History Main / CubCuesProtectiveParent

* In ''OldYeller'' it's a literal mama bear, when Arliss is playing around trying to catch the bear cub.

* An interesting case occurs in the second ''Film/{{Alien}}'' movie. When the coloniel marines are in the alien nest, the xenomorphs don't attack until a chestburster is torched.

* ''TheLostWorldJurassicPark'': As soon as the baby T-Rex was taken inside the trailer, it was ''inevitable'' that Mommy T-Rex was going to come after it.

* The Goose that lays the Golden Eggs in ''WesternAnimation/PussInBoots'' turns out to be the gosling of a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever very large goose]]. [[spoiler:It's Humpty Dumpty's plan to let Mama thrash the town while he absconded with baby and the eggs.]]

* Happens in WarOfTheSpiderQueen series. The characters find a cute creature, which turns out to be a cub of a giant forest sloth. Drow being drow, they assume that it must be a predator using its cute young as bait...

* In TheLandBeforeTime-2, the gang of Dinosaur kids finds an egg and, at first thinking it to be an egg from one of their parent's nests, carry the thing home. It turns out to be a Sharptooth(or T-Rex) egg, and the group starts trying to raise 'Chomper' - needless to say, [[spoiler: the parents come looking for him.]] Slightly subverted in this case, as the [[spoiler: Mama and Daddy actually end up helping the main characters, before taking their baby home.]] This arguably has some UnfortunateImplications about the [[WarpedAesop Aesop]] in this story, as the moral seems to be 'Try as you might to get along, some people are just too different.'

If the characters find a baby wild animal, it is almost certain that a dangerous [[MamaBear parent]] [[PapaWolf animal]] is nearby, and will soon attack them. The characters will usually get out unscathed, but not without a good chase or fight.

This can be TruthInTelevision for many types of animals, so it is best to keep your distance from baby wild animals.

----

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''TheLostWorldJurassicPark'': As soon as the baby T-Rex was taken inside the trailer, it was ''inevitable'' that Mommy T-Rex was going to come after it.
* In ''OldYeller'' it's a literal mama bear, when Arliss is playing around trying to catch the bear cub.
* In ''AlphaAndOmega'', Humphrey plays with a bear cub and accidentally makes it cry. The cub's mama and two of her friends come along to make Humphrey pay for it.
* In Disney's ''Disney/{{Tarzan}}'' Jane encounters a cute little baby baboon which steals her journal. After Jane steals it back, the baby baboon starts crying calling the attention of its mother and the rest of its family.

* In ''FindingNemo'', when Marlin slaps away a baby jellyfish with his tail after it stings Dory, the swarm of adult jellyfish immediately start swimming toward them.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In ''SonsOfGuns'', Will tells Vince a story about going on a hiking trip, finding wild dog puppies, only to have Daddy come charging out of the bushes ready to attack his daughter.
* ''MysteryScienceTheater3000:'' The crew watch ''CatchingTrouble'', in which outdoorsman Ross captures wild animals for zoos. When Ross begins harassing some bear cubs, Joel and the 'bots begin wishing that mama bear would show up and attack.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* Happens in WarOfTheSpiderQueen series. The characters find a cute creature, which turns out to be a cub of a giant forest sloth. Drow being drow, they assume that it must be a predator using its cute young as bait...

[[AC:TabletopRPG]]
* ''DungeonsAndDragons'' module G1-3 ''Against the Giants''. In the "Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl" section (but not the original module) there's a picture of two adventurers with a polar bear cub. The male adventurer is looking at the cub, while the female adventurer is looking over her shoulder at the enraged female polar bear behind them.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', examining a bird's nest nets a bunch of PhoenixDown but also cues an encounter with a bird enemy - presumably the mother of the nesting eggs.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderBitterWork Bitter Work]]", Sokka finds a baby saber-toothed moose-lion cub, and inevitably it's mama is near, and has to be fought off by Aang.
* One episode of ''TheWuzzles'' involves a baby [[MixAndMatchCritters brahma bullfinch]], an adorable little cow-bird creature whose mother happens to be a house-sized engine of destruction. An entire ''flock'' of them descends on Croc's house by the end of the episode, with predictable results.
* In one of the AdventuresInOdyssey videos, Dylan, Jessie, and Carter find a bear cub in the mountains and start fawning over it...only for the growling [[MamaBear mother grizzly]] to charge them.
* In {{The Land Before Time}}-2, the gang of Dinosaur kids finds an egg and, at first thinking it to be an egg from one of their parent's nests, carry the thing home. It turns out to be a Sharptooth(or T-Rex) egg, and the group starts trying to raise 'Chomper' - needless to say, [[spoiler: the parents come looking for him.]] Slightly subverted in this case, as the [[spoiler: Mama and Daddy actually end up helping the main characters, before taking their baby home.]] This arguably has some {{Unfortunate Implications}} about the [[WarpedAesop Aesop]] in this story, as the moral seems to be 'Try as you might to get along, some people are just too different.'

[[AC:RealLife]]
* This is seen in real life. Stories abound about people taking photographs of themselves with cute little baby animals--only to be attacked by the animal's mother. Worst case scenario: literal MamaBear.

* ''{{Jurassic Park}}-II'': As soon as the baby T-Rex was taken inside the trailer, it was ''inevitable'' that Mommy T-Rex was going to come after it.

* The Goose that lays the Golden Eggs in ''Film/PussInBoots'' turns out to be the gosling of a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever very large goose]]. [[spoiler:It's Humpty Dumpty's plan to let Mama thrash the town while he absconded with baby and the eggs.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "Bitter Work", Sokka finds a baby saber-toothed moose-lion cub, and inevitably it's mama is near, and has to be fought off by Aang.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sabertoothmooselion_7871_copy2_6290.jpg]]

!!!Examples:

* In ''FinalFantasyVII'', examining a bird's nest nets a bunch of PhoenixDown but also cues an encounter with a bird enemy - presumably the mother of the nesting eggs.

* In the ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "Bitter Work", Sokka finds a baby saber-toothed moose-lion cub, and inevitably it's mama is near, and has to be fought off by Aang.

* In Disney's Disney/{{Tarzan}} Jane encounters a cute little baby baboon which steals her journal. After Jane steals it back, the baby baboon starts crying calling the attention of its [[MamaBear mother]] and the [[OhCrap rest of its family]].

* {{Jurassic Park}}-II: As soon as the baby T-Rex was taken inside the trailer, it was ''inevitable'' that Mommy T-Rex was going to come after it.

In many cases, characters that are not too familiar with animals or the wilderness will attempt to pick up, feed, play with or even adopt the cub. More savvy characters will recognize the possible danger associated with the presence of a baby animal.

[[caption-width-right:350:"How cute! Let's keep it!" "Aaargh!"]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"How cute! Let's keep it!"]]

If the characters find a baby wild animal, it is almost certain that a dangerous parent animal is nearby, and will soon attack them. The characters will usually get out unscathed, but not without a good chase or fight.

See also MamaBear. Contrast with MonsterIsAMommy. If the cub itself is dangerous, it could be a case of CuteButDeadly. See also PetBabyWildAnimal for plots about characters adopting a wild animal.

See also MamaBear. Contrast with MonsterIsAMommy. If the cub itself is dangerous, it could be a case of CuteButDeadly. See also PetBabyWildAnimal for plots about character trying to adopt a wild animal.

[[caption-width-right:350:"How cute! lets keep it!"]]

->"Oh, look at this cute baby! Let's keep it!"
-->--cue roaring and murderous rage of Mommy.

If the characters find a baby wild animal, it is almost certain that a dangerous MamaBear is nearby, and will soon attack them. The characters will usually get out unscathed, but not without a good chase or fight.

See also MamaBear. Contrast with MonsterIsAMommy.

* In Disney's Disney/{{Tarzan}} Jane encounters a cute little baby baboon which steals her journal. After Jane steals it back, the baby baboon starts crying calling the attention of its [[MamaBear mother]] and the [[OhCrap rest of its family]].