History Main / SuperPersistentPredator

* The Film/SyFyChannelOriginalMovie, ''Attack of the Sabretooth'', gives an unusual justification for why the titular beasts keep hunting people even after they'd realistically be full. They're ''bulimic'' and keep regurgitating everything they eat so they're always hungry. How and why a bunch of prehistoric big cats all have psychological eating disorders [[VoodooShark is a whole other can of worms, however]].

** In ''Kaw'', CreepyCrows get infected with [[TheVirus Mad Cow]] (?!) disease ''after'' eating clearly diseased rotting cow flesh. As soon as they go crazy, they decide to exclusively go for the human protagonists (not even any other areas, just those few people). This includes ''waiting on a bus'' while the humans cry and then ''throwing rocks'' at the bus in a desperate attempt to get inside. Later, they slam themselves against a diner in order to get in and eat the people inside, before they [[DeusExMachina inexplicably die]]. You'd think there weren't any animals in the forest. Subverted in that the super persistent predators starve to death, just as they would in real life.

* In ''LightNovel/SoImASpiderSoWhat'' the Anogratch are known as the "Revenge Monkeys" because if you kill even one member of their troops, its thousands of kin will not stop until they have killed you. As Kumoko found, they will literally fight until every last member of the troop has been killed.

Amusingly, this is one handwave that often wouldn't have been necessary — it's a well-known fact among biologists that intelligent predators can and ''will'' hunt [[ItAmusedMe for fun]], even if they aren't hungry. For example, dolphins will torture and kill smaller breeds of dolphins as well as band together to ''gang rape'' younger dolphins. Orcas have been known to throw live seals around for hours on end, occasionally releasing them once they're done. Oh, and let's not forget about a few humans' habits. Of course, even in those cases, the predator isn't going to put itself through undue hardship and travel vast distances unless the reward is good enough. In particular, avoiding injury from prey is a prime motivation for most all solitary predators (social ones can potentially rely on other members of the group to provide food while they heal), as any inhibiting injury can spell starvation and most won't target something that is notably dangerous (or even ''pretends'' to be dangerous, hence why threat displays are so widespread in nature) to dispatch unless they are starving or inexperienced at hunting (and in either case, they won't pose as much of a threat due to poor physical condition or poor decision-making, respectively). "Winning" against prey that manages to break a bone or inflict a wound that gets infected is often a PyrrhicVictory for the predator and typically avoided for animals that want to have any meals in the future. Animals may hunt for fun but they certainly don't hunt for glory or bragging rights.

* Used as {{padding}} in ''Film/StarTrek2009''. Kirk is being chased by some shambling furry thing. Then a giant red ant bursts out of the ice, bites the furry thing, tosses it aside... and starts chasing Kirk. Even though the shambling furry thing was bigger (but still bite-sized to it) and it had already attacked it. Makes significantly more sense if you interpret the red creature as being territorial as opposed to hungry. It frequently stops to roar at Kirk, something a hunting animal is unlikely to do but an animal trying to intimidate a supposed threat might, and [[spoiler:Spock Prime is able to run it off with a mere signal flare once it enters ''his'' territory, the cave]].
* [[Creator/JJAbrams JJ Abrams]] is very fond of including these in his Sci-Fi movies. Like in the previous example, he invented Rathtars for [[Film/TheForceAwakens The Force Awakens]], which are giant red tentacled blobs covered in yellow eyes with gaping maws full of teeth. They attack anything they can get their tentacles on with blinding speed. The general rule of an Abrams Sci-Fi movie is that he won't even look for an excuse to include a big red monster with tentacles and pincers and far too many teeth with a desire to rapidly chase the main character(s) [[RuleOfFunny just for kicks]].

* ''Film/UltramanSaga'': Early in the film, there's a Gubila which relentlessly pursues Taiga and a little boy he befriended throughout the deserted city, from the streets to above a bridge, for maybe three minutes without stopping, even destroying said bridge just to catch two tiny humans.

** ''Arduin Grimoire Volume 4: The Lost Grimoire''. The Bloodbeast can sense its prey up to 50 miles away. Once it starts hunting a target, it is untiring and will follow its prey relentlessly.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In one ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' strip, a dog chases Garfield up a tree. Garfield wonders how long the dog will wait for him to come down before giving up and going home. When he looks down he sees that the dog has made itself comfortable with a recliner and a glass of lemonade.
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* ''TabletopGame/{{Arduin}}'': ''The Compleat Arduin Book 2: Resources'':
** The Quarl is a feline as large as a tiger, with incredibly keen senses of smell and hearing. It is vicious, cunning and totally without fear, and is known for stalking its prey for days.
** The Silver Slyth monster can track any creature by scent even if the trail is up to ten days old. Once it starts tracking its prey, it will not stop until it catches it or the trail becomes more than ten days old. They feel no pain and never tire so they usually catch the target.

** The Tsavo man-eaters, a pair of maneless Tsavo lions, killed/consumed between 35/135 Indian laborers working on the Tsavo railway bridge in British East Africa. Even lighting campfires and building redoubts out of thorns didn't stop them. Eventually, Col. John Henry Patterson, a real-life GreatWhiteHunter, set off to kill them. He shot the first, but it escaped, then started stalking him. He shot it four more times, and it eventually died of its wounds. He found it lying dead in an ambush position where it had been waiting for him. He ambushed the second lion, shooting it five times. ''[[{{Determinator}} It got up and charged him.]]'' Three more bullets put it down. Patterson claimed it died trying to leap over a fallen tree branch, ''still trying to charge him.'' [[WhosLaughingNow Then they spent 25 years as a rug.]] A modern analysis of the attacks shows that the lions may actually have been an ''aversion'' to the trope: the reported attacks were all during the dry period when the lions' normal prey was scarce. During the rainy season, when herd animals were more common, they actually stopped attacking humans. These two were more recently turned into a museum exhibit (with one of them lying down, since the rug didn't include his belly). See the Movies entry for the movie based (somewhat loosely) on the event.

* ''Literature/TheGreatZooOfChina'': The dragon known as Melted Face spends almost the whole novel tracking down and trying to kill CJ in retaliation for her burning its face. More justified than most in that dragons are shown to be [[ItCanThink frighteningly intelligent]], and this one was [[{{Revenge}} really pissed off]] about what happened to its face.

* The shark in ''Raft'' will hunt you and your vessel endlessly. You can distract it with bait, but once the bait is gone, it will come back for you. You can kill it (and butcher it for delicious shark steaks), but an identical shark will show up a day or two later to resume the hunt.

** Badly done in the episode "Grey 17 Is Missing" with a [[PeopleInRubberSuits craptastic alien "predator"]] called a Zarg straight out of [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]. It wasn't stealthy, it wasn't intimidating, it wasn't even particularly original, and producer Straczynski has been known to say he wants to apologize to fans in person for it.

* The [[RobotDog "dogs" (quadripedal robots)]] in the ''Series/BlackMirror'' episode "Metalhead" will relentlessly chase you over miles of difficult terrain for as long as it takes, once you've gotten their attention. And if you do manage to "kill" one of these, [[spoiler: its last act will be to launch a grenade full of fragmented "trackers" that will embed in your flesh [[TakingYouWithMe so that other "dogs" will hunt you]]]]. Given the complete lack of animals or other humans that we see, it's implied the robots have become the “apex predator” of the entire ecosystem and wiped out all life.
* On ''Series/DoctorWho'', the Drashigs from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E2CarnivalOfMonsters Carnival of Monsters]]" pursue prey from their own swampland habitat to the Miniscope's interior circuitry, the interior of the Earth habitat's ship, and all the way out of the Miniscope's compression field.

** The T-00 (Mr. X) in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' was the first draft for Nemesis, as he would follow either Leon or Claire in their B scenario throughout the entire game, but only in scripted encounters. And it's only Leon or Claire, as while he's ostensibly meant to hunt down the G-virus, in a couple of spots, he will ignore the character who has a sample of the G-virus on them (either Ada or Sherry) to chase Leon or Claire in the elevator security room. [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake The remake]], on the other hand, turns off the scripted encounters, and turns him into a relentless pursuerer who '''will''' not stop until every living person in Raccoon City is dead.

*** Rexy herself ignores the volcanic eruption at first to attack the abelisaurid, thus keeping up the trend of her being an AccidentalHero and providing the movie's SignatureScene.

* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'': Once you've triggered an F.O.E. encounter, you pretty much won't get rid of it until you kill it or it wipes your party.
** Some F.O.E.'s are also programmed to start coming after your party as soon as you step foot into a dungeon, even if you haven't encountered it.

* Sharptooth (Tyrannosaur) from the first ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' hunted the dinosaur heroes through mountains and a desert. ''Land Before Time 5: The Mysterious Island'' shows that Sharpteeth are [[ItCanThink intelligent enough to talk]] (It's in a language the herbivores can't understand. [[TokenHeroicOrc Chomper]] is bilingual.), so it could have been a particularly cruel and sadistic Sharptooth. Possibly justified in that the environment is dying and prey is extremely scarce, along with baby dinosaurs being easy prey compared to adults. The novelization expands on this, implying that Sharptooth was [[ForTheEvulz cruel and sadistic]], while also mentioning he wanted [[ItsPersonal revenge on Littlefoot and company for blinding him in one eye]].

* A rather terrifying example, the Wiki/SCPFoundation features [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-096 SCP-096]], a normally harmless creature [[DontLookAtMe until you see its face]]. It then [[BerserkButton flies into a rage]] and [[TheJuggernaut will stop at nothing to kill you]]. Military-grade armaments have little to no effect during its pursuit of a target. The effect also works on pictures, and its face could be as small as ''four pixels'' and it would still make all attempts to brutally [DATA EXPUNGED]. And once you see its face it ''knows'' where you are, so looking at its picture while hundreds of miles away won't help you. Naturally, the Foundation tried to kill 682 with it. It ended with both of them severely injured and leaving SCP-096 [[HorrifyingTheHorror so afraid of 682]] that it hides its ''own'' face in fear.

Basically, this predator will hunt the protagonists far beyond the call of common sense or even instinct, be it through fierce jungles, caves, canyons, or whatever else the protagonists have to go through. Once the climax comes by, the beast will most likely be right there, ready for one FinalBattle. If the heroes manage to find shelter, the predator(s) will go through an extreme amount of effort to break windows, unlock doors, or learn to bypass complicated security measures and then bash through a wall anyway to get to its prey. A situation like this might have you thinking that [[FridgeLogic it'd be more productive to just find something else to eat]]. Sometimes it's [[HandWave explained away]] by stating that they've got [[ItCanThink human intelligence]], but that just raises further questions about why an intelligent predator would expend so much effort to eat something that keeps eluding them. You might find an ethologist [[ArtisticLicenseBiology tearfully screaming]] that ''nobody'', animal or human, would be ''this'' vindictively persistent just for one difficult meal.

* The trailer for ''Beast (2022)'' has a safari guide lampshade how out of character this is for a lion, implying that it's no ordinary predator;

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood The Family of Blood]]" are aliens capable of chasing the Doctor through all time and space - the species needs to consume time travellers to extend their own otherwise extremely brief lifespan. The Doctor runs away and hides in pre-WWII Britain, even changing his own species to human to try and shake them off, but they still find him.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' inverts this. Most large monsters tend to flee from the player after exhausting themselves or sustaining large amounts of damage, and usually have to be chased in order to be taken down. In other words, the ''player'' is an example. Also, when hungry, monsters will leave to find easier game, generally going for the easiest to kill herbivores available or even scavenging, than the heavily armed human in front of them. They will also revert to a neutral state if you leave an area to heal up. All in all, monsters in Monster Hunter really want nothing to do with the hunter at all and will make any effort to scare him/her away or flee themselves. While this can seem [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters quite sad, really]], other material makes it clear large monsters often run because the hunter's a tough nut to crack. Plenty of quest descriptions mention stealing livestock or attacking exposed caravans, and ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterStories'' in particular shows these incidents can very easily have a body count.

** A notable exception to this is the [[TheDreaded Deviljho]] from the Third Generation; it is an invasive Apex Predator that will actively chase prey down to sate its never-ending hunger, no matter where it goes. This is because it has a HyperActiveMetabolism, which makes it burn energy really quickly, and allows it to invade any ecosystem. In ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld'', the Savage Deviljho variant will even [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration refuse to ever run from battle]] no matter how much damage is done to it, and will chase the player to the ends of the earth if they try to run (most monsters will give up after a certain distance).

* ZigZaggingTrope in ''VideoGame/Metro2033''. The [[NuclearNasty Moscow mutants]] will go to great lengths for a meal, even going so far as to attack armored humans with automatic weapons. Similarly, they are not deterred by gunfire, bright light, or the smell of their own dead, as most normal animals. On the other hand, shooting them will usually cause them to back off momentarily, they do eventually flee if enough of their pack is killed, they are frightened of the [[EldritchAbomination anomalies and ghosts that infest the haunted tunnels]], and they will also avoid large fires (though they will brave them if there is no other option). Totally averted with some other mutants -- Librarians, the possibly-once-human, possibly sentient mutants that infest the Lenin Library and the Military Archives beneath it are simply territorial, and will even back down if you look them right in the eye (in the novel, one even tells Artyom to "go away" in Russian), and the Biomass under [=D6=] ignores you until you start actively trying to kill it. The Demons, winged mutations of the tigers in the Moscow Zoo, will not try to follow you inside, though they will opportunistically try to snatch you if you spend too long outside or near windows. Overall, the unusual persistence of the Moscow predators is justified by the scarcity of food in the Metro -- they are just as starved as the humans they feed on, and they really can't afford to ignore such a tempting target as an adult human (or better yet, woman and children he's guarding) unless they have no other option.