History Main / AnimalNemesis

* In ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', Colonel Packard becomes obsessed with hunting down the titular ape after Kong annihilates most of his helicopter squadron. His single-minded obsession endangers the lives of the surviving members of the expedition, most of whom just want to get off the damn island, and ultimately [[spoiler:gets Packard killed without causing any lasting harm to Kong]].

* Buck and Rudy in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge3DawnOfTheDinosaurs''. Their feud starts after Rudy scratches out Buck's eye and Buck knocks out Rudy's tooth. Of course, the "human" in this case is a TalkingAnimal while the "animal" is a SuperPersistentPredator, but that is CarnivoreConfusion for you.

* ''Literature/BretKingMysteries'': ''The Secret of Hermit Peak'' features the mountain lion Old Stubfoot (whose name comes from losing two toes in a trap). Stubfoot is notorious for killing livestock (including Rusty King's new colt). Bret and the others are trying to hunt down the nimble and crafty mountain lion down when they stumble into a mystery involving human villains.

* ''Videogame/{{Manhunter}}'' is centered around the conflict between the titular shark that serves as the protagonist and the sharkhunter Scaly Pete after Pete scarred the shark as a pup, who then proceeded to bite off his arm. As the game progresses the conflict escalates as Pete's efforts leads to him [[spoiler:losing his leg and his son]], becoming more and more obsessed with hunting for vengeance.

'''Homer:''' Lisa, the point of ''Moby-Dick'' [[ComicallyMissingThePoint is to be yourself]].

* Parodied in ''Literature/{{Railsea}}'' by Creator/ChinaMieville, in which Captain Naphi is perpetually hunting Mocker-Jack, the blonde giant mole that took her arm. In the community Naphi comes from, '''every''' real hunter is required to have an Animal Nemesis, and it turns out that [[ObfuscatingDisability she didn't actually lose the arm]].

* ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'' and ''Film/ConanTheDestroyer'' had the camel. Whenever they met, the camel would spit on Conan, Conan would knock out the camel, or both.

* Spirit and the Colonel in ''WesternAnimationSpiritStallionOfTheCimarron''. The Colonel tries to break Spirit when the horse is captured and later purifies him until Spirit makes a dramatic canyon jump and the Colonel gives a subtle WorthyOpponent acknowledgment and gives up the chase.

* The Colonel in ''Film/WarForThePlanetOfTheApes'' is obssssed with taking down Caesar, the ape leader. Caesar is ultimately captured trying to save his son, but the other apes help free him. The Colonel was afraid for humanity’s future and the virus that was leaving people mute, but he ends up infected himself and commits suicide.

* Spirit and the Colonel in ''Film/SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron''. The Colonel tries to break Spirit when the horse is captured and later purifies him until Spirit makes a dramatic canyon jump and the Colonel gives a subtle WorthyOpponent acknowledgment and gives up the chase.

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[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/ThePunisher https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_103123c1ac03e935d54ccf2692deb85b3.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:One must stand strong, even in the face of an over-whale-ming adversity.]]

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* Grandpa Gohei and Akakabuto, the bear who took his left ear and killed his hunting dogs in ''Manga/GingaNagareboshiGin''.

* Tick Tock the crocodile is this for Captain Hook in ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', as he ate the captain's hand. He's also an interesting example, as while the ending shows he's more than willing to take a bite out of Hook if the opportunity presents itself, the croc for his part isn't all that fussed about getting at Hook, and is content to simply mess with him. Contrast this with the Croc from the original novel, which was hell-bent on finishing the meal it started years ago.
* Buck and Rudy in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge3DawnOfTheDinosaurs''. Their feud starts after Rudy scratches out Buck's eye and Buck knocks out Rudy's tooth. Of course, the "human" in this case is a TalkingAnimal while the "animal" is a SuperPersistentPredator, but that is CarnivoreConfusion for you.

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Jungle Book|1967}}''; BigBad Shere Khan (a tiger) actually wants to kill Mowgli just for being a human.

* Steve and the shark that ate his partner from ''Film/TheLifeAquaticWithSteveZissou''. He eventually overcomes his need for vengeance and is satisfied just to see it again.

* Jake Cullen (played by Bill Kerr) in the movie ''Film/{{Razorback}}'' hunts and kills razorback boars because a particularly big one killed his grandson.
* ''Film/{{Jaws}}'': Quint, at least, wants revenge against the shark. The others are more motivated by "we need to kill it because it keeps eating people".
** This became the go-to plot for many 70's killer animals flicks, such as ''Film/{{Grizzly}}'' and ''Film/OrcaTheKillerWhale''.

* In ''Film/OfUnknownOrigin'', a New Yorker becomes so obsessed with eliminating the pesky rat infesting his apartment that he eventually trashes his own place in frantic pursuit of it.
* Invoked in ''Film/SoulSurfer'' when the shark is shown harpooned and dangling as a trophy. Apparently, Bethany Hamilton's surfing buddies think that when you mess with one of their own, ItsPersonal.

* Ahab was referenced in the movie ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', when Captain Picard brutally guns down several Borg in the holodeck and refuses demands to self-destruct the Enterprise in lieu of stopping the mechanical menaces personally, all because of the violations he suffered when they assimilated him and his anger over Starfleet's inability to halt their encroaching on Federation space. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] when the 21st-century woman referencing the book admitted that she hadn't actually read it and only remembered the idiom that went with it. Soon after the release of that movie, Patrick Stewart played Ahab in a made-for-TV movie of Moby Dick, mainly because he was so good at a referenced state of mind that they decided he would be good for the real thing.
* Patterson becomes obsessed with taking down the two lions in ''Film/TheGhostAndTheDarkness''. The film was loosely based on the Tsavo Maneaters (see RealLife below).
* The first film in the ''Film/{{Anaconda}}'' franchise features Creator/JonVoight as an animal poacher seeking to capture a particularly large specimen of the eponymous snake. Said snake was partly responsible for the death of partner.

* OlderThanRadio: One of the best known examples is the deadly rivalry between Captain Ahab and Literature/MobyDick. The relationship has been subject to much parody. Ahab himself [[LampshadeHanging hung a lampshade]] on this trope in the original novel -- he essentially said that if he could not hunt down the abstract fates that ultimately cost him his leg, the eponymous whale -- the ''instrument'' of fate -- [[ClosestThingWeGot would be the next best thing]]. The book itself deconstructs this, as its unlikely that the whale even recognized Ahab, much less understood why the loudmouth human was hunting him.

* This was Prince Rilian's undoing in ''[[Literature/{{Narnia}} The Silver Chair]]''. Yeah, the snake that killed his mother was [[spoiler:really a ScaledUp mind-controlling witch and thus perfectly capable of forming intent]], but he had no way of ''knowing'' that.
* Invoked in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novel ''[[Literature/IronWarriors Storm of Iron]]'': an Iron Warrior captain imagines that he is hunting a legendary beast while trying to kill a Warhound Titan (Warhounds are the smallest of the [[HumongousMecha Titans]], with a focus on infantry/armour support role rather than a "level cities" role).

* In ''LightNovel/LordElMelloiIICaseFiles'', Waver develops a vendetta against a stray cat that invades his office and bit his shoes... his most favorite shoes that he bought with his first teaching paycheck! He stays up all night researching {{curse}}s to get back at the cat... and then the cat gets injured by a car, and he changes his tune and [[PetTheDog takes care of the cat]] instead.

* In the TV series ''The New Adventures of Literature/HuckleberryFinn'', Tom, Huck and Becky are lost at sea when they encounter Captain Mordecai, a whaler with a mission to kill a [[NighInvulnerability monstrous unkillable whale]]. His countless failures have driven him mad as a result. All are later [[SwallowedWhole swallowed by the whale]]. The captain holding the trio [[NeverMyFault responsible for his latest failure]], pursues them [[FantasticVoyagePlot through the vast, strange and weirdly colored innards]] of the gigantic mammal. The children manage to escape through the whale's blowhole, but Captain Mordecai is seemingly trapped inside his eternal nemesis for the rest of his life.

* Gordy and the WeaselMascot of ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide''. In the GrandFinale, [[spoiler:he (with the help of the other teachers) finally catches it after tearing down half the school. Then it turns out to have had babies, so they adopt it as a mascot]].
* Sawyer in ''Series/{{Lost}}'' has managed to do this on two separate occasions. Once chasing after a boar who ransacked his tent and then chasing after a treefrog which annoyed him with its croaking. [[spoiler: He eventually caught up with both of them with help from Kate and Hurley respectively. He decided to let the boar go as it was "just an animal" but then rejected Hurley's offer to relocate the frog and simply [[KickTheDog crushed it in his hand]]]].

* A BottleEpisode of ''Series/BreakingBad'' has Walter White acting bizarrely [[FlyCrazy obsessed with killing a fly]] that's somehow entered his laboratory. It's both a microcosm of his obsessive personality and a sublimation of his feelings of guilt and frustration regarding Jesse.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' has a sidequest revolving around a clan named House Bowen, whose leader seeks revenge on a gigantic cockatrice for killing his wife.

* ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' features an old fisherman named Drachma who chases the giant flying whale Rhaknam for [[spoiler:killing his son decades ago]]. Like the rest of the game, it's an old tale/genre/mentality (obviously ''Literature/MobyDick'' in this case) [[RecycledINSPACE Recycled In]] [[WorldInTheSky Air]].
* In ''VideoGame/TheSimsMedieval'', your hero can be given the "Whale Ate My Parents" trait, which, er, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin speaks for itself.]] The result is that they will become obsessed with whales to the point of occasionally getting a "Whale Rage" buff.
* In ''VideoGame/RuneScape'', players can meet a whaler named Hubbub, whose ship was destroyed and crew killed as he tried to kill the blind white whale named Shuma, in revenge for her destruction of human villages in the Eastern Lands, including his own.

* In Chapter 5 of ''VideoGame/BugFables'', Kabbu leads his team on a revenge-driven quest to slay the Beast, a giant [[CreepyCentipedes centipede]] that killed his mentor and his best friend. It should be noted that, normally, Kabbu is an IdealHero who serves as TheHeart to the team, and when he [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness became obsessed with killing the beast]], his teammates are understandably worried. Also worth mentioning that, while every character in the game is a bug, the main characters are sentient bugs, and the beast is an animalistic "lesser bug", though it [[ItCanThink does show sadistic tendencies]] while preying on Kabbu and his friends.

* Belkar of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' has a grudge against Windstriker, [[KnightTemplar Miko's]] horse. Said horse is one of the characters he asked the Oracle if he'd wind up killing, and he is quite disappointed when he discovers that [[spoiler:Miko has died, leaving Windstriker in the Outer Planes]], meaning he'll never be able to kill Windstriker.
* ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'' parodies this with the [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology birdosaurus]], a dinosaur that follows the doctor around and performs minor actions with more serious consequences (e.g. stepping on the stone that sets off all the traps while the doctor is standing in the trapped area), which he has developed an intense, somewhat disproportionate hatred for.
-->'''Doctor [=McNinja=]:''' I hate you. I hate you so much. I will hunt you down forever. When you die, my laughter will be so '''bright''', it will be the last thing you will hear, '''see''', '''smell''' and '''feel'''.
* ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'': [[http://oglaf.com/ahoy/ This]] strip has an entire ship of obsessive hunters who are hunting the great white whale which took their legs. As it turns out, [[VisualPun the shark actually]] [[AppendageAssimilation TOOK their legs]], and used them to move onto the land.

* There was a character in Disney's ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'' that was obsessed with hunting down some sort of desert whale/shark, in what was obviously a homage to ''Literature/MobyDick''. His quest was actually quite practical, as the belly of the sand shark was covered in precious jewels. Far from seeking revenge, the captain was hunting for ''sport'', and when he does catch it, he has no idea what he will do now, so he decides to cut the shark free and hunt it again.

* Leela in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Möbius Dick", a WholePlotReference to ''Literature/MobyDick''. It parodies the concept further, as the SpaceWhale she hunts [[spoiler: feeds on obsession, so it naturally antagonizes ship captains. Leela eventually overwhelms the whale's will with a bigger obsession than revenge: finishing her delivery!]]

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/DragonTales'' had the main characters help a [[SkyPirates sky pirate]] hunt down a giant flying whale for eating his ship. At the end of the episode, they successfully capture the whale, and it turns out that the ship said whale ate was a toy ship.
* In the opening of ''WesternAnimation/DanVs Anger Management'', Dan is about to launch a nuclear warhead that will cause World War III at a family of squirrels he's currently upset at.
* [[WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines The Vulture Squadron vs. Yankee Doodle Pigeon.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' this is essentially an institution, with every single one of the show's [[CardCarryingVillain Card-Carrying]] [[MadScientist Evil Scientists]] (of which there are many) having an intelligent animal secret agent as a "nemesis," and seemingly more than one organization devoted to the training and assignment of these agents. Unlike most examples, these animal nemeses tend to be the aggressor in the dynamic (being sent to foil their human enemies' evil schemes as a matter of routine), and the results tend to be reciprocal FriendlyEnemy relationships. The series' most prominent example is, of course, Perry the Platypus as nemesis to Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, [[spoiler:until the latter makes a HeelFaceTurn and they become a regular old InterspeciesFriendship by the end of the series and into StealthSequel ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw''.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' this is essentially an institution, with every single one of the show's CardCarryingVillain [[MadScientist Evil Scientists]] (of which there are many) having an intelligent PunchClockHero animal secret agent as a "nemesis" and seemingly more than one organization devoted to the training and assignment of these agents. Unlike most examples, these animal nemeses tend to be the aggressor in the dynamic (being sent to foil their human enemies' evil schemes as a matter of routine), and the results tend to be FriendlyEnemy relationships. The series' most prominent example is, of course, Perry the Platypus as nemesis to Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, [[spoiler:until the latter makes a HeelFaceTurn and they become a regular old InterspeciesFriendship by the end of the series and into StealthSequel ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw''.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' this is essentially an institution, with every single one of the show's CardCarryingVillain [[MadScientist Evil Scientists]] (of which there are many) having an intelligent PunchClockHero animal secret agent as a "nemesis," with seemingly more than one organization devoted to the training and assignment of these agents. Unlike most examples, these animal nemeses tend to be the aggressor in the relationship (being routinely sent to foil their human enemy's evil schemes), and the results tend to be FriendlyEnemy relationships. The series' most prominent example is, of course, Perry the Platypus as nemesis to Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, [[spoiler: until the end of the series when the latter makes a HeelFaceTurn and they become a regular old InterspeciesFriendship.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' this is essentially an institution, with every single one of the show's CardCarryingVillain [[MadScientist Evil Scientists]] (of which there are many) having an intelligent PunchClockHero animal secret agent as a "nemesis," with seemingly more than one organization devoted to the training and assignment of these agents. Unlike most examples, these animal nemeses tend to be the aggressor in the relationship (being routinely sent to foil their human enemy's evil schemes), and the results tend to be FriendlyEnemy relationships. The series' most prominent example is, of course, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz and Perry the Platypus, [[spoiler:who become a subversion by the end of the series when Doofenshmirtz makes his HeelFaceTurn and they become a regular old InterspeciesFriendship.]]

* In ''VideoGAme/{{Evolve}}'', Torvald is on a mission to kill the monster that destroyed his ship, killed his crewmates, and left him a ruin of a man. WordOfGod is that that particular monster is a unique adaptation of an as-of-yet unseen breed.

* The first film in the ''Film/Anaconda'' franchise features Creator/JonVoight as an animal poacher seeking to capture a particularly large specimen of the eponymous snake. Said snake was partly responsible for the death of partner.

* Tick Tock the crocodile is this for Captain Hook in ''Disney/PeterPan'', as he ate the captain's hand. He's also an interesting example, as while the ending shows he's more than willing to take a bite out of Hook if the opportunity presents itself, the croc for his part isn't all that fussed about getting at Hook, and is content to simply mess with him. Contrast this with the Croc from the original novel, which was hell-bent on finishing the meal it started years ago.

* Kenai and the bear [[spoiler:(Koda's mother)]] in ''Disney/BrotherBear'', later followed by bear-Kenai vs. Denahi.
* Inverted in ''Disney/TheJungleBook''; BigBad Shere Khan (a tiger) actually wants to kill Mowgli just for being a human.

[[caption-width-right:350:One must stand strong, even in the face of an [[IncrediblyLamePun overwhaleming adversity.]]]]

* Amos Slade (and, to a much lesser extent, Copper) during the second half of ''Disney/TheFoxAndTheHound'', who wants to kill Todd out of revenge for (indirectly) injuring his dog Chief by having him be hit by a train. Originally, he was actually going to be more so, as Chief was originally going to die after being hit by the train.