History Main / MisplacedWildlife

* ''Film/AVPAlienVsPredator'' is set in MysteriousAntarctica and has a CatScare involving a penguin. Problem is, the bird shown is an ''African'' penguin, only found in, well, Africa.

* More of a translation problem, but nearly every animal in an anime referred to as a raccoon is in reality a raccoon dog (or ''tanuki''), a completely unrelated animal. Raccoons are native to the Americas. Some, depending on the date, may be referring to actual raccoons since they are an invasive species now found in 42 out of 47 prefectures. ''Rascal the Raccoon'' is a 1977 anime series with a main character that is a raccoon. At the time it was very popular, leading to around 1,500 raccoons that were imported as pets each year after the success of the anime series, so it became something of a SelfFulfillingProphecy.

* A Eurasian blackbird is seen during Rainbow Quartz's song in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture''. Rainbow Quartz is based on Mary Poppins, so this is likely a nod to the film example above.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' cartoon show, skunks which are North American creatures can be found in the medieval Europe period Smurf Forest. The comic books are a little bit more accurate as they feature polecats instead of skunks.

** The first challenge in "[[Recap/TotalDramaAwwwwwwDrumheller Awwwwww, Drumheller]]" has the contestants digging up dinosaur bones, with Alejandro finding a complete ''Allosaurus'' skeleton. While Drumheller, Alberta, is famous for its plethora of dinosaur fossils, ''Allosaurus'' specimens are only known from the United States and Portugal. Furthermore, ''Allosaurus'' is a Jurassic dinosaur, with all of Drumheller's dinosaurs being from the Cretaceous.

* ''VideoGame/TheWindRoad'' have you fighting Arctic wolves in Ming Dynasty China, despite being an animal of American origin. They're abundant and all over the woods as well, for some reason. However this was averted when you fight a bear ''in the desert'' - said animal is the Gobi Bear, a real-life animal.

* ''WesternAnimation/101DalmatiansTheSeries'' has an alligator named Steven, despite the fact that this species doesn't live there.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

* ''Anime/DrStone'', bizarrely, despite being so good at other aspects of accurately depicting the world, has American Alligators on the west coast of the USA--specifically in the Sacramento River--when their natural range is solely the south-east and Gulf coasts.

* The ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'' games take everything that would make a realistic setting and gleefully throw it out the window, as can be expected from a series that places [[AnachronismStew vending machines]] in [[WelcomeToTheCaribbeanMon 17th century Caribbean]]. It comes with plenty of {{lampshad|eHanging}}ing.

* In ''Film/TheRevenant'', Wild boar are seen scavenging at an abandoned campsite. Wild boar are native to Europe and Asia, and while they have since been introduced to parts of North America (and feral pigs are now widely distributed in the southern US), they would not have been present in Montana or the Dakotas in the 1800s.

* The Rook Islands' location in ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' are left vague (it's said to be somewhere in borders of the Indian and Pacific oceans), but the animals on the islands are obviously not supposed to live together (i.e. [[PantheraAwesome tigers]] live in Asia, [[FeatheredFiend cassowaries]] live in Australia and New Guinea). {{Justified|Trope}} by the pirates, who use the islands as staging areas for their trade in exotic animals. The animals aren't all native to the islands; they were brought there and escaped.

** Generally speaking, the Pokémon world is [[EarthDrift very loosely]] based on the real world, yet many Pokémon are based on animals that wouldn't be found in the wild of the places that Pokémon regions are based on. However, such cases rarely qualify for the trope InUniverse; i.e. Phanpy and Donphan are Pokémon native to Johto, irregardless of real elephants' population in Japan. That's not to say that there ''aren't'' In-Universe examples, however, with certain games featuring Pokémon that aren't native to the region in which they are found.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' is generally consistent about where on Mira particular species are found. [[BonusBoss Tyrants,]] however, can be found on different continents from where their species would normally be found, like a tyrant Simius wandering around the plains of Primordia instead of the jungles of Noctilum.

* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs had Literature/{{Tarzan}} fight a tiger at least once. Also lions, which live in Africa but on the savanna, not the jungle. To Burroughs' credit, he realized the mistake and removed the tiger when the serialized ''Tarzan of the Apes'' was collected as a novel. The only other tiger to appear in the novels occurs in ''Tarzan and the Foreign Legion'' which is set on Sumatra, which does have tigers.

* ''Creator/JulesVerne'', of all people, could sometimes fall into this, even though he usually tried to explain it. Especially in ''The Mysterious Island'', where the island in question was the last remnant of a sunken continent which connected Australia, Asia and the Americas, which is why kangaroos and agoutis live on the same island.
* The posthumous Creator/AlexandreDumas novel ''Le Chevalier de Sainte-Hermine'' features alligators, vampire bats (only mentioned by the main character) and the Kraken (mentioned by the narrator) as creatures that can be encountered in the jungles and lakes of, wait for it... ''India''.

* In 2007, [[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/nov/17/wildlife a minke whale]] was found 1000 miles up the Amazon river. Scientists weren't sure how it had ended up that far from the ocean but suspected it may have become disoriented due to illness or injury near the Amazon's mouth and subsequently become lost and disoriented.

* ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' features oryxes really close to a war-ravaged city, [[spoiler:and one appears in the middle of downtown after an explosion and inrush of thirsty people that'd scare off any skittish prey like an antelope. [[{{Hallucinations}} They might even not be real]]. The [[NightmareFuel/SpecOpstheLine Nightmare Fuel page for the game]] has more details]].

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' apparently featured what appeared to be emperor penguins (native only to Antarctica) living on various planets that otherwise have a tropical setting. And the inhabitants of the ice planets are ''bunnies''. They could have been ''king'' penguins however, since they look similar to emperor penguins, but live in somewhat more temperate climates. Seems to be an in universe example as well, as those penguins appear to be based on the ones from ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', which were exclusive to the ice world.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' apparently featured what appeared to be [[EverythingsBetterWithPenguins emperor penguins]] (native only to Antarctica) living on various planets that otherwise have a tropical setting. And the inhabitants of the ice planets are ''bunnies''. They could have been ''king'' penguins however, since they look similar to emperor penguins, but live in somewhat more temperate climates. Seems to be an in universe example as well, as those penguins appear to be based on the ones from ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'', which were exclusive to the ice world.

* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': Lampshaded and subverted in "Scott of the Antarctic", where an egotistical film star throws a tantrum when he is informed that the lion that he is supposed to fight doesn't live in the Antarctic. A compromise is worked out, and the movie gets a different setting and a new title: "Scott of the Sahara." Then they go and leave in the part where another character in the film fights [[EverythingsBetterWithPenguins a penguin]] (a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot 20-foot tall electric penguin with tentacles]]).

* Inverted in ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight''. Snowbird can turn into an all-white version of any animal, but was originally limited to those native to Canada. When she fights a villain who creates a blinding snowstorm, she thinks about how the echolocation of a bat would be useful, but couldn't turn into one because she claims there are no bats in Canada. In real life, Canada is home to at least 18 native bat species.

* ''Film/TarzanTheApeMan'' had Asian elephants disguised as African by [[PortrayedByDifferentSpecies attaching cardboard tusks and ears to them]]. They got rid of the disguise in the sequels. This was probably done because African elephants are notoriously difficult to train.

* ''WesternAnimation/SimbaENatoUnRe'' has lions, tigers, gray wolves, leopards, and pythons all living in the same jungle.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SeaPrincesses'', Elektra is the Princess of the Electric Eels: a creature that does dwell in the sea.

* In ''Film/TenThousandBC'', woolly mammoths built pyramids that resemble the Egyptian ones. Even a layman should be able to figure out giant woolly animals wouldn't live anywhere near a desert, though in all fairness it's quite clear that they were deliberately captured and brought there for use as laborers just like the human slaves, not that they're actually native to the desert. But even accounting for that, they're a remarkably poor choice for the job given that plenty of other, non-woolly mammoths and other elephant relatives existed that would be better able to handle the heat. Then there's the [[FeatheredFiend Terror Birds]] in the jungle, which were probably meant to be (South American) Phorusrhacids. More likely, they were there so that the producers could say they ''technically'' had [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs dinosaurs]] chasing cavemen in their movie.

* Oddly enough, the first ''Franchise/{{Tarzan}}'' movie had Asian elephants disguised as African by [[SpecialEffectFailure attaching cardboard tusks and ears to them]]. They got rid of the disguise in the sequels. This was probably done because African elephants are notoriously difficult to train.

* ''Film/{{Troy}}'' contains a moment where a llama is seen in the city of Troy, despite the fact that llamas are new-world animals and would never have been found in ancient Greece/Troy. Perhaps they intended it to be a related camel, which would have been plausible (if unlikely) for the time period and place, since presumably one could have wound up there via Arab traders. The same crowd scene has a cage filled with budgerigars (commonly called parakeets in the US). These are small Australian parrots that weren't known elsewhere until the 19th Century.

* ''[[Film/AlvinandtheChipmunks Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked]]'' features a meerkat (referred by Alvin as a [[CriticalResearchFailure "honey badger"]]) living on a tropical island.

* ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh'' cartoons are full of wildlife that definitely don't belong in the UK. The main characters include a tiger, two kangaroos, a gopher, and an owl who looks more like a great horned owl than any of the UK's native owls. Elephants, or as the characters call them, Hephalumps, also make appearances. In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'', Rabbit, Tigger, and Piglet travel into the jungle, which is also a misplaced biome, and run into some monkeys and a spotted hyena. The hyena is a double example since hyenas don't live in jungles or the UK. But there is a justification for all the misplaced wildlife. Almost all of the characters in the Winnie the Pooh franchise are LivingToys, not real animals.