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The Grazerites were a sentient, humanoid species, whose homeworld was a member of the United Federation of Planets by the late 24th century.

Their facial features included a pronounced, deeply furrowed brow and a bovine snout. A layer of fine, downy fur covered their hide-thick skin. Two slightly curving horns, which could reach ten centimeters in length, crowned the Grazerite skull. In the early 2370s, fashion called for a tight-fitting cloth cowl to cover the horns. (DS9: "Homefront")

Grazerites required little sleep. (DS9: "Paradise Lost")

The Grazerites had a position on the Federation Council in the late 24th century held by Jaresh-Inyo until he was elected Federation President. (DS9: "Homefront", "Paradise Lost")

Appendices[]

Background information[]

Grazerites may be from the planet Grazer, mentioned in the reference book Star Trek: Star Charts and later onscreen in DIS: "Lethe".

In the script for "Homefront", the Grazerites are described as "having evolved from herbivorous herd animals and as such loathe violence and confrontation." Indeed, their appearance incorporates goat-like traits and their name evokes the term "graze", meaning to feed on grass.

When Herschel Sparber was cast as Jaresh-Inyo, Sparber was aware that the character was a Grazerite, though what the species would look like was unclear to the actor. "Of course nobody knew what a Grazerite was – yet!" Sparber exclaimed. "Most of the actors who auditioned for the role thought of antelopes and gazelles, but I thought of a wildebeest." The performer was under the impression that his unique take on how a Grazerite would behave won him the role. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Official Poster Magazine, No. 10) However, the DS9 writing staff actually wanted Grazerites to be "somewhat antelopelike," in the words of Robert Hewitt Wolfe. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. 299))

The Grazerite prosthetic mask was fairly heavy. Each day of filming, it took three hours to be applied to the actor's face, and an hour for removal. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Official Poster Magazine, No. 10)

The appearance of a Grazerite pleased neither the creative staff nor the audience. Director David Livingston was especially unhappy with the makeup. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. 299))

Apocrypha[]

The novel series Star Trek: Titan features a male Grazerite, Lonam-Arja, who is a sensor technician aboard the USS Titan.

The Last Unicorn Games RPG states that the Grazerites hail from a planet called "Vacca III" (In reality, "vacca" is one of multiple Italian words for "cow"). The Vacca system has appeared in canon.

The Star Trek: The Next Generation - Player's Guide describes the Grazerites as having evolved from bovine herbivores that hunted their predators to extinction after they became sentient. The Grazerites are an agrarian society and all of their major advances in technology were based on agricultural needs. Unlike other species in the Federation, Grazerites had no history of war or oppression. The Grazerite basic social unit is a group of 100-500 individuals called an upsol. The second part of a Grazerite's name is the name of the upsol they belong to. Thus Jaresh-Inyo is Jaresh of the Inyo upsol. Members of the same upsol work, eat and ruminate together. Grazerites typically make decisions very slowly and rarely experience disagreements in their own society. As a result of their placid nature, Grazerite civilization hasn't produced great art of any kind, which some Grazerite artists have tried to rectify.

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