History Main / AnimalMetaphor

* There's a ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'' episode where Cory wants to get back together with Topanga. He follows her to Walt Disney World to win her back. There he talks to a dophin who is sad because it has lost its mate. He tells it that he believes Toganga is his mate.

* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'':
** The episode "You Can Go Home Again" contains an extended FlashBack to the day of Frasier's first radio show, during the course of which Niles describes his relationship with Maris by saying, "Like the Arctic puffin, we mate for life." It's doubly symbolic given Maris' constant association with coldness and ice throughout the series.
** {{Invoked}} and parodied in another episode when Eddie gets depressed. A pet psychiatrist claims that his depression is probably being caused by the behaviour of one of the humans he sees regularly, and encourages Martin, Niles, Frasier and Daphne to act cheerful around him. Roz joins the others and they attempt to analyze themselves to discover the root of the problem. They discover that they're all in some way depressed, but then Eddie finds his favourite toy and cheers up. They joke about how they were following his lead, but their problems can't be solved by a cheap treat, only to perk up when Daphne's cookies finish baking.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' (and by extension ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'') has quite a lot, with wolves generally representing the heroic Starks, Lions for the Lannisters, and Stags for the Baratheons. In the very first episode, the Starks find a dire wolf that [[MutualKill died killing a stag]] to provide for its children. Given that the first season is entirely based around the Stark and Baratheon households accidentally destroying each other and themselves, the symbolism can be seen as a bit heavy-handed.
* ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' plays with metaphors referencing Oswald Cobblepot's nickname, "Penguin", by having Oswald betray a "Fish" Mooney, and by killing a poor fisherman over a sandwich.

* The video for the song "Say You Don't Want It" by For One Night Only uses the relationship between a stray and a rich woman's pampered lapdog to symbolise the relationship between the streetwise, cocky lead singer and his sheltered, better-off girlfriend (played by Creator/EmmaWatson). If the dogs' relationship is anything to go by, [[spoiler: their romance won't work out...]]

* Angus Stone's song "Bird on a Buffalo" uses the titular animals' symbiotic relationship to represent unconditional love between two people.

* The {{fandom}} for ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBus'' treats D.A. and Carlos as its {{fanon}} OfficialCouple in any {{Continuation Fic}}s that get written. The fandom cites copious evidence in {{canon}} for the ship, as can be seen [[http://melon-moon17.livejournal.com/3392.html here]], and one of the most common reasons cited is that in the episode "In the City" Carlos and D.A. were the only members of the class to be turned into [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_falcon Peregrine Falcons]], which Website/TheOtherWiki says [[{{WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic}} mate for life]]. There's even a fanfic called ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4882817/1/Peregrine_Falcons_Mate_For_Life Peregrine Falcons Mate for Life]]''.

* This is mentioned in the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' episode "Bye Bye, Butterfree" when Brock claims that a relationship between two Butterfree equals a relationship between their trainers. Several Ash/Dawn shippers say the same in later seasons, even though Dawn doesn't have a Butterfree.

* On ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', Finn point out to Ice King that swans mate for life and shows him an elderly swan couple. One of the swans then [[SwallowedWhole swallows the other whole]].

* ''LightNovel/{{Toradora}}'' is something of a {{Portmanteau}} for the animals both leads have AnimalMotifs of: Taiga as the Tiger ("'''Tora'''"), and Ryuuji as the Dragon ("'''Dora'''gon"). They were aware of this early in the series.

* The {{fandom}} for ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBus'' treats D.A. and Carlos as its {{fanon}} OfficialCouple in any {{Continuation Fic}}s that get written. The fandom cites copious evidence in {{canon}} for the ship, as can be seen [[http://melon-moon17.livejournal.com/3392.html here]], and one of the most common reasons cited is that in the episode "In the City" Carlos and D.A. were the only members of the class to be turned into [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_falcon Peregrine Falcons]], which Wiki/TheOtherWiki says [[{{WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic}} mate for life]]. There's even a fanfic called ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4882817/1/Peregrine_Falcons_Mate_For_Life Peregrine Falcons Mate for Life]]''.

** A small, featureless picture of a white lamb is a recurring image in the video.

* In ''Jason's Lyric'', when the titular characters travel to the bayou, two swans are seen on the lake nearby. Not long after the close up of the two swans, Jason and Lyric start kissing followed by making passionate love. Swan is widely known as a symbol of love that it represents the couple who have just found love in each other.

* In ''Jason's Lyric'', when the title's characters travel to the bayou, two swans are seen on the lake nearby. Not long after the close up of the two swans, Jason and Lyric start kissing followed by making passionate love. Swan is widely known as a symbol of love that it represents the couple who have just found love in each other.

* In ''Jason's Lyric'', when the title's characters travel to the bayou, two swans are seen on the lake nearby. Swan famously symbolizes love and not long after the close up of the two swans, Jason and Lyric start kissing followed by making passionate love.

* In ''Jason's Lyric'', when the Jason and Lyric travel to the bayou, two swans are seen on the lake nearby. Swan famously symbolizes OneTrueLove and not long after the close up of the two swans, Jason and Lyric start kissing followed by making passionate love.

* In ''Manga/KodomoNoOmocha'', "natural enemies" Sana and Akito are represented as a mongoose and cobra, respectively.