History Main / PredatorPreyFriendship

* In ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain'', one of Buddy ''Tyrannosaurus''[='=] friends is Tank ''Triceratops'', the stereotypical prey of ''Tyrannosaurus'' in palaeoart.

** Another example is Louis, a deer who becomes the head of a ruthless gang of lions. In order to seem tough to avoid being eaten, he forced himself to smoke and eat meat even though doing so was making him sick, until one of his subordinates snuck him a salad out of genuine concern -- turned out he'd already earned their respect with his business savvy, and his posturing was unnecessary.

* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'' is similar to ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' in that it takes place in a modern WorldOfFunnyAnimals where predators and prey are two distinct groups with a tense relationship. Unlike ''Zootopia'', however, here the carnivores genuinely crave the flesh of herbivores and run the risk of going feral. As such, this trope is [[PlayingWithATrope put under the microscope in every way possible]]. The most prominent example is Legosi, the wolf main character, and his relationship with Haru the bunny. Even though he loves her and is extremely protective of her, he still finds himself craving her flesh and has to perfect his self-control to be near her.

* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'' is similar to ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' in that it takes place in a modern WorldOfFunnyAnimals where predators and prey are two distinct groups with a tense relationship. Unlike ''Zootopia'', however, here the carnivores genuinely crave the flesh of herbivores and run the risk of going feral. As such, this trope is [[PlayingWithATrope put under the microscope in every way possible]]. The most prominent example is Legosi, the wolf main character, and his relationship with Haru the bunny. Even though he loves her and is extremely protective of her, he still finds himself craving her flesh and has to perfect his self-control to be near her.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' takes place in WorldOfFunnyAnimals. It's been thousands of years since predators have hunted prey, however there is still a fear between herbivores and carnivores/omnivores. The main tension of the film is the FantasticRacism between the animals. The two leads, Judy and Nick, are a rabbit and a fox respectively who end up becoming friends over the course of the film.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'' features a variant where they aren't prey and predator, but are still natural enemies. A fox kit named Tod and a Bloodhound puppy named Copper become friends however are too young to realize that Copper is a hunting-dog. When they meet as adults it becomes clear that they can't be friends anymore. They end up fighting. [[spoiler: However, when Tod rescues Copper from a gigantic grizzly bear, Copper returns the favor by placing himself in front of Tod and Amos relents.]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' series, the main characters are friends with a young sharptooth (''Tyrannosaurus''), Chomper, whose egg they found without knowing who his parents are. Justified in that they act as parental figures before Chomper's real parents find him. When they reunite a couple of movies later, Chomper helps his friends hide from his parents.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'', Alex the lion is the best friend of Marty the zebra, Gloria the hippo, and Melman the giraffe. Being a zoo animal, Alex has no idea where steaks come from-- and when they are released to the wild, he is shocked to find out that his friends are his natural prey.

* ''Franchise/TheLionKing'': PredationIsNatural in the series. Lions are treated as a royal family who rule over other animals in their kingdom. The lions are shown to be friends with their prey but there's little animosity or fear between the animals. This creates CarnivoreConfusion in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'' as Kion and his friends regularly "save" prey from their predators.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'':
** Moana has a pig, Pua, as her close animal companion; at the beginning of the movie she is chewing on pork and exclaims "That's good pork!", upon which Pua gives a distressed reaction - and then she goes into "Oh, eh, oops, didn't mean that..." mode, trying to apologize to Pua.
** Maui, the demi-God, takes Moana's other animal companion, Hei-Hei the rooster, with him with very clear intentions about what he's going to use Hei-Hei for: he exclaims "I'm going to enjoy you... ''in my belly''" and repeatedly calls Hei-Hei "Drumstick". However, at the end of the movie, Maui accepts Hei-Hei as a close friend of Moana's, and foregoes the intention to eat him.
* Diego in the first ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' film was only pretending to be friends with Manny and Sid, but was under orders from his pack to steal the baby human they were looking after so the sabres could eat him. After being with them for a while, he actually became their friend and underwent a HeelFaceTurn.

* ''Bird and Croc'' is a children's picture book about a parrot and a crocodile who hatch next to each other and grow up thinking that they're brothers.
* In ''Literature/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents'', Maurice the intelligent cat works with a group of equally intelligent rats and a human kid to run a MonsterProtectionRacket. However, he secretly does this as TheAtoner because he knows that he became intelligent in the first place by eating one of the rats.
* In ''Literature/{{Bravelands}}'' Fearless is a lion cub who is taken in by baboons after his father is killed and he is driven out of his pride. Fearless never quite fit in with his adopted family, however he was still a valued member of the troop. Fearless later befriends an elephant as well.
* In ''Literature/TheMuddleHeadedWombat'', Wombat's two best friends are Mouse and Tabby, who are also friends to each other. The question of what (or who) Tabby eats doesn't really come up.

* Subverted in ''Literature/{{Stray}}''. Granny Harris wants a cat but she owns a bird already. A shady pet store salesman tries to tell her that kittens can get along well with budgies. Granny Harris talks this over with a friend and comes to the conclusion that the salesman was just trying to sell her a kitten.
* ''Literature/TheNightOfWishes'': Jacob (a bird) and Maurizio (a cat) become friends while trying to stop two evil wizards in spite of cats being bird eaters.

* Literature/TheBible has [[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+11:6&version=NIV a passage]] in the Book of Isaiah that states that wolves and lambs will one day live peacefully together, as will leopards and goats, lions and calves, and humans. (It's often [[BeamMeUpScotty misquoted]] as [[Literature/{{Twilight}} "And the lion shall lie down with the lamb."]])

* In an episode of the online cartoon ''Annie Ben and Mango'', an anteater named Charo decides that she doesn't want to eat ants anymore because her best friend is an ant named Chaz. The heroes spend the entire episode trying to help her find something else she can eat so she doesn't starve.

* There has been at least one case where a lioness, who had recently lost her own cubs, [[ReplacementGoldfish stole a baby antelope]] from its group and kept it as her own. The calf ended up dying of starvation.
* Humans are on top of the food chain. Almost all animals can be eaten, though cultural preferences, laws, and personal preferences decide which a person eats. Humans regularly keep common prey animals like sheep, goats, pigs, horses, chickens, ducks, geese and rabbits as companion animals. Even those who use animals for work often bond with them.
** Our longest-standing Predator-Prey Friendship is with dogs, and may be a ''two-way'' example: prehistoric humans probably ate wild canids (as domestic dogs are eaten to this day in certain cultures), and wild canids would've ''definitely'' preyed upon our early hominid ancestors.
* Whenever they aren't hungry or hunting, most carnivores can coexist with their prey in relative peace.

** Our longest-standing PredatorPreyFriendship is with dogs, and may be a ''two-way'' example: prehistoric humans probably ate wild canids (as domestic dogs are eaten to this day in certain cultures), and wild canids would've ''definitely'' preyed upon our early hominid ancestors.

[[folder:Asian Animation]]
* In ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf: Mighty Little Defenders'', one of the goats' main goals is for the wolves to stop preying on them and become friends with them. It's not an easy task, but they [[spoiler:eventually become friends]].
[[/folder]]

* The song "I Know I'm A Wolf" by Young Heretics uses a relationship between a wolf and a rabbit as an AnimalMetaphor for DomesticAbuse. The wolf wishes to befriend (or possibly [[InterspeciesRomance court]]) a rabbit, however the rabbit is too afraid of it.

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Subverted in [[WebAnimation/DearRabbit this fan-animation]] to the song "But I Know I'm A Wolf" by Young Heretics. The wolf starts out hunting a rabbit but gives up partway due to wanting to befriend it. The wolf however can't ignore its instincts and ends up killing the injured rabbit anyway. It doesn't like its decision afterwards but couldn't stop itself.
* In an episode of the online cartoon ''Annie Ben and Mango'', an anteater named Charo decides that she doesn't want to eat ants anymore because her best friend is an ant named Chaz. The heroes spend the entire episode trying to help her find something else she can eat so she doesn't starve.
* In the animated short [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp8NrUByT9Q "Kill Wolfy,"]] a wolf and sheep couple are at first debating which species' racism (speciesism?) against the other is worse. They end up having to fight off a horde of angry sheep who think the wolf wants to eat them. The wolf, despite being the predator species, is hilariously much smaller and pacifistic than his boyfriend. [[spoiler:The wolf ends up fighting off other wolves trying to eat his boyfriend at the end.]]
[[/folder]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'' series, Tiger (a cat) likes mice, not to eat, but as friends.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{CatDog}}'': Played with involving Cat and Winslow. While Cat never tries to eat Winslow, the two don't exactly get along too well.

[[folder: Mythology and Religion]]

Sub-trope to InterspeciesFriendship, InterspeciesRomance, and OddFriendship. SuperTrope to PredatorTurnedProtector, where the predator protects the prey friend against other predators. Might overlap with StarcrossedLovers if romantic.

* ''ComicStrip/KrazyKat'' has this between Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse: whereas they're undoubtedly FriendlyEnemies, all the antagonism comes from Ignatz and ([[PetTheDog almost]]) all the friendliness from Krazy, who's [[MadLove madly in love with him]].

** It was seen as a breakthrough in her development [[https://kevinandkell.com/2008/kk0728.html when Coney started protecting some prey animals]] instead of indiscriminately eating all kinds of prey she just happened to encounter while hungry.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'' features a variant where they aren't prey and predator, but are still natural enemies. A fox kit named Todd and a Bloodhound puppy named Copper become friends however are too young to realize that Copper is a hunting-dog. When they meet as adults it becomes clear that they can't be friends anymore. They end up fighting [[spoiler:however Copper doesn't let his owner shoot Todd]].

* ''Anime/YouAreUmasou'' is about a T-rex who [[InterspeciesAdoption adopts]] a baby anklyosaur he was originally intending to eat. He told the baby "You are tasty-looking (umasou)" when he hatched, and Umasou [[{{Imprinting}} assumes the T-rex is his dad and that Umasou is his name.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Disney/{{Zootopia}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zootopia_nickjudt.jpeg]]]]

* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'' is similar to ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'' in that it takes place in a modern WorldOfFunnyAnimals where predators and prey are two distinct groups with a tense relationship. Unlike ''Zootopia'', however, here the carnivores genuinely crave the flesh of herbivores and run the risk of going feral. As such, this trope is [[PlayingWithATrope put under the microscope in every way possible]]. The most prominent example is Legosi, the wolf main character, and his relationship with Haru the bunny. Even though he loves her and is extremely protective of her, he still finds himself craving her flesh and has to perfect his self-control to be near her.

* ''ComicBook/AlbedoErmaFelnaEDF'' features this in a meta-sense, unlike ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'' and ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'', despite FantasticRacism exist in a very different level, as the version of racism used there is handled in the same way human racism is handled in a way. Special note of the friendship between the titular heroine, an anthropomorphic cat, and her best friend Toki, an anthropomorphic mouse.

* ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'' takes place in WorldOfFunnyAnimals. It's been thousands of years since predators have hunted prey, however there is still a fear between herbivores and carnivores/omnivores. The main tension of the film is the FantasticRacism between the animals. The two leads, Judy and Nick, are a rabbit and a fox respectively who end up becoming friends over the course of the film.
* ''Disney/TheFoxAndTheHound'' features a variant where they aren't prey and predator, but are still natural enemies. A fox kit named Todd and a Bloodhound puppy named Copper become friends however are too young to realize that Copper is a hunting-dog. When they meet as adults it becomes clear that they can't be friends anymore. They end up fighting [[spoiler:however Copper doesn't let his owner shoot Todd]].

* ''Disney/{{Moana}}'':

* In ''Discworld/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents'', Maurice the intelligent cat works with a group of equally intelligent rats and a human kid to run a MonsterProtectionRacket. However, he secretly does this as TheAtoner because he knows that he became intelligent in the first place by eating one of the rats.

* ''Literature/OneStormyNight'' is a book series (later made into an [[Anime/OneStormyNight animated film]], manga, and [[Anime/OneStormyNightHimitsuNoTomodachi anime]]) about a wolf named Gabu who befriends a goat named Mei. They end up running away together in order to avoid their family's criticism. The books heavily deal with Gabu trying to avoid his predator instincts.

* ''Literature/ArashiNoYoruNi'' is a book series (later made into an animated film, manga, and anime) about a wolf named Gabu who befriends a goat named Mei. They end up running away together in order to avoid their family's criticism. The books heavily deal with Gabu trying to avoid his predator instincts.

* Humans are on top of the food chain. Almost all animals can be eaten, though cultural preferences, laws, and personal preferences decide which a person eats. Humans regularly keep common prey animals like sheep, pigs, horses, chickens, geese, and goats as companion animals. Even those who use animals for work often bond with them.
** Our longest-standing PredatorPreyFriendship is with dogs, and may be a ''two-way'' example: prehistoric humans probably ate wild canids, and wild canids would've ''definitely'' preyed upon our early hominid ancestors.