History Analysis / SomewhereAMammalogistIsCrying

** Toothed whales being drawn with belly linings, which are only present in baleen whales.

* There is a slight tendency for some [[ShownTheirWork (but by no means all)]] furry artists to presume that all mammals go about... certain activities... in ways similar to either [[MostWritersAreHuman Humans]] or [[AllAnimalsAreDogs Dogs,]] or at least how some people presume dogs to go about them (see above). Then again, an [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality Acceptable Break from Reality]], as when did RuleThirtyFour care about anatomical correctness even when it was just humans involved?

The categories in this list are organized by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammal_classification molecular classification of placentals]] on Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}.

** Any Christmas movie or TV special that shows female reindeer (a.k.a. caribou) without antlers, or male reindeer retaining their antlers into December, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology fails biology forever]]. Females of the species need antlers to guard their young from predators, whereas males shed theirs after the rutting season, with one exception: males retain antlers in winter if they have a "special operation". Older Christmas specials tend to show extremely [[WhiteTailedReindeer dainty brown deer that don't resemble reindeer at all]]. Likewise, cartoons will sometimes portray the females of non-caribou deer as having antlers. Moose are common victims of this.

** Giraffes being depicted with longer and more flexible necks than in real life. They will also be drawn with pink tongues, even though real giraffes and okapis have black tongues.

** Pigs being dirty animals who adore filth and mud. When pigs are left it optimum environments, it's shown that they're clean by animal standards. They roll in mud to keep cool, since they don't sweat like humans do.
** Pigs are commonly thought of as herbivores, when in reality they're omnivores that will eat anything they can so much chew (some crime dramas have caught on to this and feature murderers [[FedToPigs using pigs to get rid of dead bodies]]). They're even prone to cannibalism, contrary to many depictions where they freak out as so much as seeing pork.

* The common portrayal of gorillas [[PrimalChestPound beating their chests]] with clenched fists while letting out a MightyRoar. Gorillas actually pound their chests with open or cupped hands, and they make hooting sounds on the rare occasion they vocalize while doing so.

* In an inversion of InexplicablyTailless, apes may occasionally be depicted as having tails, even though no species of ape have tails in real life. Chimpanzees and gibbons are most frequently prone to this, due to their resemblance to true monkeys. Similarly, true monkeys that have very short tails (such as mandrills and certain species of macaque) may be given much longer tails than what they have in real life.

* In media, mice are [[NiceMice heroic and kind]] while rats are [[YouDirtyRat sketchy and mean (or dirty and gross)]]. In the case of pets at least, the opposite is true, not counting their related subspecies. Pet mice in general are harder to handle and less affectionate than pet rats. While rats living in sewers do tend to kill mice if given the chance or the food are scarce, those who have socialized with mice don't have such aggression. Wild rats being disease-ridden is TruthInTelevision, but virtually ''all'' wild animals also carry diseases to some extent, and the reputation of rats as plague-bringers is simply because they're more likely to be drawn to human settlements whose confined conditions make it easier for germs to grow and spread.
* Rats are often depicted in animation as having a mouthful of shark-like teeth. A real rat has four flat incisors in the front of their mouth, molars in the back, and nothing between. They certainly don't have pointed canines (or any canines at all).

* Many a work draw certain mammals with noses shaped like cat-noses or dog-noses when they're not supposed to have them in real life. Particularly rodents, lagomorphs, apes, monkeys, walruses, and ruminants.

* People draw male kangaroos with pouches. The only extant (still existing) marsupial with both sexes having a pouch is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yapok yapok]], a semi-aquatic opossum native to South America. The Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger, exhibited this trait too, but it is now extinct.

** Bears being portrayed as carnivorous. The most common and well-known bear species (brown and American black bears) are mostly vegetarians; up to 90% of their diet consists of plant matter, and they save eating meat for special occasions. While polar bears are more carnivorous than other bear species, this is due to them evolving in a cold climate with little edible plant life.

* Mandrills are often confused for baboons, due to their faces being shaped similarly. Mandrills are larger and have colorful faces and stubby tails, unlike baboons. Mandrills ''were'' once considered a species of baboon, but this turned out to be not the case, with scientific studies finding more similarity to mangabeys than baboons. Mandrills are nowadays considered to be in their own family, along with a similar but [[SmallTaxonomyPools rarely heard of]] monkey known as a drill.

* A common trend in fiction is for a character to call a chimpanzee, gorilla, or orangutan a “monkey”, upon which another character, typically a scientist, will vehemently insist that they are “not monkeys, but apes”, and even some documentaries lean into this mindset. Given how omnipresent it is in media, you would be led to believe that monkeys and apes are completely separate groups of primates but in reality, the distinction is far more pedantic, if not entirely misleading. To elaborate, the simians (all the primates closer to humans than to lemurs and other “lower primates”) are separated into two subgroups; Catarrhini (Old World simians) and Platyrrhini (New World simains), and apes are part of the former, meaning all the other Old World simians like baboons, macaques, langurs, colobuses and so on, which are always referred to as “monkeys”, are in fact more closely related to the apes than to the “New World monkeys” like spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, marmosets, and howler monkeys. In other words, there is no true monkey/ape dichotomy in terms of phylogeny, so saying that "apes aren’t monkeys" is akin to saying that "humans aren’t apes". The persistence of this trope is likely a result of the HumansAreSpecial mindset being extended to our closest relatives.

* Mandrills are often confused for baboons, due to their faces being shaped similarly. Mandrills are larger and have colorful faces and stubby tails, unlike baboons. Mandrills ''were'' once considered a species of baboon, but this turned out to be not the case.
* Many cartoon chimpanzees and gorillas are portrayed with brown fur. Brown chimpanzees and ginger ones do exist but they are typically black, likewise gorillas are covered in black fur in real life (although western gorillas do have brownish/reddish foreheads).

* Male orangutans are sometimes drawn without flanges or cheek pads, making them resemble female orangutans.

** Cartoons usually portray [[HuggyHuggyHippos the common hippopotamus as a cute, friendly, lovable, and contented animal]]. In reality, [[AngryAngryHippos hippos]] are ''extremely'' [[HairTriggerTemper aggressive]] and [[TheBerserker violent]], attacking anything that comes within their territory or even their very presence, to the point they're considered the most dangerous large mammals in Africa. That said, the pygmy hippopotamus (which is [[SeldomSeenSpecies rarely seen in media]] and rare in real life anyways) is docile for the most part and will only bite when provoked. Meanwhile, the large land mammal usually given in fiction the violent temperament of a common hippo, the [[RhinoRampage rhinoceros]], is actually not as aggressive in real life. The white rhinoceros, the largest of the extant rhinos, is actually a GentleGiant most of the time.

* Depicting anteaters as walking flat on their feet. Anteaters walk on their knuckles with their hands and hindfeet facing sideways, so that their claws would be kept out of the way.

* Referring to opossums and possums as one and the same. "Possum" refers to the Australian marsupials of the Phalangeriformes suborder in the order Diprotodontia, whereas "'''o'''possum" refers to the New World marsupials of the order Didelphimorpha.

* There are a lot of mammals that are mistaken for rodents, including weasels (in Carnivora, closely related to seals and raccoons and more distantly to dogs), rabbits, hares, and pikas (order Lagomorpha, closely related to rodents but their own thing),[[note]]They together form a single superorder Glires[[/note]] and shrews, moles, solenodons, hedgehogs, and moonrats (order Eulipotyphla, only very distantly related to rodents). We should note here that the weasels and Eulipotyphlans are more closely related to each other than the rodents, and the rodents are more closely related to ''humans'' than either of those.[[note]]Glires--the lagomorphs and rodents--form a clade with the Euarchonta--the primates and close relatives. This is partly why rats and mice make such good models for us.[[/note]]

* Mandrills are often confused for baboons, due to their faces being shaped similarly. Mandrills are larger and have colorful faces and stubby tails, unlike baboons.

* Incorrect pupils, often for the sake of RuleOfScary or RuleOfCute. Bigger, predatory mammals like big cats or even wolves might be portrayed with slitted pupils when in reality they have rounded ones. Conversely, some mammals with vertical pupils such as foxes and pandas are almost always drawn with round pupils instead.

* Horns and antlers being considered the same thing. Antlers are bony structures possessed by cervids such as deer and moose which are branched, covered in skin, and are shed when the growth is finished. Horns however end in a point, are covered in keratin, do not shed, and never stop growing.

* There are a lot of mammals are mistaken for rodents, including weasels (in Carnivora, closely related to seals and raccoons and more distantly to dogs), rabbits, hares, and pikas (order Lagomorpha, closely related to rodents but their own thing),[[note]]They together form a single superorder Glires[[/note]] and shrews, moles, solenodons, hedgehogs, and moonrats (order Eulipotyphla, only very distantly related to rodents). We should note here that the weasels and Eulipotyphlans are more closely related to each other than the rodents, and the rodents are more closely related to ''humans'' than either of those.[[note]]Glires--the lagomorphs and rodents--form a clade with the Euarchonta--the primates and close relatives. This is partly why rats and mice make such good models for us.[[/note]]

* [[SluggishSloths Sloths being portrayed as lazy due to how slow they move]]. Their slow movement is because their diet of leaves actually provides very little energy, so they need to conserve energy by moving as little as they can.

* Similar to the above, mammals having an unnatural number of fingers and toes. Most prominent examples are elephants and hippos having only three toes per foot and primates having FourFingeredHands.

** Traditional portrayals of werewolves, most specifically the WolfMan, are often guilty of this as they usually contradict wolf biology ([[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent except when they don't]]). Besides having a taste for human flesh (wolves rarely attack humans let alone eat them) and having razor-sharp claws (wolves have blunt claws which they only use as tools for traction or digging), the association of werewolves with the full moon is partly based on the misconception that wolves howl at the moon. Sometimes werewolves will join a pack of normal wolves without discrimination, despite the fact that wolves are hostile towards outsiders. Some works will even show werewolves ''roaring'', which canines are incapable of. However, mosern works seem to have caught onto this, portraying werewolves as [[WonderfulWerewolf more benevolent, if not friendlier figures]].

** Portrayals of werewolves, most specifically the WolfMan, are often guilty of this as they usually contradict wolf biology ([[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent except when they don't]]). Besides having a taste for human flesh (wolves rarely attack humans let alone eat them) and having razor-sharp claws (wolves have blunt claws which they only use as tools for traction or digging), the association of werewolves with the full moon is partly based on the misconception that wolves howl at the moon. Sometimes werewolves will join a pack of normal wolves without discrimination, despite the fact that wolves are hostile towards outsiders. Some works will even show werewolves ''roaring'', which canines are incapable of.

The categories in this list are organized by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammal_classification molecular classification of placentals]] on TheOtherWiki.

** Portraying wolves (or [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent beings]] [[WolfMan based on them]]) as [[NoWomansLand strictly patriarchal]] when in real wolves females do as much hunting as males and there are even sometimes female pack leaders.

* Perissodactyla (horses, tapiers, and rhinos):

** Any Christmas movie or TV special that shows female reindeer (a.k.a. caribou!) without antlers, or male reindeer retaining their antlers into December, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology fails biology forever]]. Females of the species need antlers to guard their young from predators, whereas males shed theirs after the rutting season, with one exception: males retain antlers in winter if they have a "special operation". Older Christmas specials tend to show extremely [[WhiteTailedReindeer dainty brown deer that don't resemble reindeer at all]]. Likewise, cartoons will sometimes portray the females of non-caribou deer as having antlers. Moose are common victims of this.

[[folder:General Mammal Anatomy and Taxonomy Mistakes]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:General Mammal Behavioral Mistakes]]
* Wolves don't form packs as [[AlphaAndBetaWolves generally conceived by mass media]]. Wolf packs tend to be organized like families from the old country, in which the old patriarch is in charge of all his descendants until the family gets so large and tensions so great that one of the kids decides to take his descendants elsewhere. The lay understanding of canine social behavior is based on findings with wolves tested in highly artificial captivity before scientists understood the influences of environment. The findings have generally not been replicated, indicating that the reported structure was more how a particular group of unrelated wolves dealt with captivity. People generalized the findings to dogs because dogs and wolves are closely related.
* Related, the use of the words [[AlphaAndBetaWolves alpha, beta and omega]] in relation to wolves is considered outdated now, the logic being that these words imply a strict hierarchy where lower ranking wolves constantly vie for dominance, rather than the usually unchallenged family unit that a pack is. Wild wolves do not normally fight over dominance, instead they leave and form their own packs. These words are more suited for wolves in zoos and the like, who being unrelated individuals, have the strict hierarchy and vie for dominance like it was once assumed that all wolves do.
* Works tend to depict stray and feral dogs acting like wolves (or at least their preconception of wolves). This is incorrect as dogs have been bred for thousands of years to ''not'' be wolves. Thus, despite being very closely related, they're very different behaviorally and psychologically. For example, research on feral dogs suggests that dogs don't naturally form packs like wolves do. Dogs also scavenge more than wolves and they don't hunt with the same techniques as wolves. It's been described that hunting dogs look more like they're playing than they're killing, as they slash and bite wherever they can grip (unlike wolves, who are more precise when hunting).
* As AllAnimalsAreDogs mentions, wolves in media tend to act much like dogs. Dogs, however, act like wolf ''pups''. Many behaviors that dogs do are abnormal for adult wolves, including wagging tails and barking (which wolves seldom do).
* No, [[WolvesAlwaysHowlAtTheMoon wolves do not howl at the moon]]. Howling is how wolves communicate with other members of its kind, and they howl just as often during daytime as they do at night.
* Pigs being dirty animals who adore filth and mud. When pigs are left it optimum environments, it's shown that they're clean by animal standards. They roll in mud to keep cool, since they don't sweat like humans do.
* Pigs are commonly thought of as herbivores, when in reality they're omnivores that will eat anything they can so much chew (some crime dramas have caught on to this and feature murderers [[FedToPigs using pigs to get rid of dead bodies]]). They're even prone to cannibalism, contrary to many depictions where they freak out as so much as seeing pork.
* Gorillas being portrayed as [[KillerGorilla violent, aggressive, and predatory]] {{Xenophobic Herbivore}}s. [[GentleGorilla Real-life gorillas]] are actually [[HerbivoresAreFriendly friendly and herbivorous]] {{Gentle Giant}}s preferring to solve problems diplomatically; when faced with a threat, gorillas would use bluff attacks and only use violence as a last resort. Ironically, the "violent, aggressive, and predatory" portrayal is actually more fitting with chimpanzees (which have seriously injured humans, practice warfare, occasionally hunt big game and are known cannibals).

* Anything that portrays spotted hyenas as being dumb and exclusively scavengers. Believe it or not, hyenas are among the most intelligent animals on Earth, far smarter than lions, and have demonstrated complex social structures, problem-solving skills, and a good memory. They're also primarily hunters, killing 75% of their prey, while lions scavenge over 50% of their food. Spotted hyenas prefer to eat their prey alive, mostly due to lions stealing their kills (which, contrary to popular belief, happens more often than the other way around). With that said, some species of hyena are indeed primarily scavengers, namely the brown hyena and the striped hyena. By contrast, the fourth living species of hyena, the aardwolf, is an insectivore and doesn't even feed on carcasses.
* There's the portrayal of the hyena's laugh as actual laughter, or as its main vocalization. In real life, the "laugh" of the spotted hyena is used to express stress or excitement (for example, when hyenas are fighting, or before eating). Spotted hyenas communicate using a wide variety of sounds, including a loud whoop, low-pitched grunts and groans, and a deep moo which is referred to as lowing, but these are rarely acknowledged in media.
* It is often believed that eucalyptus leaves make a koala become inebriated, which is why they spend most of their time sleeping. In reality, koalas sleep because they are conserving their energy since eucalyptus leaves do not provide enough of it.
* Portraying opossums sleeping by hanging from tree branches with their tails alone. While real opossums do use only their tails to stabilize their position, they can only do it for short periods of time because of their body weight.
* Portraying porcupines (and hedgehogs) as violent and aggressive predators who kills people for fun. Real-life porcupines, while notorious for killing their predators once cornered, are generally shy towards humans when not agitated.

* It's commonly claimed that lions are the only truly social cats, even by professional sources such as documentaries. Most male cheetahs (but only rarely females) form coalitions (usually with their brothers but sometimes with unrelated males) that stay together for life to hunt, court females, and defend territories together. House cats may bond socially with other cats in the house, or if feral, form colonies in the wild. Tigers sometimes exhibit borderline social behavior; sharing kills (but not hunting together) and overlapping territories and interacting whenever they come across one another. This is in part due to ScienceMarchesOn, as for a long time domestic cats especially were thought to be solo animals.

* The common portrayal of gorillas [[PrimalChestPound beating their chests]] with clenched fists while letting out a MightyRoar. Gorillas actually pound their chests with open or cupped hands, and they make hooting sounds on the rare occasion they vocalize while doing so.
* Portraying gorillas as arboreal. Young gorillas may frequently climb trees, but adults do not due to their weight.
* AllAnimalsAreDomesticated is often applied to feral dogs and cats (those born in the wild and raised with little-to-no human socialization, not strays). You'll often see characters [[FromStrayToPet adopt feral animals]] without much issue. This only works for young animals. After a certain age, it's near impossible to adopt a feral cat, and even when you do they won't likely ever be as affectionate as a "normal" cat. Dogs are a bit easier to tame, but it's still a challenge.
* All big cats having the ability to roar. Only lions, tigers, jaguars, and leopards can do that, but snow leopards (not true leopards but a different species), and clouded leopards (also not true leopards and belonging to a separate genus ''Neofelis'') cannot; pumas and cheetahs also cannot roar. On a similar note, portraying big cats as being able to purr like small cats.
* Any work that shows a lion pride with more than three adult males or, much worse, fewer females. In reality, a lion pride is essentially a harem; lionesses outnumber the males in a ratio of 3:1, plus a lot of adult males in one pride means a lot of infighting. Additionally, the idea that male lions are poor hunters due to their large manes has been challenged as of late, since young males are kicked out of the pride and have to fend for themselves until they take over a pride. It seems one of the main reasons the male leaves the hunting to the lionesses is that he is saving energy for fighting off intruding males or rival predators such as hyenas.
* Portraying wolves (or [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent beings]] [[WolfMan based on them]]) as [[NoWomansLand strictly patriarchal]] when in real wolves females do as much hunting as males and there are even sometimes female pack leaders.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Other Mistakes Concerning Mammals]]

* Domestic cats being descended from (or at least closely related to) big cats such as lions or tigers. In reality, domestic cats are descended from much smaller, and obscure, wildcats.

* Many a work has depicted ferrets as being wild animals; even a few places where ferrets are illegal (particularly because under the belief that they are "wild animals that will wreck the environment if they get loose") have made this mistake, much to ferret owners' dismay. Ferrets, the pet animal, are a domesticated animal--specifically, domesticated European Polecats (a kind of weasel)--which have been domesticated at least since Ancient Egypt, [[APetIntoTheWild which some ferret owners unfortunately forget when they "release" them into the wild]] if they get tired of the ferret, leading to a lot of dead ferrets. It may be mix-up with the wild [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-footed_ferret black-footed ferret]], but the latter are highly endangered and generally live only where prairie dogs have a large population. Domesticated ferrets come from European stock, while Black-footed ferrets are uniquely American.

* There's a myth that horses can't sleep lying down or they'll die. This often results in media always showing horses standing up while sleeping. Horses can, and do, sleep lying down. They can't reach REM sleep standing up.
* "Wild" horses being portrayed as actually wild animals. Mustangs and brumby are actually feral animals that are descended from horses who got loose or were abandoned. Przewalski's horses are the only truly wild horse species that still exist.
* The idea that bulls [[BullSeeingRed are enraged by seeing red]]. In reality, it is actually motion (i.e. the waving of a matador's cape) that provokes a bull into charging. Cattle actually cannot see the color red, although they're not completely colorblind as popularly assumed.
* Portrayals of werewolves, most specifically the WolfMan, are often guilty of this as they usually contradict wolf biology ([[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent except when they don't]]). Besides having a taste for human flesh (wolves rarely attack humans let alone eat them) and having razor-sharp claws (wolves have blunt claws which they only use as tools for traction or digging), the association of werewolves with the full moon is partly based on the misconception that wolves howl at the moon. Sometimes werewolves will join a pack of normal wolves without discrimination, despite the fact that wolves are hostile towards outsiders. Some works will even show werewolves ''roaring'', which canines are incapable of.
* The common association of weasels with [[DirtyCoward cowardice]] in older stories is very odd, since weasels are actually fearless predators preying on animals larger than themselves and taking them down alone. Modern {{weasel|Mascot}}s, as well as those weasels used in BasiliskAndCockatrice legends, tend to avoid the "cowardice" association however (though the former also acts similar to a typical EvilDetectingDog, sometimes).
* Portraying the orca as a lesser predator than the great white shark. In real life, orcas are bigger and stronger than great white sharks and the only predator (besides humans and other great whites) that preys on them, with every account of an orca attack on the shark resulting in the entire shark population evacuating the area, including feeding grounds. Even a large great white knows better than to attack an orca, which have a method of killing sharks by flipping them upside-down and hold onto them until they drown.
* Portraying tigers as inferior to lions. Tigers are the ''biggest'' cats alive today, and one is more than capable of defeating a male lion in a one-on-one fight.

[[folder:General Taxonomy Mistakes Concerning Mammals]]
* One of the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} examples is mistaking cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) for fish.
* There's also those who insist that orcas, or killer whales, are just whales and not dolphins as well. Orcas are dolphins, which are toothed whales, so people are right about them being whales, but wrong about them not being dolphins. (Or those who insist that killer whales are not whales, but dolphins).
* Confusing porpoises with dolphins. Dolphins have conical teeth and curved dorsal fins, whereas porpoises have spade-shaped teeth and triangular dorsal fins. Also, porpoises have shorter mouths than most dolphins.
* Many people mistake kinkajous for primates. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkajou Kinkajous]] are not primates (although they were originally considered such), but a member of the raccoon family within the order Carnivora. There are also a lot of mammals are mistaken for rodents, including weasels (in Carnivora, closely related to seals and raccoons and more distantly to dogs), rabbits, hares, and pikas (order Lagomorpha, closely related to rodents but their own thing),[[note]]They together form a single superorder Glires[[/note]] and shrews, moles, solenodons, hedgehogs, and moonrats (order Eulipotyphla, only very distantly related to rodents). We should note here that the weasels and Eulipotyphlans are more closely related to each other than the rodents, and the rodents are more closely related to ''humans'' than either of those.[[note]]Glires--the lagomorphs and rodents--form a clade with the Euarchonta--the primates and close relatives. This is partly why rats and mice make such good models for us.[[/note]]
* Speaking of primates, a common trend in fiction is for a character to call a chimpanzee, gorilla, or orangutan a “monkey”, upon which another character, typically a scientist, will vehemently insist that they are “not monkeys, but apes”, and even some documentaries lean into this mindset. Given how omnipresent it is in media, you would be led to believe that monkeys and apes are completely separate groups of primates but in reality, the distinction is far more pedantic, if not entirely misleading. To elaborate, the simians (all the primates closer to humans than to lemurs and other “lower primates”) are separated into two subgroups; Catarrhini (Old World simians) and Platyrrhini (New World simains), and apes are part of the former, meaning all the other Old World simians like baboons, macaques, langurs, colobuses and so on, which are always referred to as “monkeys”, are in fact more closely related to the apes than to the “New World monkeys” like spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, marmosets, and howler monkeys. In other words, there is no true monkey/ape dichotomy in terms of phylogeny, so saying that "apes aren’t monkeys" is akin to saying that "humans aren’t apes". The persistence of this trope is likely a result of the HumansAreSpecial mindset being extended to our closest relatives.
* Elephants being referred to as pachyderms. Pachydermata was a taxonomic group that included not just elephants but also rhinos and hippos, since these three animals have thick skin (hence the group's name meaning). But thanks to anatomical and ancestral differences, we now know elephants, rhinos, and hippos are from separate mammal groups, with rhinos being more closely related to horses, hippos to whales, and elephants to manatees.
* Referring to opossums and possums as one and the same. "Possum" refers to the Australian marsupials of the Phalangeriformes suborder in the order Diprotodontia, whereas "'''o'''possum" refers to the New World marsupials of the order Didelphimorpha.
* Hyenas are often referred to as dogs and/or drawn as resembling a dog. Despite their canine resemblance, hyenas are actually more closely related to mongoose which in turn are more closely related to ''cats''.
* Zebras as [[ZebrasAreJustStripedHorses essentially being striped horses]]. Despite their close relationship, they are not identical animals. Zebras in fiction often sound like horses; however, real zebras sound completely different. They will also have horse-like tails, despite real zebras having longer tails. It’s also worth mentioning that zebras are more closely related to asses than to horses.
* Black panthers being treated as a species. "Black panther" refers to a melanistic or black-furred variant of any species of big cat (though it's usually associated with jaguars and leopards). Don't forget that lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards, and snow leopards are ''all'' panthers, since they belong to the genus ''Panthera''.
* Wolves as a separate species from domestic dogs. Some examples are due to ScienceMarchesOn, but dogs are considered a sub-species of wolf. Some workers regarded them as separate species well into the 2000s, but [[https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/some-of-the-things-i-have-gotten-wrong/ this view has largely fallen by the wayside]].
* "Rabbit" and "hare" being interchangeable terms. While they belong in the same family (Leporidae), rabbits and hares are two different lagomorphs. Hares are larger than rabbits, and they also have longer ears and hindlegs. Unlike rabbits which retain the same fur color all year long, hares change their fur color from brown to white during the winter.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:General Mammal Anatomy Mistakes]]
* People draw male kangaroos with pouches. The only extant (still existing) marsupial with both sexes having a pouch is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yapok yapok]], a semi-aquatic opossum native to South America. The Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger, exhibited this trait too, but it is now extinct.
* Rabbits and hares are often drawn with paw pads, which they don't have in RealLife. Instead they have thick fur which protects the bottom of their paws. Similarly, rabbits and hares also have fur covering the outer parts of their noses, in stark contrast to the hairless dog- or cat-like noses seen in most cartoons. They are also often portrayed as bipeds, when real rabbits and hares are quadrupeds, although they do rear up on their hind legs.
* Another example includes elephants drinking with their trunks instead of sucking up the liquid with their trunks and then squirting it into their mouths, like real elephants. Plus, they will usually be resembling Indian elephants in cartoons, even when set in Africa.

* As pointed out on ''Series/{{QI}}'', dogs don't do it Doggy Style: due to the coupling knot, they should be depicted tail-to-tail facing away from each other during climax.
* AllDogsArePurebred applying to feral dogs. This isn't exactly ''impossible'' but is most prevalent in areas where street dogs aren't commonplace. In places where they are, within a few generations most dogs turn into generic mongrels. These mongrels are usually small or medium-sized dogs with erect ears, and they usually come in shades of brown or tan (though this depends on the area and the types of dogs that are popular there).
* Many UsefulNotes/FurryFandom artists who draw cats draw them with torsos that taper toward the hind legs like dog torsos. Cheetahs may have torsos that look a bit like that, but other cats have more or less parallel torsos.

* Any Christmas movie or TV special that shows female reindeer (a.k.a. caribou!) without antlers, or male reindeer retaining their antlers into December, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology fails biology forever]]. Females of the species need antlers to guard their young from predators, whereas males shed theirs after the rutting season, with one exception: males retain antlers in winter if they have a "special operation". Older Christmas specials tend to show extremely [[WhiteTailedReindeer dainty brown deer that don't resemble reindeer at all]].
** On a similar, cartoons will sometimes portray the females of non-caribou deer as having antlers. Moose are common victims of this.
* In almost all Christmas-related art or movies, at least for the animated ones, [[WhiteTailedReindeer the reindeer tend to resemble Whitetail deer or Blackbuck antelope rather than actual Reindeer]], being far too small and delicately built.

* Rats are often depicted in animation as having a mouthful of shark-like teeth. A real rat has four flat incisors in the front of their mouth, molars in the back, and nothing between. They certainly don't have pointed canines (or any canines at all).
* Cartoons and other works often depict characters entering a whale's mouth and gut, then emerging through the blowhole in a spray of water. Cetaceans' digestive and respiratory tracts are entirely separate, and they expel exhaled air and only a small amount of water from the latter.
** Whale blowholes are invariably drawn as a single circular hole. Toothed whales have blowholes like this, but baleen whales have two blowholes resembling nostrils. Sperm whales also have blowholes analogous to a left nostril, instead of on the top of the head like how they are always drawn in cartoons.
* Anteaters in cartoons are sometimes depicted with [[AardvarkTrunks flexible snouts]] like an elephant's trunk. Real anteaters' snouts are bony, unlike the boneless, muscle-filled trunk of an elephant, and thus cannot flex their snout around like elephants. Not to mention they are sometimes portrayed having their mouths at the base of the snout rather than at the tip.
* Conversely, though usually only in poor-quality animation, occasionally elephants are seen with their mouths in the tips of their trunks, like anteaters.
* Elephants and camels do not have "four knees". They have the same limb joints -- shoulder, elbow and wrist in front; hip, knee and ankle in back -- as with every other mammal. They merely have thick callouses on the anterior sides of their wrists, which ''look'' something like their actual knees' surfaces.
* Big cats such as lions and tigers are often drawn with slitted pupils not unlike those of domestic cats, even though in real life big cats have round pupils.
* Some mammals with vertical pupils such as foxes and pandas are almost always drawn with round pupils instead.
* Generally in Western animation, such as ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'', skunk spray is depicted as gaseous rather than fluid and coming from the tail when actually coming from anal glands.
* Many cartoon chipmunks, namely [[WesternAnimation/ChipAndDale Chip and Dale]], are usually drawn with short tails similar to a deer's. Real chipmunks have longer tails resembling that of a squirrel's, only thinner.
* Porcupines [[SpikeShooter shooting their quills as projectiles]], despite the quills being basically modified ''hair''. North American porcupines [[BewareMyStingerTail swing their tails at their enemies so their easily detachable quills dislodge in their faces]], while Old World porcupines ram backwards at their enemies.

* Rodents are usually drawn with white incisors, despite the fact that some, such as beavers and porcupines, have orange or yellow incisors.
* Koalas in media are usually portrayed with only one thumb on each paw, despite real koalas having two thumbs. Although this may be because a two-thumbed hand is considered too [[RealityIsUnrealistic unrealistic]] and freaky.
* Cartoons tend to flub the wings of bats, namely the number of fingers. Real bats have hands that eerily resemble those of a human's, with 4 long fingers that support the wing membrane and a small thumb used for walking and climbing.

* Jaguars in cartoons often lack the dots in the center of their rosettes which distinguishes them from leopards, possibly because of confusion between the two big cats. Both jaguars and leopards will also sometimes have solid spots like cheetahs.
* Cheetahs are often depicted lacking the distinctive stripes on their tails and sides of their muzzles.
* Many cartoon chimpanzees and gorillas are portrayed with brown fur. Brown chimpanzees and ginger ones do exist but they are typically black, likewise gorillas are covered in black fur in real life (although western gorillas do have brownish/reddish foreheads).

* Long tails of monkeys are invariably portrayed as prehensile, even if the work is set in Africa or Asia. In real life, prehensile tails are a trait exclusive to New World monkeys. Also, most monkeys have legs longer than their arms, unlike many cartoons which show them having longer arms than legs.
* Due to their stubby looking legs, Dachshunds and Corgis are presented as slow dogs who can barely walk, nevermind run. While modern Dachshunds aren't quite as active as they originally were (and are more prone to back issues), both breeds were bred to work (as ratters and herders respectively) and are thus fleet-footed.
* Portraying female elephants as tuskless. While this is true for Asian elephants, female African elephants possess tusks like the males do. And even then tusks are present in some female Asian elephants, but these are very small and unnoticeable at first glance.
* Cows are often depicted as being able to [[ConstantlyLactatingCow give milk anytime]], regardless of whether they've recently had offspring.
* Mandrills are often confused for baboons, due to their faces being shaped similarly. But mandrills have colorful faces and stubby tails, unlike baboons.
* There's a myth that horses can't sleep lying down or they'll die. This often results in media always showing horses standing up while sleeping. Horses can, and do, sleep lying down. They can't reach REM sleep standing up.
* Giraffes being depicted with longer and more flexible necks than in real life. They will also be drawn with pink tongues, even though real giraffes and okapis have black tongues.
* Gazelles invariably having large horns. In most species, female gazelles have shorter horns than the males. Works also tend to forget that in some species of antelopes such as impalas and kudus, females lack horns altogether.
* Hippos in cartoons almost never have the right teeth, usually having square-shaped canines and lacking the lower incisors. Hippo teeth are also hidden inside the mouth, rather than sticking out (although the lower canines will sometimes protrude out if long enough).
* Bats being bipedal and taking off by jumping, instead of quadrupedal and vaulting with their wings.
* Male orangutans are sometimes drawn without flanges or cheek pads, making them resemble female orangutans.
* Sperm whales with toothy, cavernous jaws. Real-life sperm whales have thin jaws, with teeth only present on the lower jaw (at least on modern sperm whales, prehistoric sperm whales such as ''Livyatan'' have upper teeth as well).

* Portraying tree squirrels as hibernating through the winter. This may be because they are rarely seen in cold temperatures, but in reality they're huddling inside their dens to keep warm while not actually hibernating. Besides, why would they bury nuts for the winter if they're going to sleep until spring when their food will sprout?

* Cartoons usually portray [[HuggyHuggyHippos the common hippopotamus as a cute, friendly, lovable, and contented animal]]. In reality, [[AngryAngryHippos hippos]] are ''extremely'' [[HairTriggerTemper aggressive]] and [[TheBerserker violent]], attacking anything that comes within their territory or even their very presence, to the point they're considered the most dangerous large mammals in Africa. That said, the pygmy hippopotamus (which is [[SeldomSeenSpecies rarely seen in media]] and rare in real life anyways) is docile for the most part and will only bite when provoked. Meanwhile, the large land mammal usually given in fiction the violent temperament of a common hippo, the [[RhinoRampage rhinoceros]], is actually not as aggressive in real life. The white rhinoceros, the largest of the extant rhinos, is actually a GentleGiant most of the time.
* Hippos are also almost always portrayed swimming. Despite being semi-aquatic, hippos actually cannot swim and walk underwater instead, since they sink to the bottom.
* Hippos are commonly thought to eat water plants despite being grazers. Media also tends to forget that hippos are cathemeral and do their grazing at night.

* In media, mice are [[NiceMice heroic and kind]] while rats are [[YouDirtyRat sketchy and mean (or dirty and gross)]]. In the case of pets at least, the opposite is true, not counting their related subspecies. Pet mice in general are harder to handle and less affectionate than pet rats.
** Although the rats living in sewers tend to be gross and disease-ridden, and they'd kill mice if given the chance or the food are scarce. Rats who have socialized with mice, however, don't have such aggression.

* Depicting anteaters as walking flat on their feet. Anteaters walk on their knuckles with their hands and hindfeet facing sideways, so that their claws would be kept out of the way.

* Portraying or describing vampire bats as bloodsucking. Vampire bats actually make small, harmless incisions on a victim and then lick up the blood.

* Any large cetacean being accompanied with the "song" of humpback whales unless if it actually is a humpback. Especially jarring when orcas are shown making these noises, despite being literally giant dolphins (they squeak, click or whistle).
* Kangaroos and other macropods being depicted as hopping all the time. In reality, they mostly walk on all fours while using their tail as a fifth leg, known as pentapedal locomotion. In the case of the extinct giant kangaroos, they may not have hopped at all and were bipedal instead.
* Lemmings are almost always depicted as [[SuicidalLemmings killing themselves]]. While lemmings in real life do jump off cliffs, this is done for the purpose of migration rather than suicide.
* Forgetting only baleen whales eat krill and plankton. Their baleens are specialized for sifting through water for small animals. If the whale has teeth, it's built for gripping flesh and eating larger animals. Sperm whales are often victims of this error, despite being famed for preying on {{giant squid}}s.

* Christmas works never show caribou with the correct type of harness for pulling a sleigh. A proper harness places the burden on an animal's shoulders and flanks; in holiday art, they're usually shown dragging Santa along by leads tied to their ''necks'', which would strangle them.
* Many a work has depicted ferrets as being wild animals; even a few places where ferrets are illegal (particularly because under the belief that they are "wild animals that will wreck the environment if they get loose") have made this mistake, much to ferret owners' dismay. Ferrets, the pet animal, are a domesticated animal--specifically, domesticated European Polecats (a kind of weasel)--which have been domesticated at least since Ancient Egypt, [[APetIntoTheWild which some ferret owners unfortunately forget when they "release" them into the wild]] if they get tired of the ferret, leading to a lot of dead ferrets. It may be mix-up with the wild [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-footed_ferret black-footed ferret]], but the latter are highly endangered and generally live only where prairie dogs have a large population. Domesticated ferrets come from European stock, while Black-footed ferrets are uniquely American.
* Domestic cats being descended from (or at least closely related to) big cats such as lions or tigers. In reality, domestic cats are descended from much smaller, and obscure, wildcats.

** Despite fiction and popular belief, a "bunny" is not a young rabbit. A young rabbit is a "kitten" or "kit". "Bunny" is an informal term for a cute, often small, rabbit which in turn has turned into the informal term for a baby rabbit.
* "Wild" horses being portrayed as actually wild animals. Mustangs and brumby are actually feral animals that are descended from horses who got loose or were abandoned. Przewalski's horses are the only truly wild horse species that still exist.

* The idea that bulls [[BullSeeingRed are enraged by seeing red]]. In reality, it is actually motion (i.e. the waving of a matador's cape) that provokes a bull into charging. Cattle actually cannot see the color red, although they're not completely colorblind as popularly assumed.
* Portrayals of werewolves, most specifically the WolfMan, are often guilty of this as they usually contradict wolf biology ([[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent except when they don't]]). Besides having a taste for human flesh (wolves rarely attack humans let alone eat them) and having razor-sharp claws (wolves have blunt claws which they only use as tools for traction or digging), the association of werewolves with the full moon is partly based on the misconception that wolves howl at the moon. Sometimes werewolves will join a pack of normal wolves without discrimination, despite the fact that wolves are hostile towards outsiders. Some works will even show werewolves ''roaring'', which canines are incapable of.
* The common association of weasels with [[DirtyCoward cowardice]] in older stories is very odd, since weasels are actually fearless predators preying on animals larger than themselves and taking them down alone. Modern {{weasel|Mascot}}s, as well as those weasels used in BasiliskAndCockatrice legends, tend to avoid the "cowardice" association however (though the former also acts similar to a typical EvilDetectingDog, sometimes).
* Saying that platypi are the only mammals that lay eggs, forgetting about the platypus's close relative the echidna.
* Portraying the orca as a lesser predator than the great white shark. In real life, orcas are bigger and stronger than great white sharks and the only predator (besides humans and other great whites) that preys on them, with every account of an orca attack on the shark resulting in the entire shark population evacuating the area, including feeding grounds. Even a large great white knows better than to attack an orca, which have a method of killing sharks by flipping them upside-down and hold onto them until they drown.
* Portraying hippos as fearful of crocodiles. In reality, it's the other way around; crocs typically avoid hippos, which are capable of biting crocs in half.
* Whoever came up with the phrase "blind as a bat" really didn't know anything about bat biology, since most bats have good eyesight.
* Portraying tigers as inferior to lions. Tigers are the ''biggest'' cats alive today, and one is more than capable of defeating a male lion in a one-on-one fight.

* Gorillas being portrayed as [[KillerGorilla violent, aggressive, and predatory]] {{Xenophobic Herbivore}}s. Real-life gorillas are actually [[HerbivoresAreFriendly friendly and herbivorous]] {{Gentle Giant}}s preferring to solve problems diplomatically; when faced with a threat, gorillas would use bluff attacks and only use violence as a last resort. Ironically, the "violent, aggressive, and predatory" portrayal is actually more fitting with chimpanzees (which have seriously injured humans, practice warfare, occasionally hunt big game and are known cannibals).