History Main / AnimalNemesis

* 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 [[Film/JurassicPark the first film]], we have [[RaptorAttack "The Big One"]] to [[GreatWhiteHunter Muldoon]], who knows just how monstrous the former is and is determined to stop her. [[spoiler:He fails]].

** This became the go-to plot for many 70's killer animals flicks, such as ''Film/{{Grizzly}}'' and ''Film/OrcaTheKillerWhale''.

* 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 and homage (many of the examples on this page in some way reference the story). 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.

* Kenai and the bear [[spoiler:(Koda's mother)]] in ''WesternAnimation/BrotherBear'', later followed by bear-Kenai vs. Denahi.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Batfink}}'' and Hugo a Go Go.

* Inverted in ''Film/AvatarTheWayOfWater'' with the [[SapientCetaceans tulkun]] Payakan, who lost his family to whalers and whose attempt to get revenge led to tragedy. He's even missing a fin to complete the reference. [[spoiler:Unlike Ahab, however, Payakan does get his revenge when he attacks the boat to free his spirit brother Lo'ak]]

* ''Film/{{Nope}}'': The Haywoods and their allies at first see the [[spoiler: giant alien creature]] they call Jean Jacket as a way to get rich and famous. But then it starts [[spoiler: eating hordes of people]], and they decide it has to die.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': The season 5 episode "Bliss" had the crew caught by some sort of SpaceWhale (a bioplasmic life-form) that was using telepathy to trap starship crews in [[LotusEaterMachine hallucinations of their heart's desire]] so it could eat their starships, and [[ProjectedMan the Doctor]] and Seven of Nine (who are partially resistant to the effect) end up getting help from an alien hunter who is very much Captain Ahab to its Moby Dick. Although ''he'' is absolutely convinced that [[ItCanThink the creature is self-aware and intelligent]] and eating starships ForTheEvulz to boot, the ''Voyager'' crew are rather skeptical, but we never find out one way or the other.

* ''Film/{{Nope}}'': The Haywoods and their allies at first see the [[spoiler: giant alien creature]] they call Jean Jacket as a way to get rich and famous. But then it starts [[spoiler: eating hordes of people]], and they decide it has to die.

* ''Film/{{Nope}}'': The Haywoods and their allies at first see the [[giant alien creature]] they call Jean Jacket as a way to get rich and famous. But then it starts [[spoiler: eating hordes of people]], and they decide it has to die.

** ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheJerleShannara'' sees Redden Alt Mer wracked with fear for the first time in his life after a bad run-in with the [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs Graak]]. Convinced that the only way to shake off his fear is to descend into the Crake rainforest and face the Graak, Redden nearly gets his entire party slain trying to feel tough again.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': A season 7 episode had the crew caught by some sort of SpaceWhale that was using telepathy to trap starship crews in [[LotusEaterMachine hallucinations of their heart's desire]] so it could eat their starships, and [[ProjectedMan the Doctor]] and Seven of Nine (who are partially resistant to the effect) end up getting help from an alien hunter who is very much Captain Ahab to its Moby Dick. Although ''he'' is absolutely convinced that [[ItCanThink the creature is self-aware and intelligent]], and eating starships ForTheEvulz to boot; the Voyager crew are rather skeptical, but we never find out one way or the other.

* In 1932, [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War Australia fought a war against emus.]] The emus won.

* 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.

* ''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".

* ''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.

* 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).

* ''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]].

[[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.]]

* 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 that they’ve been maimed by and which has some symbolic or metaphorical meaning to them, and it turns out that [[ObfuscatingDisability she didn't actually lose the arm]].

* The original ''ComicBook/TheTransformers'' comic did a WholePlotReference to ''Literature/MobyDick'' at one point. The Transformer in question lives on a world far from most of his race and is a Pretender (a Transformer covered in a pseudo-organic shell that allows him to pose as an organic, but is rather difficult to repair) and so cannot get his leg properly restored. [[spoiler:He finally incapacitates the beast responsible but decides against finishing it off.]]

* Mocked severely in [[http://pbfcomics.com/comics/svens-revenge/ this]] ''ComicStrip/ThePerryBibleFellowship'' strip: a man believes he's killed a shark that killed his father, but then realizes the "scar" he identified the shark by is a natural feature of a whole ''species'' of shark.

* Predators sometimes, for whatever reason (usually because humans make decent hunters but also slow, easy prey), will imprint upon humans as prey and go out of their way to hunt people even over what they would normally hunt. The only way to deal with such animals, known appropriately as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-eater Man-Eaters,]] is to invoke this trope, hunt them down, and euthanize them. The most notorious and well known example are the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsavo_maneaters Tsavo Maneaters.]] They were killed by Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson, who went full Captain Ahab to bring them down.