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| 3 | %% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks! |
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| 7 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1329050974017319800 |
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| 10 | [[quoteright:350:[[Manga/HayateTheCombatButler https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hayate02.png]]]] |
| 11 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[Creator/WilliamBlake Tyger, tyger]], not so wild\ |
| 12 | Asleep beside a [[LonelyRichKid wealthy child]]\ |
| 13 | Wherefore youthful hand and eye\ |
| 14 | Hath tamed thy fearful symmetry?]] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | ->''"Do not attempt to pet the dingos. Do not attempt to play with the dingos. Do not throw squeaky toys to the fucking dingos or attempt to sneak scraps of food to the fucking dingos from the dinner table. If a fucking dingo follows you home, you should not keep it. DO NOT LET A DINGO PLAY WITH YOUR INFANT."'' |
| 17 | -->-- Website/{{Cracked}}, ''[[http://www.cracked.com/article_15853_6-cutest-animals-that-can-still-destroy-you.html The 6 Cutest Animals That Can Still Destroy You]]'' |
| 18 | |
| 19 | In fiction, wild animals rarely act the way that they do in real life. Those hilarious PluckyComicRelief chimpanzees and their hilarious antics? Never once do they get violent, no matter what (they may get mad for the hero's benefit, though). When animals do get mad, they're usually easily calmed down if just given whatever MacGuffin is necessary. Is a bear rampaging through town? Just give it some honey and it will snuggle on your lap. Being a FriendToAllLivingThings can help, but surprisingly often it seems like nearly anyone can calm down a wild animal. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Part of the cause of this is simply that [[TeamPet animal sidekicks]] are [[RuleOfCute really adorable]] (and [[RuleOfCool loyal wild animal companions are cool in themselves]]), but most of the more interesting ones are not of domesticated species, and the only rational way for the hero to get one is from the wild. Taming an adult animal is far more trouble than it's worth. Even taming a baby one never does much for softening its wild instincts. (Incidentally, no reptiles are truly domesticated; they adjust to ''captivity'' well given the right temperatures and food, but that's pretty much it.) |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Another strong factor is the huge number of Website/YouTube videos available showing "wild" foxes (red, white, and yellow), other canines (coyotes, dingos, hybrids of all types), and smaller cats (up to lynx size, though you do find the occasional cougar) living in apparent domestic tranquility. As well, kids' movies depict actors getting cuddly with bears, lions and tigers, but viewers forget that these are trained animals. As well, there are many wildlife sanctuaries where you can go along and 'pet a wolf'. Again, most people tend to miss that these animals ''only behave like pets around people they know'', usually have their own 'play/sleep room' (that they trash), and are extremely difficult/expensive to look after. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | The domestication is usually only partial and not hereditary, and you're only seeing the successful cases. That ambassador wolf who shoves his head into your lap and rolls over begging for you to pet his tummy? Almost certainly 50% of the animals at such places would simply run away if given the chance, and 90% of the rest will eventually bite you. The keepers picked this one for a reason. Unfortunately, there are a depressing number of people who think this is TruthInTelevision and are apparently under the impression that nature is just a bigger version of [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland]]. This usually does not end well... |
| 26 | |
| 27 | Note that "domesticated" means "genetically altered to meet human needs", '''not''' "tamed". Until very recently, this meant intentional or unintentional selective breeding. A feral housecat is domesticated, but a trained bear is not. Also, there ''are'' some animal species that can be somewhat successfully tamed or trained if not ''entirely'' domesticated, usually due to a combination of small size (meaning even if they do act out they generally aren't threatening to teen or adult human life), intelligence (meaning training can be successful), and/or partial breeding for those traits and friendliness to humans. Some good examples would be most small rodents (field or house mice, also including wild rats/prairie dogs/gophers/tree squirrels if [[RaisedByHumans raised from birth by humans]] and trained, though their natural instincts to dig and hoard need to be accounted for), skunks (if deodorized + spayed/neutered + vaccinated against rabies and having been raised with humans from birth), and some small monkeys (in their case, if raised properly alongside humans, which means ''no'' fear-based training, raising/training much as one would a human baby/toddler), with the one larger example being some wolf-hybrid dogs (those that have docility and intelligence bred as traits). |
| 28 | |
| 29 | Of course, most of these, with the exception of small rodents like mice, require specialized training for their trainers/owners as well in ''how'' to train and care for them, so you can't just go and pet a wild skunk or let your female dog mate with a wolf at random or bring that monkey stealing oranges from the fruit stand into your home, either. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | All in all the sad truth is that only a very small minority of the millions of species in the world have the combination of traits necessary for true domestication, and only a few of those actually have been fully domesticated. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | Compare AllAnimalsAreDogs, which is about non-canine animals exhibiting doggy mannerisms. Also see DomesticatedDinosaurs for what happens when this trope is applied to long-extinct creatures. Contrast EverythingTryingToKillYou. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | And, of course, ''please'' DontTryThisAtHome. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | ---- |
| 38 | !!Examples: |
| 39 | |
| 40 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[folder:Advertising]] |
| 43 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm-NXVDZZTU "An Unlikely Friendship]]", an advertisement for Amazon Creator/PrimeVideo, has a zookeeper decide that a spotted hyena would be happier as his pet, so he sneaks it out of the zoo and into his home. They then live together happily, as if a hyena was [[AllAnimalsAreDogs nothing more than a dog that can laugh]]. |
| 44 | [[/folder]] |
| 45 | |
| 46 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 47 | * ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'': |
| 48 | ** As an inversion, a RunningGag has Sakaki try to pet a feral cat and inevitably get bitten. It's actually a little surprising she's ever able to get that close in the first place, since feral cats usually run away whenever humans make any concerted movement toward them. Later in the series, it's revealed that the cat Sakaki keeps trying to pet is a dominant tom over a colony of around a dozen other feral cats, and thus is not only unafraid of humans, but capable of fighting them in a surprisingly effective way.[[note]]Feral cats are not actually as solitary as they appear; they are extremely territorial toward one another (and will frequently fight each other to try expand their territory, especially to steal territory from sick or injured members of a colony) but will band together to drive off larger predators if they repeatedly harass members of the colony.[[/note]] This actually happens to Sakaki in a later episode, where she is cornered by the tom and his fellow cats in an alley and ends up pretty badly scratched. |
| 49 | ** The series also uses this trope when Sakaki meets an Iriomote kitten, a highly-endangered exotic species, while visiting Okinawa. In spite of him being a wild, meat-eating beast, Sakaki can pet and hold him, and he even attempts to follow her home when she leaves. A few episodes later, the cat ''actually shows up'' to drive away the gang of feral cats that's cornered Sakaki; she ends up keeping him and naming him Mayaa, after the Okinawan word for the species. This creates the humorous irony that Mayaa behaves like an ordinary housecat towards Sakaki, while suburban housecats behave more like wild animals towards her; an example and an inversion of this trope at the same time. The explanation behind Mayaa's behavior is that, while Sakaki's [[AloofDarkHairedGirl intimidating appearance]] causes feral cats to become afraid of her, Mayaa instead sees those aspects as reminiscent of his mother, who was killed in a car accident. |
| 50 | * The ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' plays it straight most of the time but also averts it a lot, especially for particularly powerful or temperamental species (Gyarados is a common offender, as are species like Ursaring, Metagross, Crawdaunt, or Charizard), which are said to take a great level of skill to successfully train and will act feral if the Trainer isn't up to it. ''Especially'' holds true for OlympusMons. You'll never see Mewtwo, Lugia, Rayquaza, Arceus, or Zekrom even remotely act domesticated. However, the end of the Sinnoh arc introduced a one-shot character named Tobias, who somehow managed to tame a ''Darkrai and Latios'' and won the Sinnoh League with them. |
| 51 | * Ito from ''Anime/PunchLine'' keeps a bear cub that acts somewhere between a cat and a dog. |
| 52 | * Subverted by Byakuen of ''Anime/RoninWarriors''. At first, he looks like a tamed tiger following Ryo around, but upon closer inspection, his brown eyes hint at his true nature as a re-incarnated human. Future behavior points to him being a priest like Kaosu and Shiten. |
| 53 | * [[NobleWolf Terry Cloth]] of ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' belongs to a species of giant wolves so fierce they are counted among the most powerful creatures in one of the few worlds in fiction with creatures powerful enough to rival ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' characters. Despite this, she's tame and not dangerous unless you give her a reason to be. |
| 54 | * The manga ''Wild Cats'' (not to be confused with ''ComicBook/WildCATsWildStorm'') features a tame lion named Caesar (incidentally, a female) as the protagonist. The little boy who adopted her as a cub believed she was just a large house cat, and kept her even after learning the truth. Caesar grows up to be cowardly, shy, and is somewhere between a cat and a dog in her behavior. |
| 55 | * In ''Anime/WolfsRain,'' this trope is tragically proven false with [[TheWoobie Toboe]]. Despite being the meekest wolf, he [[spoiler: accidentally killed the kind old lady who took him in and tried to raise him as a pet.]] It is violently fought by other characters in the series. |
| 56 | [[/folder]] |
| 57 | |
| 58 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 59 | * Possibly parodied in ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' in which Calvin frequently warns others of Hobbes' ferocity-- Hobbes appears to everyone else as a stuffed tiger. |
| 60 | * ''ComicStrip/MarkTrail'', which purports to educate readers about nature and responsible respect for wildlife, regularly features characters who keep raccoons, deer, even ''bears'' for pets. However, it makes it clear that the specific pet animals shown have been domesticated, often having plotlines where the tame bear or deer gets lost in the woods and is completely clueless about how to fend for itself. |
| 61 | [[/folder]] |
| 62 | |
| 63 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 64 | * In ''Fanfic/TheirBond'', Zelda takes in an orphaned half-dog, half-Wolfo pup that she finds injured in the forest and names him "Garo". It's mentioned that some pure Wolfo act like domestic dogs already, so a mutt will likely be tame enough to keep (especially since he didn't show aggression when Zelda took him home). |
| 65 | [[/folder]] |
| 66 | |
| 67 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 68 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', Jasmine has a pet tiger named Rajah. Not only does Rajah only tear people's clothes to see GoofyPrintUnderwear instead of tear them apart, but the sultan can scream at Rajah without any sort of worry. Rajah also acts more like a guard dog than a domesticated cat, growling at Aladdin when he gets too close to Jasmine the first time. |
| 69 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Balto}}'' is a stray wolf-dog hybrid with little socialization from with either humans or dogs yet he acts perfectly tame. First generation wolfdogs are notoriously unpredictable and can be aggressive, likewise with feral dogs. Balto's feral wolfdog nature makes [[JerkassHasAPoint people's distrust of him]] less like FantasticRacism and more legit sounding. The real Balto was a trained Husky (or possibly a Malamute). |
| 70 | * The film ''WesternAnimation/{{How to Train Your Dragon|2010}}'' (as well as the spin-off series ''WesternAnimation/DragonsRidersOfBerk'') is a subversion of this. While the dragons can be trained/tamed, they are not domesticated and wild dragons are considered extremely dangerous. It actually takes Hiccup several days just to earn Toothless's trust before he could approach the dragon, much less ride him. This is helped by the fact that it seems like dragons -- particularly Toothless -- are [[AmplifiedAnimalAptitude smarter than real-life non-human animals]], making it less of a domestication and more of a partnership. |
| 71 | * ''WesternAnimation/OpenSeason'' has a grizzly bear named Boog who lives in a forest ranger's garage, has his own pet bed and favorite toy, and gets fishy crackers as treats. She even sings him to sleep. |
| 72 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'': During the song "Colors of the Wind", Pocahontas takes John Smith to a mother bear's cave and plays with her cubs in front of her to show him the importance of respecting nature, without the bear laying a paw on either of them. |
| 73 | [[/folder]] |
| 74 | |
| 75 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 76 | * Subverted in ''Film/BringingUpBaby''. Baby the leopard is fairly docile most of the time, but most of the cast is well aware that he is still a large and potentially dangerous animal that could do some damage if unhappy. Played straight when everyone mistakes a temperamental and vicious circus leopard for the tame Baby. |
| 77 | * ''Film/CryWilderness'' plays this maddeningly straight, with pretty much every animal featured acting domesticated towards the protagonists. Naturally, when the film was featured on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', the riffers got a lot of mileage out of mocking this (or just encouraging the animals to maul the characters). |
| 78 | * The documentary ''Film/GrizzlyMan'' averts this trope: {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Timothy Treadwell spends thirteen summers hanging out with grizzly bears, respectfully admiring the bears from afar. It was only after spending season after season around the same pair that he was able to get closer and closer to them, to where they were comfortable with him cuddling with them. He'd probably have been lauded as a semi-deluded but amazing documentarian, but after one season he missed a plane out of Alaska and decided to go back to the woods. He encountered another set of bears, one he'd never seen before, [[TooDumbToLive but assumed he would be just as "in touch" with them as the pair he'd known for near a decade]]. |
| 79 | * ''Film/{{Help}}'' has a zoo tiger that is theoretically man-eating -- unless everyone [[MusicSoothesTheSavageBeast sings]] Beethoven's ''Ode to Joy'' in German. Everyone does, and it never lays a paw on Ringo. |
| 80 | * ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' features a monkey who runs around and helps... usually Barbossa, but he's a bit of a mercenary. As the commentators of the [=DVDs=] are quick to tell you, that monkey was not nearly so helpful, friendly, fun, or cute for the filming process and we are seeing only the best bits. |
| 81 | * A similar tale is told of dealing with the monkey in ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', which took a violent dislike to the actor playing its best buddy in the movie. |
| 82 | * Both used and inverted in ''Film/SecondhandLions''. The protagonist's rich uncles buy a retired circus lion to hunt, but when they see how old and pathetic it is, they let the kid keep it as a pet. He feeds her through her crate and is afraid when she escapes. After that she just moves into the cornfield and the kid continues to feed her. He's never shown petting the lion or otherwise interacting directly with her, she's treated fairly realistically as an animal that needs a lot of space and can't be fully tamed. The lion's only other action in the movie is to attack someone threatening the boy, and apparently die of a heart attack during the excitement. |
| 83 | * ''Film/{{Nope}}'' is a big aversion to this all the way through. Wild animals being used as entertainment and harming people is a major theme of the film, beginning with a chimpanzee freaking out and killing multiple people on the set of a popular sitcom and culminating with [[spoiler: an alien creature that resembles a classic flying saucer eating everyone at a rodeo because they all looked at it, which it interpreted as a threat]]. |
| 84 | [[/folder]] |
| 85 | |
| 86 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 87 | * Bella makes this mistake in ''Literature/ADogsWayHome''. She's a dog and thinks other animals think like dogs as well. While traveling in the mountains, she adopts an orphaned cougar cub she dubs "Big Kitten". Bella herself was raised by a feral cat, so she understands how cats (at least, domestic cats) work. For much of the book Bella fantasizes about herself and Big Kitten living with her owners, but in the end she realizes Big Kitten refuses to leave the forest. Big Kitten isn't like her, or even Mother Cat, so the two end up parting ways. |
| 88 | * Ayla in Jean Auel's ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' saga has, as one of her many, many awesome abilities, managed to tame not only a wild horse but a cave lion, a pet wolf and by the end of the series the horse's two foals. |
| 89 | * Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/FoundationAndEarth'': When the main characters visit a planet whose human inhabitants have been gone for centuries, the feral dogs take them by surprise. Trevize then spends half a chapter (sitting in a tree, naturally) reflecting upon how there are no dangerous fauna (or flora, it seems) after twenty thousand years of humans domesticating the galaxy. |
| 90 | * ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'' (and the [[Series/GameOfThrones TV series]]) has each of the Stark children given a dire wolf pup because it's the symbol of their house. Most of them turn out all right, but Shaggydog, 4-year-old Rickon's dire wolf, winds up semi-feral -- [[EmpathyPet not unlike his owner]], who grows increasingly wild from lack of parental supervision. |
| 91 | * In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', Hagrid believes this trope is true, though it's averted. This is PlayedForLaughs as Hagrid attempts to take care of several species of magical wild animals. He usually names them something ridiculous (like Fluffy the three-headed dog) and incurs many, many injuries for his trouble. It actually makes him bad at his teaching job, since he forgets normal children can't shrug off injury like he can. In the third book Draco ignores even the precautions Hagrid tells him to take when meeting a hippogriff and gets injured for his trouble. |
| 92 | * Defied in ''Literature/LifeOfPi''. Pi and his brother live at a zoo, so their father makes ''damned'' sure the kids know that the animals are dangerous and are not their playmates. He does this by not feeding a tiger for three days, then making them watch as he feeds it a live goat, then going around to every animal in the zoo and explaining in graphic detail how they can maim and kill you. Pi takes this knowledge to heart, and it's a big reason why he's able to survive for so long on a lifeboat with said tiger. |
| 93 | * ''Literature/ALionInTheMeadow'': The lion eventually becomes a "house lion" in the revised ending. Justified in that he's a VegetarianCarnivore and can talk. |
| 94 | * Pretty much any animal that the protagonists of ''Literature/TheMysteriousIsland'' bother to capture, as opposed to shoot and eat on sight, is readily domesticated without much fuss or any setbacks. This includes animals which violently resist captivity in real life, such as onagers and bighorn sheep. |
| 95 | * A nasty subversion occurs in ''Literature/OryxAndCrake'' with the wolvogs, which are genetically engineered guard dogs. They look like dogs and act like dogs, even wagging their tails and playing like housepets, but if you get near them, they'll rip your throat out in a heartbeat. It's worth noting that this behavior was not just the result of [[LegoGenetics cranking up the aggression on a normal dog while leaving everything else intact]]. They were explicitly designed and trained to act cute and cuddly until they were within striking range, as a means of lulling would-be (soon-to-be-ex)trespassers into a false sense of security. The world of Oryx and Crake is not a nice one at all. |
| 96 | * Marc in ''[[Literature/TheLordsOfCreation The Sky People]]'' rescues a greatwolf pup early on and trains him. A couple of characters point out how dangerous that should be, but otherwise the trope is played straight: Right from the get-go Tahyo behaves like a normal, very loyal dog (albeit a very large one.) He even behaves well around small children. |
| 97 | * In ''Literature/TheSpaceTrilogy'', all the animal inhabitants of Perelandra regard the first [[HumanAlien human-like life-forms]] to evolve on Perelandra as trusted masters whom they are proud to serve, and, by extension, treat Earth-human visitors the same way - which is bad news for them if some of the visitors are sadists who enjoy torturing small animals. Justified in that Perelandra is an unfallen, Eden-like world whose natives enjoy the same status that Adam and Eve did before the Fall, and that complex life seems to have evolved here without the need for predation, so none of the animals have aggressive instincts. Most of the animals that spend most time interacting with Perelandrans are highly intelligent, and towards the end of the book, the Perelandrans are hoping to uplift some species to sapience. Although at the start, the Perelandrans assume that any intelligent life-form that evolved since the time of Jesus will be human in form, it seems quite possible that Perelandra will end up similar to Narnia, as a society of numerous intelligent species traditionally ruled by a human king (except that in this case, this will mean a HumanAlien rather than an Earth-Human). |
| 98 | * In the children's book ''Strictly No Elephants'' by Lisa Mantchev, the protagonist has a pet [[FunSize tiny]] elephant. He tries to join a local pet club, but the other kids with their more traditional pets don't allow elephants. When he meets a girl with a pet skunk, who was also not admitted, [[StartMyOwn they form their own club]], which includes such pets as a bat, a penguin, a small giraffe, and even a tiny narwhal in a fishbowl. The same animals appear in ''Someday, Narwhal'' by the same author. |
| 99 | * ''Testimony Before an Emergency Session of the Naval Cephalopod Command'' by Seth Dickinson has a MadScientist explaining to the eponymous Command why a giant squid--trained and enhanced to detect Soviet nuclear subs--has gone OffTheRails and is trying to start WorldWarThree. Turns out treating a giant squid like ''Series/{{Flipper}}'' when it has BlueAndOrangeMorality is a bad idea. |
| 100 | * Zigzagged in ''Literature/WarriorCats''. The characters are all domesticated cats however they live in feral colonies called "Clans". Clan cats live in a forest near twolegs (humans) but try their best to avoid contact with them. Very few clan cats are ex-pets due to FantasticRacism against "kittypets". Despite the fact most are completely feral, a few have been taken in by twolegs as adults and become kittypets. Feral cats are only considered adoptable if they're kittens; adults are too skittish and aggressive to make good pets. Some instances have ended up more realistically though. For example, Graystripe was temporarily taken in by twolegs however he didn't make a good kittypet. He was wary of his twolegs and shredded his toys. Cloudtail was raised in the forest from 1-month and when he was "kidnapped" by humans he ran off the first chance he got. |
| 101 | * In the Creator/JamesPatterson novel that inspired the ''Series/{{Zoo}}'' television series, the protagonist keeps a chimpanzee in his New York apartment. The fact that it goes berserk and kills its baby-sitter in the protagonist's absence is treated as solely a result of the global animal-attack phenomenon, and not a tragically-predictable consequence of keeping a notoriously-unmanageable primate twice as strong as a human in the confines of a small flat. |
| 102 | [[/folder]] |
| 103 | |
| 104 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 105 | * One episode of ''Series/{{Endgame}}'' revolved around a man who keeps a polar bear as a pet. When the bear was just a cub everything was fine but the bear grew up and now is becoming a major problem. The bear is getting too big to be kept in the garage and the owner has gone broke trying to feed it. The protagonists [[spoiler: ultimately manage to keep everyone safe and have the bear transferred to wildlife refuge in the Arctic]]. At the end the owner still does not fully understand how stupid and unintentionally cruel he was. |
| 106 | * Many of the misguided exotic-animal owners on Animal Planet's ''Series/FatalAttractions2010'' are TruthInTelevision examples of how mistaking this trope for reality can get you killed or maimed. Unfortunately, the show ruins the reputation for people that actually can deal with such animals as pets, to the point the movement to ban ''all'' exotic pets -- even genuinely safe ones like boa constrictors or domesticated ferrets -- has gone way too far. |
| 107 | * ''Series/TheHardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries'' notably averts this in "Mystery of Witches Hollow", where a trained panther is guarding a missing man (Callie Shaw's uncle) that the Hardys are trying to find. A '''very''' nervous Joe Hardy tries to trap it (the cat snarling, attacking, and decidedly NOT cooperating) by working a broom under its collar, but only succeeds in making it angry and attacking until the uncle distracts the hungry panther with a piece of meat -- also warns both Frank & Joe to keep away and that it's not a house pet. Joe (i.e. the actor [[TeenIdol Shaun Cassidy]]) looks far too relieved when he finally succeeds -- EnforcedMethodActing, perhaps? |
| 108 | * Not far into Season 1 of ''Series/LostInSpace'', Penny adopts a chimpanzee-like alien whom she names Debbie. After they find the alien, the parents quickly acquiesce to Penny's request to adopt Debbie, as if it were as benign as letting her keep a pet goldfish or an ant farm. This in spite of the fact that the alien chimpanzee was wild, and that earth chimpanzees in real life have been known to attack and maim human beings when someone inadvertently presses their BerserkButton. |
| 109 | ** In another Season 1 episode, Penny is also seen riding around on a turtle-like creature. |
| 110 | ** For all their apparent lack of concern about potential harm from alien animals, the Robinsons (but not Dr. Smith) did play it safe about the fruit they found in the episode "The Oasis," which they forbade the children or anyone else to eat until it could be thoroughly tested. |
| 111 | [[/folder]] |
| 112 | |
| 113 | [[folder:Toys]] |
| 114 | * In ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'', the [[StandardEvilOrganizationSquad Barraki]] have efficiently managed to tame squid, insects, eels, giant crabs, giant turtles, rays, and sharks into armies that they can lead into battle. Some of this could be considered [[JustifiedTrope justified]] considering at least half of their armies are [[MechanicalLifeforms biomechanical lifeforms]] with both some kind of understandable programming language and an existing social structure. [[SharkMan Pridak]] is specifically stated to have asserted himself as the alpha shark. |
| 115 | [[/folder]] |
| 116 | |
| 117 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 118 | * Nearly all creatures in ''VideoGame/ArkSurvivalEvolved'' can be hand-tamed by humans, not just the dinosaurs. This is implicitly because they were genetically altered or manufactured to be so by the creators of the Arks. |
| 119 | * In some of the "classic" ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' games you can befriend and ride a (baby) tiger or ''dinosaur''. |
| 120 | * Most wildlife in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' can be captured in cages and turned into pets by dwarves with the Animal Training labor, from stuff like lions to bears to gila monsters to giant rhesus macaques. Trained animals slowly revert back to wilderness over time, and as such require constant retraining. Certain animals like dogs, leopards and elephants can be given war or hunting training, increasing their combat prowess. If a trained animal breeds and you train the offspring before it reaches adulthood, they become permanently tame (you can't domesticate wildlife in a civilization-wide manner, but future fortresses made in the same world will start with a bonus to how easily they can train animals already trained elsewhere). |
| 121 | * Defied in ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', when Ellie excitedly points out some dogs in an abandoned suburb, Joel warns her that those are wild dogs and she needs to keep her distance (the dogs run away as you approach). |
| 122 | * Heavily used, somewhat zigzagged, and probably justified in ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''. |
| 123 | ** Every single one of these superpowered magical beasts, based on everything from pot plants to jellyfish to dinosaurs and dragons, can be relatively easily captured, [[DefeatMeansFriendship instantly tamed]] and may well come to act like a family pet. And why yes, this does mean you can have [[FluffyTamer various kinds of giant monsters]] [[GentleGiant acting like a friendly dog]]. |
| 124 | ** Don't mess with a wild one, though. Wild versions of even the common Bidoof and Starly are apparently so dangerous that travel between towns is considered extremely reckless without a Pokémon for your protection. |
| 125 | ** Slight aversion: Traded Pokémon (that is, tamed by a different human) at high levels may ignore your authority and act independently until you prove your "dominance"... with gym badges. |
| 126 | ** The games also avert it in that captured Pokémon start with low affection. You're not instantly friends with them, just [[DefeatMeansPlayable their trainers.]] You need to gain their trust though ThePowerOfFriendship, and even then your trustworthy Pokémon can ignore you if they don't see you as worthy of being obeyed (i.e. you're not their original trainer and you don't have the right badges). |
| 127 | * With ''VideoGame/{{Rimworld}}'' being basically ''Dwarf Fortress'' [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace in space]], animal handling works mostly identical. However, Earth-like animals found on the Rim are almost universally genetically modified variants of the creatures we're familiar with, with many of them being specifically tailored for ease of domestication so that future colonists would have an easier time getting settled in. The most common household and farm animals like horses, dromedaries, buffalo-esque muffalos and dogs are so docile that pretty much anyone can tame them. The most extreme examples, namely cows, sheep and goat, are literally incapable of surviving in the wild on their own, meaning they can only be acquired from traders and are never even met in a feral state. On the flipside, while almost any creature can be tamed eventually, most really don't like being bothered by pesky humans, and attempting to interact with them without extremely high animal handling skills will usually result in your colonists getting torn apart in no time flat. |
| 128 | * Defied in ''VideoGame/TheSims2'', where if your Sim tries to pet a skunk, he/she will get sprayed by said skunk. On the other hand, [[SomewhereAnOrnithologistIsCrying you can put kestrels in your birdcage]] and they act just like parrots (which are themselves only semi-domesticated, but still easier to tame than any raptor.) |
| 129 | * Zigzagged in ''VideoGame/MarvelsSpiderMan2'': Peter can encounter a tiger owned by the Hunters that is tame...ish, but will still tear anyone who gets close to pieces at a moment's notice, meaning he has to sedate it before he can progress. |
| 130 | * Despite the protagonist of ''VideoGame/{{Stray|2022}}'' being a feral cat born long after humanity is gone, they still interact with the robots of the City like a domestic housecat would with humans. |
| 131 | * ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' plays this straight with the Hunter class and their "Tame" ability. Granted, some animals can't be tamed no matter what, and there's always a risk of being killed by a prospective pet, but once that's over with, you've got yourself a faithful companion be it a wild lion or ravenous hyena... or a giant devilsaur. |
| 132 | [[/folder]] |
| 133 | |
| 134 | [[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 135 | * Averted in ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}''. Dr Bowman was part of a weapons program to create supersoldiers from genetically engineered chimpanzees. The engineering was a success, but the program failed because they still behaved like very un-domesticated chimpanzees and were completely useless as soldiers due to their refusal to follow orders. |
| 136 | ** Also with Florence, one of the main characters. Although very dog-like, she was actually engineered from wolves. The reason only a small number were created is the need to prove they are safe around humans, since they're not actually just intelligent dogs. |
| 137 | * ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}'': While the wolves moving into the neighborhood caused quite a stir, they're friendly enough and seem to be able to integrate without too much trouble. They're all sapient however, so it works. |
| 138 | * ''Webcomic/ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings'': Played with. In the generic spacefuture, they used genetic engineering to resurrect raptors, which were exactly as wild and dangerous as you would expect of animals that evolved long before humans existed. Even Jet, the expert animal tamer, simply couldn't tame them. They were re-engineered again to get all those dangerous instincts ironed out, which had the surprising side effect of making them adorable multicolored balls of fluff. Unfortunately, while they now follow orders, they don't have the aggression to carry out the missions you would need an attack animal for. They do make good thieves, though. |
| 139 | * Subverted in ''Webcomic/PennyAndAggie'', where [[http://www.pennyandaggie.com/index.php?p=896 this]] happens. |
| 140 | [[/folder]] |
| 141 | |
| 142 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 143 | * ''WebVideo/BumReviews'': Lampshaded by Chester A. Bum when talking about ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda1''. |
| 144 | -->'''Chester:''' Although, don't try to train a real panda to do kung fu. Th-They don't like that. They mostly maul you. |
| 145 | * ''Website/ChickenSmoothie'': Multiple wild animals are available as pets, such as foxes, zebras, and lions. |
| 146 | [[/folder]] |
| 147 | |
| 148 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 149 | * Subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', when a depowered Superman (transported thousands of years into Earth's future by what was believed to be a DeathRay) is confronted by a pack of post-apocalyptic wolf creatures. He first tries to command them to stand down using all of the typical trained dog orders (stay, sit, heel, etc.), but they don't listen. It's only after he fights them off, kills their Alpha, and makes a coat out of its hide that they finally listen to him (and act much more like domesticated sled dogs, as a result). |
| 150 | * Occasionally appears in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', but mostly through Fluttershy -- a combination of strong Animal Affinity and a super-powered DeathGlare allow her to tame [[FriendToBugs bugs]], [[BearsAreBadNews bears]], and [[FantasyKitchenSink dragons]], to name a few. This only happens because her magic allows her to communicate with them on a level that noone else can. |
| 151 | * ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Lion tends to act less like a wild animal and more like a giant house-cat, though it's implied to be because Rose tamed him. |
| 152 | * Averted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys''; even though Eliza can talk to animals and understand them, she brings a bottle of water to a mother cheetah and her cubs because they are suffering from an extended drought. After drinking the momma cheetah now wants to hunt the slowest prey that she can see, ''namely Eliza.'' Only a last second save keeps the girl from being cheetah-chow. |
| 153 | [[/folder]] |
| 154 | |
| 155 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 156 | * Chimpanzees are a very, ''very'' serious aversion of this trope. As infants, they can be tamed, and are generally playful, friendly, and trainable. However, once they become sexually mature, they become incredibly strong, and in males, often very aggressive, which is why most trained chimps seen in movies and TV are invariably babies. An adult male chimp can inflict terrible damage onto people if suddenly provoked, most infamously with the case of Travis the chimpanzee who ''tore apart his owner's friend's face and arms off'' before being shot by police. |
| 157 | * Spotted hyenas are the second largest predators in Africa, and largely feared for their raids on towns, sometimes even killing small children. However in [[http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161207-the-man-who-lives-with-hyenas Harar, Ethiopia]] they are invited into the community, as many believe their laughter frightens away evil spirits, with some residents even hand-feeding the hyenas bones from the butchers'. |
| 158 | * This trope is so prevalent that it's spawned a sub-trope of its own in Canadian media: the tourist, either American or Japanese, who tries to pet the bear and/or moose. |
| 159 | * Cheetahs can be fairly easily tamed and are fairly harmless to humans in the wild. This is because cheetahs are [[CripplingOverspecialization adapted to hunt a narrow list of prey]] and humans are nowhere near being on that list. They tend to be skittish around everything else due to their light build. Their popularity as exotic pets is more responsible for their being endangered in the wild than hunting is. |
| 160 | * Pretty much every jurisdiction where cougars ([[IHaveManyNames pumas, mountain lions, catamounts, or whatever]]) are found has to vigorously remind people not to try to treat them like housecats. It doesn't help that there are some well-known Website/YouTube content creators that have actual pet cougars (like Russian pet cougar [[https://www.youtube.com/@Iampuma Messi]]). They are probably relatively easy to tame like cheetahs above, but are ''not nearly as docile'' in the wild. |
| 161 | -->'''Common idiom:''' If I am ever killed by a cougar, rest assured that my last words were "Here, kitty, kitty." |
| 162 | * Binturong, also known as a bear-cat (but it's closer to a cross between a cat and a sloth, also being closer to civets than to cats), are roughly dog sized and look like large raccoons. They are passive around humans but very curious, so they may walk right up and start sniffing the trail-mix in your pocket. It's not uncommon for a Binturong to have a friendly manner and many people do keep them as pets. |
| 163 | * Laughing Kookaburras are often so tame that they will eat food out of people's hands, and allow belly rubs. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyU7I-rbS08 Here's a video of a human petting several.]] |
| 164 | * Shoebill storks, despite their terrifying appearance, are actually fairly tame, and often even welcome the presence of humans with a sort of playful curiosity. |
| 165 | [[/folder]] |
| 166 |
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