This character has a natural empathy for other life forms. They talk to animals that don't normally go near humans. Their garden is a work of art and they gossip with the flowers. They have formed unbreakable bonds with some animals. They predict the weather by listening to the birds and can foresee a drought by examining the plants. Sometimes this is a very general ability encompassing all of nature, sometimes it's exclusive to one particular species. But either way, they have a special relationship with some non-human being on a level other humans can only dream of.
The problem? It's a totally different story when it comes to the members of their own species.
The price for communing with nature is apparently a graceless ineptitude with other humans. You might find them deep in conversation with a lion, unicorn, daffodil, alien, robot, or many-tentacled people-eating thing, but a simple "good morning" on your part is liable to send them scurrying for cover or provoke a tirade. Sometimes this is justified by them being Raised by Wolves or a Wild Child, but often the reasons are more mundane and fall into one of two variations:
Shy: The shy variation is a sweet-natured little soul who simply doesn't understand humans. They're so noisy, and they fight all the time, and they ask awkward questions and...(here the train of thought breaks down as they start hyperventilating and go fleeing back to their farm/garden/whatever). When it comes to taking care of sick animals or wilting plants, however, they can show remarkable courage and tenacity. If The Hero and his merry band need his/her help, they'll have quite a job on their hands to earn enough trust to win him/her over. Often times depicted as The Hermit, a Friend to All Living Things, and/or a Shrinking Violet.
Grumpy: The grumpy type is much more active but far less benign. Unlike the shy type, who seems to symbolize the fluffy, gentle, and "pure" nature of...well, nature, this type abides by the law of the jungle and is much more pragmatic. They're not afraid of people — they just don't like them. The traits that their brethren find "scary," they find "annoying" or "disgusting." Talk to them and they won't run away...but brace yourself for a rant on how all Humans Are Bastards and why should they bother helping you when you're just a member of the scummy species they hate the most? Admittedly, often their bark is worse than their bite. Those who prove to them that there is something salvageable in human nature (through, say, a Patrick Stewart Speech) might manage to win them over, setting them up for better interpersonal relations...or just prepared to make an exception for one or two humans in particular. Even if they do, their non-human buddies will always be first in their affections. If they don't...well, then they're a nature-loving Jerkass whose talent with animals or plants supplies their Pet the Dog moments. When forced to interact with others, they are often The Snark Knight.
Sometimes these characters' aversion to humans results from spending so much time with other species, putting their experiences as homo sapiens in a new and unflattering perspective. Sometimes it's the other way around — the character's aversion to humanity actually drove them into developing a bond with some other living being.
The sci-fi genre in particular has seen the boundaries widened by throwing in robots and aliens as viable alternatives to animals and plants. And sometimes the character this applies to is not even human. Both situations still count; the one rule for this character is that they have a powerful empathy with some other species than their own, apparently at the expense of basic social skills.
Super-Trope to Introverted Cat Person. Frequently overlaps with Animal Lover, Crazy Cat Lady, Heroes Love Dogs, Kindhearted Cat Lover, Nature Lover, or Nature Hero. Compare No Social Skills, which is simply social cluelessness and doesn't entail any skill with non-human creatures. See also Misanthrope Supreme. Contrast Animals Hate Him.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Black Jack: Dr. Black Jack leans towards this, being a Dr. Jerk with a huge environmentalist streak. He's gone as far as purchasing an entire island for the sake of making it into a wildlife preserve.
- Comic Girls: Kaoruko is Friend to All Living Things and often attracts different animals to her. On the other hand, she is socially phobic to the point that as a tenth-grader, she never had any friends at any point.
- Count Cain: Dr. Jezebel doesn't give a damn about human life (and when he does it shows itself in odd ways: "I love you so much I want to kill you!" to Cain, his half brother), but he would never, ever harm an animal, not even a wee sparrow. Even his partners notice that his entire being changes around animals, from a near Omnicidal Maniac to a nigh-angelic Friend to All Living Things. Like everyone else in Count Cain, he has a very Freudian Excuse When he was a sickly child, his Big Bad biological father "helped" him by giving him multiple organ transplants and delicious food, courtesy of his mother and sisters and beloved pet lamb, respectively. The lamb is but a memory but the family remains, in small jars in Dr. Jezebel's office. and otherwise excellent social skills.
- Keenan Crier of Digimon Data Squad, who identifies more as a digimon than a human, and treats other humans as threatening invaders.
- I'm Gonna Be an Angel!: Mikael is too much in love with angels cause he was brought up by them in Heaven to care about humans. The irony is that he needs to learn how to help them if he wants to become a full angel and go back to Heaven.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Jotaro Kujo is something of an emotionally stunted sourpuss that doesn't quite understand that it's just about impossible for other people to tell what he's thinking, a demeanor that eventually costs him both his marriage and his daughter's respect. However, he's actually rather patient with and fond of animals, not only pursuing a career as a marine biologist but also managing to tolerate the world's most insufferable and foul-tempered Boston terrier, Iggy.
- Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Trowa Barton is able to reduce a lion to a cuddly kitten with simple patience and eye contact, but he tends to be very quiet and reserved when dealing with human beings. His official backstory is that he was separated from his family as a toddler and lived in the wilds for an unspecified amount of time before being adopted by a roving band of mercenaries, so his attitude is more than likely a result of not having a proper upbringing; as shown in the series, he doesn't even seem to have a firm grasp on his own emotions.
- Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water: The eponymous Nadia spent most of the fourteen years of her life suffering from a combination of Parental Abandonment issues and a cruel upbringing as a circus acrobat. The end result is a Shy Tsundere who hates adults, humans, and "progress" with a vengeance — and yet is a Friend to All Living Things who begins to treat Gadgeteer Genius Jean as a friend despite herself. In fact, she finds herself falling in love with him... and in the end, they get married.
- Natsume Takashi the protagonist of Natsume's Book of Friends, is kind and understanding of almost all the Youkai he meets -including the ones who try to eat him, but is isolated from humans for most of his childhood due to his ability to see spirits. As a result, he "never knows what to say" to them.
- Pet Shop of Horrors: Count D plays the part of the reclusive, soft-spoken animal lover, but he's actually very much a type 2; he's just less noisy about it. Like the rest of his family, he has no tolerance for human weakness. Despite the fact that he's the protagonist, and has his fair share of Pet the Dog (well, human) moments with Leon and Chris, he's much more dangerous than most type twos. They're only grouchy, Count D is actually dangerous. Admittedly though, he's not actually human, just masquerading as one.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena: Anthy Himemiya spends much of her free time taking care of the roses in the greenhouse, and she's very fond of animals as well, keeping numerous pets and knowing how to feed baby birds. In regards to people, it's a whole other story; she has no friends at the start of the series due to other students bullying her or avoiding her, and in episode 3 she admits (in a very early instance of showing real vulnerability) that she dislikes crowds.
- Both Harima and Yakumo from School Rumble could arguably be defined as this. Harima gets this during a stint as a hermit who gathers a large following of animals. Yakumo's telepathy helps drive her away from people, and she does like animals, but she lacks Harima's expertise... with the possible exception of giraffes.
- Fujimaru from Snow White and Seven Dwarfs is respectful towards machinery, being a Technopath. Around humans? He's moody and anti-social. Exemplified best in a scene where, after an explosion goes off, he asks if any injuries were suffered, and just as his subordinates reply, they realize that he's talking to his computer.
Comic Books
- Button Man: Harry takes in a stray dog one night and becomes best buddies with it. Cora remarks that he's better with animals than with people.
Fan Works
- Brainbent: Nepeta isn't particularly shy - she's actually rather friendly, in her eccentric way - but she's high-functioning autistic and has difficulty with social conventions. She's also very fond of cats.
- Danganronpa: Memento Mori: Umiko Nitori is a Shrinking Violet who frequently shies away from interacting with fellow humans. She is far more socially adept with birds, to the extent of being named the Ultimate Birdwatcher.
- In A Different Kind of Truth, Johnny Joestar is dead center in this trope. He doesn't particularly like talking to anybody, and when he does he's extremely rude and sarcastic. This is perhaps best shown during Johnny's first extended conversation with Yukiko, where Johnny makes no effort in their small talk, gives short and often rude answers, and even tries to get the hell away from Yukiko to end the conversation.
- Escape From The Hokage's Hat: Naruto, when explaining his vast knowledge of plants and gardening to Hinata as this. Since he is hated by his village, he hasn't exactly had time to practice and he notes plants offer better company and fewer insults than the villagers. He hasn't any problems with opening up to her, however.
- Satsuki in The Mysterious Lady Kiryuuin
is, as Nui puts it, very shy, painfully so. Why she is so shy is never said (yet) and she is so shy that, after she was adopted and brought to her home, Nui hadn't seen her for two weeks until after she was adopted and, when she does see her, it's when Satsuki saves her from falling off of a balcony. Likewise, she's so shy that she never leaves her house and has but one friend. Apparently, from her interactions with Nui, is very kind and polite underneath her shyness but, it seems, she has to get used to other people.
- Total Drama Do Over: Randy is a perky wilderness expert who's deeply fascinated with animals and nature, but has no idea how to interact with human beings except by sharing animal facts, even if nobody cares to hear them.
Films — Animation
- Encanto: Antonio is a downplayed example, since he is comfortable with his family. He just prefers animals to people who weren’t family. Fittingly enough, he is able to talk to animals.
- Frozen: Kristoff. His Establishing Character Moment is singing a song called "Reindeers Are Better Than People" to his reindeer companion, Sven. The lyrics imply that he's used to being treated poorly by other humans. He's also been raised by trolls.
Films — Live-Action
- Ace Ventura: Ace Ventura is always nice to animals (except bats). With humans, however, he's unpredictably insane and lacks almost all social skills.
- Maya of A Dog's Purpose is painfully shy, not having any friends for most of her time at college and being extremely uncomfortable when trying to socialize. However, she has a deep and loving bond with her dog, Tino, to the point where she can nearly hold a conversation with him. It's implied she might have some form of anxiety, and taking care of Tino is part of what helps her get out of the house.
- In Good Neighbors, Louise can't seem to relate to humans, but loves her cats.
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Hero Newt Scamander is noticeably awkward around other people, but does everything he can to protect the creatures he studies from being destroyed by wizards who fear them. There's a reason why he becomes the most famous magizoologist in the world, with his textbook required reading at Hogwarts.
- My Science Project: Gearhead Michael Harlan understands and trusts machines better than humans, and at several points wishes people were as predictable as cars.
Literature
- In Blue Iguana, the autistic eight-year-old Joe rarely talks to humans but talks plenty to his many pet bugs.
- Circle of Magic:
- Briar and Rosethorn. Their names say it all. They're devoted to their adoptive families, and both actually have good social skills simply because they have to deal with people so often... but essentially, they're both tetchy and irritable, and would ideally like to be left alone with their gardens. Briar in particular is prone to pushing people away, even those he loves, when stressed or anxious.
- On Rosethorn specifically, as a green mage, she has a huge garden and all plants love her. She takes care of them including businesslike affection and stern admonitions to calm down and grow properly. At first her only interaction with the students placed in her dormitory is to warn them that if they even breathe on her plants, she'll hang them by their heels in the well. She lightens up slightly when she realizes that Briar has plant magic too, and ropes him into being her apprentice. By the later books, though, she's been outed as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Doctor Dolittle: Dr. Dolittle can speak with animals and relates well to them, but aside from a few close friends he doesn't much like humans. In the 1967 film, his female companion confesses her affection for him and he nervously admits that while he loves animals, actual people are really hard for him to deal with.
- Dragonriders of Pern: The dragon riders usually start out as type ones. Their bond with their dragon puts humans a poor second in their hearts, and they become so wrapped up in their reptilian buddies that they become awkward and shy with people. As they grow up, however, and become aware of their privileged status on Pern, a superiority complex kicks in, and many become arrogant or condescending type twos.
- Full Metal Panic!: Sousuke. He gets along way better with animals, and can actually communicate and understand them better than humans. (Especially interesting in the case of Mousuke and Shiro, both of whom he relates to much better than any human in the series.) As for his communication skills with humans... let's just say they're strained at best, unless you're in the military of course. Then Sousuke will either comfortably give you respect and professionalism if you outrank him, or while not terribly chatty be able to hold a friendly conversation about weapons and tactics if you're equal in rank or below him. If you're a civilian, however, he generally doesn't know what to do with you.
- Harry Potter: Because of his large stature and rough appearance, groundskeeper Hagrid who is also in charge of maintaing all of the mystical wild animals and creatures on the grounds, appears to be the second type to those who don't know him but is a Gentle Giant who is just socially awkward. He gets on famously well with non-human creatures, though.
- The Immortals:
- Daine starts out as shy and insecure around people while being very confident and businesslike in her dealings with animals. Thanks to Character Development, she grows in confidence but retains her innocent outlook and some Country Mouse traits.
- Stefan, the hostler from Song of the Lioness and Protector of the Small was a type one as well. A valuable ally to both Alanna and Kel, over the years he remained quiet and much preferred his horses to human company.
- Far less sympathetic (and much more sinister) is Emperor Ozorne from Daine's The Immortals series. Humans are expendable and exploitable to him, and he doesn't treat the magical Immortals any better... but he's genuinely upset when the birds of his aviary start falling sick and is prepared to offer Daine anything if she'll stay and look after his menagerie to the point he'll give her land and a title if she agrees to do so ...or kidnap her if she doesn't.
- I, Robot Susan Calvin is a brilliant, acid-tongued robot expert who openly admits that she likes robots better than humans. In one story she comments that the difference between robots and humans is that robots are essentially decent.
- Jeeves and Wooster: Gussy Fink-Nottle finds newts easy, people difficult. Especially women.
- Kroniki Drugiego Kręgu: Growing up isolated without other children her age and having telepathic abilities, Jagoda easily befriended local dragons. Her friends generally communicate through thoughts and don't lie in a human sense, so she sees nothing wrong in looking into their heads without a warning or always telling what she really thinks. When other humans appear on her island, they consider her behavior to be rude and antisocial. She, on the other hand, can see all of their dirty little thoughts, e.g. that they see her as a white-skinned, red-eyed freak, and reacts aggressively. It takes her some time to learn that all humans have secrets, and that doesn't make them bad people.
- The Long Earth: Sally Lindsay comes from a family of natural "Steppers" who was exploring parallel worlds before Step Day gave everyone the tech to do so. She tends to avoid people due to a mix of seeing them as trespassers on her turf, disdain for their carelessness and lack of survival skills, and the way they treat the Long Earth's indigenous life forms. She can get particularly protective of Trolls, and frequently acts as a roaming vigilante on their behalf.
- Lumbanico, the Cubic Planet: Risperim, the grumpy old guardian of the mountains, lives alone. He loves nature, owns several dogs and enjoys taking care of his garden and growing his own vegetables. However, he finds people annoying, scowling that they talk too much and think too little.
- In Me, Who Dove into the Heart of the World, Karen Nieto finds people in general confusing and unpleasant. However, her understanding of the wants and needs of tuna allow her to become the first person to successfully breed bluefin tuna in captivity.
- On the Edge of Eureka: Katherine adores viruses. Yes, the tiny, deadly, barely-alive things that can kill a person horribly in a matter of days. People, on the other hand, are enigmas to her.
- The Overstory: Patricia Westerford is always a bit isolated from other people and prefers working alone with plants, but this is exacerbated after she is shunned by the scientific community and takes to living completely in the forest, studying and understanding her beloved trees as The Hermit. She's happy with her life but is very reluctant to interact with any people at all, if she can afford to. She later somewhat develops out of it, but always prefers spending time with just Dennis and the trees if she can help it.
- Ratman's Notebooks: The title character in Willard is a meek social misfit with a strange affinity for rats.
- Oscar from The Real Boy loves cats and is extremely knowledgeable about herbs, but finds most humans overwhelming and incomprehensible.
- Tarzan: Tarzan has openly commented that humans are petty, violent, and talk too much, and much prefers the company of apes. In one novel when he is stricken with a temporary case of speech aphasia he laments that he can no longer talk to apes, but doesn't much care that he can't talk to humans.
- Transpecial: Suza, who is autistic, is one of the few people who can communicate with a race of aliens called the ky'iin because her inability to read body language means she doesn't instinctively respond to them with fear and aggression like most humans do. Once she becomes proficient in their language, she feels more comfortable with them than she ever has with humans because they treat her like an adult instead of a second-class citizen.
- Elphaba from Wicked is snarky and distant even toward her friends, and she has a hard time expressing her feelings (mostly because she is Unable to Cry). On the other hand, she is an active fighter for Animal rights and, later in the book, seems to gain an ability to communicate with various creatures. One of the most prominent examples is Elphaba's journey to the Vinkus when she travels in one wagon with a monkey, a dog, bees, and crows, and the other travelers (including her own son) have to share a second wagon between themselves.
- Wicked Good: Rory is great with machines and cares deeply about animals and plants, but he can't stand most members of his own species.
- Worm: Rachel/Bitch is very good with dogs, fitting her power to mutate them. She both spends lots of time with them and is very knowledgable of how they think. With humans, on the other hand she is less than friendly, has No Social Skills, and claims to only care about her dogs rather than caring about any other humans. Taylor might be the closest thing to a friend she has ever had.
- Xandri Corelel: Xandri excels at reading aliens' body language and establishing a connection with previously uncontacted races, but she finds her own species to be by far the most confusing. She's reluctant to work with the Anmerilli partly because they look too human for her to be comfortable with them.
Live-Action TV
- All Creatures Great and Small has the notoriously grumpy Siegfried Farnon, who is phenomenal with animals of all kinds and absolutely terrible with other humans. He's a gruff Knight in Sour Armor who shows his soft side only to Audrey Hall and, occasionally, to Jim and to his younger brother Tristan.
Siegfried: The animals are the easy part. It's the people [who] cause all the bother.
- Protagonist Will Graham from Hannibal has trouble forming connections with humans because of this empathy disorder, but he genuinely cares for his six dogs and is seen relaxing and smiling around them. He also finds a kindred spirit in season 2 in Peter Bernardone, a mentally disabled man who's a Friend to All Living Things.
- Claude Raines in Heroes is an invisible man, and claims to know what people are really like when they think they're alone. He's so sickened by and disillusioned with humans he's completely withdrawn from society. He does, however, feed the birds that come to his coop and lets them out again at night.
- Parks and Recreation: April Ludgate hates people (save for her ditzy husband Andy and the like-minded Ron Swanson), but adores animals. This eventually leads to Leslie putting her in charge of the Animal Control department, and she's surprisingly passionate about it after several seasons spent as a Professional Slacker.
- Person of Interest: Sameen Shaw is a self-admitted Sociopathic Hero who is mostly rude or crude to her human teammates, but gets along surprisingly well with Team Machine's dog Bear. She states several times that she's only there because of the dog; he seems to like her a lot too.
- The Sopranos: Tony Soprano loves animals and he hates animal abusers, but he has absolutely no problem maiming, torturing, or killing someone. This is part of what makes his therapist realize he's an incurable sociopath and sever ties with him.
- Superstore: Dina barks at her coworkers over the slightest mistakes and doesn't care for their safety at all, but she's surprisingly motherly towards animals, especially birds. In one holiday episode, she sees a freezing charity worker and his reindeer out in the freezing cold and brings the reindeer inside to stay warm while yelling at the charity worker for keeping it outside.
- The crew on Whale Wars could be seen as heroic or an Animal Wrongs Group, depending on your stance, but you'd have a hard time denying their captain is not good with people. He waxes lyrical about the importance of protecting majestic and peaceful whales, but to the members of his own crew, never mind those on the "opposing ships", he is ruthless and has some serious empathy failure. He sends them out on dangerous "missions", snarls at them if they point out that it is a dangerous task, and will exile them from the ship if they dare defy him.
- The X-Files episode "Alpha" had Karin Berquist, a woman who's an expert on canine behaviour; spending years living in the wild with them, but unable to interact socially. When Mulder mentions he met her on the internet, it doesn't take Scully long to realise Berquist's agenda in luring out someone as quirky as she is with an unusual case.
Podcasts
- Ælfgifu from Jemjammer was raised predominantly in the wilderness and isn't used to other people, preferring the company of animals. She's certainly tried to associate with others, but she still finds her companions quite bewildering.
Tabletop Games
- Ars Magica: Merinita the Founder was a peerless master of nature magic who roamed the wild places of Mythic Europe, befriending everything from the birds and beasts to Nature Spirits, and was the creator of the Familiar bond. She was also incredibly shy, avoiding humans by default and remaining an Elective Mute except when absolutely necessary.
- Warhammer Fantasy: Wizards who follow the Lore of Beasts often come to prefer nature and wild animals to the trappings of society, thanks in part to their magical affinity for beasts and in part to mildly animalistic Marks of the Supernatural alienating them from humans.
Video Games
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Ganredhel is a dog-trainer who is able to offer acrobatics training to the Player Character, but rather bluntly states that she prefers training dogs to people. Dogs are stupid and loyal, poeple are smart and devious, and she knows which set of traits she prefers.
- Ensemble Stars!:
- While Souma is genuinely a very kind kid who worries a lot about others, his strange behaviour (particularly when it comes to his beloved sword he wields rather recklessly) means that other people are often scared of him and he sometimes finds it hard to make friends among his peers. However, he adores animals - he grew up riding horses and has a beloved pet named Saigoudon, he loves the Marine Bio Club and quickly attached himself to a turtle he named Kamegorou, and when he comes across a stray cat in Camellia Train he immediately decides to protect it and is delighted when it seems to like him.
- Kanata tries to keep very distant from other people due to what he went through during the War, which made him see himself as a monster that other people will fear. (And his Cloud Cuckoo Lander tendencies definitely do unsettle people rather often.) He finds peace instead among sea creatures and has a particular affinity for especially ugly or weird-looking fish.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
- Marianne is deathly shy and very anxious around other people, but adores animals and can often be found speaking to birds or horses.
- Dedue is a very reserved guy who is well aware of how most people in Fodlan distrust him due to his coming from Duscur, but he loves gardening and is very good at it.
- Otacon from Metal Gear Solid and its sequels. He's kind to animals, and a genius with machinery, but he's also a socially awkward Shrinking Violet with a tendency to trust the wrong people. (Oddly enough - see Nepeta, Temple Grandin, etc. - Otacon being on the autism spectrum is fairly popular Fanon.)
- MySims: The Ranger is the first type. The animals love him, but he took the job as Forest Ranger on a run down-holiday island specifically so that he could hide away from other people. Help him out and gain his friendship, and he'll help you win over the animals on the island in return.
- Pokémon Black and White: While N can talk to people, he's certainly not very good at it and is noted to be much worse with anyone other than the protagonist and his two mysterious friends, especially due to his belief that Humans Are Bastards, making him somewhat hostile. If you look closely, his dialogue even appears notably faster than anyone else, which may imply any or a number of social issues. Conversely, he can speak to Pokemon very comfortably and even understand them- a trait all but unique in the universe. This turns out to be justified. In order to create a champion to get rid of trainers, Ghetsis arranged for N to be socially isolated and exposed only to Pokemon who had been abused by humans, rendering N unable to understand or identify with humans and giving him the belief that they all abuse Pokemon.
- Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism: Satori Komeiji could almost pass for Shy... until she starts bragging about her mind-reading powers. For some reason, other youkai and humans don't like having their innermost thoughts made public knowledge. Animals, however, enjoy having their wants and needs understood, and Satori is indicated to have many pets (including the Stage 5 and Stage 6 bosses, animal youkai who lived with her before they could talk).
Visual Novels
- Rin, the main heroine of Little Busters!, is a loner who has trouble talking to people, but she loves cats (and they love her).
- Ichinose Touya, one of the butlers from Naked Butler, originally took care of the garden without permission before being hired. He is very lonely, reserved, and has trouble talking. Due to this, he prefers to spend his time with plants rather than people.
Webcomics
- Cadugan from Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic is a half-elf who fits the "in harmony with nature" and "loves all woodland animals" elvish stereotypes to a T, but has a grumpy and sarcastic disposition and hates interacting with cities and people who aren't Lucas.
- Lalli of Stand Still, Stay Silent is an excellent scout and very proficient woodsman with connection to nature spirits, but he avoids interacting with people whenever possible and dislikes being paid attention to — not to mention that he expresses his desire to be left alone by dumping a bowl of soup on the interloper.
Web Videos
- The Nostalgia Chick is a Jerkass with No Social Skills when it comes to humans, but she's a Mama Bear when it comes to animals.
- Worm Bitch's powers affect her mind so that she thinks and perceives social interactions like a dog. This also makes her unable to grasp tone, expressions, and several other key aspects of human interaction. As such while she turns out to be quite empathetic and kind, this is expressed almost exclusively toward dogs. Towards humans she is less than friendly.
Western Animation
- The titular Dan from Dan Vs. may be a complete abrasive jerk to each and every person he meets, but with animals, it's a far different story. All it takes for him to release the animals from the animal shelter before it explodes is to catch a glimpse of the puppy dog eyes, and in a later episode, he can't even bear to see lobsters killed in a restaurant for dinner. He even bonds with a Tyrannosaurus Rex in one episode. He hates geese, though.
Man: We need your help to save the Canadian geese.
Dan: I don't even like American geese! One time a goose bit me and stole my sandwich! - G.I. Joe: Mutt has always been better with animals than people, and shares a deeper connection with his dog Junkyard than he ever has with another person. However, his lack of social graces cause him to come off as, well, wild and temperamental, hence the codename "Mutt". In fact, they even force him to wear a freaking muzzle, Hannibal Lecter-style, because unlike Big Friendly Dog Junkyard, Mutt bites.
- In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Fluttershy's special talent is taking care of animals, but she's scared of everything else, including other ponies and sometimes her own shadow. She's also very, very shy, although she can definitely hold her own if her friends — of any species — are threatened.
- The Owl House: While Luz Noceda is shown to do well with the various witches and demons of the Boiling Isles, she comes across as incredibly awkward when dealing with other humans to the point that she appears to suffer from social anxiety. This is best illustrated when she's helping Vee look for some magic in "Yesterday's Lie", as she's perfectly fine at the idea of conversing with a group of talking rats but suggests making exit routes before going to talk to a trio of teens (unaware that they were actually Vee's friends).
- Prowl from Transformers: Animated; the irony that he is a robot from a world that doesn't have nature is not lost on his companions. It doesn't help that he's The Stoic in general, and most of his non-tree-hugging time is spent in private meditation or training.
- We Bare Bears:
- Charlie the Sasquatch, an otherwise friendly and amiable guy who doesn't like how humans are always invading his privacy, trying to take his picture or even capturing him. However, he is seemingly unaware that he's always doing the same thing with the bears, since he considers them to be his closest friends despite their occasional discomfort.
- Chloe Park also counts, due to spending most of her time researching animals, making her socially inept around other humans. It doesn't help that she's also a child admitted to college early, and most of her fellow students are much older than her.
- Xyber 9: New Dawn: Anakonda is a grumpy Nature Hero.
Real Life
- DeForest Kelley (a.k.a. Doctor McCoy) was notably shy, appearing only infrequently in public (although when he did, he was universally warm and welcoming to fans), but he adored his dogs and Myrtle the Turtle (yes, that was her real name).
- Dawn Prince-Hughes (an autistic writer and ethologist) gives the impression of being this kind of person in her memoir. She found gorillas easier to understand than her own species.
- Those who worked with him have said that Stanley Kubrick loved animals and hated people.
- Longtime veterinary professionals can develop this kind of attitude, especially if they see a lot of abused or neglected patients. Those that work at emergency clinics tend to be the most affected, as a good deal of "emergencies" are simply issues that could have been treated much more easily if the owner had them attended to earlier. An old joke about the issues of getting these people to work together goes, "The problem with vet clinics is that they're staffed by a bunch of people who hate people."
- In his younger years, Earl Simmons found it easier to form bonds with stray dogs he'd befriended while wandering and sleeping on the streets of Yonkers than getting attached to humans.
