Tev, a geologist of the male persuasion, worked for the Alliance to Restore the Republic. He belonged to a species characterized by fur and a stocky build. General Jan Dodonna dispatched Tev as part of a group to examine the ice planet Hoth, which was being considered as a potential site for a Rebel Alliance base; his physique made him the best choice for the mission out of all the members. Tev and Kell Tolkani, the team's naturalist, persuaded the rest of the group to follow a tauntaun so they could gain a better understanding of the planet, based on their theory that the large creatures of Hoth lived in underground ecosystems. Despite Tev and Tolkani's suggestion to proceed on their own, Habria, the team's commander, decided against separating the group.
They had not managed to gather any information by the time evening came on their first day of tracking a tauntaun, so Habria ordered the group to set up camp. Tolkani argued that stopping would cause them to lose the tauntaun, but Tev and the other rebels were unwilling to put their lives in danger. Tolkani noticed that the tauntaun was no longer moving and correctly deduced that it was feigning dead; the next morning, the group resumed their pursuit. The tauntaun guided them to a glacial ravine, where they found a crack from which warm air was rising, ultimately leading the team to the discovery of a tauntaun family. The Echo Base of the Rebel Alliance was later built in the livable area that the team had found.