The severed main ear flap of a ronto, this trophy is almost a meter long, tapering from twenty five centimetres at the base, to just three centimetres at the point. The ear is tough but flexible, composed mainly of cartilage covered by a durable and surprisingly supple hide, comprised of small scales. These scales, which are much smaller and thinner than the hardy, highly keratinised scales that cover most of the ronto’s body, do not inhibit heat exchange, and a ronto’s ears are one of the ways the animals cool off in hot, desert environments such as on their native Tatooine. Richly supplied with blood vessels, rontos will flap their ears constantly when the temperature climbs above a certain threshold, allowing the moving air to cool warm blood circulated from deep within the saurian’s body. Blood circulating from the ear when it is in motion can be up to three standard degrees cooler than the rest of the body. In some primitive cultures, it is considered a mark of manhood to hunt and kill a bull ronto with a hand weapon and collect its ears as a trophy. While ronto are generally quite docile, they can be a tremendous threat if they are enraged, due to their huge size and weight. Many an aspiring hunter has died from being trampled while attempting to complete their right of passage. As might be expected, bringing down an animal as large as this with unpowered hand weapons is a mighty task, and those who complete it not only supply their villages with meat for a considerable time, but get to keep the preserved ear as a mark of their prowess.