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'''Zoats''' were a centauroid race, first introduced to in the Warhammer 40,000 universe in the [[Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader|Rogue Trader rulebook]] as a slave race of the [[Tyranid]]s, and were available as mercenaries in [[Eldar]] warpartiespirate groups. In later game developements they were remodeled into bio-constructs of the Tyranid raceThey appeared only in Rogue Trader era W40K.

Zoats were introduced in 1st Edition Warhammer 40K 's first book as a part of the Tyranid racearmy. They are described as one of the Tyranids' genetically engineered slave races, and fulfilled for the Tyranids the role of warrior. In game terms, any Tyranid force had to have at least half its numbers made up by Zoats. Even though Although naturally a psychic race, they could not develop psychically under Tyranid dominance. Zoats eventually disappeared from were not popular and didn't survive into the game, their influence can still be found in Tyranid weapons; 's second edition. Like the [[FleshborerSquat]]s , they were originally Zoat weapons and have been adopted by the Tyranids, although not simply forgotten but killed off in the background reasons that fleshborers were originally Tyranid and only gifted to the Zoats.

In 3rd edition's background, the Zoats were revisited, if only in a background story about their extinction. Once the most common of the [[Tyranid]]s' many specially engineered slave races, Zoats were unlike most of the Tyranids' assimilated worker-creatures, having independant independent thinking, and were therefore often used by Tyranids as a type of ambassador. Hence it was Zoats that were the first members of the Tyranid race to make contact with the [[Imperium of Man]]. Retrospective accounts talk of a race, assumed to be Zoats, having first made contact with the Imperium as early as [[M38]] as their fleet of semi-organic spacecraft attempted to enter Imperial Space, claiming they were escaping slavish oppression. It is clear that via their intial contact the Zoats did not declare their true intentions, nor the true intentions of their masters.

Eventually, as Tyranids became a more common sight in the galaxy after the invasion of [[Hive Fleet Behemoth]], Zoats were no longer seen outside the ranks of the Tyranids. Their sightings became less and less frequent, and they appear to have been entirely absent from [[Hive Fleet Leviathan]]. If the only Zoats to have entered the Galaxy were those of the inital fleet, known as [[Collossus]], then their absence can be explained, as the last known vessel of that fleet was destoyed destroyed above Zorastra in 226.[[M39]], after the fleet provoked the [[Zorastra-Attila war]].