak were grazing through the field behind them.
During the Clone Wars, a female Gungan named Peppi Bow wrangled shaaks. She lost six shaaks in her herd to the Blue Shadow Virus, which had been created in Nuvo Vindi's laboratory.
The shaak species was designed by Terryl Whitlatch for Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. They could be seen exceedingly briefly in one shot of the movie. Whitlatch wanted to suggest a grazer bred for food, the Naboo equivalent of a sheep. A few computer generated shaaks were also seen in one shot of the next movie, Attack of the Clones. The 3d sculptor for the scene, Mark Siegel, rendered it using just a few two dimensional drawings. At first, Siegel thought that the shaak was too ridiculous to be properly put to screen, but ended up being pleased with the final result.During the film, a shaak can be seen flying within the traffic of the planet Coruscant as the Jedi Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi were chasing the assassin Zam Wesell.
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