"... and as the wrix bit off their heads and nibbled their toes, Kribben and Zibben knew why there was where no one goes ..."

While xenobiologists have done their best to promote the notion that the wrix, like most animals, acts from instinct and is neither "good" nor "evil," their efforts have done little to counteract thousands of years of folklore about the ferocious animal.

Wrixes have earned their reputation, and their aggressive hunting patterns often leads them to the fringes of settlements. While their favorite prey in the wilderness tends toward small animals, when living near civilization they quickly develop a taste for domesticated pets, much to the dismay of the pets' owners. Needless to say, local citizens' groups make eliminating wrixes from inhabited areas a top priority.

Wrixes have spread to many inhabited worlds, and are known to prey on banthas and other domesticated herd animals. Wrixes are very territorial and are known to drive other animals from their hunting grounds. When confronting larger predators, wrixes are known to attack in packs. On some worlds, wrixes have been known to develop a taste for Humans, and there are several recorded incidents of packs of wrixes attacking camps or small settlements at night. Wrixes will hunt most targets at any time of day or night, but all known attacks on Humans or other sapients have occurred at night - some scientists have speculated that this may indicate that wrixes are far more intelligent than was first believed.

There are several familiar wrix sub-species, the most common of which are the gray wrix (adults mass around 80 kilograms and measure up to 2.5 meters long from nose to tail). There are several less common but larger sub-species, including the Corellian wrix (which is also dark gray, but has larger ears and is much more ferocious than other breeds) and the reddish-brown Tanthior wrix (this breed is up to 3.5 meters long, and, with longer legs and faster ground speed, is perfectly evolved for pursuing herd animals).