How many works does a species have to appear before they're no longer considered obscure?
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Do earwigs count? Because I didn't see them that much in fiction save for a show I would add on the list if they count.
I'm mainly a fan of underrated media.
I don't see why hyenas are listed here. It's claimed that hyenas seldom appeared in media before The Lion King - but that's simply not true. The "laughing hyena" is a stock background character in many cartoons; from Disney alone, there's one in Dumbo, Lady And The Tramp and Bedknobs And Broomsticks - all pre-dating The Lion King with several decades. Then there's Hardy Har Har from the Hanna-Barbera cartoons or Joker's attack "dogs" from Batman The Animated Series.
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Would Lying Cat from Saga count? I'd say a decent amount of people know what a Sphynx Cat is, but the breed very rarely shows up in fiction or real life, due to hairless cats being deemed "ugly" by a lot of people.
Edited by GovernorExplosion “Dude, sucking at something is the first step to being sorta good at something!” - Jake the Dog
Do Komodo Dragons count? Cuz I don't really see them much beyond animal documentaries.
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Welcome, traveller, welcome to Omsk
Does anyone agree with me that the examples from David Attenborough shows and other nature documentaries should be axed? The whole point of nature programmes is that they provide information about all sorts of wild animals, not just the best-known ones.
It does not matter who I am. What matters is, who will you become? - motto of Omsk Bird Hide / Show Replies
In which case, I think they'd count as justified examples. And there might still be some merit to them, considering that documentaries on well-known animals (like lions, chimpanzees, elephants, etc.) probably still outnumber those that focus on less well known animals.
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Maybe I'm missing something, but the trope does not mention anything about being "well known" or not. Surely any species that is not often seen in fictional works qualifies, regardless of whether the general public is well aware of their existence?
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I sure hope so, since I'd be disturbed if some of the animals mentioned here are "little-known".
It does not matter who I am. What matters is, who will you become? - motto of Omsk Bird
There's a lot of aardvarks, anteaters, and mongeese in this list. The question is, are they at the fringes of well-known or at the top of seldom-seen?
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It's mongooses, not mongeese. Anyways, I've removed all the anteater or aardvark examples, I think they're very well-known animals. I don't know about mongooses.
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In western animation - How about Perry the platypus from Phineus and Ferb?
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Debateble. Platypodes are pretty popular - and almost everyone knows what a platypus is. Not being commonly known is one of the main requirments for this trope.
Merged with Small Taxonomy Pools per TRS:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16632342920.90922700&page=2#comment-36
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.