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Just because one doesn't have opposable thumbs doesn't mean they can't both hang out.

"I don't mind having a demon friend."
Fuka Kazamatsuri, Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten

In everyday life, you're unlikely to know anyone of a different species to yourself, besides pets, and however much you might love your furry/scaly/feathered friends, the relationship probably isn't quite the same as the one you have with your bipedal ones. Animals in question also have a tendency to fight each other over food and territory.

In fiction, this restriction is way more lax, especially in the realms of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Those worlds are populated by a whole host of fantastic aliens, elves, werewolves, robots, vampires, and who knows what else. It's incredibly common for people of completely different species to become close friends. Since the majority of these creatures tend to have an intelligence on par with — if not greater than — that of humans, it might be stranger if people of various species didn't develop some sort of kinship. Even for species that are Always Chaotic Evil, you can expect at least one individual to throw off his hat and say My Species Doth Protest Too Much, thus joining the good guys.

Sometimes, in universes where the existence of other magical/advanced races are part of The Masquerade, or there's a lot of Fantastic Racism going on, these friendships might be more limited. This will usually allow people to comment on how strange the hero(e)s' friendship is.

See Interspecies Romance, when the relationship is less platonic than this, and Interspecies Adoption for when it is a relationship of parenthood. Sometimes overlaps with Odd Friendship. If they are not supposed to be friends, see Forbidden Friendship.

Loyal Animal Companion is a Subtrope. See also Androcles' Lion, A Boy and His X, Monster and the Maiden, and Predator-Prey Friendship. One of these may lead to a Mayfly–December Friendship.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • This Android commercial, which very fittingly uses the song "Oo De Lally" from Disney's Robin Hood (1973), whose main characters were an anthropomorphic fox and bear.

    Animation 
  • The main characters of Andy Pirki are a dinosaur named Andy and a caveman named Pirki, who are best friends.
  • I'll Return as the Rain: A snowman makes friends with a human girl.
  • The goats in Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf are seen getting along with many different animals, such as tigers, elephants, and rabbits, since the only ones they have to worry about for the most part are the wolves who want to eat them.

    Anime & Manga 
  • Black Jack:
    • Used with a human scientist who's a friend of Black Jack adopting his last experiment (a super-intelligent deer) and treating him like a brother. It soon went From Bad to Worse.
    • Also between a young fisherman and a whale. Again, it got worse when the whale was blamed for the death of some fishermen. Unlike the scientist and the deer, they get better.
  • Bleach:
    • Tousen and later his lieutenant Hisagi with the anthropomorphic wolf Komamura. Komamura is eventually confirmed to be a member of a clan of werewolves. They're not supposed to consort with others not of their own kind and it took Komamura a long time to build up the friendships he now has in the Gotei 13.
    • Ichigo's group befriend Nel and her companions Pesche and Dondochakka. Humans and Hollows do not get on because Hollows typically kill and consume Humans. Ichigo is also a "substitute Shinigami", and Shinigami have been warring with Hollows for a thousand years.
    • Humans and Shinigami do not typically have the ability to befriend each other. When Ukitake and Hisagi discuss the friendship between Rukia and Orihime, Hisagi finds it weird. Ukitake reprimands Hisagi, pointing out that any friendship should be treasured even if the friends are walking slightly different paths in life.
    • Shinigami and Quincies have been bitter enemies for a thousand years. This does not stop Ichigo (a Shinigami representative) and Uryuu (a Quincy) from transforming from enemies to Fire-Forged Friends. Their mutual friends eventually point out they're really Vitriolic Best Buds, much to the horror of both. They actually take after their fathers, as Isshin (a Shinigami) and Ryuuken (a Quincy) have been friends for over twenty years. The reason their friendship has survived for so long is that both men appear to be exiles from their own kind, living in the human world and keeping some enormous secrets from even their own sons.
  • In Brave Police J-Decker, Yuuta, a ten-year-old human boy, is friends with Deckerd, a Humongous Mecha with a complex AI.
  • Chrono Crusade: The demon Chrono bonds with his human allies; most notably Rosette.
  • Rem (Shinigami) and Misa (human) of Death Note. Rem develops a platonic love for Misa and is even willing to die for her. Light (human) and Ryuk (Shinigami) also fall under this having a few Villains Out Shopping moments together, though they are of a more vitriolic type.
  • The bond between humans and their partner Digimon.
  • Dragon Ball: Goku and most of his friends. But a more prominent example is Gohan (Saiyan/Human hybrid) and Piccolo (Namekian), which looks more like an Intergenerational Friendship, but Piccolo is only four years older.
  • Any friendship Mamoru in GaoGaiGar develops, as he is an alien.
  • Five adventurers in Goblin Slayer first form a party, but eventually become real friends. They are two humans, a high elf, a dwarf, and a lizardman.
  • Hellsing has Integra and Pip (humans) with Alucard and Ceres (vampires).
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers:
    • America and Tony, his alien friend. They've been shown hanging out and playing video games, and America goes to Tony for help regarding the Pict invaders in the movie.
    • England has several magical creatures such as fairies and unicorns that he is friends with. However, with the exception of Norway, no one else can see them.
    • Like England, Norway has fairies and a troll friend that are invisible to almost everyone else.
    • Technically, America's friendship with a young Colonial-era boy named Davie could be considered this as well, since America, while human in appearance, is the immortal embodiment of a nation. Needless to say, this becomes a Mayfly–December Friendship.
  • How to Keep a Mummy not only shows the friendship that develops between the human and the monsters but also between the various monster species that show up (i.e., a Mummy, an Oni, a dragon, and a baku). Mii is also good friends with Pochi, a normal dog.
  • The titular Inuyasha, who is a half-demon, half-human, with Miroku and Sango, both humans, and Shippou and Kirara, both youkai.
  • Bell from Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is friends with Liliruca, and later with the half-fairy Aiz. Since the adventurer parties in this anime consist of different races, this trope is probably more common.
  • Kimba and Roger Ranger from Kimba the White Lion.
  • Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid has Makoto (human) and Fafnir (dragon), along with Saikawa (human) and Kanna (dragon), though the latter one dips into Interspecies Romance. Both also qualify as a Mayfly–December Friendship.
  • Naruto (1997) has Naruto, a kitsune child, befriending two adult humans named Takashi and Kuroda. They are his first friends. Naruto grew up not trusting humans because they look down upon him for being a demon.
  • Natsume and most of his spirit/Youkai friends in Natsume's Book of Friends, including an inukami (a wolf-like spirit) and a kitsune-kodomo (a child fox spirit).
  • There are a few in The Nightmare Before Christmas: Zero's Journey, given the protagonist is a dog. Zero has this with numerous characters, from Jack, to Howly the Owl and Jouelle, to Lock, Shock, and Barrel. There's also Mr. Myzer and his gingerbread man, and Mr. Myzer and his deceased puppy, One.
  • Hiyori (human) and Yato and Yukine (god/spirit) in Noragami.
  • One Piece:
    • The most notable being Tony Tony Chopper, a reindeer who is a member of the Straw Hat Pirates and a dear friend to the other 8 Straw Hats, who are all human.
    • Luffy and Jimbei, who is a Fishman. Later, during the Fish-Man Island arc, the other Straw Hats become friends with him, too, and all of them befriend a few of the other mermaids and Fishmen on the island as well.
    • In the Zou arc, we get the Minks, a race whose appearances range from animal-human hybrids to straight-up talking animals. They are very friendly to the Straw Hats, and have apparently been friends with the human Kozuki clan, a samurai clan from Wano, for a very long time. One particular, previously established human-Mink friendship is that of Trafalgar Law and his polar bear-Mink navigator, Bepo, who have been friends for over ten years.
  • The premise of One Stormy Night revolves around this idea involving a goat and a wolf. Though whether this crosses over to Bromance or Interspecies Romance territory is up for interpretation, especially in the anime when they change Mei's gender.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • Ash Ketchum and series mascot, Pikachu.
    • Friendship, trust, and understanding between trainers and their Pokémon are recurring themes on the show.
    • Jesse and James with Meowth. This is different than any of the other examples from this show because Meowth is treated more like an equal than a Mon or pet. This is probably because he is one of the few Pokémon that speaks human.
  • In Seton Academy: Join the Pack!, Ranka's goal is to have a pack made of different species and, despite Jin's objections, she has struck up friendships with several.
  • A major theme in Sonic X is the human kid Chris' relationship with the Funny Animal hedgehog Sonic.
  • Summer Days with Coo is about a human boy who befriends a Kappa.
  • In Tamagotchi, human girl Tomomi is sent to Tamagotchi Planet by accident and befriends the Tamagotchis.
  • 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother: Amedio (monkey) is friends not just with Marco (human), but with Fiorina's Cheerful Child baby sister Giulietta.
  • Unicron Trilogy:
    • Transformers: Armada: There's Rad, Alexis, Carlos, and eventually the bullies turned friends, Billy and Fred. The kids even manage to befriend the Decepticon Starscream when he changes sides. Even though he later returns to the Decepticons, Alexis remains friends with him.
    • Transformers: Energon: A multitude of humans working alongside the Transformers, notably the Jones family, Misha Miramond, and the now-adult Rad, Carlos, and Alexis.
    • Transformers: Cybertron: There are the brothers Coby and Bud Hansen, their friend Lori, scientist Lucy Suzuki, and Colonel Mike Franklin.
  • Ushio and Tora: The human Ushio and the youkai Tora end up becoming best friends, not that either of them is going to admit it.
  • Wolf's Rain had a pack of wolves and a genetically engineered flower-human hybrid.
  • Yo-kai Watch: Nate is best friends with Whisper (a ghost yokai) and Jibanyan (a cat yokai).
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS: Three of the Human/Ignis form bonds with each other. Ai and Yusaku, the human he is based on, start out using each other to achieve their own goals before gradually turning into Fire-Forged Friends. Later, Takeru and Flame then Aoi and Aqua have it easier as they easily befriend each other once they meet.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Any human and duel spirit friendship, such as Juudai and Hane Kuriboh, Manjoume and Ojama Yellow, or Hayato and Death Koala.
  • From YuYu Hakusho, there is Yusuke and Kuwabara (humans) and Kurama and Hiei (demons).

    Comic Books 
  • Captain Marvel: Human Rick Jones and the Kree Genis-Vell.
  • Cubitus: Cubitus the dog and Sémaphore, a human.
  • ElfQuest: The Wolfrider elves and their wolves, partly because they can exchange feelings telepathically, and partly because they're related by blood.
  • Fairy Quest: Red, a human girl, and Mister Woof, a wolf, are friends. Unfortunately, in Fablewood, that is not a good thing.
  • Jan, Jans en de Kinderen: The cats and the dog of the family are friends with each other. Similarly Eucalypta the Witch is best friends with Krakras, a featherless baby chick.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes: The Legion has dozens of members who hail from every part of the galaxy, and have developed close friendships with each other: Superboy, Lightning Lad (Winathian) and Mon-El (Daxamite); Cosmic Boy (Braalian/Human) and Lightning Lad; Brainiac-5 (Coluan) and Rond Vidar (human); Supergirl, Saturn Girl (Titanian) Phantom Girl (and Bgztl) and Triplicate Girl (Carggian); Saturn Girl and her sister-in-law Light Lass (Winathian); Phantom Girl and Shadow Lass (Talokite)...
  • Mickey Mouse Comic Universe: Mickey Mouse and Goofy.
  • Monty the Dinosaur: The titular talking dinosaur, and his 8-year-old human friend.
  • Nextwave: The team includes a human, two superhumans, a mutant, and a robot.
  • She-Hulk: She-Hulk and Jazinda the Skrull.
  • Superman: Most of the friendships developed by Superman and his family are necessarily with non-Kryptonians. So, Superman's best friends are three humans: Jimmy Olsen, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Supergirl's best friend is Batgirl (a human), and depending on the continuity, she has befriended humans like Lena Luthor or Cassandra Sandmark and loves dearly her sentient pet cat Streaky. Power Girl's two greatest friends are Huntress (human) and Atlee (scion of Strata's underground race). Finally, Krypto the Superdog loves all of them. Kon-El's best friend is Tim Drake, and Jon Kent's best friend is Damian Wayne.
  • Tom Poes: The titular character, a cat, and Olivier B. Bommel, a bear.
  • Urbanus: Urbanus' best friends are a fly, Amedee, and Nabuko Donosor, an alien dog species.
  • Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman has made a lot of extraterrestrial friends, which would be unsurprising given that her people had developed spacecraft before any other nation on earth had made it to the moon but her extraterrestrial friendships remained long after that bit of Amazon history was jettisoned from canon.
    • Wonder Woman (1942): One of Diana's dearest friends and allies is Queen Desira of Venus, a woman from an alien race of winged women with odd hair colors.
    • Wonder Woman (1987): Diana ends up leading a group of Space Pirate revolutionaries in forcing a galactic empire to abolish slavery, and manages to befriend the disenfranchised Daxamite known as "Julia", the poetic Nol Lapp (durlan), the harsh Ectreba (khund) and H'Elgn who is possibly the last living Velosian. Her relationship with Sakritt is more antagonistic than most human friendships, but it is clear by the time Diana leaves that Sakritt considers her as much of a friend as a dominator can make.
    • Wonder Woman (2006): She befriends the khund Kho Kharhi, a friendship which leads to Kho becoming a Green Lantern.
  • X-Men:

    Comic Strips 

    Fairy Tales 

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Thor and Methuselah's species were on good enough terms to routinely socialize when there was more of them around thousands of years ago. A flashback shows Thor's son playing with and befriending a Titanus Methuselah calf when the latter's herd is passing through.
  • In Eric Sparkle and the Locket of Prophecies: this is very common: In Chapters 2 and 3, Eric (human) befriends Twilight's friends: Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. He also befriends Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle (who develops a crush on him), and Scootaloo. In Chapters 8 and 9, Eric befriends Holly (a deer), Nightshade (a kirin), Marina (a hippogriff), Zuni (a zebra), and Slapstick (a satyr). All together they become a team of heroes representing the Elements of Harmony.
  • In The Parselmouth of Gryffindor, Hermione, being most of all a defender of the rights of nonhumans, has many nonhuman friends of her own. They include the Boggart Maximilian, several snakes (most notably the Basilisk, Apophis, Nettle, and Tsh), and the magical portrait Minerva.
  • Empath Smurf and Polaris Psyche in Empath: The Luckiest Smurf.
  • Pretty much the plot of Scar The Unsung Hero as the plot is Scar befriending a teenage human.
  • Because she grew up in a different country in Bad Future Crusaders, Apple Bloom was raised by and friends with a group of zebras and a gryphon. She is also implied to have been romantically involved with a zebra named Peppercorn.
  • In the Super Mario World/Lucky Star crossover Super Miyuki World, Miyuki Takara befriends Yoshi after freeing him from a question mark block.
  • In Hope for the Heartless, which takes place after the events of Disney's The Black Cauldron, Avalina (a human) befriends not only the resurrected Horned King (a lich), but also his lackey Creeper (a goblin) and the remaining gwythaint she names Taranau Adeon (or Addie in short). She's also quite close to Mitternacht, her Cool Horse. Also, Mitternacht and Addie become close playmates through the races they have with Avalina riding Mitternacht and Creeper riding Addie. The circle later gets an addition in the form of Gethin, Addie's baby. The circle includes also the four Invisibles, invisible creations of the Fates themselves. They're certainly fond of Avalina (she also likes them), but they lean more towards Vitriolic Best Buds territory with the Horned King and Creeper.
  • Many Jurassic World fanfictions display the idea of Rexy (a Tyrannosaurus rex) and Blue (what the film calls a "Velociraptor") becoming friends after the film's climax (certainly helped by the look they give each other at the end). Some fics like to add the Mosasaurus to the mix too.
  • In This Bites!, once Su gets her voice as a Little Miss Snarker, she and Soundbite get along like a house on fire.
    • Likewise for Boss and Franky, due to similar attitudes.
  • Persona 3 Momento Umbrae has Hamuko Takahashi and Kana, a Shadow who originally took on the former's appearance when they were both children to help her escape from the research facility she was locked up in. They eventually start to see each other more as genuine sisters though, with Kana referring to Hamuko as "Oneesama" and Hamuko showing concern for her like any older sister would.
  • In Adorable Murderbeasts, Superboy quickly bonds with Red's Chesnaught after the mission to Santa Prisca. At first, it seems to be because their similar strength and toughness means they work well together in a fight, but it quickly develops further than that. Of course, given his ability to befriend Wolf and the Super-Cycle in canon, this isn't that surprising.
  • In Fallen Angel, Amy (a hedgehog) befriends Sarah (a human) after they meet in a shelter after Perfect Chaos' attack.
  • Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!: As a Kryptonian boy living amongst humans, all of Izuku's friendships are this by default, but it's downplayed in that he's culturally human like his peers.
  • In the Miraculous Ladybug fanfic je t'ai promis (que je te retrouverais) Lila Rossi is actually the latest identity of a millennia-old huli jing, thus her friendship with a human princess and her reincarnations are this.
  • Sonic and Donna: Donna is a human teenager and Sonic is an eleven-year-old Funny Animal hedgehog, yet they're best friends nevertheless.
  • During the flashbacks in A Bat in Storybrooke, it is seen that Killian and Fidget were pretty good friends although they were from different nations and different species.
  • Hellsister Trilogy has Supergirl and every alien member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, who have become her Family of Choice.
  • The Silmarillion fanfiction A Boy, a Girl and a Dog: The Leithian Script has Beren (human) develop a close bond with elven King Finrod and Finrod's ten companions. Finrod would -and did- die for Beren, and has no regrets whatsoever about it.
  • In A Prize for Three Empires, Carol Danvers (human) is captured by the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, but she ends up earning their respect and befriending all of them.
  • Kara of Rokyn has the Kryptonian main character and her beloved pet cat White Star. White Star was given to her as a present when she was feeling down, and looking after him helped her get over her depression.
  • In Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation, Alan Kent (Kryptonian) and Bron Wayn (human) develop a close friendship despite the difference in age. Kath (Kryptonian) also makes friends with Megeira (Amazon).
  • In Pokémon Master, the bond between a Master and their Pokemon is so powerful they are able to feel each other's physical pain. Ash also remembers that after their first adventure, he and Pikachu stuck together through thick and thin.
  • A Force of Four has Power Girl develop a close friendship with Jimmy Olsen in the wake of Superman's death.
  • In The Last Daughter, Taylor (Kryptonian) and Emma (human) were sisters in everything blood, and they never stopped being friends even after Taylor found out about her alien heritage and her powers.
  • Land Before Time Retold: Between the Gang of prehistoric creatures just like in canon, only now a human girl called Aylene gets in on it.
  • In The Vampire of Steel, Buffy Summers and Supergirl meet each other as the former is investigating vampire activity in Chicago, and develop a close friendship, to the point that Kara lets Buffy visit the Fortress of Solitude.
  • In Last Child of Krypton, Shinji (Kryptonian hybrid) becomes friends with Touji (human).
  • Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton has Asuka (half-Kryptonian hybrid) befriend Hikari and Wonder Girl (humans).
  • In Challenger, a Pokemon Charmander named Soul is the only and best friend of Grey, the human main character.
  • In One Small Kindness, summoning contracts at their best give rise to new friendships; apart from the canon ones, there's Itachi and his cat Hyōkurō, and Sasuke and his snake friend Hebimayu.
  • In crossover fanfiction Echoes of Yesterday, Taylor Hebert (human) becomes friends with Kara Zor-El (Kryptonian) after Kara rescues Taylor from a trio of bullies. Back in her dimension, Kara was good friends with Barbara Gordon (human), having fond memories of their joint patrols and slumber parties.
  • In Ponyriffs, Matt and Rainbow Dash bonded fairly quickly due to their similar natures. Rainbow even refused to let him go through his punishment alone, leading to their riffing duo being established.
  • A Diplomatic Visit:
    • Twilight, being an All-Loving Hero, quickly makes friends with non-ponies during her visit to the Packlands, coming to count Maxilla the changeling as a good friend and chatting amicably with a gargoyle named Caplan.
    • According to Luna in Chapter 8 of the sequel Diplomat at Large, Twilight's parents have become good friends with a changeling family — Stemma, her husband, and their children, including young Ocellus.
  • The Bolt Chronicles: Usually played straight in these stories — particularly involving dogs and cats, who are almost always on friendly terms. Inverted in "The Blood Brother" with Duke, who has an extreme hatred of cats that turns murderous.
  • Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: Chloe Cerise finds herself becoming good friends with Atticus (A talking corgi king) and Lexi (A living book who can let his pages form into a human figure). This is very important and meaningful for Chloe since the only friend she has (Goh) could care less about her and she is essentially on her own on the Infinity Train.
  • The Eventide Verse:
    • Twilight Sparkle's father Night Light (a unicorn) is close friends with Kisu (a zebra), Savannah Sun (an abada), and Impisi (a crocotta), to the point that they're considered honorary family. The latter three are all childhood friends, having grown up together in the nation of Farasi, while Night Light meets and befriends them when the events of the story A Moonlit Storm send him to Farasi on a mission from the princess.
    • Fluttershy (a pegasus) and Precious (a diamond dog) form a friendship over the course of Every Dog Has Her Day. As diamond dogs have a taboo against friendships with ponies, considering them lesser beings, Precious initially tries to hide this, and eventually gives up her place in her pack entirely after refusing to capture Fluttershy and her friends to use as slaves.
  • The Palaververse:
    • Archminister Burro, a donkey, and Chieftain Gellert, a griffin, have been friends for about 50 years.
    • Wedding March: Over the later half of the story, one develops between the aurochs cow Goldtorc and the mammoth Lyuba.
  • In the Helluva Boss fanfic https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13801872/1/Loona-the-Caretaker Loona the Hellhound forms one with a human boy named Cody after she saves him from a house fire.
  • Interdimensional Cartoon Discussion and Support Group: King and Polly hit it off early into the viewings, the former being a Titan and the latter being a tadpole/pollywog. Recently, it's starting to be suggested that something more may come of it.

    Films — Animation 
  • In An American Tail, Fievel Mousekewitz (mouse) makes friends with Tiger (cat). They even have a song together.
  • The wolf-dog Balto is friends with a Russian goose and two polar bears.
  • This is common in Disney and Pixar films:
    • Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy (dog?) going back to before World War II.
    • Genie (a genie) and Aladdin (human) in Aladdin. Before meeting Genie, Aladdin's best friend is Abu (a monkey).
    • In The Lion King (1994), Zazu (bird) and Mufasa (lion). Also Timon (meerkat) and Pumbaa (warthog), close friends who later befriend Simba (lion).
    • In Hercules, Herc, who is a demigod, has Pegasus, a flying horse, for a companion, and his mentor, Phil, is a satyr.
    • The Fox and the Hound. Between, well, a fox and a hound.
    • Lilo & Stitch, a human and a genetically-engineered alien monster. This is emphasized more in the rest of its franchise, in which more genetically engineered aliens befriend the human.
    • Brother Bear: Kenai (a human turned into a bear) to Koda (a bear cub). Alternatively, two bears and Rutt and Tuke (two moose brothers).
    • In Finding Nemo, not only do different kinds of fish get along, but they also befriend sea turtles, and species that otherwise prey on fish, such as sharks and pelicans.
    • The Jungle Book (1967) has Mowgli the human (who was raised by wolves) befriending Baloo the bear. They're also friends with Bagheera the black panther.
    • Oliver & Company has Oliver the cat befriending Fagin's dogs.
    • The Rescuers, along with its sequel, involves mice talking to and befriending humans. The first even has a cat talking to and befriending both humans AND mice. The sequel also has Cody feeling very attached to Marahoute the eagle, though they can't communicate with each other.
    • Bolt has a trio of three different species: Bolt (a dog), Mittens (a cat), and Rhino (a hamster).
    • Toy Story: While humans are not supposed to know toys are alive, Andy's toys do care a lot about him. Woody in particular goes to great lengths to return to him when separated. Said toys are also True Companions with each other.
    • The title character of Tarzan is friends with a gorilla and an elephant.
    • A Bug's Life has several different insects and arthropods as friends.
    • In Mulan Mushu the dragon is friends with Mulan (human), Crikee (cricket), and Khan (horse). Villain Shan Yu has his falcon.
    • Dinosaur: Aladar is an Iguanodon who is adopted by a clan of lemurs and grows up as the only dinosaur among them. He is a perfectly adjusted member of the family and community, though he expresses some loneliness at being the only one of his kind. After Aladar and his family leave the island for the mainland following the meteor strike, they join a herd of numerous species of dinosaurs that a tie-in book says is unusual; the Nesting Grounds is the usual breeding ground for the Iguanodon, but due to the desperation from the meteor’s devastation, all surviving herbivores have joined them in their exodus. Aladar and the lemurs befriend the Styracosaurus Eema, the Brachiosaurus Baylene, and the Ankylosaurus Url; the video game also adds a Pteranodon named Flia. Eventually, the main cast all befriend the various other members of the herd, especially since Aladar eventually becomes their leader.
    • Ratatouille has Remy (rat) and Linguini (human).
    • Frozen (2013) has a few. Kristoff and Sven the reindeer, who, though he doesn't talk, shows a degree of intelligence and sentience; Kristoff and the trolls; Anna and Olaf the snowman.
    • Zootopia has Nick Wilde (a fox) and Judy Hopps (a rabbit) becoming best friends. Although there are some serious hints this may lead to an Interspecies Romance later.
    • The Little Mermaid (1989): Ariel (a mermaid) is best friends with Flounder (a fish), and also close friends with Scuttle (a gull).
    • The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea: Because she is the only half-human/half-mermaid hybrid, all of Melody's friendships would be classified as this.
    • There is also Tip (a Walrus) and Dash (a penguin).
  • In Home (2015), Oh (Boov, an alien species) eventually forms an unbreakable bond with Tip (human).
  • Hiccup and Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon. In the first film, Hiccup is famously the first of his Viking clan to befriend a dragon.
  • Ice Age: Manny (mammoth) and Diego (saber-tooth tiger) and Sid (sloth) form one of this type of friendship with each other by the end of the first film and it continues into the sequels. The unusual nature of this "herd" is duly lampshaded.
  • Kung Fu Panda:
    • The Furious Five are a group of famous and skilled kung-fu warriors, all of the different species (tiger, monkey, crane, snake, praying mantis), who are all close friends, looking out for one another and it shows in their fighting coordination, utilizing each other's core strengths. It continues when Po, a panda, joins their team.
    • Oogway (turtle) to his student Shifu (red panda). And also, with his former friend Kai (yak) before their friendship soured.
  • In The Land Before Time, a long-neck (Apatosaurus), three-horn (Triceratops), swimmer (Saurolophus), flier (Pteranodon) and spike-tail (Stegosaurus) overcome their parents' generations-long racism and become True Companions. A sequel adds a sharp-tooth (Tyrannosaurus rex) to the gang and the TV series adds a fast-runner (Oviraptor).
  • Princess Mononoke: The eponymous heroine was literally Raised by Wolves, whom she considers her family. So much so, that when Ashitaka tried to tell her she was human, she vehemently denied it and said she was a wolf.
  • In The Secret of NIMH, Mrs. Brisby (a field mouse) is friends with Jeremy (a crow), Auntie Shrew (a shrew) and the rats of NIMH.
  • Shrek (an ogre), Donkey and eventually Puss in Boots become friends in the Shrek films.
  • The title character of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Spirit (a horse), appears to be friends with an unnamed bald eagle and he later befriends a human.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Blade: The titular character (Dhampyr) and Whistler (human).
  • In District9, Wikus and Christopher, a human (in the beginning, at least) and an alien respectively.
  • Dragonheart: Draco (the world's last dragon) and Bowen (a knight-turned-dragonslayer) form an unlikely friendship, which is seen as unusual since dragons and humans consider each other their greatest enemy.
  • Being a Friend to All Living Things that she was, Giselle from Enchanted was close to all her animal friends, particularly Pip the chipmunk.
  • Everyone in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) since none of them share the same species.
  • As with the books, in The Hobbit, a friendship was struck up between Bilbo (a hobbit) and Gandalf (disguised as more or less human), not to mention Bilbo's close, life-long friendship with the dwarves.
  • The ending of Jurassic World Dominion shows that, after cloned dinosaurs became mainstream and started spreading across the planet, they gradually have begun assimilating into the world's ecosystems. Pterosaurs join flocks of birds in migrating, large herbivores like Parasaurolophus and Sinoceratops join herds of horses and elephants. Even the Mosasaurus, which fans dreaded the potential disastrous consequences of being unleashed into the open ocean given the concerns raised by Jurassic Park: The Game, is shown to have befriended a pod of whales and is mentioned in expanded material to be hunting great whites alongside orcas.note 
  • The Lord of the Rings:
    • The Fellowship is composed of hobbits, men, an elf, a dwarf, and a Maia. There was already a strong friendship between Aragorn (a human) and Legolas (an elf) and one would develop between Legolas and Gimli (a dwarf).
      Gimli: Never thought I'd die side-by-side with an elf.
      Legolas: What about side-by-side with a friend?
      Gimli: Aye, I could do that.
    • Merry and Éowyn, and Pippin and Faramir, hobbits and humans respectively, also become quite close.
  • Maleficent: The title character is a fairy. She befriends a human at the beginning of the plot and is also friends with beings that don't look like they're the same species of fairy, as well as Diaval the raven.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe: Any relationship with Thor.
  • MonsterVerse:
  • My Octopus Teacher is a documentary about the relationship Craig Foster develops with an octopus by spending time watching it.
  • Star Trek (2009):
    • It takes most of the film, but one develops between Kirk (human) and Spock (half-Vulcan, half-human).
    • Also, Scotty and Keenser. A human and a... cute alien thing...
  • The original Star Wars trilogy had Han Solo and Chewbacca, the Wookie, as friends and partners.
  • Sam and Bumblebee in Transformers, as well as Captain Lennox and the rest of NEST with the other Autobots.
    • Essentially the central plot point of Bumblebee. The human/Cybertronian friendship has been a major part of the Transformers franchise since the beginning, and the earlier Transformers Film Series showed this too, the Continuity Reboot Bumblebee gives it central focus and develops the story around the friendship of Bumblebee and Charlie Watson.
  • Kevin Flynn and the program TRON.

    Literature 
  • Achoo!: The animals (a cow, a dog, a goat, some sheep, a horse, some pigs, and some cats) are described as Suzy-Sue's (a human) friends. Later, the cow offers to be friends with the cats as part of her apology to them.
  • Alien in a Small Town: Paul the silicon-based alien and Indira.
  • Animal Inn: Pedro the burro and Ludwig the german shepherd, introduced in book 5 and adopted by Miss Maggie Rafferty.
  • Animorphs has Ax, an Andalite, and the five human characters. Or four human characters and one red-tailed-hawk/human/Andalite (Tobias). The team also count Hork-Bajir and Chee among their friends and allies. Cassie even befriended a Yeerk.
  • The Artemis Fowl series contains quite a lot of this, especially between human Artemis Fowl and high-tech fairy Holly Short.
  • Bigfoot and Littlefoot: The main relationship in the series is between Hugo, a sasquatch, and Boone, a human.
    • "The Monster Detector" reveals that Boone's grandmother and Hugo's grandfather were friends as well when they were kids. They stopped seeing each other when Boone's grandmother moved, but they've caught back up again now.
  • The Book of Night with Moon has Arhu (a cat) and Ith (a T. rex).
  • The Calf Of The November Cloud: Konyek (human) adores his father's cow-calf November Cloud, who is similarly fond of him; likewise, November Cloud and the baby elephant Ol-Kulto befriend each other during Konyek's stay in a forested hill.
  • Dinotopia: The core premise is human/saurian friendship. And human/prehistoric mammal friendship, and etc. When they're close enough, they are called "nestfriends", bringing to mind a common sight in the books: babies and children of different species being raised together, sometimes literally with time spent in nests.
  • Discworld:
    • In Wyrd Sisters, Vitolier, a human actor, is close friends with Hwel, a dwarf playwright, to the extent that he can call him a dwarfish killing curse as a term of affection.
    • In Men at Arms, Lance-Constable Cuddy, a dwarf, and Lance-Constable Detritus, a troll, form a close partnership, despite the traditional antipathy of their species. They also get on fairly well with the human watch members and the werewolf Lance-Constable Angua.
    • In Soul Music, Susan Sto Helit's best friends at school are Gloria Thogsdaughter, a dwarf, and Princess Jade, a troll, who share her outsider status. (Susan herself is "mostly human".)
  • Don Quixote: It is mentioned that Don Quixote's horse Rocinante and Sancho's donkey Dapple develop a close bond of friendship throughout their adventures.
  • Dragonriders of Pern in which humans form lifelong bonds with intelligent dragons.
  • Multiple examples exist in the anthropomorphic setting of Eludoran between Zephyr and Arulaine, Lorelei and Pendarynn and Malachi and Marissa
  • In the book Fire World, Rosa (a human) and Alleron (a Firebird) are friends.
  • Firstborn revolves around a magpie befriending a wolf pack. Maggie's especially close to Blue Boy and his son Lamar.
  • Galaxy Zack: In "Hello, Nebulon!", when Zack Nelson, a human, comes to his new school, his first friend is Drake Taylor, a Nebulite.
  • Good Omens has Aziraphale (an angel) and Crowley (a demon).
  • In both of Nalini Singh's series this is a recurring theme, along with Interspecies Romance:
  • Harry Potter:
    • Harry is friends with Dobby, a house-elf, which is considered odd because most wizards treat them as inferior slaves. Before him, Regulus Black had a similar relationship with his house-elf Kreacher.
    • Harry, Hermione, Ron, and a fairly large number of the Hogwarts staff are also friends with Hagrid, a half-giant. The slightly strained relationship with Hagrid's full giant brother, Grawp, might fit this trope better, though.
    • In Order of the Phoenix the murderous giant Golgomath is friends, or at least friendly with, the Death Eater Walden Macnair. They apparently bond over their shared passion for violence and it probably helps that Macnair supported Golgomath in usurping the previous Gurg of the giants who wanted to ally with Dumbledore and then hunt down and kill those giants who opposed him taking over.
    • If you count werewolves as a different species, all of Remus Lupin's friendships could count as this.
  • The Chronicles of Narnia book The Horse and His Boy is -among other things- about the friendship between a horse and a human.
  • In the Hurog duology, Ward befriends ... some people who are only part human. Axiel, a half-dwarf, and Oreg, a part-dragon. Though Ward himself has dragonblood, too.
  • If You Give a Mouse a Cookie has a friendship between the eponymous mouse and the nameless protagonist.
  • In the Inheritance quadrilogy you have riders and their dragons. You also have friendships between humans, dragons (outside their riders), elves, dwarves, and werecats. Eragon (a human) in particular has several friends from other races, including Arya (an elf), Orik (dwarf), and Solembum (a werecat).
  • The English picture book The Lamb Who Came For Dinner and it's two follow-up books (The Wolves Who Came For Dinner and The Alligator Who Came For Dinner) are centered on an unexpected friendship between a predator (an old wolf) and prey (little lamb/Hotspot). In the original book, The old wolf originally planned on eating little lamb but begins reconsidering eating her after she shows kindness and love towards him. When the old wolf tries to eat her as she's sleeping, she gives him a big kiss, which causes him to snap at the lamb and force her out of his house in fear thinking about eating her. The old wolf then becomes very worried about her and starts searching the forest in fear of something terrible happening to her. Happily, he discovers the little lamb back at his house, with both characters giving each other a hug out of love. The story ends with both characters having vegetable soup together in peace.
  • The Jungle Book, The Second Jungle Book, and the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling are full of friendships between humans and animals — Mowgli, the boy adopted by wolves and friends with Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther, and Kaa the python, is only one example of many — and between different species of animals.
  • The Second-Stage Lensmen of the Lensman series are all good friends: Kinnison of Tellus (human), Worsel of Velentia (Dragon with multiple eyes on stalks, multiple hands and arms, and a multi-compartment mind), Tregonsee of Rigel IV (Oil-drum body with four legs, four branching tentacle-arms, and no eyes or ears — uses a "sense of perception" instead), and Nadrick of Palain VII (Whose appearance cannot be described because his species has a metabolic extension into the fourth dimension). And it's hinted that these sorts of friendships are not all that unusual among Lensmen or in the Galactic Patrol in general.
    • This continues with Kinnison's children. While his son generally hangs around with him, each of the three Kinnison daughters basically adopts one of the other Second Stage Lensmen as a buddy to hang around and work with.
  • The Dutch-German children's book series Lars de kleine ijsbeer/Lars der kleine eisbär (known as The Little Polar Bear in the west) is focused on a friendly polar bear cub and his family back in the Arctic. He eventually befriends a young seal named "Robby" (Robbe in German) that he stumbled upon while searching the Arctic. After playing together, Lars' father alongside Robby's family both voice their disapproval at first. Eventually, Lars' father and Robby's family of seals decide to change their mind and allow Robby and Lars to become best friends.
  • A Lion in the Meadow: The story ends with the boy and the lion becoming friends and playing together in the other meadow.
  • The Malazan Book of the Fallen includes quite a bit of this. Sometimes it's odd, others times it's not:
    • Trull, a Tiste Edur develops a deep friendship with the undead T'lan Imass Onrack in House of Chains.
    • Spinnock Durav, a Tiste Andii upholds a friendship with the human Seerdomin in Toll the Hounds. It is also remarked that Spinnock is among the very, very few Andii who mingle with the human population of Black Coral.
  • In The Migax Cycle, Summer (a human), and Leafsong and Moonwafer (a sapient species known as skeefers), are friends.
  • Simon Lewis from The Mortal Instruments has been friends with Clary Fray since childhood, without knowing that she is not a human being, but a shadowhunter. He later becomes a vampire and befriends the two werewolves Jordan and Maia.
    • The sequel The Dark Artifices shows the Elven Prince Kieran, who becomes friends with some shadowhunters in the course of the plot.
  • The One and Only Ivan: Ivan, a gorilla, is friends with Bob, a dog, and Stella and Ruby, who are elephants.
  • Oona: During Oona's Heroic BSoD over her angrily giving up on getting the crown from the pit, we see her on a beach hanging out with a couple of human children, which the book refers to as her land friends.
  • In Percy Jackson and the Olympians this applies to everyone who is friends with the Cyclops Tyson, except Percy, because the two are half-brothers.
  • In Quest for Fire, Naoh (a Neanderthal) befriends the chief of a mammoth herd and later the matriarch of a modern human tribe.
  • In The Sorceress's Orc, the human student Amethyst and the orcish bodyguard Kiki become close friends.
  • C. S. Lewis Space Trilogy:
  • Stray: Pufftail is a stray cat who is not fond of humans. Even as a pet kitten he thought they were an oddity, but his many poor experiences with humans soured his opinion on them. Still, he considers his last friend to have been a nun named Sister Caroline Mary. She saved him when he was thrown out of a car. Unlike other humans, she didn't condescend him or restrict his behavior. Pufftail found Caroline Mary to be very cat-like and the two bonded over the several weeks he stayed at the nunnery.
  • In Temeraire the bonds between dragons and their captains probably go beyond even friendship. However, even if you're not that dragon's captain, close friendships exist. One of the things that marks the Aviators apart from everybody else is that they see dragons as equals, while practically everyone else thinks they're just talking beasts of burden.
  • Tolkien's Legendarium:
    • In The Lord of the Rings:
      • The Fellowship consists of representatives of five species and races (Elves, Humans, Dwarves, and Hobbits, plus Gandalf the Maia). Hobbits Pippin and Merry also later become friends with the Ent Fangorn, while Gandalf numbers Gwaihir the Wind-Lord (an intelligent eagle) among his friends.
      • Elven queen Galadriel is friends with Gandalf and also becomes friendly with Gimli, Aragorn, and Frodo.
    • In The Fall of Gondolin,Tuor (Man) and Voronwë (Elf) become good friends and brothers-in-arms during their sojourn to the hidden city.
    • Beren and Lúthien has Beren (human) and Finrod (Elf). The former all but worships the latter (much to Finrod's chagrin), and the latter died to save Beren.
  • In The Traitor Son Cycle, human archer Cully becomes best friends with boglin archer Urk of Mogon after the former is amazed by the latter's skill during a competition.
  • The Twilight Saga books and films, which feature friendships and romance between humans and vampires, werewolves (technically shapeshifters) and humans, and friendships between werewolves and vampires.
  • In Vampire Academy, Rose Hathaway is a dhampir, Sydney Sage is a human. They are reluctant friends, though their species rarely interact. The Alchemists, Sydney's organization, think all vampires and dhampirs are evil. So the friendship between them is rare.
  • In The Vazula Chronicles, the human Heath and the dragon Rekavidur are best friends. They explore the countryside and ocean with Reka carrying Heath in his claws.
  • War With No Name: Mort(e) and D'Arc are very close friends. One is a cat and the other is a dog.
  • Warrior Cats: In the novella Pebbleshine's Kits, Pebbleshine is amazed at the friendship between Bug the cat and Bunny the dog who live on a farm together.
  • In Louise Searl's The Way of Kings (2021), Kachula the lion makes friends with a hyena, the traditional enemy of his species.
  • Who Wet My Pants: The main characters are a bear, hedgehog, lion, hippo, cryptid, raccoon, dog, squirrel, and tortoise, and they're all friends on a camping trip together.
  • Winnie the Pooh: Features a human boy and his friends, who are a bear, pig, tiger, rabbit, donkey, owl, and two kangaroos. The animated series adds a gopher.
  • The World According To Humphrey: While all the kids in Room 26 grow to like Humphrey the hamster, he and the nighttime custodian Arlo actually become close friends. Humphrey really likes Arlo and even helps Arlo find a date by showing him a nighttime club from a newspaper ad. Even though Arlo doesn't understand Humphrey, he holds conversations with him and refers to him as a friend, introducing Humphrey to his new girlfriend and jokes that he'll make Humphrey his best man when they get married.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The titular hero from Angel finds his first real friend with the half-demon Doyle. His previous relationship with Buffy was romantic, and the other Scoobies were more friends with her than with him. In the course of the action, he becomes friends with some humans and the demon Lorne.
  • In Babylon 5, there's a particularly odd one between Londo (Centauri) and G'kar (Narn), who are the ambassadors of two warring species — one of which (the Centauri) had previously conquered and enslaved the other — and started out hating each other. Circumstances force them to tolerate and eventually like each other, if a bit snarkily.
    • The more amiable case is between G'kar and Garibaldi, the head of security and human.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the spin-off Angel had several friendships between humans, vampires, werewolves, and demons.
  • Doctor Who:
    • All of the Doctor's companions aside from their granddaughter Susan, as well as Romana, fall under this.
    • A few of the companions also have had an Interspecies Friendship with one another, e.g. Tegan and Nyssa, Bill and Nardole, K-9 and pretty much everyone the tin dog ever met.
  • Farscape had a human, Human Aliens, and Starfish Aliens.
  • In Grimm, Nick (a human/Grimm) and Monroe (a Wesen/Blutbad).
  • Lexx had a human, a half-human lizard girl, an undead assassin, a robot head, and a living spaceship.
  • In Llan-ar-goll-en, Prys ar Flys, a human man is best friends with Ceri, a talking dog. Together the duo solve mysteries in the small titular village.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 puts the human host's relationship with the 'bots right in the opening theme song:
    He'll try to keep his sanity
    With the help of his robot friends
  • In the My Special Book episode "Donelle and the Worm", Book Girl tells the story of a girl named Donelle who goes out to fish and is about to put a worm on her fishing rod's hook when the worm, named Cortez, protests against it and demands that Donelle leave her off the hook. Cortez explains she has a family and dreams like anybody would, and the thought that Donelle knows everything about the worm is enough to get her to reconsider and be friends with the creature instead.
  • The Planet of the Apes series had two humans (Virdon and Burke) and an ape (Galen).
  • Raven has two examples:
    • The titular character, a practically immortal magic user who turns into a bird, refers to the human contestants as his friends multiple times.
    • The spin-off Raven: The Island has Princess Erina, a human and Raven's childhood friend, and Haryad, a blue glowing sprite, being close friends.
  • Red Dwarf has the relation between Lister (the Token Human), Rimmer (the Virtual Ghost), Cat (the Cat Person), Kryten (the Robot Maid), and Holly (the Benevolent A.I.), although this usually presents itself in the form of Vitriolic Best Buds.
  • Roswell, with its human and alien teens.
  • In Smallville, any friendship involving Clark, obviously.
  • Stargate SG-1:
    • The Stargate team (humans) with Teal'c (a Jaffa).
    • As the series progresses, it also becomes evident that Thor really likes SG-1, particularly O'Neill. They even named the first of their new line of Starships "The O'Neill". They had to blow it up 5 minutes later, but the thought was there. The feelings are mutual though, and SG-1 makes it rather clear that they much prefer the company of Thor compared to the other Asgard.
  • It's hard to imagine Star Trek without this.
  • Supernatural:
    • Dean (a human) and Castiel (an angel). Begins as a Forbidden Friendship, as Castiel is not supposed to develop an emotional connection with his charge, on the grounds that it could impair his judgment. The forbidden aspect becomes moot when Castiel rebels against Heaven, which is also forbidden.
    • Also, Dean's brother Sam and Castiel after they grow closer over the seasons (although, to quote Castiel, he and Dean do share a more profound bond).
    • Sam, as a child, became friends with Amy, a kitsune who goes on to save Sam's life. Dean, however, saw her solely as a supernatural threat that needed to be eliminated and ultimately kills her (right in front of her son, no less) in Season 7, triggering a breach of trust in the brothers' relationship. Ironically, Sam was later expected to accept Dean's friendship with Benny (a vampire who helped Dean get out of Purgatory), to which Sam responds by pointing out the hypocrisy of it all after Dean's hostility and actions towards Amy.
  • Teen Wolf:
    • Stiles and Scott remain best friends despite the latter being turned into a werewolf in the pilot episode. Also, Scott's girlfriend Allison Argent, who's human, and Lydia Martin, a banshee.
    • Kali and Jennifer were pretty close in the past despite belonging to different species (the former a werewolf, the latter a druid), although they were torn apart when Kali massacred her entire pack to become an Alpha and join Deucalion, marking the druid's Start of Darkness.
  • Tracker (2001) Mel and Cole-Although Mel is a Half-Human Hybrid, that only came out in the next to last ep of the series, so it was viewed as human and alien for most of it.
  • Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt:
    Bunny and Kitty being best friends
    Together forever, the fun never ends
    Solving mysteries, one hug at a time
    Bunny and Kitty, two of a kind

    Music 
  • Malinda Kathleen Reese: One video featured a song about a penguin travelling out of the Arctic in search of a friend, and eventually meeting an Elephant. They're even referred to as "weird cross-species buddies".
  • Tears for Fears: In the "Head over Heels" music video, Curt Smith's character is friends with the chimpanzee, as they share a high-five and engage in Platonic Kissing. The behind-the-scenes footage on the Scenes from the Big Chair documentary also shows clips of Smith monkeying around (pun intended) with the chimp in between takes.

    Other Sites 

    Puppet Shows 
  • The Muppets in general, but especially best friends Kermit the Frog and Fozzie Bear.

    Tabletop Games 

    Video Games 
  • In Baldur's Gate III, you can adopt both a dog named Scratch and a nameless orphaned owlbear cub. The two eventually become close friends, with Scratch helping the owlbear cub with his nightmares from the abuse he suffered at the goblins' hands, and the owlbear cub, in turn, considering Scratch like a brother.
  • The story of Blanc has a fawn and a wolf pup finding themselves having to work together after they're separated from their respective families during a snowstorm, developing a strong bond in the process.
  • In BlazBlue, we have the trio of Noel Vermillion, Tsubaki Yayoi (two humans) and Makoto Nanaya (squirrel girl). This has such a great effect that the formerly prejudiced-for-her-race Makoto is incredibly loyal to those two and makes it her mission to ensure no harms come between them, and anyone who does get horribly killed by her hands (Or so she says for the latter), and the mere thought of her friendship to them is the one thing that enables her to survive the Boundary like Hakumen, and be immune to Terumi's infamous Trolling. Unfortunately, while getting mind raped in her bad ending, it's revealed that deep down, Makoto doesn't trust Noel and Tsubaki either, and she's just waiting for them to reject her like everyone else. We'll see if this comes into play in future games.
  • In Cave Story, the group of survivors who band together to get off the island includes three humans, two humans-turned-Mimiga, the remnants of the island's Mimiga village, the two robotic main characters, and in the Golden Ending a witch of unspecified race and... whatever Balrog is.
  • In Deltarune Kris, a human, forms friendships with Susie and Noelle, both monsters, as well as Ralsei and Lancer, who are Darkners. They also seem to get on well with some of their monster classmates.
  • In Dragon Age, no matter your race, you can befriend elves, dwarves, humans, Qunari and the odd Fade spirit. Arguably the closest friendship in the series is the one between Hawke, a human, and Varric, a dwarf.
  • EXTRAPOWER: Fairly common, usually as humans and aliens maintaining friendships, a la Sharkungo of the Shakun Star being friends with Galaxystar and Zophy, both of Earth. In a more classic human and animal example, Zophy's closest friend is King Leo, a 200 year old talking lion and companion of his adventures. In Giant Fist, Davie and Marie imply that many animals are friends with Zophy and his group, as they recognize a few animals by name and ask Zophy to go easy on them in their Get A Hold Of Yourself Man fights.
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, any friendship that involves either Panne (Taguel), Yarne (half-Taguel), Nowi (Manakete), Nah (half-Manakete), Tiki (also a Manakete), a female Morgan (if any of the aforementioned women is her mother) and a male Morgan (only if he's fathered by Yarne).
  • In Fire Emblem Fates, any friendship that involves the Player Character (half-dragon), Kaden and Selkie (Kitsune aka fox spirits), Keaton and Velouria (Wolfskin aka sort-of werewolves) or any child of the Avatar (one-quarter Dragon, might have Kitsune or Wolfskin blood).
  • Kingdom Hearts: Most notably, Sora's friendship with Donald and Goofy, and Riku's friendship with Mickey.
  • The vast majority of Kirby's friendships are of the interspecies variety, due to living in a world inhabited by many different sapient species but very few of his own kind.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
  • Mass Effect, where Commander Shepard can develop close, non-romantic friendships with several different kinds of aliens, and, of course, develop Interspecies Romances as well. Not to mention the ones between NCPs. Notably, of Shepard's consistently closest friends on the Normandy, only one of them is a human (Joker). The others are a turian (Garrus), a quarian (Tali'Zorah), and an asari (Liara).
  • In Mega Man Star Force, most of the non-villainous aliens (and even some of the villains) end up forging these with their partners for EM Wave Changing, but special mention goes to two particular friendships: The FMian Lyra Note and human Sonia Strumm (who fuse to become Harp Note), and the human Geo Stelar and AMian Omega-Xis (The main characters, who fuse to become Mega Man).
  • Metroid:
    • Super Metroid: Samus can befriend creatures who teach her to Wall Jump and use the speed booster. They survive through the ending, and show up again in Metroid Fusion. The Super Metroid also qualifies, given that it literally performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save Samus' life.
    • Metroid Prime 3: Corruption: Samus can count among her friends Rundas, a Phyrigisian; Ghor, a near-completely robotized alien; and Gandrayda, whose species is unknown, though Gandrayda seems to love piling on subtext. Unfortunately for Samus, all of them succumb to Phazon corruption, so she eventually has to kill them at different points in the game.
  • The entire Nippon Ichi verse is full of these since regular humans live side by side with angels, demons, robots, aliens, talking animals, and bipeds with animal aspects. For example: Flonne with Laharl and Etna in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness.
  • New Legends have you, a human Warrior Prince, befriending a Human-Demon Hybrid who has menacing red eyes, demonic-looking horns, towers over other humans, but turns out to be a case of Dark Is Not Evil, since said demon remains your friend and supporter the entire game. It's implied he's the Last of His Kind after a genocide, though.
  • Ōkami has Amaterasu, a sun goddess in wolf form, and Issun, a Poncle.
  • Pokémon:
  • River Tails: Stronger Together: Furple, a curious and enthusiastic cat and Finn, an independent fish become friends during their adventure across the river.
  • SongBird Symphony: Birb and Egbert are not from the same species of bird.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Pretty much all of Sonic's friendships fall into this. For example, there's his long-time friendship between him, a blue hedgehog that can run at mach speeds, and Miles "Tails" Prower, a twin-tailed fox... who can fly.
    • Amy's closest friend seems to be Cream. They're a hedgehog and a rabbit respectively.
    • Shadow the Hedgehog was created on ARK to help a sick human girl named Maria Robotnik. The two became friends and Maria's death before the events of Sonic Adventure 2 plays a huge role in Shadow's character.
  • Splatoon 2:
    • The game features a duo of musicians branded as Off The Hook. One is Pearl, who's an Inkling just like the protagonists of the series. Marina, on the other hand, is an Octoling, who are the Inklings' traditional arch-nemesis. Since the first game featured no friendly Octolings whatsoever, this came as a surprise to many players. Marina witnessed the final battle of the first game, and moved to Inkopolis soon after, where she eventually became a duo with Pearl and ascended to stardom.
    • Following the release of the Octo Expansion DLC (which revealed that Marina was not the only Octoling to defect to Inkopolis following the end of the first Splatoon), it's not uncommon to find Octolings and Inklings hanging out together in the Hub World. Inklings and Octolings freely associating with each other would carry over to future entries, with the featured musicians of Splatoon 3 being Deep Cut, another group consisting of an Inkling and Octoling (and manta ray).
  • Early in Suikoden II, the player is given the opportunity to recruit Kinnison and his dog companion (who's actually a wolf), named Shiro.
  • The Sea Emperor in Subnautica addresses you as "friend" after you rescue its young, allowing it to die without regrets. Given that the player character never speaks, it's ambiguous how they feel about the situation, but the actual players tend to become emotional.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Considering humans, dinosaurs, mushrooms, and what not live all in the same kingdom it's only natural this would show up. For a specific example, Mario and Yoshi are best friends.
    • The Paper Mario series is even more obvious about this, with its focus on storyline and the huge amount of partners Mario has, many of them being friendly versions of Mook species like Goombas, Koopas, Lakitus, Boos, Bob-ombs and many others.
  • Tales of Vesperia:
    • Yuri Lowell and Repede. Bonus points since Repede earns two titles specifically regarding his friendship with Yuri:
    • "Sinful Sidekick", which is earned after he witnesses Ragoh's death at Yuri's hands.
    • "Considerate Sidekick", earned after he leads Karol and the others to Yuri, for trying to strike off on his own.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1 has several examples of this all around the world. Amongst the main party, both Riki (a Nopon) and Melia (a High Entia) have a good friendship between them, and also develop some close bonds with their Homs partners as the game goes on; in one case even growing into unrequited Interspecies Romance.

    Visual Novels 
  • Hatoful Boyfriend takes place in a universe where most humans are extinct and birds have evolved to the same point of intelligence. Hiyoko, the player character, is a human who has been best friends with Ryouta, a bird since she was a little kid. This being a Dating Sim, this can potentially turn into a Childhood Friend Interspecies Romance.
  • The Last Birdling is about the friendship between two children, a human named Tayo and a Birdling named Bimonia. Humans and Birdlings have long hated and fought each other, but neither Tayo nor Bimonia cares about that; they just want to be friends. It ends up causing disastrous consequences. As Bimonia's mother puts it: "History can't be changed by a couple of kids."

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 
  • In Africa
    • Averted between Nadira and Africa. Nadira tries to reach out to a young Africa, but Giza's influence wins out.
    • After realizing this, Nadira and her son Paa form a friendship with a zebra herd
    • The concept is brought back to Africa when Faida is introduced, and after some time Africa seems to warm up to the idea, in allowing the Cheetah Safari to continue calling her dada (sister).
  • The title character of Digger is a wombat who befriends a human, a shrew in business as a Troll, several hyenas, and a juvenile demon. And then there are her acquaintances...
  • There's a six way instance of this trope in Forestdale. You have a fox, a dalmatian, a rabbit, a sparrow, a cat, and a wolf/deer hybrid all together in one tight knit circle of friends.
  • Florence (Uplifted wolf) and Sam (Alien Sqid) in Freefall.
  • In Homestuck, between the kids, carapacians, and some of the trolls. The post-scratch kids and Calliope are also friends, though Calliope's abusive brother makes it strained at times.
  • The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!: Bob is friends with dragons, unicorns, bigfeet, aliens, robots, mutants, giants, and furry lab accidents.
  • The Mansion of E has the repair-team of Sprocket and Flange (Gnoll and Helipath), and the idlers Tuft and Dap (Gobule and Gnoll).
  • Nebula: Between Mercury, a planet, and Sun, a star. They get along surprisingly well despite their vastly different personalities and the fact that Sun's biology makes it impossible for anyone who isn't a star to even stand too close to him without being burned.
  • In Off-White: Hati the wolf and the two ravens. One raven even sacrifices himself for Hati.
  • In Pebble and Wren, the titular characters are best friends and they're a monster and a human respectively. Pebble's mother Violet is also an old friend of Wren's dad Donald and a nodding acquaintance of Wren's other dad Phil and Wren herself.
  • In Undead Friend there are a lot of friendships built between humans and ghosts.
  • Unsounded: Ruffles, an inak, is good friends with the human twins Sara and Siya. This is especially notable as the inak are treated as soulless beasts by most people and have been suffering a genocide at human hands since the two groups encountered each other seventy years prior.

    Web Original 
  • In Afterlife Labirynth, Vryg the bred (male, Polish bred Wryg) and Waom the wohu (female, Polish uowujka Uaom) are Joseph's friends.
  • Chatoyant College: Corrie/Dawn and Professor Lal, the gang and Troy, and Dawn and Tom

    Western Animation 
  • Just about any series in which the main cast are all Funny Animal types of varying species will be this, though the distinction is blurred, given that the nature of the characters is such that most of the time they act human anyway. Arthur, Little Bear, Franklin, Llama Llama and Timothy Goes to School are all prominent examples. Arthur is an aardvark whose circle of friends includes a rabbit, a monkey, and a dog. Little Bear's best friend is a human named Emily, and his other friends include a duck, a cat, a hen, an owl and a monkey. Franklin's the turtle's best friends are a bear and a snail, and other friends include a rabbit, a beaver, a fox, a skunk and a goose. Llama Llama is best friends with a gnu (wildebeest), as well as friends with a sheep, a goat, and a giraffe. Timothy is a raccoon who is best friends with a cat and his other friends include a badger/skunk, a pair of dogs, and two mice.
  • Adventures from the Book of Virtues has two human kids, a bison, a red-tailed hawk, a bobcat, and a prairie dog.
  • The Adventures of Dawdle the Donkey: The main friendship of the show is between Dawdle The Donkey, Rola Polar Bear, and Archie The Cat.
  • Adventure Time has the two main characters, Jake the dog and Finn the human. There's also Marceline the Vampire Queen and Princess Bubblegum (the anthropomorphic candy). Really though, almost every relationship in the land of Ooo could count as this on account of the world being made up almost entirely of anthropomorphic everything (animals, food, land, etc).
  • In Amphibia, Anne, a human, befriends Sprig, a frog person, once she arrives in the world of Amphibia. She lives with his family and forms an Intergenerational Friendship with Wally in "Wally and Anne".
  • Animaniacs has Rita and Runt, respectively, a cat and a dog. However, Runt doesn't like cats, so his friendship with Rita only exists because he doesn't know — or refuses to acknowledge — that Rita is feline.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender has this with Aang and his sky bison, Appa. Later, Aang also befriends a flying lemur, Momo. Aang is a Friend to All Living Things, so it's no surprise he and his team have a Loyal Animal Companion or two. Even when no humans are around, though, it's clear that Appa and Momo are buddies with one another.
    • Sequel Series The Legend of Korra has Naga (Korra's polar bear dog) and Pabu (Bolin's fire ferret) being friends... just after the former tried hunting the latter.
    • The Aye-Aye Spirit befriends Wan, who is human. Wan is something special for him, he doesn't like other humans.
    • There's also Zuko, who has a life-long companion in Druk, one of the last surviving dragons.
  • Very prominent in The Backyardigans. The main cast are all the best of friends... And happen to consist of a penguin, a moose, a uniqua, a hippo, and a kangaroo.
  • Ben 10: Omniverse has Ben with Rook, a Revonnahgander.
  • Seen a lot in Chaotic, as part of the show's main theme is humans getting to travel to a world inhabited by non-human creatures of vastly varied shapes, sizes, and looks. The four main characters, all human teens, befriend a good number of creatures throughout the series run.
  • In the first season of The Dragon Prince, the moonshadow elf Rayla befriends the two humans Callum and Ezran. They probably have the first Interspecies Friendship in over a thousand years, because otherwise humans and elves don't like each other very much.
    • In the middle of the third season, the relationship between Callum and Rayla becomes romantic, but the friendship between her and Ezran remains.
  • In Dragons: Riders of Berk, the dragons and their Riders share a deep, mutual bond of friendship and see one another as equals. Well, at least the heroes do.
  • DuckTales (2017):
    • The first season finale reveals that Webby's best friend Lena is actually a Living Shadow.
    • In season 2, Webby finds another good friend in Violet Sabrewing, a violet sabrewing hummmingbird. Despite distrusting her at first, Lena also becomes friends with Violet, and in Season 3, she becomes her adopted sister.
  • Brian and Stewie Griffin in Family Guy. The former is a dog, while the latter is a baby human.
  • The Family-Ness has this between Angus and Elspeth, a pair of human children, and the Nessies, a family of Loch Ness monsters.
  • In Futurama there is Bender and Fry, and to a lesser extent the other members of the Planet Express crew. Also Zoidberg.
    • Fry and Leela appear to be this for several seasons, but it's later revealed that Leela was Human All Along and that her parents are sewer mutants who passed her off as an alien so that she could have a better life on the surface.
  • George of the Jungle's friendship between the title human and Ape (the... ape) comes to mind.
  • Kaeloo does the typical "Funny Animals of different species are friends" thing (Kaeloo is a frog, Stumpy is a squirrel, Quack Quack is a duck, Mr. Cat is a cat, Pretty and Eugly are both rabbits, and Olaf is a penguin), though they're also a good example of With Friends Like These... since they don't get along well a lot of the time, particularly in the case of the downright villainous and Ax-Crazy Mr. Cat. Even still, they have demonstrated from time to time that they genuinely care for each other.
  • Kid Cosmic: The Local Heroes consists of four humans and a cat.
  • In Kulipari: Dream Walker, Darel's three younger Kulipari siblings, Tharta, Thuma, and Tipi, are friends with Stinger, a scorpion.
  • The Lion Guard is made of this. There's Kion (Lion), Fuli (cheetah), Bunga (honey badger), Ono (egret) and Beshte (hippo). Anga (Eagle) joins the group in the third season. Bunga is also friends with Timon and Pumbaa, who raised him after they raised Simba. There's also an episode that centers on three young friends-an elephant, an antelope and a monkey-who get kicked out of their groups and live together.
  • Several Looney Tunes shorts feature these, including:
    • Birds of a Father shows Sylvester, Jr., befriending a bluebird named Spike, much to the chagrin of Sylvester, Sr.
    • Feed the Kitty has a small kitten named Pussyfoot winning over the heart of an initially brutish bulldog named Marc Anthony. This friendship is seen through all five shorts they appear in together, as Mark Anthony will do anything within his power to make sure Pussyfoot is both happy and safe — even bearing with her claws kneading into his back before she goes to sleep.
    • Go Fly a Kit starts with an eagle with an overactive mother complex adopting an orphaned kitten as her very own offspring. It's such a strong bond that the eagle mother cries when her young kitten flies away by himself.
    • This trope applies, sparingly, in shorts where Daffy Duck appears together with either Bugs Bunny or Porky Pig.
  • My Life as a Teenage Robot: Brad, Tuck, and Sheldon (humans) are friends with Jenny, who's a robot.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • The unicorn Twilight Sparkle is friends with her assistant Spike, a baby dragon. Fluttershy is friendly with most non-pony animals and beasts (which seem to be more intelligent than real-world animals), and goes on to become the first friend Discord has ever had and reform him to boot.
    • Pony characters have also developed friendships with buffaloes, zebras, and gryphons (all of which are sapient species equal to ponies).
    • This is a major plot point in "School Daze", where Twilight opens a school to foster friendship between different species. While the leaders of the various nations quite clearly do not get along with each other, six students of different species — Sandbar the earth pony, Gallus the griffon, Silverstream the hippogriff, Ocellus the changeling, Yona the yak and Smolder the dragon — quickly bond and become fast friends.
    • In the first My Little Pony: Equestria Girls movie, Twilight Sparkle makes friends with the human counterparts of her friends in an Alternate Universe. Her friendship with Flash Sentry even gets this close to being an Interspecies Romance.
  • The Owl House:
  • In Phineas and Ferb, Dr. Doofenshmirtz considers his intelligent Animal Nemesis Perry the Platypus his best friend as well. The friendship continues past Doofenshmirtz's Heel–Face Turn at the end of the series and into Stealth Sequel Milo Murphy's Law.
  • Pixar Shorts: Kitbull stars a stray kitten befriending a pit bull that's abused by its owner. At first frightened by the pit bull's scarred appearance, the kitten bonds with the pit bull after seeing how badly it's been abused and forced into dogfighting. They eventually manage to escape together and finally find an owner who treats them very well.
  • On Ready Jet Go!, the humans Sean, Sydney, and Mindy are best friends with the alien Jet.
  • From Rocky and Bullwinkle:
  • The Silver Brumby, an Australian animated series based off of the titular books, has Thowra (the titular silver Brumby), Storm and boon Boon (two other horses) hang around with Benni (an old male grey kangaroo). They also get along well with other animals like a grumpy wombat, two gossiping emus, a rhyming owl, and a mother dingo.
  • The 1994 Direct to Video film Simon the Lamb by Precious Moments, involves the titular blue lamb befriending a fox cub (voiced by E.G. Daily) after becoming the newest member of a shepherd's flock. Due to the other lambs (except Daisy voiced by Kath Soucie) ostracisizng and mocking him due to his blue colored wool, the fox cub alongside becomes his only friends. Notably at school where a goose is teaching the young lambs which animal is good or a predator. Simon tells the class that a fox is friendly, which causes the other lamb classmates to laugh at his answer. After Simon goes missing (due to Albert playing a game of blind man's bluff), the young fox and the rest of the flock go searching for him. After Simon's fox friend meets Daisy, Albert, and an unnamed black sheep (voiced by Christine Cavanaugh) about knowing Simon, they fully accept him to the flock (alongside no longer mocking him for his blue wool).
  • Star and Marco from Star vs. the Forces of Evil may both look like humans, but the former is actually a Mewman, a species that looks like a human, but are from the dimension Mewni.
  • In 3-2-1 Penguins!, Jason and Michelle, two humans, are friends with Zidgel, Midgel, Fidgel, and Kevin, four penguins.
  • A handful of the later Hanna-Barbera Tom and Jerry shorts depict the title cat and mouse as more friendly to each other than they usually are.
  • Toon Bops: The episode "Miranda the Panda and Mark the Shark" has a song about the duo's friendship.
  • Transformers:
  • Work It Out Wombats!: The wombats each have best friends of a different species. Malik's best friend is Sammy the snake, Zadie's best friend is JunJun the eagle, and Zeke's best friend is Louisa the tarsier. Also, Mr. E, an iguana, is close friends with Ellie, a moose; though on Mr. E's end, the feelings extend past friendship.

    Real Life 
  • They say a man's best friend is his dog. Cats, birds, and horses are also common companions.
    • Really, just about any solid pet/owner friendship. Most domesticated animals quite enjoy human company.
    • And that of other domesticated animals, regardless of species. Even dogs and cats will get along just fine as long as at least one of them is young or submissive enough.
  • Amazingly enough Rats (more specifically the semi-domesticated "Fancy Rat" but others as well) can develop bonds with their humans just as strong as that of cats and dogs. As pets they are often highly intelligent and enjoy the company of their humans. There is even a well documented instance of a pet rat breaking out of his cage, climbing up to his owner's bedroom and waking her up in order to warn her of a house fire thus saving her and her family.
  • Honeyguides are a family of Afroasiatic birds who have been known to actively seek out humans in order to lead them to bee colonies so they can share the rewards; humans would take the honey while the birds would feed on the grubs and beeswax left behind. Anthropologists believe this relationship has been maintained since the days of Homo erectus nearly two million years ago, and in the present day, some African tribes such as the Yao of Mozambique have even developed a call to let the birds know they're ready to hunt. There have been a few recorded instances of the birds repeating this behavior with honey badgers, but most experts believe these were staged.
  • Koko the gorilla used to have a pet kitten, and she received two new ones for her 44th birthday.
  • This news story tells of Gohan and Aochan — a dwarf hamster and rat snake, respectively — who peacefully share an enclosure at a zoo in Japan (or shared, most likely, due to the average lifespan of hamsters and the article being written in 2006). Gohan was intended to be Aochan's lunch when the snake refused to eat frozen rodents, but Aochan never showed any hostility, eventually taking to frozen food. They got along so well that Gohan could safely climb onto the snake's back to take naps.
  • An old man named Dominic and a goose known by locals as "Maria"note  from Echo Park suddenly started following him and has been doing so ever since. The goose would even scare away people and other animals whenever they get anywhere near the old man.
  • There is a show on the channel Animal Planet called Unlikely Animal Friends that has many examples of this trope. Warthog and baby rhino, boar and cows, baboon and bush baby, etc.
  • Happens a lot on Too Cute, particularly between kittens and dogs.
  • The French racehorse Allez France shared her box with a sheep. It turns out that horses and goats or sheep make very good friends. This is actually where the term "Getting your goat" came from: owners of racing horses would give them goats as stable companions, and sometimes before a race, someone would kidnap the goat to make the horse perform poorly.
  • This grizzly bear and wolf cub, even after six years they were still together!
  • It seems it's not just grizzlies, polar bears and wolves also make fast friends.
  • At Noah's Ark animal sanctuary in Georgia, an African lion, a Bengal tiger, and an American black bear all share the same enclosure. The three were rescued from a drug dealer's house as cubs, and they have lived together as the best of friends for over a decade, even acting out and getting distressed when sanctuary personnel temporarily remove any one of the "brothers" for medical treatment. What makes the arrangement even more unusual is that black bears and Bengal tigers in the wild are solitary creatures who rarely associate even with their own kind. Also, wild Bengal tigers eat bears that size.
  • Wolves and ravens have a propensity for this in Real Life, ranging from sharing kills to playing together.
  • Solo was an African Wild Dog who lost her pack. She was eventually accepted by a clan of hyenas and then a family of jackals. What's amazing is that all three species are mortal enemies.
  • It's common practice at zoos and wildlife parks, when a young big cat, wolf, or bear is orphaned or rejected by its mother, to bring it up in the company of a domestic dog. The dog provides a playmate from which the motherless cub can learn social cues, and also demonstrates that their human caretakers are trustworthy by being friendly to people too.
  • In particular to the above, it's become increasingly common to use dogs as companion animals for cheetahs. Cheetahs are naturally a rather shy and anxious animal, which has proven a difficulty in breeding them in captivity in order to restore their wild populations. It turns out, however, that cheetahs can respond very well to dogs and, once a bond has been developed, learn social cues from them.
  • Bottlenose dolphins have been known to develop this kind of relationship with false killer whales. Not only do they cooperate in hunting for fish and squid, but they also are able to communicate with one another. Some dolphins form bonds with individual false killer whales and become companions with them for years. The two species appear to understand each other's calls to some extent, and there are even accounts of false killer whales mating with bottlenose dolphins, resulting in a hybrid known as a wholphin.
  • People who keep pet mice can't allow males to live with one another, as they fight when confined together. Nor can they be housed long-term with female mice unless neutered, which is risky surgery for such tiny pets. Rather than leave a male alone, it's increasingly common to house them with female African soft-fur rats (Mastomys natalensis), which are gerbil-sized and get along well with true mice, grooming and snuggling together, yet can't interbreed.
  • This video showcases a feral cat who wandered into a bear's enclosure at a zoo, befriended it, and now lives with it.
  • Bonedigger is a male Barbary lion living at the G.W. Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. The animals he gets along with very well are a family of dachshunds, especially a female named Abby (whom he had been friends with ever since they were a cub and puppy).
  • A farm goose named Hemingway and a miniature horse named Waffles ended up as inseparable friends, and had to be adopted together.
  • Evergreen, Colorado, is home to a bull elk who's made friends with two dogs.
  • A possible prehistoric example — there exists a fossil of an injured juvenile Broomistega (a type of amphibian) in the burrow of a Thrinaxodon (a prehistoric mammal relative). Though obviously it's difficult to determine what exactly was going on there, the most widely accepted explanation among scientists is that the Broomistega sought shelter with the Thrinaxodon and the two died together in a flood.
  • Jan van Hooff (a human) and Mama, a chimpanzee in the Netherlands. They first met in 1972 and reunited in 2016. Mama, who was severely weak and dying of a terminal illness, immediately recognised van Hooff, smiled and greeted him, and even allowed him to feed her, after previously refusing all food. She died a week later.
  • Owen, an orphaned young hippo who was rescued by Haller Park, Bamburi, Kenya, was placed in the same exhibit as Mzee, an elderly Aldabra Giant Tortoise. Because Owen had no other members of his species to interact with, he quickly took a liking to Mzee because his domed shell and earthy colors made him resemble an adult hippo to a degree, and began trying to bond with him. At first, Mzee didn't care about Owen but softened after a while and grew to genuinely like him. Eventually, Owen grew up too big to interact safely with Mzee and had to be moved to another enclosure with a new female hippo named Cleo. Their unusual friendship became the focus of much media attention and is still considered a prime example of unique bonds between radically distinct species.
  • Moray eels and groupers can communicate and work together to round up prey.
  • The female Colombian lesserblack tarantula tends to form partnerships with the dotted humming frog. The tarantula allows the frog to take shelter from the blazing sun in her burrow and defends it from predators like mantises and snakes. The frog eats ants and flies that try to invade the burrow, as they are too small for a tarantula to fight effectively and could eat the tarantula's eggs if given the chance.
  • The BBC documentary Spy in the Snow featured an Adélie penguin defending a group of emperor penguin chicks from a southern giant petrel that intended to eat them. Afterwards, the Adélie penguin led the chicks to the water.
  • Humpback whales have been recorded forming mixed pods or otherwise interacting amicably with other whales, dolphins, and even seals. There are even recorded instances of humpbacks and right whales exchanging mating behaviours.
  • Multispecies herding behavior by herbivores is actually quite common in nature, so long as the various species' feeding habits ensure they don't compete directly. When the species in question have different sensory advantages, such as far-seeing giraffes grazing alongside keen-nosed zebras, the odds of detecting predators go up significantly.
  • If we ever encounter non-hostile aliens that are capable of human or comparably human emotions and ways of thinking, this will probably result, along with possibly other things.

 
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