History Main / ForebodingFleeingFlock

AlwaysABiggerFish is a possible cause for this. See also EvilDetectingDog, PortentOfDoom, BatScare, CanaryInACoalMine, DisturbedDoves, AStormIsComing, ScaredOfWhatsBehindYou, InvadingRefugees, and FollowTheChaos. Compare DontAskJustRun. If the animals or birds have already left the area before the protagonists arrive, see ItsQuietTooQuiet. If particularly dangerous and aggressive animals flee and ignore everything else, see WhyIsntItAttacking.

* ''Film/DarkWasTheNight'': A sign of the monster's coming is how ''every'' animal in the area from the deer herds to the flocks of birds to the priests dog has vanished (whether they sensed the creature and ran or have been killed is unclear).
-->'''Earl:''' Animal senses a threat, it tends not to hang around.
* ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow''. When Sam, Brian, and Laura arrive in New York, they're puzzled to find countless flocks of squawking birds flying south. Dissolve to another scene at the zoo where all of the animals are raising ruckus, much to the zookeepers' confusion.

Most animals have much better senses than humans, and as such they are better at detecting an approaching danger and responding appropriately. One good sign of impending trouble is a swarm of animals fleeing away from it, especially if they're predators fleeing past or even with their prey. Often people find themselves in front of said fleeing swarm without realizing the reason they're fleeing. Alternatively, they take it as a sign they're getting close to the source of the trouble if they're intentionally investigating it.

** The [[TestosteronePoisoning Manotaurs]] are introduced when a bunch of forest animals -- and Manly Dan the lumberjack -- are seen running from Chutzpar, one of their members.
** When [[spoiler: Weirdmageddon]] starts, the flock now includes Chutzpar himself. [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg And some gnomes]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', this was done with spirits instead of animals. A bunch of spirits were fleeing from the collateral damage of a fight between [[GodOfGood Raava]] and [[GodOfEvil Vaatu]]. Later, the spirits are once again fleeing, though this time they're evacuating from Republic City because of [[BigBad Kuvira]]'s impending assault on the city.

** Episodes involving the Tasmanian Devil usually begin with all sorts of animals fleeing.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': In "Three Girls and a Monster," the girls fly into town to fight a particularly large monster. On their way they fly into a huge swarm of birds escaping the monster's destruction.

** Parodied in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E8HurricaneNeddy Hurricane Neddy]]", where Homer ignores the threat of a hurricane until he sees an animal fleeing ''too late'':

'''Homer:''' (gasp) Hurricane!! Somehow, the animals are always the first to know.
* At the beginning of the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' episode, "[[Recap/TinyToonAdventuresS1E18HareTodayGoneTomorrow Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow]]", Babs (as Tinkerbunny) is introducing the show when she gets run over by a swarm of animals, who are running from Elmyra Duff. A minute or so later, the animals run past Buster's burrow. Babs is now part of the swarm and warns Buster that Elmyra is coming.
* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama All-Stars'': When Chef goes to pick up "Mike" from Boney Island, he gets trampled by the hostile native wildlife as they flee from [[HydePlaysJekyll Mal]]. Mal then stomps on Chef's fingers and greets him sinisterly.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungSamsonAndGoliath'' episode "Cold Wind From Venus". As Samson and Goliath ride their motorbike they notice flocks of birds and herds of deer fleeing in the other direction. This is due to two robots from Venus imposing "environmental control" over the area -- i.e. reducing the air temperature to below zero.

** WesternAnimation/BugsBunny short "Super-Rabbit": after acquiring super powers similar to Franchise/{{Superman}}'s, Bugs flies to Texas to check out a man who hates rabbits and plans to kill all of them. When he arrives in Texas he finds a multitude of rabbits all running in the same direction. One of them tells Bugs "Run for your life! It's Cottontail Smith and he's gone plumb loco!" A few seconds later Smith appears holding a rifle.

* In a flashback in the Wano Arc of ''Manga/OnePiece'', Whitebeard and his crew approaching an island notice schools of fish, sharks, and even sea serpents fearfully swimming away, and once they land, witness the ferocious animals of the island running terrified from the interior. They guess there must be some fearsome monster present, and they're half right, because [[spoiler: it's the Roger Pirates]].

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'', a flock of ratbirds and Flint's pet monkey Steve are seen fleeing just before the big food storm.
* When farmer Fitzgibbons starts up his tractor in Creator/DonBluth's ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH'', Auntie Shrew sounds the alarm: "Run for your lives! It's Moving Day!" All the critters in the east field bug out, as the farmer's plow tends to obliterate anything in its path.

* Flocks of crows sound the alarm in ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'' whenever Man approaches.
* In ''WesternAnimation/FerngullyTheLastRainforest'', Crysta flies over the canopy for the first time and sees a plume of smoke over the horizon. She is then overcome by a flock of birds fleeing the source of the smoke -- a human logging team.
* While on a field trip in ''WesternAnimation/OnceUponAForest'', Cornelius and his young students regard a large flight of birds of assorted species all flying away from Dapplewood, screeching in alarm. This signals to the party that some disaster has befallen Dapplewood, and the young ones need to return home at once to assess the damage.
* In ''WesternAnimation/Home2015'', Oh and Tip discover that the Boov are flying alongside them, but are not attacking them. Turns out they were fleeing a Gorg drone.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheMonsterOfMexico'', a pack of wolves runs towards the gang -- then ''past'' them, away from the {{chupacabra}}.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In the book ''Literature/MethuselahsGift'', the story begins with the animals of the forest -- including the family of racoons it centers around -- running in unison from the fire.
* In the first chapter of ''Nomads of Literature/{{Gor}}'', Tarl sees people and animals fleeing in anticipation of the coming of the Wagon Peoples [sic], four fierce nomadic tribes who come together once every few years to discuss the possibility of making war on the city dwellers. Even a larl (a tigerlike animal the size of a small elephant) is seen trotting away.

* ''Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide'' mentions that all animal life on earth instinctively fears and runs away from zombies, so a conspicuous absence of animals or [[ItsQuietTooQuiet animal noise]] might be your first clue that the undead are nearby.
* In one book of the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'', Anakin Solo is fleeing a group of Yuuzhan Vong through the jungles of Yavin IV. His Force senses can't detect the Vong directly, but they ''can'' pick out where animals are fleeing or raising hell because of the strange creatures in their midst.

* In ''Film/{{Supervolcano}}'', the protagonists finally attain confirmation that an eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano is imminent. One of the scientists tries to play it down, in the hope that it won't be a major eruption. They're shaken by a massive rumbling, and discover a massive herd of bison evacuating the park. Only then does the cast realize how big the impending eruption will be. Later, as the magma finally begins shooting to the surface to start the eruption, a flock of birds quickly vacate the immediate area just before the first plume of the eruption goes off.

* At two points on the first level of ''VideoGame/SunsetRiders'', a flock of chickens will suddenly race onto the screen, clucking in alarm. They're followed seconds later by a herd of [[AnimalStampede stampeding bulls]].
* The Forest stage in ''VideoGame/GuardianHeroes'' ends like this, with a large pack of wolves running away right before the Boss jumps in.
* The ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' series likes to use this from time to time, with an increase of dangerous monsters caused by them fleeing from or being pushed out of their territory by a rampaging Elder Dragon or otherwise aberrant monster.
* The trailer for ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'' shows schools of fish seemingly fleeing the puzzled player character... as a colossal, monstrous-looking creature approaches from behind. [[spoiler: The creature is the Sea Emperor Leviathan, FriendToAllLivingThings. NeverTrustATrailer! ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'':
** The [[TestosteronePoisoning Manotaurs]] are introduced when a bunch of forest animals -- and Manly Dan the lumberjack -- are seen running from Chutzpar, one of their members.
** When [[spoiler: Weirdmageddon]] starts, the flock now includes Chutzpar himself. [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg And some gnomes]].
--->'''Gnome 1:''' Move it, stretch!\\
'''Gnome 2:''' Hey, we're scampering here!
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': In "Three Girls and a Monster," the girls fly into town to fight a particularly large monster. On their way they fly into a huge swarm of birds escaping the monster's destruction.
* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama All-Stars'': When Chef goes to pick up "Mike" from Boney Island, he gets trampled by the hostile native wildlife as they flee from [[HydePlaysJekyll Mal]]. Mal then stomps on Chef's fingers and greets him sinisterly.
* ''WesternAnimation/WatershipDown2018''. As the rabbits stare across the fields around Watership Down, they see a flock of birds take flight signifying the approach of General Woundwort's Owsla.

** Parodied in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E8HurricaneNeddy Hurricane Neddy]]":

* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': In the Season 10 episode “Morning Star”, the survivors sense Alpha and the Whisperer horde are on their way and prepare for battle. Towards dusk, a massive swarm of rats begins fleeing from the woods outside Hilltop’s walls, alerting the survivors that the massive horde of walkers is approaching.

* In the book ''Methuselah's Gift'', the story begins with the animals of the forest -- including the family of racoons it centers around -- running in unison from the fire.

* ''LightNovel/KnightsAndMagic'' features this, with Ernesti's moment to shine coming when a huge herd of Demons flees through his school's patrol trip fleeing a massive Division-class[[note]]As in: "Would take an army division (of HumongousMecha to boot) to fight"[[/note]] Behemoth.

* Invoked in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'', when Scar has the hyenas cause a wildebeest stampede as a trap for both Simba and Mufasa. Also, a few seconds before the stampede appears a flock of birds can be seen taking off.

* In the film adaptation of Creator/StephenKing's ''Film/{{Dreamcatcher}}'', Our Intrepid Heroes see a mass migration of all sorts of wildlife from their hunting cabin in the middle of the forest. One guy asks where they're all going, and one of his friend asks, "Better question... what are they all running from?"
* ''Film/{{Earthquake}}'' (1975): a seismologist is setting some sensors inside a fault located in a farmer's field. The farm animals all go running just before a tremor causes the fissure to cave in on the hapless scientist.

* In ''Film/JurassicPark'', Dr. Grant pauses to appreciate how a group of gallimimus move "just like a flock of birds evading a predator." He doesn't know how right he is. Also a rare case where the flock themselves are a threat, as our heroes need to get out of their way to avoid being trampled.
-->'''Tim''': They're, uh... they're 'flocking' this way.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/{{Tintin}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prairie_fire.png]]]]

* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon 2000}}'', the wild Pokemon start reacting to the impeding disaster that will summon Lugia. Professor Oak mentions that Pokemon are much more in tune with nature than humans.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E8HurricaneNeddy Hurricane Neddy]]": As a hurricane nears Springfield, Homer sees some animals literally blowing in the wind and he reacts as if they're "magically" able to sense when a hurricane is coming.

'''Homer:''' Somehow, the animals are always the first to know.