Animal Stereotypes

"Dogs are stupid and will happily run around with bog roll in their mouth, but cats are always 'discerning'... They come on like they own half of Mayfair, when in fact they'd fucking starve if you didn't give them mashed up animal genitals out of a tin. Assholes."

- Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Shit?

Want an easy way to show that your character is loyal? Make him a dog! Want your female member to come off as graceful, but don't know how to show it? Make her a cat!

One characterization shortcut is to somehow compare the character to an animal species that the audience's culture commonly projects certain anthropomorphic personality traits upon. This can be done in several ways:


 * 1) Actually making said character the animal.
 * 2) Make the character an anthropomorphic animal, sometimes with the explanation that they're actually an alien race that coincidentally shares all of their traits with a terrestrial animal. (You may want to bring up "parallel evolution" here.)
 * 3) Alternatively, just give them some of the features of the animal in question.
 * 4) Have a character with the ability to transform into said animal.
 * 5) Have it mystically revealed that the person's "soul" is that of said animal.
 * 6) Just have random people repeatedly compare them to the animal.
 * 7) Give them a complementary pet that is said animal.
 * 8) Give them a character design that is evocative of that animal.
 * 9) Give them a thematically-appropriate name

The respective animal frequently follows the rules set by What Measure Is a Non-Cute?.

Quite possibly one of The Oldest Ones in the Book.

Pretty much any Funny Animal story ever will use this. For personality traits of Muggles, see Dying Like Animals and Fighting for Survival.

The Other Wiki has attempted to make their own version of this page. You decide how good it is.

And oh. Be wary of Animal Jingoism, accidental or intentional.

A-K
 * Ants: Hard-working to the point of losing all individuality. Ant society is usually portrayed as a harsh, conformist Police State or World of Silence based around a Hive Caste System; it may be rather militaristic, evoking army ants. They are matriarchal, but it's usually less emphasized than with bees, and as with bees, fictional works may or may not realize the workers are Always Female.
 * Antelopes and Gazelles: Gentle, graceful, and very swift. Usually female.
 * Baboons: Like other monkeys, but fiercer and more aggressive, even females. More likely to be portrayed as Maniac Monkeys.
 * Badgers: Cranky, curmudgeonly, down-to-Earth loners. "My home is my castle." In a pinch, they're stubborn and tough. Usually not evil, but sometimes their cynicism and irritability leads them to mistrust or look down on the hero. On the other hand, they may show up in the hero's True Companions as a Knight in Sour Armor.
 * Barracudas and Pikes: Badass but cruel, ruthless and often evil. Voraciously hungry, expert killers.
 * Bats: Nocturnal, often bloodthirsty and most likely evil. Another portrayal has them quirky, eccentric or downright insane, possibly due to their severe disorientation in daylight and/or habit of sleeping upside down. They might also have poor eyesight, which will cause them to fly in people's hair, against all of nature's logic. Usually male.
 * Bears: Intimidating and powerfully ferocious when provoked -- females with cubs are especially vicious and short-tempered—but may be portrayed as calm, slow-moving and wise otherwise. Sometimes lazy—don't bother them when they're hibernating. Young bears will be portrayed as cute, cuddly and brave.
 * Beavers: Industrious, with an air of a practical and unpretentious tradesman. Usually male.
 * Bees: Hard-working, dutiful and territorial. They live in a Matriarchy; queens are almost always a stern and serious version of The High Queen. Fictional works may or may not be aware that workers are Always Female.
 * Birds of Prey: Fierce, dignified and serious.
 * Boars: Extremely aggressive and irritable. Not predatory, but tough and quite dangerous if provoked. Always Male; wild sows rarely exist in fiction, but when they do, they usually have several striped piglets following them.
 * Bulls: Short-tempered, especially around anything red. Intimidating, tough and extremely strong, but somewhat stupid. May be portrayed as clumsy ("a bull in a china shop") or, more rarely, as Gentle Giants.
 * Butterflies: Shy, meek and inoffensive as caterpillars, but bold and beautiful as adults. (Almost) always female and fragile. More rarely, vain and superficial.
 * Moths: The Darker and Edgier version of butterflies, due to their association with the night. Harbingers of death and sorrow but also madness and suicide, being irresistibly drawn to light and fire. Think "like moths to a flame".
 * Camels: Often portrayed as storing water in its hump in fiction even though in Real Life, that hump stores fat. Not very energetic, but slow and steady once they get going; they can endure any hardship. Cranky, stubborn and bad-tempered, but not actually aggressive. Likes to spit.
 * Cats (domestic, that is): Clever, curious, and rather arrogant and vain, with a lazy and hedonistic streak. Aloof and independent, often something of a Tsundere toward potential friends and allies. Often vicious, manipulative and smug, but may be cute and heroic instead. Usually female; tomcats—especially strays—are sometimes portrayed as tough, streetwise, belligerent, buffoonish, and/or oversexed rather than elegant and dignified. Some breeds (especially the long-haired or slender, oriental types) can represent wealth, aristocracy and prestige. Has its own stereotype trope.
 * Chameleon: Changeable and able to blend in with their surroundings, both literal and social. May be self-serving collaborators with no true values of their own. Often stealthy tricksters. Rather weird.
 * Cheetahs: Known for their speed. Indeed they are the fastest land animal (though they get tired quicker than dogs). Mostly female. Males are often Jerk Jocks and stay in duos.
 * Chickens: Often cowardly and prone to self-destructive panic. See also more gender-specific stereotypes for both hens and roosters/cocks.
 * Chimpanzees: Either portrayed the way monkeys are portrayed despite being apes or portrayed as erudite and snarky.
 * Cockroaches: At best: dirty, will live in any shithole they can find and crawl over everything in sight. At worst: will swarm en masse and devour everything in sight.
 * Cows: Even-tempered, contented and docile, in stark contrast to bulls. Not especially bright. Often gossipy, something like less panicky hens.
 * Coyotes and Jackals: Cunning and tricky, although their antics can backfire and make them look like the foolish ones. Lacking in courage when it comes to direct confrontation; may be The Starscream. Jackals tend to have more of a cruel streak than coyotes, which are a little more likely to appear as heroic tricksters.
 * Crabs and Lobsters: Crabby, unhelpful and easily angered. Often Ineffectual Loners. On the bright side, tough fighters and not afraid to engage much stronger foes.
 * Cranes: Majesty, grace, and strength without aggression. Like many great migrating birds, a symbol of finding one's way. Also known for their spectacular mating dance.
 * Crocodiles and Alligators: Lazy but strong. Usually vicious bullies or unknowable forces of nature. Often more savage than other animals, but are sometimes gentle giants (though this is usually an intentional subversion). Alligators are more likely to be portrayed in a positive light than crocodiles are.
 * Crows and ravens: Cunning and often ominous; an archetypal symbol of death. Slightly more often evil than good. Heroic corvids will be clever and somewhat mischievous Guile Heroes, but they sometimes have a slightly morbid sense of humor. Crows are occasionally portrayed as being African American. More often male.
 * Cuckoos: A harbinger of spring. Also, a symbol for women who secretly make their husband raise another man's children (real cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds' nests). Insanity is another motif associated with cuckoos (see Cloudcuckoolander).
 * Deer: Delicate and unperilous. Their grace hints at wary senses and swift flight. Stags, with their impressive antlers, symbolize nobility without being predatory, though their tendency to simply look majestic and fight over females means they may be depicted as vain braggarts.
 * Dogs: Loyal and friendly, unless they are an Angry Guard Dog. Possibly not too bright but can smell things very well. May also be overly concerned with their "territory," and with burying (and then losing) bones. Certain breeds have their own characteristic stereotypes. More often male, except for showy breeds like poodles, which are almost Always Female. Also, easily distrac-SQUIRREL!
 * Dolphins: Cheery, playful, clever, and extraordinarily graceful in the water, much like otters. Always friendly.
 * See Heroic Dolphin, Friendly Playful Dolphin, and Sapient Cetaceans. Also a massive Did Not Do the Research moment for authors using this characterisation.
 * Donkeys and Mules: Humbler, more hardworking version of a horse. Proverbially stubborn, which may be portrayed as either a good thing (the donkey as Determinator, or the Only Sane Man willing to speak truth to power) or a bad thing (the donkey who doesn't Know When to Fold'Em to the point of sheer stupidity). Often rather irritable. Usually male.
 * Ducks: Clumsy and a little dim, but also possessing a strong will and perhaps a hidden grace. A little weird. Anthropomorphic cartoon ducks are traditionally highly temperamental.
 * Like dolphins, the charming habit of gang rape that ducks have in real life is never portrayed in fiction.
 * Eagles: They will usually pick up little children and carry them to their nest to feed them to their own young. (See Kidnapping Bird of Prey )
 * Earthworms: Usually portrayed in a more positive light than other worms but just as unattractive.
 * Elephants: Powerful, majestic and wise, with great memories. Usually Gentle Giants, but you don't want to insult their dignity or otherwise piss them off. Inexplicably afraid of mice. (This last point was tested on Myth Busters and, contrary to everyone's expectations, actually got a reaction -- Truth in Television?) African elephants are often female, Asian elephants are mostly male and always Indian (accent optional).
 * Ferrets: Clever and extremely playful, often hyperactive. Usually more like a land-based version of otters than like their weasel cousins, although evil, scheming, malevolent ferrets sometimes appear.
 * Flies: Often considered of ill-omen, sometimes associated with the Devil, due to their habit of buzzing around people as well as feeding and breeding on rotten meat and feces. Often symbols of disorder, peskiness and insignificance.
 * Foxes: Tricky, pragmatic and confident. Unlike their coyote and jackal cousins, which are otherwise portrayed similarly, foxes—especially female ones—often have connotations of sexiness.
 * Interestingly, these tropes transcend culture; both European and and East Asian mythology not only portrays the red fox as a trickster, but associates vixens with beautiful, seductive women.
 * Frigatebirds and Skuas: Bigger, meaner and nastier versions of gulls, oftentimes with more pirate-like qualities, like thievery and brutality.
 * Frilled Lizard: An anomalously cute and hyperactive little reptile.
 * Frogs: Jolly musicians or luck-bringers, usually cheerful and friendly if kind of weird. Associated with rain and water in general. Usually male.
 * Geckos: Cute and likeable, but a little on the odd side. Always shown climbing walls and licking their own eyelids, even if they happen to be Leopard Geckos or other Eublepharids, which have eyelids, unlike other geckos, and have claws on their toes, meaning they can't climb surfaces.
 * Geese: Like ducks; more arrogant and irritable, but also more graceful in flight. A symbol of good luck, abundance, endurance, and the ability to find one's way home.
 * Goats: In older European works, goats symbolize paganism, evil, and lust. Today they're mostly just portrayed as surefooted, constantly hungry, and a bit weird, due to their habit of eating things like tin cans. They're also humble and quite stubborn, a little like donkeys, and can be surprisingly aggressive for smallish herbivores.
 * Gorilla: Intelligent like Monkeys, but much calmer and more serious, and immensely strong. They are also seen as possessing a melancholy dignity, as if the authors assume they know their species is dying out. Alternately, monstrous savage creatures which respond to everything with violence, though, like King Kong, sometimes capable of reason and as much victim as villain. Always Male if only one gorilla appears in a work of fiction—females only show up if there's a whole troop.
 * Guineafowl and Turkeys: Dignified but snobbish, unpleasant and uptight. Usually bigger and a bit tougher than chickens, although not as aggressive as roosters. Not very bright, but not as amazingly stupid as real-world domestic turkeys can be either. Usually male.
 * Gulls: Greedy and undignified but also brave in defying adversity and a symbol of freedom and travel. Gregarious, almost always seen in groups.
 * Hare: Somewhat comical but also admired for their fast and cunning flights. Independent and a little mysterious, even magical, particularly in older folklore. See also Hare Trickster.
 * Hedgehogs: Fearful cowards or Crazy Prepared survivalists. May symbolize a person who is "prickly" and difficult to get close to.
 * Hens: Incurable gossips and not very bright, something like a more high-strung version of cows. Highly protective of their chicks but prone to self-destructive mass panic in a crisis. Unable to defend themselves unaided.
 * Herons: Graceful and calm. Patient, with split second reflexes. Tends to be a loner. Sometimes associated with martial arts, much like the mantis, due to the reflexes.
 * Hippos: Contented and gluttonous giants of the river. Obese, lazy, and often rather stupid. Rarely as incredibly aggressive and dangerous in fiction as they are in Real Life.
 * Horse: Elegant, noble, passionate and spirited. Sometimes proud and vain. More often male in fiction; authors usually portray the stallion as not only dominating but leading the herd (rather than the boss mare, as in real life.)
 * Draught horses are always Gentle Giants slow in both movement and wit, sometimes depicted calm enough to sleep through an outright apocalypse. Truth in Television as breeding for huge strength but not gentle temperament would have been suicide.
 * Humans: If they're counted as animals, you can expect a Lions and Tigers and Humans, Oh My! setting. Humans fit into Black and White Morality, and either Humans Are the Real Monsters or Humans Are Special (but more so the former).
 * Hyenas: Basically The Hyena. Either a harmless jokester or the animal version of a horrific Monster Clown. Laughs like a maniac for no reason. If the writer is aware that hyenas are one of nature's few thoroughly matriarchal species, females may be bigger and stronger and dominate males, but don't count on it.
 * Kangaroos: Extroverted, good-natured characters, athletic yet laid-back. Usually female (although joeys are more likely to be male), they're devoted mothers. Sometimes, they're always shown with a pouch, no matter what.
 * Koalas: Cute and friendly but rather lazy, or else irritable, gruff and not too bright (a little closer to the truth).

L-Z
 * Leeches: Like maggots and worms with the addition of bloodsucking, associated with putrid waters and the basest of natural instincts. In some cultures, associated with medicine as they can be used to suck off tainted blood.
 * Lemmings: Like the sheep (below), but with a greater emphasis on following obviously self-destructive "popular" practices; i.e., to the classic question "if everyone were jumping off a bridge, would you?", a lemming will enthusiastically reply "yes!"
 * Note that real life lemmings jumping off cliffs is largely an urban legend.
 * Lions: Brave, proud, noble, majestic and powerful. Top of the food chain, "King of the Jungle". Can be lazy and vain; lionesses are a bit less likely to be portrayed this way, as most people are aware these days that it's the lionesses who do the hunting. Males appear more often in fiction, however. Traditionally, lionesses will extremely submissive and reliant on their "king", and are often Distressed Damsels. In many modern depictions, they are smarter, hard-working and independent, but still ruled by their male(s). In either depiction, lionesses will only show aggression when their cubs are threatened.
 * Llamas: Like camels, but weirder and a little more even-tempered, if equally prone to spitting.
 * Maggots: Disgusting, filthy, repulsive, and mindless larvae of flies. Symbols of rot, decay and corruption.
 * Magpies: Cunning thieves with a penchant for shiny objects. Sometimes gossipy chatterboxes. May be good or evil.
 * Mantis: Badass. Regardless of if they're good or evil, getting in close quarters with one is a major death wish. Interesting example since people tend to love them despite the fact we frequently use them as villains. Graceful killers in melee. Often associated with Martial Arts, thanks to the Chinese and Kung Fu Panda. When female, almost always a Femme Fatale.
 * Mice: Cuter and far more sympathetic than rats. Mice are more likely to be prey, whereas rats are almost always tough survivors. Often meek, humble, gentle and inoffensive. They are sometimes portrayed as huge cowards with a tendency to jump at little things, but heroic and courageous mice are common as a subversion.
 * Moles: Bright, technically minded, and a bit nerdy, often with a special talent for digging or engineering in general. Usually short-sighted, though often in possession of Nerd Glasses that let them see after a fashion. What happened to the star nose? Sometimes they are in miner attire. Usually male.
 * Mongoose: Vaguely resembles a weasel, but is a cute and fearlessly heroic defender of the innocent (Rikki-tikki-tavvi is probably the Trope Maker). Although they look harmless, they take on terrifying enemies and win through a combination of agility, wit and boldness; their fighting style resembles the Swashbuckler rather than a burly brawler. If paired with a specific enemy, it will always be a snake, usually a cobra. Usually male.
 * Monkeys: Hyperactive, mischievous, skilful and curious. They'll sometimes be referred to as closer to humanity (mostly in the worst ways) than the other animals. Known for throwing their own feces at people. Chimps are inevitably also thrown in the same group.
 * Mosquitoes: Pesky, annoying, sometimes even dangerous bloodsucking flies. Often portrayed as bloodsucking even if they're male.
 * Neanderthals: The archetypical Caveman. Often stupider, taller and stronger than modern humans; tough survivors in fur skins always holding spears; carnivorous. Cavewomen are usually depicted as mannish and intimidating but can be of any shade between the Nubile Savage and the Brawn Hilda.
 * Octopus: Weird and otherworldly, probably the closest thing on Earth to alien life. May be either charmingly weird and likeable Cloudcuckoolanders, or malevolent and terrifyingly alien, but tend to lean toward the former more.
 * Opossums: Often portrayed as "rednecks" or "hicks". Or just as having Southern accents. Or, alternately, as being somewhat raccoon-like in personality.
 * Orangutans: The middle road between Gorillas and Monkeys: they possess the strength and determination of the first and the agility, goofiness and trickster nature of the second. More dangerous than they look.
 * Ostriches: Panicky and frightened and will always stick their heads in the stand, even though none of them do this in real life.
 * Otter: Fun Personified. Joyous, playful, expert swimmers and acrobats, very similar to dolphins. Laid-back and optimistic, they "go with the flow" rather than worrying how things will work out. Think Surfer Dude, except that otters are usually portrayed as rather clever, rarely The Ditz. Almost always likeable and heroic, never as aggressive in fiction as real otters can be. Usually male.
 * Owls: Wise and mysterious. Smaller species of owl may be portrayed as Absent Minded Professors or even Ditzy Geniuses, perhaps reflecting owls' disorientation in daylight. Alternatively, scary harbingers of doom.
 * Panda: Gentle, peaceful and cuddly, usually a bit lazy and often fat. Usually male.
 * Peacocks: Vain, elegant, pompous. Often associated with nobility and if you have a couple of these wandering around your yard, chances are you have Fiction 500.
 * Penguins: Inherently comical. Dignified, but clumsy except in the water. Rather cheery and optimistic, even in harsh climes. Usually male.
 * Pigs: Greedy and slovenly in a comical way, but often intelligent and good-natured. More often male.
 * Porcupines: Pragmatic and fearless, being well aware of how respected their defensive abilities are. May be either gentle and innocent, or prickly and irritable. Sometimes depicted as being able to actually shoot their quills, which they cannot do in Real Life.
 * Rabbits: Sweet, innocent, and cuddly, but also Trickster Rabbits for the purposes of self-defense, like Bugs Bunny. Breed like crazy. Fast runners.
 * Raccoons: Sneaky, clever, bold, and rather cute. Often thieves (due to their facial markings, which resemble a bandit's mask), but usually heroic or at least likable ones. Usually male.
 * Ram: Always ready for a fight. Tough, perhaps surprisingly so, but perhaps a bit dim. Something like a smaller version of the bull.
 * Rats: Traditionally nasty, cowardly, indecent, aggressive, greedy, licentious and cunning. Often associated with filth and disease. Knows a lot about the criminal world, often a thief. Always a tough survivor type, whether good or evil, and Always Male. Recently, more realistic representations have been presented in media, showing rats as being very clean (relative to their surroundings ), even tempered, and much friendlier than just about every other pet out there after dogs.
 * Rhino: Powerful but somewhat dim. Incredibly dangerous when threatened, but prone to charging headlong without considering the consequences. Often have poor eyesight, which is Truth in Television. Somewhat similar to bulls, above.


 * Roosters/Cocks: Proud and loud. Often singers, but not very good ones. Pompous and arrogant. Very prone to get in literal Cock Fights and highly possessive of the hens. Often the chief of the farm, or at least the barnyard fowl, and associated with the sunrise.
 * Seals and Sea Lions: Cute and playful. Adorably clumsy on the land, but breathtakingly graceful in the water. Associated with magic and the sea.
 * Sharks: Hunger and menace personified (except in the rare case of whale sharks, the most commonly used example of a shark that's no threat to humans). Cold and emotionless to the point of being sociopathic. Tend to go psycho once they get a whiff of blood.
 * Sheep: Passive and gentle, but rather dimwitted. Prone to suffering from "herd mentality" and blind, unquestioning obedience toward authority. Easily frightened and incapable of depending themselves, although rams may be more of a threat.
 * Skunks: Gentle, innocent, and totally fearless, owing to their well-known natural defenses. Often depicted as producing a foul scent all the time, which they themselves are unaware of—or, somewhat more accurately, the stink may be portrayed as a form of Fartillery. May be somewhat crude and socially awkward, as the infamous stench associates them with the stereotype of the Gasshole.
 * Snails and Slugs: Very slow and slimy. Snails tend to be portrayed in a little more positive light than slugs are.
 * Snakes: Pure evil and talk with a lot of "S"-es. Almost always cunning, deceptive and manipulative. More often than not, snakes play the villainous role, and the odd protagonist snake is usually a Sociopathic Hero. More rarely, they are used to represent wisdom, rebirth, and/or immortality. Can also be charming, seductive and/or sexy.
 * Songbirds: A symbol of vitality, freedom and joy. Idioms such as "bird with broken wings" or "caged bird" are used to describe the figurative "death of the soul".
 * Sparrows: Humble, cute and happy, agile and surprisingly brave.
 * Spiders: Patient tricksters or venomous antagonists (similar to many other arachnids and insects). Just about Always Female. Often sexy and seductive in very dangerous ways, reflecting the fact that females of several species devour the males after mating.
 * Sometimes portrayed as eccentric artists, locked away in their own room/web creating things.
 * Squid: Weird and otherworldly, probably the closest thing on Earth to alien life. May be either charmingly weird and likeable Cloudcuckoolanders or malevolent and terrifyingly alien, but tend to lean toward the latter more.
 * Squirrel: Agile and graceful, but hyperactive and perhaps a bit crazy. Short attention span. Brave considering their size, and often somewhat hot-tempered, but more likely to retaliate with verbal scolding than a physical attack.
 * Storks: Frequently cast as a Delivery Stork, specialized in bringing newborn babies to their parents.
 * Swans: Beautiful, graceful, and pure. Also a symbol of love, as swans mate for life. Sometimes vain, but rarely as large and aggressive as real swans are.
 * Also known for having chicks that are not as pretty.
 * Tanuki (or raccoon dogs): Sneaky, clever, bold, and rather cute. Often thieves (due to their facial markings, which resemble a bandit's mask), but usually heroic or at least likeable ones. Usually male. Also portrayed as highly sexual and having large testicles.
 * Note that although they look similar to raccoons, and tanuki in Japanese works are often turned into raccoons in Western adaptations, tanuki are not very closely related to racoons—they're actually in the dog family.
 * Tigers, Panthers, Jaguars, and Leopards: Charismatic, exotic predators with an air of grace and power about their every move. Awe-inspiring even as they crush you. Black panthers in particular tend to emphasize the big cats' skill at stealth. Equally likely to be on the side of good or evil.
 * Their dignity and grace may be subverted by putting a big cat in a comic relief role.
 * Toads: Ugly Cute and clumsy. Hidden beauty that reveals itself if you're being kind to it. Always Male.
 * Turtles and tortoises: Slow but wise, except if they are snapping turtles, in which case they're bad-tempered. Often very long-lived. Also, shy and prone to hiding away in their shells whenever danger looms.
 * Tyrannosaurus Rex: Powerful, unstoppable, vicious hunters, like a land-based combination of shark and crocodile. Shown to be quite Badass and top of the foodchain. See Stock Dinosaurs.
 * Walruses Cute and contently fat, but comically dignified. Always Male, because of their Big Badass Moustache, usually benevolent. May or may not wear a monocle and/or top hat.
 * Wasps and Yellowjackets: Aggressive, nervous, bitchy, and highly prone to mass fury. Often female. At constant war with bees.
 * Weasels, Stoats, Martens and Polecats: Scheming, treacherous, cunning and malevolent villains, or else just plain out of their minds.
 * Whales: Gentle, mysterious giants of the deep, slow-moving and very wise. In older works like Moby Dick, a furious force of nature able to destroy anything they choose, as powerful and inscrutable as the ocean itself. Today, in the post-whaling era, the latter role tends to be given to giant squid instead.
 * Wolves: Evil, murderous and voraciously hungry or powerful, majestic and beautiful, depending on when and where the story was written. May be portrayed (especially in older works) as stoic, badass loners, or more realistically as being unshakably loyal to their pack. Sometimes harsh toward those they love, but god forbid any of them be threatened by an outside force or entity.
 * The "lone wolf" in media is too cool or too tough for help, a badass who won't take nothin' from nobody. In reality, wolves are highly social and have difficulty functioning without a pack. Individuals found alone are usually young adults looking for a mate to start a new pack, and won't last long if they don't find one.
 * In works where wolves are portrayed as social, the pack functions as a strict hierarchy, with an alpha male at the top and a bullied omega at the bottom; low-ranking wolves increase their status by defeating their superiors in one-on-one combat. Up until recently this was thought to be true of real wolves, but in fact it's not—it was based on studies of strange wolves thrown together in captivity, which tend to become neurotic and start acting out Prison Tropes. In the wild, a wolf pack is essentially a nuclear family; the alpha male and female are simply the parents of the lower-ranking wolves, who never rise up and challenge their parents for leadership—they just leave and start their own packs once they're a few years old.
 * Wolverines: Territorial loners, utterly fearless even toward the largest and most intimidating foes, and able to back it up with sheer savage aggression. Scary not because of their size or strength, but their utter ferocity. Almost Always Male.
 * Worms: Disgusting, filthy, repulsive and mindless. Symbols of rot, decay and corruption.
 * Zebras: When in presence of horses, they are often Soul Brothas or some kind of Black Best Friend. Otherwise, they are tougher versions of the antelopes, brave and fiercely independent, although not always very strong fighters. Almost Always Male. If there is more than one zebra you can expect You All Look Familiar and all the zebras will have similar personalities. And since they are preyed apon you can expect Designated Victim.
 * If sports are involved, they will always be seen as referees.

NOTE: For more, many more, of these, see the website Animal Spirits, which provides a handy list of what nearly three-hundred different species are supposed to symbolize in popular shamanism. Including viruses, despite their dubious status regarding even being a form of life.

Anime and Manga

 * Monkey D. Luffy in One Piece. Also, "Cat Burglar Nami" - which is everyone who knows Nami comparing her to a cat that's ultimately kind when it suits her but mostly selfish. This is played up a lot at first and then dropped as the story goes on.
 * Oda compares a lot of his characters to animals. Zoro is apparently a shark. Sanji most resembles a duck, Franky is a bull, Robin a crane, Brook a horse.
 * Done with a lesser extent with the partner Digimon in the franchise of the same name.
 * The Mews of Tokyo Mew Mew.
 * The cursed Souma family in Fruits Basket - in this case each of the Soumas' personalities follow the character traits specific to their Zodiac sign, e.g. Yuki the Rat is an intelligent leader, Rin the Horse is fiercely independent, etc.
 * Inuyasha, from the series of the same name, is half dog-demon. So he exhibits some traits of a dog, like loyalty and, uh, doggedness. He even antagonizes foxes. Shippo, the fox demon is small but clever and brave. The wolf demon Kouga is direct, competitive and likes running. Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha's pure-blooded brother, shares Inuyasha's dog-like traits of being possessive, territorial and aggressive, and gradually exhibits the stereotypes of a good dog as well including loyalty and being extremely good with children.
 * Kotaro Inugami of Mahou Sensei Negima swears he's a lone wolf, cold and proud with no need for others (namely, girls), but his friend Negi more closely associates him with a Dog (it is his demon species after all...) And as wolves are very social pack hunters, a lone wolf is often hungry and also lonely. The "lone wolf" idiom is actually quite clever.
 * Bakarasu, a Speech-Impaired Animal showed up in one Mazinger Z episode and was a semi-recurrent secondary character in Great Mazinger, "helped" the heroes every so often, and he fit quite well with the traits of the heroic corvid: he was cunning, mischievous and trickster, and he enjoyed tweaking the messages he was supposed to deliver and getting Boss in trouble.
 * Pokémon takes it even further by not only having their animal-based Pokémon follow their appropriate stereotypes, but each speices and their typing often follow their own stereotypes as well.
 * Not really. The anime series has Ash's Squirtle (turtle-based) initially portrayed as a delinquent, Ash's Pikachu (a mouse) is at first defiant and strong willed (they both quickly become his loyal friends). Dawn's Piplup (penguin) has a tendency to be a self-absorbed drama queen.
 * Mostly played straight in Princess Tutu. The main character is a duck disguised as a girl, and she's shown as being clumsy and loud with a hidden grace. Both the Magical Girl she turns into and the Prince she's trying to save are represented by swans, appropriate since both are graceful dancers who are greatly defined by their love for others. Crows and ravens are the main villains, and the Dark Magical Girl is both referred to as a crow and a black swan, referencing Swan Lake and . The trope carries over to most of the cast in some ways, with some exceptions.
 * Love Hina had Mitsune "Kitsune" Konno, who not only acted like a fox, but also looked a little bit like one, at least in the facial features.
 * The Petting Zoo People Familiars in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Of the two canine familiars, Arf is loyal to a fault to her master Fate like a faithful dog, while Zafira is the strong and silent type like a majestic wolf. Meanwhile, the Lieze Catgirl sisters showed both cat aspects, being playful towards Chrono and Yuuno on one hand while.
 * Bleach; several characters in the show practically reek of animal stereotypes. First up is Gin Ichimaru, aka Fox Face (just do a Google Image search on his name and you will see why). He is definitely tricky, confident and pragmatic; and we could probably throw in sexy. Next up is, Yoruichi Shihōin who is compared to a black cat; hell she can even turn into a black cat! Then we have Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez who is compared to a panther. He is definitely a sleek, powerful killing machine who a couple of episodes after he is introduced decides to play a game of soccer and uses Ichigo Kurosaki's body as the ball. To seal the deal though, Grimmjow's sword is named Pantera and when he changes into his superpowered demonic form his appearance becomes decidedly more feline. Hell, almost all of the Espada seem to follow this trope- Starrk is a wolf (his aspect of death is loneliness) and Starrk , Ulquiorra is a bat (Despair), etc.
 * Used frequently in Doraemon and its movies when there are animal costumes involved. If the species is not limited, Suneo is likely to be a fox, Gain will be a Gorilla, and Shizuka will be a bunny.
 * Naruto: Naruto is possessed by a what is essentially a kitsune and is played as a trickster early on and has fox like physical traits; subverted when we actually meet the fox himself... He'd sooner rip your face off than play pranks.
 * Shinji Ikari is occasionally mentioned in reference to the Hedgehog's Dilemma: the closer we get, the more we hurt.

Comics

 * Read through the Elf Quest Gatherum and and you'll find that the main characters (at least Cutter, Skywise, Leetah, and Rayek) were designed with animals in mind (bantam, fox, cat, and snake). The bantam is pretty unusual when people talk characters, especially for a protagonist, but in this case it relays Cutter as confident, frank and open, as well as being a ruler. Savah even refers to Cutter as a fighting cockerel at one point. And as Rayek has never been merely a villain, even the persona of a snake isn't wholly negative.
 * Over the Hedge uses several of these (raccoon, tortoise, squirrel, bear, probably others) very straight.
 * Plenty of X-Men, from Wolverine to Kitty, Toad, Sabretooth, Beak, Angel or The Cuckoos.
 * In Blacksad all characters are anthropomorphic animals whose roles and personalities are mostly reflected on their animal traits (ex: nearly all the policemen are canid).
 * Batman has a few. Besides the Bat himself,we have Catwoman, the Penguin, Killer Croc, and probably a few more.
 * U.S. Acres has Orson the pig, Bo the sheep and Wade the duck.
 * Arguable for Orson, while he likes bathing in mud, he is something of the Only Sane Man of the group, acting as a voice of morality and reason and being far more dedicated to work and order.
 * Maus had Jews as mice, Germans as cats and Americans as dogs, among many other examples.

Film

 * Doctor Dolittle: In the film version, during the song "Like Animals", Dolittle bristles at the animal stereotypes.
 * In The Elm Chanted Forest Buddy Bear is lazy and fun loving but fierce if he needs to be, Fifi Fox is very seductive, and J. Edgar Beaver is wise and hardworking.

Literature

 * The Animagus and Patronus forms in Harry Potter. As well, Slytherin and Voldemort are both associated with snakes, and can speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes.
 * All the houses have associated animals:
 * Gryffindor, the house of the brave has the lion.
 * Hufflepuff, the friendly loyal down to earth house has the badger.
 * Slytherins, the house of cunning and slyness has the snake.
 * Ravenclaw, house of the intelligent and wise has the eagle for some reason
 * Also, the "noble, but vain braggart" stereotype is very much played straight with James Potter's Animagus form, a stag. Averted with Harry, however.
 * Winnie the Pooh gives some of these the run-around. Owl, for instance, sounds like he's swallowed a dictionary, but doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. He also holds a similar high spirited and friendly demeanor most of the others have, a rarity for his species.
 * He also doesn't really know how to spell. Even his own name is "Wol". Interestingly, some of the other characters have been found to be capable of spelling their own names.
 * His ability to write comes and goes for the Disney version, Depending on the Writer, who is slightly more genuinely wisdomic, though similarly keeps with the idea of being rather brainless in reality for the most part.
 * Played straight with the docile and cuddly Pooh Bear. Inverted with Tigger the bouncy funloving tiger.
 * Piglet subverts it for the most part, being a Neat Freak and extremely docile. Rabbit is pretentious and stuck up. Eeyore plays the donkey trope straight (though his Disney incarnation is far more recessive and mellow). Roo is a hyperactive joey (albeit partly due to Tigger's influence) however Kanga is calmer and closer to Earth (especially in the Disney adaptions).
 * Maugrim and the wolves in CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia are evil, whereas Aslan and all his woodland friends are good.
 * Reepicheep and his fellow talking mice avert their Animal Stereotypes hard.
 * The Daemons of His Dark Materials. The series starts out in a world where people's souls take the form of Talking Animals (called "dæmons", the dæmons of adults take the form of a specific animal that represents that person's personality in some symbolic way (although the symbolism can sometimes be very esoteric).
 * Brian Jacques' Redwall series takes this trope and runs with it.
 * Though he does avert it sometimes with the owls; Gerul is talkative and rather silly, and Nutwing has an extremely bad memory. Even the fairly intelligent Captain Snow isn't particularly wise. Truth in Television, supposedly, as owls are in fact (to quote DC Simpson) "no smarter than they need to be".
 * The turtle stereotype is partially averted in Small Gods . as Om says, "Tortoises are cynics. They always think the worst is going to happen to them. Probably because it usually does."
 * From the same book, the Ephebian goddess of wisdom is associated with penguins, thanks to a famous sculptor and the way Discworld religion works. (She was supposed to be carrying an owl, but the sculptor had never seen one and just used the first exotic bird that came to mind.)
 * Another aversion would be Definitely Not Squeak, the talking mouse from Moving Pictures. Toughest mouse in the house, and proud of it, he is outraged by Victor's assertion that "Mighty Hunter" wouldn't be a good name for him.
 * In Lords and Ladies, cats become an allegory for the Elves. The Elves use Glamour make Disc inhabitants think they're perfect and themselves worthless, much like how people love cats for their style even though they're nasty little buggers.
 * Somewhat averted in Watership Down. in which the rabbits are far from cute and cuddly, and generally act fairly realistically, although the do venerate a mythological Br'er Rabbit-like trickster figure.
 * Firekeeper from the series of the same name. She was a Wild Child raised by wolves, so the fact that she identifies as a wolf who happened to be unfortunate enough to get born as a human makes sense.
 * Many of the noble houses in A Song of Ice and Fire have animals as part of their heraldry and show a certain awareness of how they are supposed to act because of this. An extract from an upcoming novel has a member of House Lannister, whose sigil is a Lion, make a comment about his Lion like nature and the man in question (a foreigner) wonders at how strange those in Westeros are, that they put a dragon, lion or stag on a breastplate and immediately start calling themselves such and trying to fulfill what they think that means they should act like. House Frey's prominent members on the other hand are often described by others as looking and acting like weasels
 * Neverwhere's Croup and Vandemar are human (or rather, humanoid - what they actually are isn't specified), but Richard finds they give him a very clear impression of "a fox and a wolf", respectively. Croup is short, redhaired, sneaky, and talkative, while Vandemar is hulking, greyhaired, menacing, ostentatiously carnivorous, and can produce a very wolf-like howl.
 * Similarly, Hunter is frequently compared to a lioness (sleek, tawny, and deadly), and the Marquis de Carabas quite consciously chose Puss in Boots for his totem.
 * Charlotte's Web showcases how the deceptive female spider's archetype can use her guile for good: manipulating humans with "miraculous" spider webs to spare the life of Some Pig.
 * The wild geese of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils are at first quite arrogant, proud of their ability to navigate and fly incredible routes. The domestic goose is quite a lucky guy and both he and Nils do return home safely.
 * Animal Farm intentionally uses this trope, but with an interesting twist: the animal characters not only symbolize traits but political figures in the Soviet Union. Hilariously, Stalin is a pig.
 * C. J. Cherryh's Chanur series uses a range of Animal Stereotype aliens. The Maheno'sat are obviously chimps, the Kif seem to combine elements of rat and snake, and the Hani are lions - but realistically portrayed: their social structure is built around co-operative groups of females who keep a few pampered males around purely as studs. Cheryh hammers the point home by naming the Hani ship The Pride of Chanur. To be fair, the books also include some mind-bendingly alien aliens, though mostly in the background.
 * Both played straight and subverted in the Dragaera novels, where Dragaerans conform to some of the Animal Stereotypes of their respective Houses: Orca are aggressive and predatory, Yendi (snakes) are sneaky and treacherous, Teckla (mice) are timid and victimized, etc. Subverted with Daymar, from the House of the Hawk, who's a Cloudcuckoolander rather than regal.
 * The Wind In the Willows. Somewhat subverted here, however; the badger and mole stereotypes hold fairly true, but Rat is definitely a good guy (with the caveat that he's actually a water vole, not a true rat).
 * Dog Soldiers in Black Dogs are exceptionally loyal and trustworthy, while the anthropomorphic giant ground sloth is slow and patient and the weasel/ferret character is bloodthirsty and cunning.
 * The Dresden Files gives us the Denarians, many of whom turn into some form of animal when they're in combat mode. The animal is often said to be a reflection of personality.
 * The Princess and Curdie, a (quite possibly) little-known sequel to The Princess and the Goblin, shows the hero given the ability to feel "real hands." Sometimes they feel human, sometimes like the hoof of an ox, sometimes like the belly of a snake. "Real hands" are supposed to tell Curdie everything he needs to know about a person. (Or creature)
 * While The Bible has a very famous evil snake in the serpent that seduced Eve into eating the fruit, in Christian theology the serpent may also be a symbol of salvation (Numbers 21:8-9).
 * In the Tortall Universe, Alanna eventually starts to be called The Lioness. She is brave, powerful, and prideful - and the King chooses her as his Champion. Given the male lion/royalty association and the whole thing where lionesses do most of the hunting, it's an interesting bit of symbolism.
 * Rudyard Kipling confused a number of readers and interpreters of The Jungle Books by arbitrarily changing stereotypes between stories. For instance, Hathi the elephant in the Mowgli stories is an imposing, majestic, even terrifying character (as shown in "Letting In the Jungle"), and Kala Nag in "Toomai of the Elephants" is also quite impressive, but Two-Tails in "Servants of the Queen" is a judicious coward. The Bandar-log who abduct Mowgli are rather nasty, but the monkeys in "The Miracle of Purun Bhagat are playful and friendly. The cobras in "Rikki-tikki-tavi" are pure evil, but those in "The King's Ankus" are friendly to Mowgli, except for the white cobra that has literally gone crazy with old age. (It probably is not insignificant that Mowgli is Indian while Rikki-tikki-tavi's Teddy is English - in Kim Kipling described fear and loathing of snakes as a specifically white trait).
 * The humans in Jennifer Fallon's Tide Lords series share their world with three slave races, whose dog, cat and lizard ancestors were the subjects of one of the Tide Lords demented genetic experiements and which have descended into human/animal hybrids.

Live Action TV

 * Sylar from Heroes had an overwhelming cockroach theme around him, likely to signify his ambition to evolve, and, as revealed in season 1 finale,
 * The cockroach wasn't meant to represent Sylar, it was meant to symbolize evolution in general.
 * Angela from The Office is fussy, small and prudent. So fittingly, she has a bunch of pet cats, and dresses up as one for Halloween.

Music

 * Janeen Brady's Standin' Tall tapes about various virtues include Gratitude, in which they avert the Rabbit, who needs to learn to be grateful and depend on others and is, at the start, not at all friendly or cuddly. In fact, he's more like the Badger on this list.
 * Tim Minchin's Lament of the Three Toed Sloth is a song about a sloth being unhappy with being so darn slow.
 * The "disgusting rats and leeches" stereotype is very much averted in everything Emilie Autumn does, especially in The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, where leeches symbolize the "mad girl, while rats are the guardians of said mad girls. Emilie herself owns rats.

Myth and Legend

 * Br'er Rabbit makes the Trickster Rabbit stereotype Older Than Radio at the very least. Going even further, his character originates in folkloric African stories told way before colonial time. Of course, he used to be a spider (viz. Anansi), not a bunny.
 * Coyote and Raven are the Trickster spirits in the lore of some Native American nations.
 * European fairy-tales and parables do the same with foxes and sometimes wolves.
 * Almost all of the "Animal People" of Native American folklore were associated with a specific set of traits and abilities. Also, there were various types of "medicine" (or magic) associated with each species. Wolf and Bear were, naturally, the badasses of the bunch. Coyote, raven, fox, and rabbit were all tricksters in their respective ranges.
 * The real life coyote's penchant for using trickery made him the natural choice for the definitive trickster for those tribes who lived in coyote country (before the wolves were killed off and the coyotes moved to all the other sates). Real coyotes utilize things like howling in such a way as to make the echos of their howls return from multiple directions, thus making the rabbit they're running down think that there is a whole pack of coyotes surrounding it, and possibly causing it run the wrong way. They also often team up with badgers to hunt prairie dogs. So, it's little wonder that in Native American folklore, Coyote has more tricks up his sleeves than The Joker.
 * Modern day Western cultures see the vulture as an evil bird, but historically the stereotype was far more positive. It is considered by some Native Americans as the bird of peace, and by the Ancient Egyptians as a protective mother whose wings provide shelter. In Hindu texts there are two heroic vulture demigods.
 * Ancient British and Medieval Welsh saw night birds like the owls as symbols of evil. The unfaithful Blodeuedd is transformed into an owl for arranging the murder of her husband, Lleu Llaw; the wronged Lleu turns into an eagle when stabbed and flies away. Songbirds meanwhile represent good and the Otherworld - a starling carries Branwen's cry for help to Wales, and later the enchanted Birds of Rhiannon sing to the surviving rescuers to help them forget that they failed.
 * Cuckoos were a bad omen, associated with grief and loss because their mournful "coo, coo" sounds like "Cw, cw?", Old Welsh for "Where, where?"
 * In Greek Mythology, Athena, goddess of wisdom, was associated with owls, and owls show up on ancient Athenian currency (Athena being the patron goddess of Athens).

Tabletop RPG

 * Lampshaded in the Wildlands domain from the Ravenloft setting for Dungeons and Dragons. It's Africa populated with Talking Animals, and the description notes that the different animals' personalities match the human stereotypes associated with them.
 * Magical Native Americans come with their "Guardian Spirits" in Deadlands (and its daughter games). The personalities of these spirits are described in terms of actual Native American/First Nations Animal Stereotypes, and if the canon shamans are any indication, the spirits are drawn to humans who have personalities similar to their own, making for easy Animal Motifs in Player Characters.

Toys

 * Each of the Purr Tenders disguised themselves as an animal that somehow matched their personality. Hop-purr, for instance, was generically cute and cuddly, but smart enough to come up with the whole deception in the first place. Romp-purr was a playful, sport-loving Tomboy, and pretended to be a dog, while Shrinking Violet Scamp-purr chose to be a mouse. Perhaps the oddest of the lot was Flop-purr, whose disguise and personality seemed to be based on Daffy Duck.

Video Games

 * Most of the cast of the fighting game Bloody Roar.
 * Character designer Tetsuya Nomura has a bad habit of associating his characters with animals by draping them in jewelery displaying a stylized animal, which tends to have a special name. The most famous is definitely Squall Leonhart's lion-charm Griever, but let's not forget Cloud Strife's Cloudy Wolf and Sion's Dog Street.
 * Metal Gear Solid is more subtle, but deserves note for using snakes as a symbol of rebirth (think ouroboros) rather than evil.
 * The other animal nicknames do reflect their owners, though some (like Ocelot and Mantis) aren't as obvious as others.
 * Star Fox, as Furries In Space, naturally has many characters fitting these stereotypes. Fox McCloud is cunning, Andross (a monkey) is the Big Bad (several of his henchmen are monkeys as well), Wolf is the evil rival, and so on.
 * Assault onwards however broke Wolf from the mold and is now an honorable rival who won't hesitate to help you. Panther also makes his appearance, who follows the feline trope.
 * Also, all members of the Cornerian Fleet are dogs.
 * In Warcraft III the Night Elf druids, who could switch between Elf and animal form, showed the stereotypes of their animal form even as elves. The Druids of the Claw, who could turn into bears, seemed slow paced, fond of long naps, but very dangerous when angered. The Druids of the Talon, who could turn into crows, were mysterious, slick and silent. The snake worshipping Druids of the Fang are of course pure evil . Whitewolf's rpg claims there are good druids of the fang and the ones encountered ingame are a freak incident but in World of Warcraft they didn't start calling themselves druids of the fang until after they turned evil.
 * Fur Fighters has a lot of this. Seeing that every character is an animal its not hard to see why. Plays most of the trope straight but there are a couple of subversions.
 * Touhou games, with their abundance of Youkai, hit a few.
 * Shou in UFO is a tiger youkai, and a perfect Tiger archetype: very proud, a natural leader, and very powerful.
 * Shou's subordinate Nazrin is a mouse youkai, and fits the more gentle rodent type: a tiny, tiny, clever commander, cute, trustworthy, and good at finding treasure.
 * Utsuho, the Final Boss of Subterranean Animism, is a raven, but while menacing and dangerous thanks to her new powers, she's not particularly clever.
 * Rin, a cat youkai (kasha), doesn't really fit the cat archetype. She follows the player through three stages, but she's not malicious so much as she is just doing her job (thereby avoiding the lazy and self-centered archetypes).
 * Yamame is a spider youkai (tsuchigumo)... and is pretty much the opposite of the spider archetype. She's a generous, fun-loving socialite who refuses to use her plague-inducing powers on others.
 * The goddess Kanako, the Final Boss of Mountain of Faith, uses snakes as her symbol, but again, she's not so much malicious as she is Chaotic Neutral and secretive about her activities. She uses the wisdom and rebirth associations of the snake as much as she does the predatory aspect.
 * The crow tengu Aya (Phantasmagoria of Flower View, Shoot the Bullet, Mountain of Faith, and Double Spoiler) and her rival Hatate (Double Spoiler) are often portrayed to be clever, but not particularly menacing (unless it involves blackmail).
 * The wolf tengu Momiji (Mountain of Faith, Double Spoiler) was originally portrayed by fandom as a puppy-dog archetype, but her appearances in Double Spoiler paint her more as a lone wolf.
 * Reisen in Imperishable Night is a Moon Rabbit, but probably fits the hare archetype best: her escape from the moon war (flight), her alliance with the exiled Lunarians at Eientei (cleverness), and her insanity-inducing gaze (mystery).
 * Tei, a normal rabbit youkai, is cute, lucky, and a Bugs Bunny-esque trickster, perfectly fitting a more normal rabbit archetype.
 * Mystia, a sparrow youkai, is cute, upbeat, prone to bragging about skills she doesn't have, and clever, matching the sparrow stereotype.
 * Ran in Perfect Cherry Blossom isn't canonly shown to fulfill any of the fox stereotypes, though this can be explained by her servitude to Yukari. Fanonly, she has a streaking habit, which can be sexy and a sign of confidence.
 * Chen is a curious, cute Catgirl.
 * Fanonly, Sakuya Izayoi from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil is associated with dogs due to her loyalty and ferocity. Unusual here in that Sakuya is a human.
 * Kana Anaberal from the PC-98 exclusive Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream is a Cute Ghost Girl with a faint bird motif, and is tragic, fitting the "bird with broken wings" aspect.
 * Genji the turtle, Reimu's trusty steed in the PC-98 games, is old, wise, and a tad snarky. He's also flight-capable.
 * Morrigan from Dragon Age Origins, she is a shapeshifter and her default form is a spider. And this suits her haughty, snarky, bitter and undeniably dangerous personality very well. Partially subverted when she shows her Tsundere personality.
 * Solatorobo has the Caninu and Felineko races. Caninu are described as loyal, friendly, good at physical labor, and like eating hard foods. Felineko are described as fiercely independent, quite aggressive, moody, calculating, and agile. One stereotype that only applies in-universe is the Caninu's proficiency for technology contrasted by the Felineko's proficiency for magic.
 * Averted in Sonic the Hedgehog, where very few characters are anything like their species might suggest.
 * Hatoful Boyfriend:
 * The three white fantails, a fancy breed, in the game are all stuck-up and narcissistic to varying degrees - Sakuya is a racist aristocrat, Yuuya is a Tuxedo and Martini spy and Oko San acts like a slightly spoiled pet bird.
 * The feral pigeon, Ryouta, has to take what he can get in terms of jobs, is sickly and comes from a rough background, but does okay due to his opportunistic and go-getting nature.
 * The mourning dove, Nageki, is depressed, lonely and.
 * Anghel the Luzon bleeding-heart, a bird appearing to have a huge wound on its chest surrounded by legends of being marked by Jesus's blood, is a melodramatic Large Ham with a massive love of religious Faux Symbolism.
 * The Chukar Partridge, Shuu, is a creepy doctor, since the bird has red-rimmed eyes that look like glasses and a call that (after the 'chu-KAR' which gave it its name) sounds like a creepy 'ho ho ho' chuckle.
 * In Punjabi legend, the Chukar is a symbol of eternal, unrequited love due to belief that it constantly gazes at the Moon. Shuu's motivation in the BBL route is

Web Comics

 * Gunnerkrigg Court: Kat draws cats on a few of her machines. Antimony carries a wolf doll at almost all times. Reynardine is a fox demon who seems to be undergoing a Heel Face Turn since possessing said wolf doll. Ysengrin, on the other hand, fits the evil wolf stereotype, with the twist that he's less a wolf than he used to be. Coyote is Coyote.
 * Later on Ysegrin has been shown to be sagely and wise. He just doesn't like humans at all. He's simply pretending to be a dumb brute.
 * Outside Interference has a rabbit named Hollie, who's apparently quite hung up on... what rabbits are famous for.
 * The Dawn Chapel features a short story, The Apex Predator, wherein a proud lion is presented with a series of affronts to his dignity, none of which are handled gracefully.
 * Homestuck features twelve characters, the trolls, all of which have a theme animal. When the troll is a match for their theme animal, it's usually played straight, as with the eternally angry Karkat, who's theme animal is a crab, but on the other hand, Tavros is a general subversion of his bull, being shy, slow-tempered, and generally harmless, as opposed to bold, easily-angered, and intimidating.

Web Original

 * In Whateley Universe, one of the superhero classifications is 'Avatar', meaning someone who can absorb a spirit and keep it alive, gaining its powers in exchange. The Avatars also tend to take on the characteristics of their spirit(s), sometimes physically as well. Aquerna (Middle English for 'squirrel') has the power of the SQUIRREL! She's curious, persistent, family-oriented, and sees herself as insignificant. At Super-Hero School Whateley Academy, she's thought of as one of the school losers. She's still better off than the unnamed girl who has the spirit of the hamster, and has grown fur and cheek pouches too. Mongoose has the spirit of the mongoose, and as a result is playful, adventurous, and always looking for new things. There are lots more examples.
 * Aside from the Sentient Apes that populate the Global Guardians PBEM Universe, there are also a category of characters called "Moreaus" (after the titular Mad Scientist from "The Island of Doctor Moreau"), scientifically altered animals that can now speak and think.
 * The Zoo is a heroic team of Moreaus that have banded together for self-protection and to show humanity that they aren't monsters. They've unimaginably named themselves after their original species (Bloodhound, Buffalo, Fox, and Giraffe), and fight crime in Los Angeles.

Western Animation
"Onlooker: Well, that figures."
 * Beast Wars: It's both averted and utilized, depending on the character. Some, like Rattrap, Cheetor, Silverbolt (wolf/eagle hybrid), Tarantulas and Blackarachnia fit their animal's stereotypes exactly. Others, like Tigatron, Rhinox and Optimus (a gorilla) don't have the kind of personalities their animal implies. For instance, Tigatron (a tiger) is a pacifist, Rhinox (a rhino) is the smartest and calmest member of the Maximals and Optimus (a gorilla) is the most serious member.
 * Looney Tunes both uses and inverts the trope for Irony's sake. Bugs Bunny is the ultimate in "tricky" rabbits (the most famous Karmic Trickster), while Porky Pig is an uptight neat freak and Sylvester is an uncommonly stupid and ungraceful cat.
 * Kung Fu Panda: each of the martial artists in the story being animals who each practice a style specifically designed after their species. But no one associates a cute and cuddly species like a Giant Panda with aggression, and yet lead character Po learns to be exactly that.
 * This is emphasized even more by the name the writers chose to give the panda: Po means 'peace' in Chinese.
 * In addition, while the 'slow-as-molasses' turtle stereotype is played laughingly straight in the candle-blowing scene, in flashback Master Oogway hands Tai Lung his family jewels with an amazingly rapid-fire, complex, awe-inspiring pattern of nerve strikes: classic Old Master material.
 * Codename: Kids Next Door featured an episode where all the kids were turned into animals. Japanese Numbuh 3 into a crane, fat Numbuh Two into a hippopotamus, and Australian Numbuh Four a koala. The highlight however is Numbuh Eighty-Six, the Alpha Bitch of the group, turning into an Irish Setter. A female Irish Setter.


 * Skunk Fu! subverts Rabbit, Tiger, and Mantis, while Skunk, Fox, Monkey, and Turtle are played straight.
 * Donald Duck of Disney is clumsy, dim but strong willed. Gladstone Gander is a chronically lucky arrogant dandy.
 * On the topic of Disney, the stereotypes follow the main characters very well. Mickey Mouse has been portrayed as humble and inoffensive, however recently he's been shown to be going back to being mischievous, like he was in his earlier cartoons. Goofy is a very loyal friend, but he's known for not being the brightest. Pete, Mickey's rival, is a cat, and is shown to be arrogant, lazy, and manipulative.
 * Madagascar subverts several of these tropes. Alex the Lion is hardly brave or powerful (proud on the other hand...) Marty, the Zebra is the farthest thing from elegant, noble, and hard-working (although he is really stereotypically black). Gloria is far from a lazy, slobby hippo. The Penguins are the farthest thing you'll ever get from clumsy. And they don't even like cold weather. In the TV show, the elephant comes across as rather dense, the gorillas are somewhat thuggish, and Phil and Mason (chimps) are rather reserved and dignified.
 * As well as being the source of a Punny Name, the use of dogs in Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds reinforces the Musketeers' virtue of loyalty. The villain Milady, a cat, exhibits feline cunning.
 * Almost everyone in Kaeloo. Mr. Cat is Smileyland's resident jerk, Stumpy the squirrel is hyperactive and a bit dim and Kaeloo the frog seems to be in constant bliss and is smotheringly "friendly". Subverted with Quack-Quack and Bad Kaeloo as Quack-Quack is a diaper-wearing genius incapable of speech and Bad Kaeloo is a monstrous she-toad with little obvious intelligence and a horrific mean streak.
 * In ThunderCats (2011) this is frequently Played With with Third Earth's many varieties of Petting Zoo People, with accompanying Intelligent Gerbil characterization. Cats can be mean, magic or superior, Lions are the King of Beasts, Lizards are abhorrent and so on. Elephants, while very wise, notably subvert the classic "an elephant never forgets" by collectively having incredibly poor memories, for which they are apparently infamous.
 * Get Muggsy plays raccoon, opossum and beaver straight, but averts most of the spider stereotypes.
 * The episode of Darkwing Duck that has Bushroot creating and wanting to marry the vampire potato also has a weasel trucker pick up the heroes and give them some intelligent advice. He LOOKS evil, but was very amiable.