Natural Instincts and Traits

Although most of the characters are anthropomorphic, they still have some natural instincts or traits of their real animal counterparts.

Main Characters

Cuddles

• His ears flop down when he is sad.
• In his smoochie, Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow, and A Bit of a Pickle, he seems to like carrots. Carrots are the usual stereotypical food of rabbits in cartoons, even though rabbits do not naturally eat carrots or other root vegetables or fruits.

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Cuddles with his ears down.

Cuddles about to eat a carrot.

Toothy

• In Can't Stop Coffin Toothy uses his tail like a baseball bat (even though real beavers actually use their tails for building dams and warning their colonies of predators, not playing).

Toothy using his tail.

Lumpy

• In Out on a Limb Lumpy moos like a real moose when he is in pain. (Debatable, it could have been a muffled scream due to the large stick in his mouth.)
• In Snow What? That's What!, Lumpy lays on a hammock shirtless in the winter. As he does not shiver while doing so, Lumpy may have a thick layer of fur, which real moose have for protection against the cold. This could actually be proof of Lumpy embracing his immunity to the cold or simply cooling off. However, in Snow Place to Go, he is briefly seen shivering along with everyone else (likely because the Arctic is too cold even for him).
• Lumpy is shown to be a great and fast swimmer in Happy Trails Pt. 2: Jumping the Shark and You're Kraken Me Up. In real life, moose are amazing swimmers and can swim in very deep waters at 6 miles per hour.
• Lumpy is shown to have a big appetite as seen in episodes like A Hole Lotta Love, Keepin' it Reel, or A Change of Heart. His ability to eat a lot of food without getting full makes sense since a real moose has four separate sections in the stomach and can eat 50-60 pounds of food a day.
• Lumpy is so far the only character who has been shown to be unable to climb a tree (though it is likely that Mime and Lammy cannot either). This is evidenced in All Flocked Up, in which he has to come up with more creative ways to get a baby bird into its nest while most other characters could have just climbed up, like Flaky in Take a Hike or The Mole at the end of the episode. This makes sense because real life moose cannot climb trees at all. However, like most things in the show, this is inconsistent as he is able to climb a tree in Doggone It (his adrenaline however could've helped him climb a small tree when he was attacked).

Lumpy mooing.

When you've got a built-in winter coat, you gotta cool off somehow.

Lumpy proves to be capable of out swimming all of his friends.

Petunia

• In the episode Blind Date, she sprays at Disco Bear when he gets too close, just like real skunks do for defensive purposes. (Debatable, as it could have been pepper spray as Disco Bear's eyes are red.)

Disco Bear sprayed by Petunia.

Handy

• Beavers are known for being practical and hard-working. This is when they are building dams.
• In Happy Trails Pt. 2: Jumping the Shark, despite his nubs, he is able to swim back to the island when Flaky's quills accidentally pops the raft. In real life, beavers are good at swimming.

Handy is excellent at swimming, despite his nubs.

Nutty

• Several times he can be heard making squeaky "chittery" sounds, which sound very similar to a real squirrel's chitters (though this is debatable, as he makes a lot of strange sounds when he is on a sugar high).
• Being a squirrel, he is able to easily to climb trees in Take a Hike, even after stuffing himself with honey.

Nutty in a tree.

Sniffles

• Probably the most well-known animal instinct seen on the show is that Sniffles tries to eat ants. He even uses his incredibly long tongue in order to do so, which real anteaters do as well.
• Like real anteaters, Sniffles has poor eyesight, but wears glasses to improve his vision problems.

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Sniffles on his lunch break.

Pop

• Real male bears are terrible fathers, in the sense that they are dangerous for their offspring to be around, as killing cubs, their own or otherwise, is a common practice among male bears. Pop has displayed this behavior toward his son numerous times, as he unintentionally kills Cub on multiple occasions, even killing him intentionally in Read 'em and Weep.

Pop killing Cub

Cub

• He tried to catch a fish in Every Litter Bit Hurts. (Debatable, he might not have wanted to eat it.)

Cub trying to catch fish.

Flaky

• She has the ability to climb trees (which is a real ability porcupines have) in Take a Hike.
• Her quills can also detach very easily, similar to real porcupine quills.

Flaky can climb trees.

The Mole

• Like most moles, he lives underground in one episode and even has a molehill house in Out of Sight, Out of Mime and A Sight for Sore Eyes.
• He is blind, the same way most moles are either blind or prone to brightness.

The Mole lives underground.

Disco Bear

• In Stayin' Alive Disco Bear can be heard making growling sounds. (Debatable, he probably was just making flirting sounds.)
• In Ipso Fatso he eats both meat and fruits, as bears are omnivores.

Disco Bear growls.

Disco Bear eats fruits...

...and meat.

Russell

• He eats and enjoys seafood.
• He can swim and hold his breath for an extensive amount of time as hinted in Off the Hook, Sea of Love, and Something Fishy (he needs to be supplied with oxygen in Sea What I Found, but this may have been because he needed to remain underwater for a very long time).
• As is shown in Whose Line Is It Anyway?, he cracks shells open with his chest, much like actual sea otters.

Russell about to eat seafood.

Russell cracks a shell open against his chest.

Lifty and Shifty

• Like many raccoons do, they rummage through garbage in As You Wish.
• Raccoons are known for being amazing climbers. Lifty can be seen climbing a tree briefly in Junk in the Trunk in the fast-forwarded part of the episode. Similarly, Lifty is also shown swiftly climbing a stack of boxes to escape through a window in Easy For You to Sleigh.
• Raccoons are well-known for being sneaky and opportunistic.
• Raccoons are excellent swimmers in real life. In Sea What I Found, both of them are shown to swim fairly fast when they are stealing the treasure box from Russell. Lifty is also capable of swimming after the submarine explodes unlike most others that will simply panic to death, though he could've saved himself from drowning if he swam to the surface instead. But in Happy Trails Pt. 2: Jumping the Shark, it is unsure why they are the ones to not catch up with the other characters during the attempt to swim away from the shark, ended up getting eaten due to their "inability".
• They sounded like real raccoons during their deaths in Autopsy Turvy (Double Whammy Part II).

Lifty and Shifty in the trash dumpster.

Lifty and Shifty swimming to the submarine at a fast pace.

Lifty could have saved his life in time if it wasn't for his kleptomaniac personality.

Mime

• Mime's trademark food is peanuts. In real life, deer will eat peanuts.

Mime really likes peanuts.

Flippy

• He is shown to follow an omnivorous/carnivorous diet like real bears. He is shown consuming the remains of Cuddles, Mime, Shifty, and Lumpy.
• In Operation: Tiger Bomb, he makes growling and roaring sounds when attacking the Tiger General.
• Most real-life bears are usually rather gentle creatures (except to their prey), but are known to become extremely violent when provoked, traits which Flippy is famous for.
• In Easy For You to Sleigh, he is sleeping during the winter. Bears are hibernating when it's winter. (Debatable, as he might just have been taking a short nap, not sleeping through the whole winter.)

Flippy eats fries with Cuddles' blood.

Flippy likes Mime's remains.

Splendid

• In Helping Helps, he is seen harvesting acorns.

Splendid with an acorn.

Lammy

• When she talks, screams, or laughs, she bleats like a real sheep.

Other Characters

The Ants

Moreso than other characters, they seem to be anthropomorphic crossed with non-anthropomorphic animals (though Sniffles probably would not try to eat them otherwise). Some examples are as follows.

• They are seen collecting fruit, crumbs, etc.
• They live in an anthill.
• They only let family members or certain ants enter their home.
• When their home or family is under threat from a predator, they fight back.
• They are in seen milking an aphid in Tongue in Cheek. Real ants have been known to "farm" creatures such as aphids as a mutual relationship.

One of the ants collecting bread crumbs.

The anthill they call home.

Buddhist Monkey

• Many times he makes monkey sounds, most notably right before he begins a fight.
• Like monkeys in real life, he is very strong, flexible, and athletic.

Char Sui

• Similar to real pigs, he makes snorting and squealing sounds.

Sneaky

• He can change color and camouflage his body (although this could be with the help of technology, as he becomes entirely invisible, or it may simply be a cartoonish effect). However, the camouflaging ability in real chameleons differs, as they normally change color due to their mood (among other things).
• He can climb on/stick to walls.

Sneaky can stick to walls.