History Main / MisplacedWildlife

* A very tongue-in-cheek one from ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Hogwarts has a giant squid. Living in a lake. In northern Scotland. AWizardDidIt. Creator/JKRowling has admitted that she didn't realize snowy owls weren't native to Britain when she wrote the first book. This is reflected in later books by Hedwig being the only snowy owl in the series and it's an occasional plot point that she's too distinctive to send secret messages. There's still the problem that only ''male'' snowy owls are pure white. Justified in that Hedwig was bought from a magical pet shop, which can presumably import or cosmetically-modify its animals.

*** NONE of the bugs in the "bug tunnel" scene are actually from India.

* In the adaptation of Harry Crews' novel ''The Hawk is Dying'', George (Creator/PaulGiamatti) wrangles an augur buzzard rather than a red-tailed hawk.

* In ''Film/ThreeHundred'' the Persian war rhino is an African two-horned rhino instead of one of the one-horned Asian species (granted, there is a two-horned rhino in Asia, the Sumatran rhino, but it is a hairy, very small creature with two very short, almost flat horns). Also, rhinos never were domesticated nor used in warfare.
* In the opening sequence of ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' the hominids, in a semi-desert African setting, are accompanied by tapirs, when there's no evidence that they ever existed in Africa. In the novel, they were boars, so it was probably just a case of being unable to get a large animal of that sort passive enough to use in filming, especially since one shot involves a hominid angrily shoving a tapir aside. Boars ''are'' nasty, and would probably attack the actors if they shoved it like that. WordOfGod is that one reason they used tapirs is because they were more exotic-looking and had a "prehistoric" appearance.

* ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}''

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' has an elderly Galapagos tortoise living in ancient China as one of the film's main characters, while the sequel featured evil [[KillerGorilla gorillas]] (native to Africa). The tortoise at least is justified, as his backstory has him being born in the Galapagos Islands and eventually traveling to China.

* [[Music/EltonJohn Elton John 's]] "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" contains the verse, "Back to the [[IncorrectAnimalNoise howling old owl]] in the woods, hunting the horny back toad". If this is referring to horned lizards, also called horned toads, these reptiles live in deserts, not the woods.

* [[Music/EltonJohn Elton John 's]] ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'' contains the verse, "Back to the [[IncorrectAnimalNoise howling old owl]] in the woods, hunting the horny back toad". If this applies to horned lizards, also called horned toads, these reptiles live in deserts, not woods.

* 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 ''India''.

* In ''Literature/TheSwissFamilyRobinson'', the characters are shipwrecked on a tropical island which is home to Eurasian buffalo and onagers, African lions, South American ocelots and boa constrictors, Australian kangaroos, and Antarctic penguins. The father mentions that maybe a land bridge was involved. ScienceMarchesOn: before the theory of plate tectonics gave a plausible mechanism for continental drift, the idea that continents could ''move'' was considered fringe science, and land bridges were often invoked to explain similar fossils found oceans apart.

* 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 she needs the echolocation abilities of a bat, but can't turn into one because she claims there are none in Canada. In real life, Canada is home to at least 18 native bat species, with 3 in the northern territories.

* Orville from ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'' is an albatross who gives Bernard and Bianca a ride from New York to Devil's Bayou. However, albatrosses are strictly southern-hemisphere birds; what one is doing in New York is anyone's guess.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Robin Hood|1973}}'' takes place in Medieval England, but features North American raccoons, as well as African and Asian species such as lions, elephants, hippos, and rhinos, and an unidentifiable constrictor snake that seems out of place. (The animals were cast based on the characters' personalities--King Richard the Lionheart is [[KingOfBeasts a lion]]; cunning Robin Hood is [[CunningLikeAFox a fox]], etc.) It is set in a world of sapient animals, so it's not unreasonable to assume all these creatures immigrated from their ancestral homelands over time, but raccoons migrating from North America is implausible.

* ''Film/TarzanTheApeMan'' had Asian elephants disguised as African by [[{{Slurpasaur}} attaching cardboard tusks and ears to them]]. However, they got rid of the disguise in the sequels, giving off the impression of this trope. This was probably done because African elephants are notoriously difficult to train.

*** Indy misidentifies the large bats as vampire bats, which aren't found in India. Granted, he might've been yanking his companions' chains about those. In reality, if you see a bat you can in any way describe as large it's probably a "megabat", which are also known as "fruit bats", because that's what they eat.

** In one of his short stories a “South American boomslang” is responsible for making the paramedics think the viewpoint character is dead. The only snake called a boomslang is from sub-Saharan Africa (its common name is Dutch/Afrikaans for “tree snake”). King admits he got the idea from Creator/AgathaChristie who had a properly placed boomslang kill someone and he just [[InherentlyFunnyWords liked the name]].

* ''Franchise/TheJungleBook'':

* The Norwegian Blue is an example of a ''seriously'' misplaced tropical parrot which would indeed be a rarity in the fjords. It's possible the [[Creator/MontyPython pet shop owner]] was embellishing things somewhat...

* ''Film/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians1996'' has skunks and raccoons in England. While there are feral populations of both in England, they were not reported until several years after the film's release.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bug}}'' has chameleons in [[ShiftingSandLand Reptilia]], the western desert-themed stage. Not desert chameleons, but the green ones that should be seen in the jungle.

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'': Sniffles is a South American anteater cast with a bunch of North American woodland critters.