You know, animals! Those living, moving, eating, breathing, biting, clawing, stinging things that are clearly not human (and are often darn proud of it).
These are tropes that somehow relate to animals, to characters who are animals and to their dealings with humans.
Only list tropes on this index if they do not already have an appropriate sub-index.
Also note that some tropes may qualify for more than one sub-index.
For tropes about the muppet named Animal, see here (or, if you can bear an all-capital Self-Demonstrating Article, then here).
Compare and contrast Plant Tropes.
Tropes:
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Indexes
General categories
Specific animals
- Animal Anthropomorphism Tropes: Tropes about all kinds of sapient animal characters who act (or even look) like humans.
- Beast Man: Types of humanoid species with features of various animals.
- Funny Animal Tropes: Tropes about Funny Animals and Civilized Animals.
- Funny Animal Anatomy: Tropes about the anatomical structure of these humanoid animals.
- Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: The varieties of anthropomorphic animal characters, ranging from more humanlike to more animalistic.
- Werebeast Tropes: Werebeasts (or therianthropes) are various Shapeshifting creatures who all have the (in)voluntary ability to change between human and animal forms.
- Animal Motifs: Motifs and symbolism involving animals.
- Animal Stereotypes: Stereotypes that are often associated with particular animals in media.
- Animal Jingoism: Classic pairs of animals that are often depicted as natural enemies.
- Animal Occupation Stereotypes: Animals typically associated with certain jobs.
- National Animal Stereotypes: When animal stereotypes are combined with National Stereotypes of various countries/regions or human ethnicities/nationalities.
- Pleasant Animals Index: Stereotypes of animals considered to be cute, friendly, or heroic.
- Scary Animals Index: Stereotypes of animals that are often treated as being Always Chaotic Evil.
- Big Trope Hunting: Tropes about (animal or human) predators hunting down their prey to capture, kill, and/or eat them.
- Meat of the Index: Tropes about animals or humans consuming the flesh of other (dead) animals for food.
- An Eggcellent Index: Tropes about all kinds of animal eggs, for the purpose of reproduction (or consumption as food).
- Milking the Index: Tropes about animal milk and food products made from animal milk.
- Pet and Animal Companion Tropes: Tamed or domesticated animals that humans keep around for close company.
- Attack Animal: Animals trained to fight and kill on command.
- Loyal Animal Companion: A pet that always stays close to their human friends.
- Tail of the Index: Tropes about tails, an appendage that many animals have.
Specific animals
- Aquatic Animal Tropes: Tropes for all kinds of water-dwelling animals (which has some considerable overlap with multiple different categories below).
- These Tropes Are Fishy: Tropes about all sorts of cold-blooded, water-breathing vertebrates (including bony fish and cartilaginous fish).
- Avian Tropes: Tropes about birds, warm-blooded vertebrates with beaks, feathers, and wings.
- A Parliament of Owl Tropes: Tropes about owls.
- Corvid Tropes: Tropes about birds in the Corvidae family (crows, ravens, magpies, etc).
- This Index Quacks: Tropes about waterfowl birds (ducks, geese, swans, etc).
- Invertebrate Index: Tropes for all the (literally) spineless animals lacking vertebrae (backbones); including arthropods, mollusks, worms, etc.
- Arachnid Tropes: Tropes about spiders, scorpions, and other related eight-legged arthropods.
- Crustacean Index: Tropes about arthropods such as crabs, shrimp, lobsters, crayfish, krill, prawns, copepods, barnacles, and isopods.
- Insect Index: Tropes about all six-legged arthropods with pairs of antennae and compound eyes.
- Mollusk Tropes: Tropes about mollusks, including gastropods (snails and slugs) and bivalves (clams and oysters).
- Cephalopod Index: Tropes about squids, octopi, and other tentacled marine mollusks.
- Mammal Tropes: Tropes about mammals, warm-blooded vertebrates with fur/hair that were raised on their mother's milk.
- And on That Index He Had Some Pigs: Tropes about hogs and swine, both wild and domestic.
- Bat Tropes: Tropes about bats.
- Bear Tropes: Tropes about all those big mammals in the Ursidae family.
- Bunny Tropes: Tropes about hares and rabbits of the Leporidae family.
- Dolphins, Dolphins Everywhere: Tropes about marine mammals called cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises).
- Elephant Tropes: Tropes about elephants and mammoths, distinguished by their huge size and long prehensile snouts.
- Equine and Equestrian Tropes: Tropes about horses, donkeys, mules, etc.
- My Deer Index: Tropes about deer, moose, elk, buck, doe, & caribou.
- Primate Index: Tropes about apes, monkeys, and lemurs.
- Humans Are Indexed: Tropes about these weird, upright-walking apes, the only animal in the world that's known to read and edit TV Tropes pages.
- Rodent Tropes: Tropes about mice, rats, squirrels, and other related small mammals with long incisor teeth.
- Seal Tropes: Tropes about marine mammals called pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses).
- This Index Barks: Tropes about all mammals in the Canidae (dog) family.
- A Foxy Index: Tropes about foxes, canids that are mostly in the Vulpini tribe.
- Wolf Tropes: Tropes about (grey) wolves, the wild relatives of domestic dogs.
- This Index Is Having a Cow, Man!: Tropes about cattle, both wild and domestic.
- This Index Meows: Tropes about all mammals in the Felidae (cat) family.
- Tropes That Go "Baaa": Tropes about goats and sheep.
- Reptile and Amphibian Tropes: Tropes about all sorts of cold-blooded, air-breathing vertebrates (from the Reptilia and Amphibia classes).
- Index in a Half Shell: Tropes about turtles and tortoises, reptiles known for their armored shells.
- Snake and Serpent Tropes: Tropes about all those elongated, limbless reptiles.
- Tropesaurus Index: Tropes about various extinct and prehistoric animals, including (but not limited to) the dinosaurs.
Tropes (A-M)
- Absent Animal Companion: Pets tend to show up in one episode of an episodic series, and disappear forever by the next.
- Accidentally Correct Zoology: A fictional species, or trait of an existing animal, is made up, only for it to turn out to exist in real life.
- Adaptation Species Change: An adaptation changes a character's species.
- Adjective Animal Alehouse: A bar called "The [Adjective] [Animal]".
- Adoring the Pests: Someone welcomes vermin animals into their house.
- Alien Animals: Animals are actually intelligent aliens.
- All Animals Are Dogs: All animals behave the same way as canines.
- All Animals Are Domesticated: Wild animals can all be easily tamed into docile pets.
- All Flyers Are Birds: All flying animals behave the same way as avians.
- Alternate Animal Affection: Animals have their own way of showing affection analogous to kissing.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Animals with bizarre, unrealistic colors.
- Amplified Animal Aptitude: An animal that's unrealistically smart and may be able to understand language, but isn't anthropomorphic and can't talk.
- Anachronistic Animal: An animal shows up in a time period when it didn't even exist yet in real life.
- Angry Animalistic Growl: The growl of an animal means they're completely ticked off.
- Animal Assassin: A deadly animal is used as a murder weapon.
- Animal Athlete Loophole: An underdog sports team brings a pet in to play and wins the game.
- Animal Battle Aura: An animal motif appears around or behind a martial artist in battle.
- Animal Chick Magnet: Women who like animals want to date men who share a similar interest in pets.
- Animal Disguise: A human disguised as an animal.
- Animal Espionage: Animals are used as spies.
- Animal Eyes: A human with animal-like eyes.
- Animal Gender-Bender: An animal's gender isn't consistent with their appearance because they look closer to a specimen of the opposite gender.
- Animal Goes to School: An animal not normally seen in a school setting is in one.
- Animal Is the New Man: Animals have replaced humans as Earth's dominant species and have become sapient.
- Animal Lord of the Wilds: A powerful animal claims a territory as its own, becoming respected and/or feared in the process.
- Animal Lover: A person who is very fond of animals.
- Friend to All Living Things: Someone who loves all animals and is loved by them.
- Friend to Bugs: Someone who even likes insects and other creatures that aren't considered to be cute by most people.
- Na?ve Animal Lover: A foolish human who wrongly believes that wild animals are all friendly and harmless.
- Friend to All Living Things: Someone who loves all animals and is loved by them.
- Animal Maul Attack: An animalistic gaming attack where the creature takes its target to the ground and mauls it for damage.
- Animal Mecha: A Mecha built in the shape of an animal.
- Animal Metaphor: When an animal is used for symbolism.
- Animal Naming Conventions: Animals don't have human names, or if they do, they have another, "real" name separate from what the humans named them.
- Animal Nemesis: A human who sees an animal as their nemesis.
- Animal Reaction Shot: A Reaction Shot from an animal.
- Animal Species Accent: A talking animal who speaks with an accent reminiscent of their species.
- Animal Stampede: A destructive, running group of scared animals.
- Animal Superheroes: Anthropomorphic animals who fight crime.
- Animal Sweet on Object: An animal gets the hots for an inanimate object, usually mistaking it for an animal of the same species.
- Animal Testing: Animals are used as test subjects in laboratory experiments, because it's far more legal than doing the same to humans.
- Lab Pet: An animal test subject is treated as a pet by the scientist studying them.
- Animal-Themed Superbeing: A superhero or supervillain who styles their name, costume, or abilities after an animal.
- Animal Wrongs Group: A group of animal rights activists who are willing to hurt and kill other human beings if it will help their goal to prevent animals from being harmed or killed.
- Animalistic Abomination: An Eldritch Abomination which looks or acts like a much more monstrous version of an ordinary animal.
- Animals Driving Cars: Non-anthopomorphic animals driving motor vehicles.
- Animals Hate Him: Animals react negatively to a particular individual.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: An animal is able to sense the presence of evil people, dangerous situations, and/or supernatural phenomena.
- Animals Lack Attributes: Animals are depicted without genitalia.
- Animals Not to Scale: An animal isn't the same size as it would be in real life.
- Animals Respect Nature: Animals have a special respect for nature and the cycle of life.
- Animals See in Monochrome: Animals, especially dogs and to a lesser extent cats, see in black-and-white.
- Animorphism: When a person (in)voluntarily transforms into a non-human animal.
- Attractive Bent Species: A human transformed into an animal is attractive to other animals of that same species (or vice versa).
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: Instead of a werewolf, someone transforms into a different kind of were-animal.
- Artistic License – Animal Care: Humans treat their pets in ways that would be very dangerous in real life.
- Artistic License – Marine Biology: Sea life portrayed inaccurately in fiction for the purposes of the story.
- Ascended to Carnivorism: An herbivorous animal decides to try out meat and move up to another level in the food chain.
- Ass in a Lion Skin: An animal pretending to be another of a different species.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: When a villain decides to (literally) Kick the Dog by needlessly harming and mistreating animals, usually for sadistic reasons.
- Beastly Bloodsports: Animals are forced to fight to the death for the entertainment of callous humans.
- Black Comedy Animal Cruelty: When the abuse of animals is played for dark humor.
- Cruella to Animals: It's shown how vile a person is by establishing that they're willing to kill animals for their meat or hide, especially Endangered Species.
- Fur and Loathing: Wearing animal skins signifies a character as a villain.
- Hunting Is Evil: People who hunt wild animals (especially for reasons besides acquiring their meat for food) are often portrayed as bad guys.
- Egomaniac Hunter: An arrogant game hunter who gets too much enjoyment from killing animals for sport.
- Evil Poacher: A hunter who is willing to illegally kill or capture endangered wildlife for money.
- Microwave the Dog: Killing a pet by putting it into a microwave.
- Bat Scare: Characters are exploring an environment void of other people but where animals are present, then a group of flying animals fly out, scaring them.
- Beast Fable: Using animals to tell a story with a moral.
- Beast of the Apocalypse: An animal who tries to bring out an apocalypse.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Gags involving humans having sex with animals.
- Bilingual Animal: An animal that both speaks a human language and its animal language.
- Butt Biter: An animal bites someone on their behind.
- Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": Calling an unusual creature the name of a mundane animal.
- Canines Primary, Felines Secondary: A work features both cats and dogs, and the cats play second fiddle to the dogs in some way.
- Carnivore Confusion: The dietary concerns of sapient/anthropomorphic animals become a lot more morally complicated when it comes to eating meat.
- Cartoon Creature: An animal of indeterminate species.
- Cat/Dog Dichotomy: Cats and dogs are depicted as being each other's polar opposites.
- Chasing a Butterfly: A kid or similarly innocent character chases a small animal out of curiosity.
- Children in Tow: An animal being followed by its offspring.
- Cockroaches Will Rule the Earth: A Bad Future, in which humans are extinct and a species evolved from a small animal has taken our place.
- Cold-Blooded Whatever: A vertebrate creature which has mixed traits of reptiles, amphibians, and fish.
- Cone of Shame: Dogs wearing cones around their necks to keep them from picking at stitches from surgery.
- Convenient Decoy Cat: A character being chased is about to be caught due to making a noise, but then a small animal shows up and the chaser mistakenly thinks the animal made the sound.
- Creature Creation Committee: The Animal Kingdom was literally designed by committee.
- Creepy Hairless Animal: Bald mammals look freaky.
- Crying Critters: Non-anthropomorphic animals cry.
- Cub Cues Protective Parent: If you foolishly approach a young animal, their angry parent will attack you for getting too close to their child.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: A small animal with a loud cry.
- Cute Clumsy Creature: Cute animal + Place full of fragile objects = Chaos!
- Dead Animal Warning: Sending someone an animal's corpse as a warning.
- Deathbringer the Adorable: A cute, harmless animal with a deceptively scary name.
- Deceptively Cute Critter: An animal pretends to be sweet and innocent to manipulate human characters.
- Delusions of Doghood: A human believes they are an animal.
- Detective Animal: An animal who solves crimes and mysteries.
- Diligent Draft Animal: Draft animals (donkeys, horses, mules, and oxen) are portrayed as diligent and hardworking.
- Dire Beast: A larger version of an existing animal.
- Disney Creatures of the Farce: A scene that parodies the whole "animals love Disney princesses" thing.
- Disney Dog Fight: Two people want custody of a pet, so they let the pet decide.
- Diurnal Nocturnal Animal: A nocturnal animal is somehow active during the daytime.
- A Dog Named "Cat": An animal is named after something of a different species.
- A Dog Named "Dog": An individual animal's name is the same as its species.
- A Dog Named "Perro": An individual animal is named after the name of its species in a different language than the one primarily used in the work it's in.
- A Dog Named "Woof": An animal is named after the sound it makes.
- Dogs Hate Squirrels: Dogs depicted as attacking squirrels.
- Dub Species Change: A translation changes a character's species.
- Ear Notch: When an animal has a notch out of their ear, that's a sign that they've been through bad stuff and/or are tough or evil.
- Ears as Hair: Anthropomorphic animals style their ears like hair.
- Eastern Zodiac: Zodiacs from East Asian countries that tie animals into personality types.
- Egg-Laying Male: Males of oviparous species are capable of laying eggs in fiction.
- Elephant Graveyard: A place where very large animals (usually elephants, hence the name) go to die.
- Emergency Food Supply Animal: When there's an emergency, a domesticated animal gets eaten.
- Endangered Pest: An endangered species causes somebody a significant problem that's difficult to deal with because the organism is endangered.
- Endangered Species: An (animal) species that is almost extinct due to natural or artificial causes.
- Enemy to All Living Things: Someone who animals are scared of, or who causes living things to die.
- Escaped Animal Rampage: An animal held in captivity by humans somehow escapes and causes trouble.
- Even the Dog Is Ashamed: Everybody is mad at somebody, even an animal.
- Even the Rats Won't Touch It: When a food is so gross or tough that even vermin aren't interested in it.
- Exit, Pursued by a Bear: The villain ends up chased by an animal that intends to harm them.
- Explosive Breeder: An animal that is capable of giving birth to numerous offspring at once.
- Expressive Ears: A character uses their ears to express emotion.
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: Either a made-up species that behaves like a certain real species, or an extant species that behaves like another, more familiar species.
- Fantastic Medicinal Bodily Product: A creature has a bodily product, such as blood, spittle, etc. that has healing properties.
- Fantastic Vermin: Magical, alien, or otherwise otherworldly everyday pests.
- Fed to the Beast: Throwing a captive person to a hungry animal so they can be Eaten Alive.
- Fluffy Dry Cat: When an animal is soaked, then dried, it looks fluffier than usual.
- Fluffy, Not Fat: An animal appears to be large, but most of its "bulk" is actually fur, hair, feathers, etc.
- Fluffy the Terrible: A dangerous animal with a deceptively cute pet name.
- Follow the White Rabbit: Characters chase an animal into a strange place.
- Food and Animal Attraction: A character has food on their person that attracts an animal.
- Foreboding Carcass: The dead body of an animal is used to foreshadow that there's danger afoot.
- Foreboding Fleeing Flock: A group of animals running away spells danger.
- Formerly Sapient Species: Animals that were once people.
- Free-Range Pets: Someone allows their pets to roam around wherever they please.
- From Stray to Pet: A feral animal living in the wild gets taken into a human home.
- Fur Is Clothing: An animal's fur is treated like clothing, with shaved animals treated as if they were naked.
- Fur Is Skin: An animal's fur is conflated with its skin.
- Fur Pattern Naming: An animal’s name is based on the patterns, colors, textures, or markings of their fur.
- Gender Equals Breed: Two animals have children whose genders are determined by which parent they look like.
- Ghostly Animals: The undead spirits of nonhuman animals.
- Giant Animal Worship: A primitive tribe worships a large animal.
- Giant Flyer: A huge, flying creature.
- Good Taming, Evil Taming: Heroes tame animals with affection, while villains tame them in an abusive way.
- Heli-Critter: Animals who can use parts of their bodies as propellers.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Plant-eating animals are harmless and docile.
- Hibernation/Migration Situation: Drama arises when an animal character needs to hibernate or migrate after the seasons change.
- Hilarity in Zoos: Going to the zoo, played for comedy.
- Hypnosis-Proof Dogs: Mind control only affects humans, not animals.
- I Am Not Weasel: An animal is mistaken for a species it plainly isn't.
- Imprinting: Young animals assume the first living thing they see is their parent.
- Incompetent Guard Animal: An animal is assigned to guard something but bungles it up.
- Incorrect Animal Noise: An animal makes the wrong sound, and it's not played as a joke.
- Informed Species: When a cartoon animal looks nothing like the species they're supposed to be.
- Intellectual Animal: An animal with human-level intelligence.
- Intelligent Gerbil: An creature resembling an animal, who's anthropomorphic, but not sapient.
- Interspecies Adoption: A young animal is raised by adoptive parents from another species.
- Raised by Wolves: A human child who was raised by wild animals.
- Raised in Captivity: A member of a wild animal species who was raised in a human environment.
- Interspecies Friendship: Two animals of different species befriend each other.
- A Cat in a Gang of Dogs: A cat who socializes with a group of dogs.
- Predator-Prey Friendship: A friendship between two different animals who are supposedly natural enemies.
- Interspecies Romance: Two animals of different species fall in love with each other.
- Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Romance between a larger animal and a smaller animal of both vastly different sizes and species.
- Introduced Species Calamity: A new invasive species is introduced to an area and ends up damaging the local ecosystem.
- Killer Rabbit: A small, cute animal that is actually quite deadly.
- Kindly Vet: A vet who's a Nice Guy or gal.
- Last One's Ploy: An animal that’s part of an endangered species uses their status to receive legal protection.
- Licked by the Dog: An animal or baby shows affection towards an intimidating character.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": A non-human creature has a name that references their species.
- Make the Dog Testify: Animals have to appear in a courtroom trial.
- Mammals Are Superior: Mammals as a whole are portrayed as being smarter, faster, and/or “more advanced” than other animals for no reason.
- Mating Season Mayhem: An animal going into heat is a plot point.
- Mechanical Animals: Robots that resemble or are based on animals.
- Menagerie of Misery: A collection of animals kept in inadequate accommodations.
- Messy Male, Fancy Female: Male animals look scruffy while females look neat.
- Mighty Roar: Large animals always roar loudly.
- Military Animals: Animals that are trained and used by humans for warfare.
- Mimic Species: A species of animal whose evolutionary history has it mimic another species.
- Miracle-Gro Monster: A character has a strange pet that, if one particular thing happens to them, they will grow and grow.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Animals appear in locations where they're very unlikely to be seen in real life.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: An animal that looks like a combination of two or more animals.
- Mounted Mook: A mook would ride a (usually evil) creature either for traversal or for battle.
- A Mouse Named "Mozzarella": Animal named after something its species is known for eating.
- Multiple-Tailed Beast: A creature with more than one tail.
- Music Soothes the Savage Beast: Music can make aggressive animals behave.
- Mysterious Animal Senses: Animals with bizarre senses.
Tropes (N-Z)
- Nature Is Not Nice: Wild animals live in a harsh, cruel, unforgiving world where every minute is spent just trying to survive.
- Never Work with Children or Animals: When children or animals on set do something the directors didn't want them to do.
- Nice Kitty...: Making Baby Talk to a dangerous animal to try to appease it.
- No Animals Were Harmed: A work gives a disclaimer that despite the film depicting animals getting killed, imperiled, or abused, such depictions were simulated and no animal involved in the film was hurt for real.
- Noisy Nature: Animals making sounds even when they logically should be quiet.
- The Nose Knows: A character with an enhanced sense of smell.
- Not So Extinct: An animal species that was believed to have died out long ago turns out to still exist.
- Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: Legendary and mythical animals that are not proven to exist in the real world. But works of fiction on the other hand...
- Pale Females, Dark Males: Females of an animal species have lighter colors while males are darker.
- Parasites Are Evil: Animals that live in or on other animals are depicted as evil.
- A Pet into the Wild: A domestic animal who lived with humans becomes a stray, and now has to fend for itself in the wilderness.
- Pets Versus Strays: Domestic animals and feral animals don't really agree on the merits of life with humans.
- A Pig Named "Porkchop": An animal is named after the meat, food, or other animal products that could come from it.
- Planimal: A hybrid creature that is both a plant and an animal.
- Portrayed by Different Species: An animal is portrayed as a different species.
- Pounds Are Animal Prisons: Pounds are treated as being the animal equivalent of a prison.
- Predation Is Natural: Animals eating other animals is simply a fact of life that can't be avoided.
- Predators Are Mean: Animals that eat other animals are depicted as being evil.
- Pregnant Reptile: A non-mammal bears live young.
- Raising the Steaks: Non-human animals turned into undead zombies.
- Rampage from a Nail: A persistent injury drives an animal into a frenzy.
- Realistic Species, Cartoony Species: Animals tend to look less (semi)realistic than humans in animated cartoons.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: An animal designed to be cute.
- Road Apples: Jokes about animal poop.
- Sapient All Along: A seemingly dumb animal turns out to actually be just as smart as humans are.
- Sapient Pet: A domestic animal companion who has humanlike intelligence.
- Sapient Steed: A mounted animal with the same intellect as the person who rides it.
- Scare the Dog: When a guard dog or similar animal is intimidated by a scary character.
- Scavengers Are Scum: When the hero is a carnivore, the villain will often be a scavenger.
- Shy Shelled Animal: A shy animal with a shell.
- Sidekick Creature Nuisance: A bumbling animal sidekick.
- Signature Roar: A monster or animal has a specific noise in lieu of a Character Catchphrase.
- Silly Animal Sound: Animals making the wrong sounds, played for comedy.
- Small Taxonomy Pools: Fiction only shows a few familiar species.
- Sliding Scale of Animal Cast: A scale of number of animals compared to humans in fiction, from no humans to no animals.
- Sliding Scale of Animal Communication: A scale that ranges from no animals being able to talk to all animals being able to talk.
- Smart Animal, Inconvenient Instincts: An animal that's sapient but has inconvenient instincts.
- Species Equals Gender: Certain kinds of animals are more likely to be depicted as being male or female.
- Species Surname: An anthropomorphic animal has their species as their family name.
- Squeamish About Slaughter: Animal slaughter scares, or grosses out, a character.
- Squirrels in My Pants: Animals in somebody's clothes make the person squirm.
- Stock Animal Behavior: Animal species are stereotyped as all acting in a certain way.
- Stock Animal Diet: Different animals prefer specific types of food.
- Stock Animal Facts: Common facts (or myths) often stated about specific animals.
- Stock Animal Name: Humans aren't very original when it comes to naming animals.
- Stray Animal Story: A story focusing on stray or feral animals.
- Super-Persistent Predator: A predatory animal chases the protagonists to kingdom come.
- Suspiciously Stealthy Predator: A predatory animal that doesn't know about human technology, yet avoids it or knows how to neutralise it.
- The Swarm: A group of very small, dangerous creatures.
- Taxonomic Term Confusion: Terms like "domain", "species", and "genus" get confused.
- Terrifying Pet Store Rat: An animal is meant to be scary, yet fails to look or act scary due to being played by a tame animal.
- This Bear Was Framed: Somebody commits a murder and frames an animal.
- Translator Collar: Something that can enable animals to talk to humans.
- Treated Worse than the Pet: Someone's status in their family is so low that even animals are treated better or valued more than they are.
- Tribute to Fido: An author writes a tribute to a real-life animal in their story.
- Troublemaking New Pet: A character with a pet gets a second pet, who makes a mess and the owner assumes the original pet made the mess.
- Tuft of Head Fur: An animal with a tuft of fur or feathers on their head.
- Unintentional Animal Poison Tester: A character is saved from consuming something poisoned when an animal eats some of it first and dies.
- Unpleasant Animal Counterpart: The Evil Counterpart of a "good" animal.
- Unusual Animal Alliance: When a group of animals are in trouble, they'll have to team up despite ordinarily not being inclined to do so.
- Urine Trouble: An animal urinates on something or someone for comic effect.
- Vegetarian Carnivore: A predatory animal decides to eat plants instead.
- Verber Creature: An animal's species is named after what they do.
- Vertebrate with Extra Limbs: A vertebrate animal with more than four limbs.
- Viewer Species Confusion: Viewers get an animal character's species wrong.
- Weaponized Animal: Using an animal with weapons mounted on it to attack.
- We Named the Monkey "Jack": Naming a pet after someone as an insult or tribute.
- Whale Egg: An animal that gives birth to its young in real life is depicted as laying eggs.
- What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: It's considered okay to kill animals that are ugly or terrifying.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: It's considered okay to mercilessly kill any creature that isn't human.
- Wildlife Commentary Spoof: Parodies of nature shows.
- Woodland Creatures: Forest animals.
- Wrestler of Beasts: Characters are shown as awesome by having them fight (and sometimes even win against) ferocious animals in close quarters without relying on traps or ranged weaponry.
- Xenophobic Herbivore: Prey animals are not fond of their natural predators for obvious reasons.
- Yet Another Baby Panda: Animal videos on the news.
