This trope has nothing to do with Predator, although that one is super persistent, albeit for different reasons. If this beast appears at the end to chase the villain away, it's Exit, Pursued by a Bear. The entire universe can be like this to The Chew Toy or Butt-Monkey, and more often than not will be to someone unfortunate enough to be Supernaturally Delicious and Nutritious. Biological equivalent of the Spiteful A.I. Usually happens in places with Everything Trying to Kill You. Compare Attack! Attack! Attack!, when the animal fights irrationally.

The inversion is Animal Nemesis (especially in a Moby Schtick setting). The latter trope also applies if this isn't a regular animal but a robot looking like one sent by a villain, an animal bewitched and sent by a villain, or otherwise someone specifically tasked with chasing the particular victim(s).

In practice, this is the animal version of the Implacable Man. Animals may hunt for fun but they certainly don't hunt for glory or bragging rights. 'Winning' against prey that manages to break a bone or inflict a wound that gets infected is often a Pyrrhic Victory for the predator and typically avoided for animals that want to have any meals in the future. In particular, avoiding injury from prey is a prime motivation for most all solitary predators (social ones can potentially rely on other members of the group to provide food while they heal), as any inhibiting injury can spell starvation and most won't target something that is notably dangerous (or even pretends to be dangerous, hence why threat displays are so widespread in nature) to dispatch unless they are starving or inexperienced at hunting (and in either case, they won't pose as much of a threat due to poor physical condition or poor decision-making, respectively). Of course, even in those cases, the predator isn't going to put itself through undue hardship and travel vast distances unless the reward is good enough. Oh, and let's not forget about a few humans' habits. Orcas have been known to throw live seals around for hours on end, occasionally releasing them once they're done. For example, dolphins will torture and kill smaller breeds of dolphins as well as band together to gang rape younger dolphins. Exciting, no?Īmusingly, this is one handwave that often wouldn't have been necessary it's a well-known fact among biologists that intelligent predators can and will hunt for fun, even if they aren't hungry. It's clearly going to come down to a climactic battle of man vs. Ooh, Shiny! and stop chasing us, and will continue the hunt even as we tire.

No, this is something smart enough to see through our stratagems, that won't fall prey to Attention Deficit. The use of this trope instantly makes the 'dumb animal' a credible threat and Worthy Opponent, since we don't have the option of outfoxing it until it gives up and goes away. 'Persistence hunting' isn't only a scarily good hunting strategy, provided the predator has enough stamina to keep chasing until the prey doesn't have the strength to keep running, it's also our strategy, both in hunting and escaping (waiting for the predator to give up), thanks to our genes being arranged to favor stamina over speed. You might find an ethologist tearfully screaming that nobody, animal or human, would be this vindictively persistent just for one difficult meal.īut there's a reason this trope can work so very well. Sometimes it's explained away by stating that they've got human intelligence, but that just raises further questions about why an intelligent predator would expend so much effort to eat something that keeps eluding them. A situation like this might have you thinking that it'd be more productive to just find something else to eat. If the heroes manage to find shelter, the predator(s) will go through an extreme amount of effort to break windows, unlock doors, or learn to bypass complicated security measures and then bash through a wall anyway to get to its prey. Once the climax comes by, the beast will most likely be right there, ready for one Final Battle. Basically, this predator will hunt the protagonists far beyond the call of common sense or even instinct, be it through fierce jungles, caves, canyons, or whatever else the protagonists have to go through.

Primeval supercow