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Basic Trope: An anthropomorphic animal's normal (Non-Human) Behavior comes out by accident

  • Straight: Bob, an Uplifted Squirrel, normally acts human, but one day he starts burying canned goods in his backyard for winter until someone reminds him he is not an ordinary squirrel.
  • Exaggerated: Bob buries food in his backyard, runs away from barking dogs, chatters and scolds at anyone who annoys him, all because of his squirrel instincts, causing him much embarrassment when he snaps out of it.
  • Downplayed: After going grocery shopping, Bob takes a can of beans and starts to dig a hole in the ground until he realizes "Oh right, I don't have to do this anymore...silly me."
  • Justified:
    • The Uplifting process is not perfect. It can’t completely erase the animal's original instinct, and some animals’ instincts are triggered by certain stimuli, such as the coming of winter.
    • The Uplifting process was just recent, meaning Bob is still unaccustomed to not doing his original instincts.
  • Inverted: A human character trying to fit in with wild animals occasionally exhibits human behavior.
  • Subverted: We hear that Bob's gone a little bit squirrely before winter... and we see him using his fridge normally.
  • Double Subverted: We then see him pick up and bury the whole fridge.
  • Parodied:
    • If Bob is being a bit of nag, the easiest way to get him off your tail, is to say "Look, a dog!" Cue Squirrel fleeing in terror.
    • Alice puts on some cat ears...and then starts becoming stereotypically catlike, chasing red dots and adoring catnip before all things.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob is a genetic chimera of many animals, not just squirrels and humans; he succumbs to the instincts of a different animal every time that trope occurs (sometimes multiple at once).
  • Averted: Bob acts completely human.
  • Enforced: "People see Bob as too human. We need a Furry Reminder."
  • Lampshaded: Bob starts digging back up the food he buried, muttering about his instincts "popping up every October."
  • Invoked: Bob shows his instintics as part of the punchline to his comedy routine.
  • Exploited:
    • Alice makes landmines shaped like nuts, knowing Bob will not be able to stop himself from burying them.
    • Cat Girl Alice entertains herself by hanging string on the fan and chasing it.
  • Defied:
  • Discussed: "What sort of instincts are retained post-uplift, doctor?"
  • Conversed: "You would think Bob would have stopped by now, but he's already proven to be a slow learner on this show."
  • Deconstructed: Because of Bob's still active instincts, people regard him as less civilized and discriminate against him.
  • Reconstructed: Bob is unphased by this: believing it to be a human instinct that they themselves are heir to, and just as uncontrollable.
  • Implied: It's never fully confirmed if Bob is an uplift or not, and we see him looking over his newly-holed backyard with some satisfaction.
  • Played For Drama: The trope is a sign of the final stages of werewolf transformation: when the wolf's instincts bleed in though Bob's human form, it indicates the next transformation will utterly erase Bob's former mind and leave a monster in human shape behind.

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