Line #15 Main/UnexpectedlyHumanPerception


1	Unexpectedly Human Perception is the trope where animals perceive (mainly see) the world in a way just like humans, even if in RealLife they have new senses, lack a human one, or otherwise differ from humans in sensory ways.
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3	There are ways this trope manifests, such as a non-primate mammal seeing red and green separately, a bee seeing in a non-[[FishEyeLens fisheye]] way, or things that don't relate to sight, like a caterpillar hearing a wide range of sounds. Another side of this trope is how mammals (or pretty much most animals apart from birds and dragonflies) in fiction rely on sight, rather than smelling (or some other sense) like in RealLife.
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5	Furthermore, all animals in fiction have the five human senses, no more, and no less. Sight is the only variable, as eyeless creatures will be blind, usually.
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7	Can be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] if the animal is [[SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism anthropomorphic]], but this doesn't explain how less human characters will fail to use their non-human main sense. In RealLife humans have a poorer ability to see movement than many animals but better visual acuity - that's the ability to make out details - than all but our closest primate cousins and diurnal birds of prey, but this isn't often reflected in media as human senses, if they're regarded in comparison at all, are generally thought of as average.
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9	This is part of ArtisticLicenseBiology and MostWritersAreHuman. Like with all Artistic Licenses, Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad - when we need a clear perspective from the animal in question, all of the animal's unique sensory quirks/flaws may get in the way of the audience's effort to understand said perspective, although this trope is still used with animal senses that are above human level.
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11	Contrast BizarreAlienSenses, MysteriousAnimalSenses, and AnimalsSeeInMonochrome.
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14	!!Examples:
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16	[[foldercontrol]]
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18	[[folder:Literature]]
19	* ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'' varies in this. Some of the many animals that the teens [[{{Animorphism}} morph into]] have distinctly different senses that they can use or be hindered by. Birds of prey have sharper ears and eyes than humans, bears and rhinoceri have blurry vision, bats and dolphins echolocate, canines live in a world of scents. However, quite often animal eyesight is noted to be as good as or better than human eyesight when this is very rarely the case, and it's very rare that any non-dog or non-wolf is regarded as having an excellent sense of smell, when quite a few animals actually have keener noses than they do. Played with a little with insect morphs; the Animorphs take an afternoon practicing turning into cockroaches as a still-human team member speaks aloud, learning to interpret the distant vibrations as words.
20	* ''Literature/{{Fluke}}'': Shortly after birth, Fluke is disconcerted by the re-emergence of ability to see colours beyond the range of a dog’s perspective.
21	* An inversion is discussed in ''Literature/GuardianCatsAndTheLostBooksOfAlexandria''. Marco, a cat, is surprised to learn that humans have poor night vision. He always thought lamps were for decoration.
22	* ''Literature/GuardiansOfGaHoole'': The series is from the point of view of owls, animals that typically see in limited or monochrome vision, but everything is described in full color. The most notable example is Nyroc first discovering the color of green, which he has a strong reaction to, despite not being able to see it in real life.
23	* Dogs and wolves in ''Literature/SurvivorDogs'' see the same colors as humans. For example, autumn is called "Red Leaf" despite the fact real dogs can't distinguish reds well.
24	* ScienceMarchesOn in the 1980s book ''Literature/{{Stray}}''. Pufftail can distinguish red, which is a color that cats can't see.
25	* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': Though the books are told from the point-of-view of cats, they still see things the way humans do. This means being able to make out colors they shouldn't be able to, such as red and green, while not being able to see in the dark. Kits are able to open their eyes within seconds they are born much like a human baby would, although it takes about several weeks before kittens are able to open their eyes and to see very well, (in ''Bluestar's Prophecy,'' Bluekit and her sister are able to open their eyes and can see from incredible far distances, and that's not even mentioning the fact that they can already know how to play and run around like 2 month old kittens instead of spending most of their time sleeping and struggling to walk properly until their bodies develop more like real life ones). In many books they are able to taste sweetness (with one character even being named "Sweetpaw") despite cats not being able to. This was fixed in later books as cats consider honey to be tasteless.
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28	[[folder:Video Games]]
29	* ''{{VideoGame/Spore}}'': All spore creatures with eyes can see perfectly well, as well as a human. Also, all creatures can hear, even without the physiological equipment to do so.
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32	[[folder:Western Animation]]
33	* Cat from ''WesternAnimation/PegPlusCat'' has a SweetTooth, despite real cats being physically unable to taste sweetness.
34	[[/folder]]

Context Main / UnexpectedlyHumanPerception