Gúta

The Gúta is a large, semi-bipedal creature with large tusks and claws native to the planet Reach.

Biology
Gúta are the largest terrestrial life form that was discovered on Reach. They are semi-bipedal hairless creatures with scaly skin. The average Gúta have two toes on each foot, and three fingers on each hand; where extremely sharp and long claws grow on the two most outward fingers. Their head features green eyes. Gúta have two large tusks that grow from inside their mouth, complimented by a set of jagged teeth.

Behavior
The Gúta are semi-bipedal, where they are capable of standing on two legs, but will use their arms for support while running. The animals have been seen to use their large claws on their hands to defend themselves against threats.

While severe aggression among Gúta is rare, male Gúta are known to be aggressive when looking for a mate, while female Gúta are aggressive when protecting their young. Despite this the animals are considered extremely dangerous.

Habitat
Gúta were indigenous to the planet Reach, prior to its fall in the summer of 2552. The species was known to live in the Viery Territory, being present in the Eposz continent at Szurdok Ridge.

Halo: Reach
It is remarkably durable, requiring three to four shotgun blasts and an equal number of melee attacks to kill it on Normal difficulty. Plasma grenades, however, are very effective against them, usually granting a one-hit kill. They can also survive up to three direct hits from a Hunter's cannon.

Trivia

 * A creature that looks very similar to a gúta, albeit a much smaller one than depicted in Halo: Reach, is indigenous to Minab.
 * The gúta has a slight resemblance to the Deathclaw from the Fallout series and slightly resembles the rancor of the Star Wars universe.
 * Although the gúta does not resemble any living animal on Earth, a family of prehistoric dinosaurs called Therizinosaurs is known to have giant claws on their forelimbs.
 * The gúta is seemingly named after the guta, a fearsome demon from Hungarian mythology, as many of Reach's early settlers were of Hungarian descent.
 * A gúta's roar can push a Spartan back fairly hard despite the enormous weight of a Spartan clad in MJOLNIR armor.
 * On a player's career stats at Bungie.net and Halo Waypoint, the gúta is listed as "mule". Instead of listing a rank, the entry simply says, "No hugging". The "Mule" nickname is an internal name used by Bungie employees.
 * Unlike killing Moa, killing a gúta awards points in campaign scoring due to the creatures being a threat to the player.
 * Several ideas were formed around the gúta, but were ultimately cut from the game. Among these ideas were gúta being used as battle-mounts by Sangheili and Unggoy, gúta that were equipped with mounted weapons, and the ability for the player to "hijack" the Gúta and plant a grenade in its mouth.
 * The gúta was originally set to be in several campaign missions in addition to Nightfall. Due to resource constraints, this level features the only two gúta found in the game.
 * The player can move a dead gúta's body around by attempting to walk over it, as a gúta's body is considered solid in the game's physics engine, unlike all other bodies in the game.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Reach