Elden Ring makes a less fantastical animal than the real life glow in the dark Springhare

Art imitates life in Elden Ring’s cute springhares, but they don’t hold a candle to their real-life counterpart who can glow in the dark.

Elden Ring has a rich fauna of fantastical but also pretty normal creatures, which range from dogs to basilisks. Reddit user u/IamPotato14 brought to everyone’s attention the real-life inspiration behind the Elden Ring springhare, which is an animal also called a springhare. What Elden Ring failed to add though, which would have added to the game's fantasy genre, is the incredible and mind-boggling fact that the real-life counterpart glows in the dark.

This creature could be mistaken for a fantastical animal because of its hybrid appearance of a kangaroo and a rabbit, and now with the added knowledge of them being able to glow in the dark, it’s hard to believe that they aren’t. They have big haunches and small front legs, along with long tails and fluffy coats. The springhare in Elden Ring is unique to the Lands in Between and is located in the forests and plains of Limgrave or South West Liurnia of the Lakes. Real-life springhares, however, actually live in South and East Africa.

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There is apparently no reason as to why the real-life springhare has glow-in-the-dark fur, despite it being its biggest claim to fame. Only four other mammals on the planet have bio fluorescent fur, making it part of quite the exclusive club. If springhares shone in the dark in Elden Ring, players would have a field day harvesting them for their thin beasts' bones and the sliver of meat that they drop. They are skittish in-game and are best targeted with ranged weapons. The real world is not much better for them either, as unfortunately for them, they are extant animals and are prey to 21 other species including humans. In whatever reality they are in, it seems springhares have no peace.