The beldon was an enormous rethen gas-filled creature native to the skies of Bespin. The creatures were a popular sighting for tourists on Bespin and were protected by law on the planet. Beldons metabolized the natural chemicals and biospheric plankton of the slushy gas-liquid-solid interface of Bespin's lower atmosphere via long, trailing tentacles. They traveled in free-floating herds numbering anywhere from 500 to 3,000. Their buoyancy was such that it was not unknown for dead beldons to remain airborne for weeks. Beldons reproduced sexually, but did not mate: eggs and sperm were released into the atmosphere and drifted until random fertilization occurred. By nature they were passive creatures, and when attacked generally fled into areas of deeper pressure where predators could not surv