Erumpent

Erumpent
Species information
Skin colour	Black
Native to	Africa
Height of average adult	Medium sized (females could reach five times the size of a non-magical hippopotamus)
Mortality	Mortal
Distinction	Explosive horn
Ministry of Magic Classification	Beast XXXX
Status	Extant in small numbers

"The Erumpent is a large grey African beast of great power. Weighing up to a tonne, the Erumpent may be mistaken for a rhinocerous at a distance. It has a thick hide that repels most charms and curses, a large, sharp horn upon its nose and a long, rope-like tail. Erumpents give birth to only one calf at a time."

— Newton Scamander, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The Erumpent was a huge grey African magical beast.

Description

An Erumpent in Africa

It resembled a rhinoceros with a roundish body. It was a powerful creature, with a thick hide capable of repelling most curses and charms, a single long horn, and a thick tail. They were treated with great caution and respect by African wizards and witches. Male Erumpents produced musk.

The Erumpent did not attack unless provoked, but the results were usually fatal. The horn could pierce skin and metal, and the horn contained a deadly fluid that caused whatever was injected with it to explode. There were rare occasions when the injected object or being did not explode, as in the case of Wilfred Elphick, the first wizard to have been gored by an Erumpent. As his Chocolate Frog Card depicted him in bandages, but very much alive, it can be assumed that he survived the attack and did not explode.

When Newton Scamander's Erumpent injected its fluid into a tree on the night of 6 December 1926, it did not explode right away. Instead, it liquefied like glowing bubbles before exploding and fell to the ground. Erumpent numbers were not large, because male Erumpents frequently blew themselves up during mating season. Erumpents only gave birth to one calf at a time.

Erumpent horns, tails, and Exploding Fluid were all widely used in potions, although they were listed as Class B Tradeable Materials. An Erumpent was one rare possible corporeal form of the Patronus Charm.Female Erumpents could reach five times the size of a non-magical hippopotamus, though it was considered medium-sized in Magizoology. Apparently, Erumpents could hold their breath and swim underwater.

History

In the 12th century, Wilfred Elphick became the first wizard to be gored by an Erumpent, which was an extremely unlikely event, given the fact that the horn of an Erumpent almost always exploded on contact.

The female Erumpent from Newton Scamander's suitcase

In 1926, a female Erumpent was one of the magical beasts that escaped from Newt Scamander's suitcase and rampaged through New York. She was found in the Central Park Zoo near the hippopotamus enclosure. Newt Scamander attempted to coax her back into his case using a combination of Erumpent musk and a mating dance. However, Jacob Kowalski accidentally spilled musk on himself when he was hit by a fish thrown by an escaped seal. The Erumpent proceeded to chase Jacob out of the zoo and down onto the frozen pond in Central Park. Newt was able to quickly pursue them and pull the Erumpent back into his case.

At some point, Xenophilius Lovegood acquired an Erumpent horn and kept it in his house, believing that it belonged to a Crumple-Horned Snorkack. When Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger visited him in 1998, Hermione warned him to get rid of it but Xenophilius maintained his ignorance and insisted it was a horn from a Crumple-horned Snorkack. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione realised that Luna was missing, and Xenophilius was planning to trade Harry for Luna, they tried to escape before the Death Eaters Xenophilius had called could arrive. Fearing they would get away, Xenophilius attempted to stun Harry, but instead he hit the Erumpent horn, which exploded and blew up a sizable portion of his house.

At some point during the early 2010s, an Erumpent was involved in an incident with a poacher and a Muggle safari tour group that was dealt with by Long Shouren.

During the Calamity in the late 2010s or early 2020s, Rolf Scamander taught Magizoologist members of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force about his grandfather's techniques for understanding the mind of an Erumpent.

Following several reports of exploding caravans as a result of transporting Erumpent horn, the International Magical Trading Standards Body wrote a paper stating that grinding Erumpent horn made it far less volatile for travel. Members of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force read this paper, enabling them to better utilise Erumpent horns when brewing the Tonic for Trace Detection, decreasing the amount of time it took to brew the potion.

Behind the scenes

• In August 2017, The Fantastic Beasts Foundation, an animal rights group focused on "empowering young witches and wizards to get active for the magical creatures in the muggle world using parallels from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts series", launched the Erumpent Rescue campaign to help save rhinos in South Africa.
• The Erumpent that appears in the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has horns that look very different from the one seen in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. Their horns are depicted as thick and cone-shaped rather than slender, curved, and having a spiral running down them.
• The Erumpent closely resembles Arsinoitherium, an extinct genus of embrithopod (a rhino-like animal that is related to elephants and manatees). Arsinoitherium lived in Northern Africa when it was a mangrove swampland, around the late Eocene to Early Oligocene, from 36 to 27 million years ago.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game) (Mentioned on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Mentioned only)
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (First appearance)
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (film)
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them VR Experience
• Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore - The Complete Screenplay
• Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Mentioned only) (Handheld versions only)
• LEGO Dimensions
• LEGO Harry Potter
• Harry Potter Trading Card Game (Mentioned only)
• Wonderbook: Book of Potions (Appears in portrait(s))
• Pottermore (Appears as a Patronus)
• Wizarding World (Appears as a Patronus)
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
• Hogwarts Legacy (Appears on chalkboard)
• Harry Potter: Magic Awakened