Something interesting I find in this interview. Mr. Koichi Ishii, father of the chocobo and moogle talk about Moogle design.
Source: https://na.finalfantasy.com/topics/176
"One of the characters that made its first appearance in FFIII was the moogles. You're the creator of moogles, correct?
Ishii: Well, the one who actually created moogles was me as an elementary school student. [laughs]
I made the character when I was in elementary school, at which time I was drawing all kinds of fantasy creatures and the like. I liked koalas, and also animals that weren't so popular like frilled-neck lizards. But I especially liked koalas, so I'd draw koala-like creatures that were all white, similar to what was in the strategy guide I mentioned, bat-like things that were clinging to the ceiling, that kind of stuff. [laughs] White koalas with wings like a bat, but they can also blow up their body and float around. Those wings are for controlling direction in the air, not flapping around to fly.
―That makes moogles a character that's essentially a combination between a koala and a bat, then.
Ishii: That's the physical make up of them, yes. That's also why they have a big nose and so on.
But it's clear that they're not simply just koalas. At first I wanted to make them like a koala, but they're not only koalas by any means. So if someone makes a moogle that's basically a koala, I think it would be something else entirely from the moogle I initially thought up. Although lately there have been moogles of all shapes and sizes. [laughs]
―Did you decide the sound that moogles make?
Ishii: I'm pretty sure I wasn't the one who wrote the lines for moogles. The person in charge of writing lines in FFIII just ended up giving moogles that voice, I think. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that they would end up treated as this huge mascot character."
Source: https://na.finalfantasy.com/topics/176
"One of the characters that made its first appearance in FFIII was the moogles. You're the creator of moogles, correct?
Ishii: Well, the one who actually created moogles was me as an elementary school student. [laughs]
I made the character when I was in elementary school, at which time I was drawing all kinds of fantasy creatures and the like. I liked koalas, and also animals that weren't so popular like frilled-neck lizards. But I especially liked koalas, so I'd draw koala-like creatures that were all white, similar to what was in the strategy guide I mentioned, bat-like things that were clinging to the ceiling, that kind of stuff. [laughs] White koalas with wings like a bat, but they can also blow up their body and float around. Those wings are for controlling direction in the air, not flapping around to fly.
―That makes moogles a character that's essentially a combination between a koala and a bat, then.
Ishii: That's the physical make up of them, yes. That's also why they have a big nose and so on.
But it's clear that they're not simply just koalas. At first I wanted to make them like a koala, but they're not only koalas by any means. So if someone makes a moogle that's basically a koala, I think it would be something else entirely from the moogle I initially thought up. Although lately there have been moogles of all shapes and sizes. [laughs]
―Did you decide the sound that moogles make?
Ishii: I'm pretty sure I wasn't the one who wrote the lines for moogles. The person in charge of writing lines in FFIII just ended up giving moogles that voice, I think. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that they would end up treated as this huge mascot character."
