History Main / DubSpeciesChange

* When media created by Chespirito (Roberto Gómez Bolaños) that featured his mock-superhero character Series/ElChapulinColorado was translated into English (such as ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho''), the name was instead translated to "The Crimson Cricket", as it would not be [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal alliterative]] in English if translated literally, as "The Red Grasshopper".

* In ''Series/OutOfJimmysHead'', one of the cartoon characters is an alligator named [[NonIndicativeName Crocco]]. The Italian dub changes him into a crocodile, and [[DubNameChange renames him "Allie"]] to keep the name/species mismatch.

** The first Italian translation of the books (and subsequently the movie dub) changed the Whomping Willow into a plane tree, since the translator couldn't find an adeguate alliteration. This was rectified in the second translation of the books, where the new translation team found one that was good enough.

** Once Megatron gets upgraded into Galvatron, he achieves four more transformations, including a griffin and a mammoth. For some reason, the Italian dub calls both of them mammoths.

* When media created by Chespirito (Roberto Gómez Bolaños) that featured his mock-superhero character "El Chapulin Colorado" was translated into English (such as ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho''), the name was instead translated to "The Crimson Cricket", as it would not be [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal alliterative]] in English if translated literally, as "The Red Grasshopper".

** Fang/Nack is a wolf/jerboa hybrid in the original Japanese version, but in the western releases he was instead referred to as a weasel. This was later changed into a wolf/weasel, and finally reverted back to a wolf/jerboa.

** The Italian and Latin American translations of most iterations of the franchise refer to the titular character as a porcupine rather than a hedgehog.

Compare and contrast DubNameChange (when names are changed to fit better with the new language), {{Woolseyism}} (when other things are altered to make sense in the new language), CallARabbitASmeerp (when mundane objects have made up names), CallASmeerpARabbit (when made-up objects have mundane names), CallAPegasusAHippogriff (when mythical creatures take on the names of other mythical creatures), AdaptationSpeciesChange (when the animal in question is an outright different species in the adaptation), InformedSpecies (when the species is stated by the narrative but does not look accurate), IAmNotWeasel (when the animal objects to being called by the wrong species InUniverse), IstanbulNotConstantinople (when a real geographic location has its name changed in the context of the story) and ThinlyVeiledDubCountryChange (same).

* In the Italian dub of the ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld'' episode "Gopher Bash", the gophers are changed to moles. Since the "gophers" seen in the episode are clearly based on the Monty Mole enemy from the games, this can be seen as TranslationCorrection.

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

-->--[[https://www.towerhillbg.org/2018/10/29/great-watermelon-charlie-brown/ "It's the Great Watermelon, Charlie Brown"]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'': In the Taiwanese Mandarin dub, the Jade Jaguar from "Princesses to the Rescue!" is translated as the Jadeite ''Leopard'' (翡翠金錢豹), and the Lagoon Lizards--likely a magical species--are translated as crocodilians (鱷魚, i.e. "alligators/crocodiles").

* ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'': In the Taiwanese Mandarin dub, the Jade Jaguar from "Princesses to the Rescue!" is translated as the Jadeite ''Leopard'' (翡翠金錢豹), and the Lagoon Lizards--likely a magical species--are translated as crocodilians.

* ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'': In the Taiwanese Mandarin dub, the Jade Jaguar from "Princesses to the Rescue!" is translated as the Jadeite ''Leopard'' (翡翠金錢豹).

* In the American dub of ''WesternAnimation/BobTheBuilder'', hedgehogs are changed to porcupines.

** In the short "WesternAnimation/DuckRabbitDuck", one of the various animals WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck compares himself to (with WesternAnimation/BugsBunny pulling out a corresponding "X Season" sign) is a mongoose. The earlier Italian dub changed it into a Bird-of-paradise, while the latter redubs translated it correctly.

The reasons may vary. Perhaps the dub/translation language doesn't have a word for the species in question; in addition, perhaps the dub is geared towards a geolocation which doesn't contain the fauna in question.

For example, since {{Tanuki}} are not as endemic to North America or, to a lesser extent, Europe, as they are to Japan, many dubs or translations from such areas substitute the word for "[[RascallyRaccoon raccoon]]" or "[[BadOlBadger badger]]". Similarly, chipmunks and gophers are common in North America but not endemic to Europe, thus dubs to European languages often change the former to [[ScrewballSquirrel squirrels]], the latter to moles or hamsters. Hedgehogs are common in most of Europe and Asia, but North America and Southern Europe are more likely to be familiar with [[PricklyPorcupine porcupines]], while Australia may change them to echidnas.

* The French version of ''[[Literature/AnastasiaKrupnik Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst]] changed Anastasia's pet gerbils into hamsters. Since hamsters, unlike gerbils, are not social animals and you wouldn't normally expect to keep more than one in the same cage, this seems a little jarring - though since Anastasia believes her pets to be a breeding pair [[spoiler:in fact, they are two females who are both already pregnant]], her keeping them together is justified.

* ''Anime/SamuraiPizzaCats'': The Big Cheese was intended to be a fox in the original Japanese version (his original Japanese name is Kitsunezuka Ko'on-no-Kami; "kitsune" means "fox" and "kon" is a Japanese sound effect for a fox's bark). However, the English dub refers to him as a [[YouDirtyRat rat]], despite not changing his design (his tail is very obviously a fox's and not a rat's).