History Main / SmartAnimalInconvenientInstincts

* In ''Franchise/HowToTrainYourDragon'', it is stated that dragons are more intelligent than most animals and are completely capable of co-habitation with humans, as shown when [[Characters/HowToTrainYourDragonFilmsHiccupHorrendousHaddockIII Hiccup]] was able to [[PredatorTurnedProtector single-handedly turn]] [[Characters/HowToTrainYourDragonFilmsHooliganTribe Berk]] from a village of dragon-killing vikings into an island where humans and dragons coexist. However, dragons are still animals and tend to behave in ways that they are not supposed to do because they are, well, animals. They tend to take food that does not belong to them, they can attack when they feel threatened and most dangerously of all, alpha dragons (the Red Death, Bewilderbeasts and eventually [[spoiler:Toothless]]) are capable of ''mind-controlling'' entire colonies worth of dragons through sheer will-power. These animalistic behaviors are proven to be especially hazardous to the dragons' safety when hunters like [[WesternAnimation/DragonsRidersOfBerk Viggo Grimborn]], [[WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon2 Drago Bludvist]] and [[WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragonTheHiddenWorld Grimmel the Grisly]] are able to exploit these inherent weaknesses.

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[[quoteright:289:[[ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/notim.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:289: For [[Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau Doctor Moreau]], it's easy to make men out of animals. Making gentlemen out of them is the tough part.]]

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Subtrope of AchillesHeel. Compare BeatItByCompulsion, EmotionsVsStoicism, FurryReminder[[note]]when an "animal-resembling humanoid" (BeastMan, LittleBitBeastly, etc) or a FunnyAnimal shows some traits of the animal it's based on or is, whether done out of instinct or not[[/note]], MyInstinctsAreShowing[[note]]when "animals who act like humans" show animal instincts they try to hide, but not necessarily to their detriment[[/note]].

* Ein, a Welsh Corgi that was subjected to illegal scientific experimentation in ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', is frequently implied to have at least human intelligence, as he is later seen to be capable of things like computer hacking or recognizing when a character is on the edge of being brainwashed by a signal transmitted through the internet and snapping them out of it. Nonetheless in Ein's first episode, the lab techs who experimented on him can still get him to respond to and blindly chase a special whistle that provokes the same reaction in just about every other animal in the vicinity.

* Shirogane of ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'' is a regular cat that became a [[UpliftedAnimal sapient]] [[OurSpiritsAreDifferent ayakashi]], but is easily distracted by Ritta swinging at cat tail in his face.
-->'''Shirogane''': Trying to lure me with such a cheap toy! Alas, I can't resist it! It's my nature as a cat ayakashi...

* ''Film/JurassicPark'' series:
** The velociraptors in ''Film/JurassicPark'' are the [[TropeCodifier codifier]], if not the outright TropeMaker. Their level of intelligence is played up throughout the whole film, and demonstrated repeatedly. They know how to execute feinting and flanking maneuvers. They remember what segments of the electrical fence they've tested for weaknesses. They figure out how to open doors. But in a move that saves one of the kid protagonist's lives, they can't, at a glance, tell the difference between a reflection and the real deal. Which results in said raptor charging headlong into the side of a stove, stunning it and allowing the kids to escape.[[note]]The other raptor is dealt with by the second kid fleeing into a walk-in freezer, the raptor giving chase and slipping on the icy floor, allowing the two children to lock it in, but to be fair, a human being could have fallen for that just as credibly.[[/note]]

* ''Film/DeepBlueSea'': The sharks in said film have actually had their brains genetically fiddled with to grant them higher intelligence, rendering them smart enough to recognize weapons, figure out how to swim backwards (noted in film as something sharks "can't" do [[note]]The gills of sharks require the shark to always be in motion, i.e. forward motion. A shark swimming backwards would basically be gasping for air at the same time, hence it's more something a shark would NOT do rather than a physical 'can't'[[/note]]), and most importantly, figure out that they can exploit a weakness in the nets keeping them penned in. As the last shark, implied to be the biggest and smartest, is literally gnawing a hole through said weakness, the female main character cuts her hand and jumps into the water. The shark's animal instincts for blood immediately kick in, and said shark promptly turns around and makes a beeline for the blood scent; despite all her enhanced intelligence, she seemingly can't override her innate animal instincts. The act delays the escape enough for the humans to put together the shark's demise.

** The Graboids demonstrate some of this. They have an intelligence (series protagonist Burt Gummer even remarks on it in the second film) and can figure out things like tearing out supports and digging traps to deal with structures/vehicles that are too big for them to drag down to get their prey. They also, at least once, figured out that eating dynamite was a bad idea. However, they seem to have an issue 'seeing' where they're going, which leads to the very first graboid ever killed happening because it rammed itself into the side of a concrete wall. However, this REALLY becomes demonstrated in the sequel, which introduced...
** The Shriekers, the next life cycle of the Graboids, starting in ''Tremors 2: Aftershocks''. At first, the smaller but still lion sized and now aboveground creatures seem much, much smarter, seemingly tearing up radio towers (to prevent communication with the outside world) and car engines (to thwart escapes). However, once one is captured and studied, it's discovered the creatures are both blind and deaf, and detect things via an organic infra-red sensor organ. The Shriekers were not attempting to cripple the human's ability to fight back, but were tearing up the engines/wires because they were giving off heat and the Shriekers try to eat anything that gives off excess heat. Despite this though, the Shriekers still have enough intelligence to try and form a tower of themselves to reach some of the humans who are staying at a high place to keep away from them. The film sums the contradiction up well.

* ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': Godzilla. While more intelligent than the average animal, he's still an animal. That wasn't really an issue until this movie when, [[spoiler:after he's bereft of the signal a recently-revived Ghidorah is emitting to chase after]], his instincts cause him to attack Kong, who had recently left the now-uninhabitable Skull Island to help Monarch enter Hollow Earth so they could relocate Kong to it as his new home. As Kong is both an Alpha-level Titan and one that has yet to formally submit to Godzilla, the latter can't help but see him as a threat to his sovereignty even though Kong has shown no interest in him or in his position. This unnecessary feud has massive consequences in the last act of the movie, as the climactic fight wears out both monsters, [[spoiler:leaving them easy pickings for a Ghidorah-infused Mechagodzilla, even when they're fighting together]].

* ''Literature/AliensStevePerryTrilogy'': ZigZagged. In ''Nightmare Asylum'', General Spears relies on the Queen's overwhelming instinct to preserve her eggs to control her, and thereby the drones she communicates with telepathically. It seems to be going well... Spears has the Queen trained not to let her drones, or even her eggs, attack the humans around the base without Spears' permission. Unfortunately, the Queen is not only at least as smart as Spears himself, but much, ''much'' more patient. When Spears brings his Alien "army" to Earth defeat the "wild strain" Aliens infesting it, the drones ignore his orders and free their captive Queen, who promptly kills Spears and leads her drones off to found a new hive. Spears' entire plan revolved around the Queen being this trope when, in point of fact, she is ''not''.

* In Creator/JeanDeLaFontaine's ''The Cat Changed into a Woman'', a, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin cat is turned into a woman]] who appears human in every way, but she can't stop herself from chasing mice whenever she sees them (the aesop being that you can't change your true nature).
* Appears again in Michael Crichton's novel ''Literature/{{Congo}}''. The villains/main danger are a unique breed of albino gorilla that are discovered to be watching over a lost jungle city. Said gorillas [[note]]Or as more accurately assessed in the book, gorilla/chimpanzee/HUMAN hybrids, though the last one is merely hinted at as a possibility[[/note]] were bred centuries ago by the people of said lost jungle city, and are capable of using weapons (giant stone oar-like clubs), figuring out how to disable traps (they drop a tree on a crude electric fence), and perhaps most terrifying, the fact that there are still "Congo gorillas" guarding the lost city centuries after its people disappeared [[note]]Abandoned once the mines ran dry in the book, or having killed their "masters" in the film adaption[[/note]] is clearly because the gorillas ''taught their children'' the skills the humans once taught them, for who knows how many gorilla generations. But, when the main human hero falls into the midst of a pack of the deadly apes, his trained gorilla Emily comes to his rescue. She does this by grabbing the man and acting as gorillas do when treating their children, hence putting forth the image that the grown human male is her infant. The congo-apes "fall" for this and leave the pair alone, having only been trained to attack and kill humans, and seemingly unable to recognize a human if said human is removed from what little context the gorillas have.

* The ghatti of the ''Ghatti's Tale'' series may be sentient (and telepathic to boot), but in many ways still act like non-sentient felines. They lick themselves in public, can be distracted by someone thinking about fish, mate with domestic cats,[[note]]This is an actual conservation concern in regards to real wild cats. The tendency for small cats to hybridize may ultimately drive several wild species to extinction.[[/note]] will kill their deformed offspring and small livestock, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and of course, can't read.]]

* ''Series/DogWithABlog'': Several episodes make it clear that despite possessing human level intelligence to the point of being able to talk (and keep a blog), Stan is still a dog and is unable to resist his animal instincts. Demonstrated when in the middle of a speech of how he knows they lock him out if he goes outside and won't fall for their tricks, he can't stop himself from running outside when they toss a ball through the doorway.

* Many of the mental Disadvantages applied to {{Uplifted Animal}}s in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' books such as ''Bio-Tech'' and ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'' reflect this. Notably, the core system offers the character disadvantage "Stress Atavism", which is pretty much purely for uplifted animals, and specifically models a tendency to revert to pre-sapient behaviors when under stress. One ''Transhuman Space'' vignette features a K10 postcanine who forms a criminal gang of other uplifted dogs. The owners of his followers insist their dogs can't be held responsible because they were just instinctively deferring to a strong alpha.
* ''TabletopGame/HoneyHeist'' is a simple TTRPG based around playing bears who are criminals off to pull off a heist for honey, dictated by two diametrically opposing stats: "Bear" (gained whenever you do bear-like things) and "Criminal" (anything that's part of the heist that isn't "bear-like"). Go too far as a criminal, you become [[NoHonorAmongThieves too cunning for your own good and double-cross your team]], but if you go too far as a bear, you become feral and probably berserk ''[[BearsAreBadNews because you're a bear]]''.

* Kha'zix of ''Videogame/LeagueOfLegends'' is a [[EldritchLocation Void-born]], who, like his fellow void-dwellers, have breached into the real world of Runeterra. His schtick is LegoGenetics and [[TheAssimilator Assimilation]] -- by eating beings, he can gain traits from them. Intelligence would thus seem an obvious adaptation, and he is indeed quite cunning, but he never gets more intelligent than that because his urge to predate and '[[{{Motifs}} kill, consume, adapt]]' is such a fundamental drive in him that even if he assimilated an intelligence which told him there were more efficient ways to "kill, consume, adapt" than being a predator, he'd discard the intellect in favour of continuing to predatorially kill, consume, and adapt.
* It's hard to pin how smart it is but the green mouse from ''[[VideoGame/{{Grow}} Grow Maze]]'' wear clothes, use a bag and fit a thief archetype giving it human like sentience, yet it's still attracted by a cheese like a normal mouse would and gets captured by the cat-bucket creature that was connected to the cheese. Later in the game, the mouse is enjoying a hot spring like an human would.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Krosp I, Emperor of All Cats has this issue, more then once people bribe him or trick him using food or distract him using cat toys. The miniature military maven hates it. When his mind is not disrupted by inherent baser natures, he is a sharp expert on pragmatism and {{Realpolitik}} and is still entirely capable of eavesdropping on unsuspecting folk around him even as he's distracted by their food.
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': Jade Harley, who through a complicated series of fusions became part-dog, at one point found herself instinctively chasing Jaspersprite, who herself was created with cat DNA. This despite Jade routinely being one of the most intelligent of the four protagonists any other day.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': A recurring gag is that Brian (a talking dog) is the more intellectual and dignified member of the cast, but every once in a while, his instincts as a dog take over and he can't help himself, such as being tricked into playing fetch with a ball, chasing after a car, or bark at a stranger, or something a normal dog does. Often adding to the humor is how he'll then try and justify it with his human-esque intelligence ("I'm going to get that evil mailman THIS TIME!", etc).He also once, ahem, "tended to himself" while looking at what appeared to be the dog equivalent of an adult magazine.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Early in "El Misterioso Viaje De Nuestro Jomer", Homer meets a spirit animal: A coyote, which gives him a talk that makes Homer question whether or not Marge is truly his soulmate (not really a spoiler - she is). At one point, the coyote just randomly tries to bite Homer, because that's what a coyote would do if he was within biting distance of a human. The coyote even points it out sheepishly.
* Played for Tragedy in ''WesternAnimation/TheAnimalsOfFarthingWood''. [[spoiler:The animals attempt to cross a busy motorway but the two hedgehogs keep wanting to curl up due to being scared. Eventually (as Toad puts it) their instincts get the better of them, they curl up and are run over by a lorry.]]
** In an earlier episode, Toad's instincts start getting the better of him as they keep drawing him back to Farthing Wood instead of towards White Deer Park, forcing Owl and Kestrel to lead the way instead.

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