Were-Animal Coloring Pages
Werewolves get most of the attention, but fantasy books and old folklore are full of people who turn into other animals. I've drawn twenty of them here, each with a cartoon page and a more realistic one. For each animal I've tried to think through what the change would actually be like, the useful parts and the inconvenient ones, and then added the old stories and a few books and films where they turn up.
Pick your favourite, print a page or two and decide for yourself which one you'd want to be.
Jump to: Bear | Bull | Cat | Crow | Deer | Dolphin | Fox | Hare | Horse | Hyena | Jaguar | Owl | Serpent | Shark | Spider | Swan | Tanuki | Tiger | Wolf
Were-Bear
Of all the were-animals, the were-bear might gain the most from the change. A bear's sense of smell is among the sharpest of any land animal, stronger than a bloodhound's, and for all that bulk a grizzly can briefly outrun any human sprinter. The trade-off is the calendar. In autumn a bear's hunger becomes almost constant as it packs on fat for winter, and then its body simply shuts down for months. A were-bear would lose a whole season every year and wake in spring thinner, groggy and badly behind on everything.
The Norse hero Bödvar Bjarki fought as a huge bear while his human body sat motionless back in the hall, and the berserkers took their name from the bear skins they were said to wear. On screen, Brother Bear and Brave both turn a human into a bear and let them find out the hard way what that costs.
Norse mythology coloring pages
Were-Bull
A were-bull would be all power and very little subtlety: around a tonne of muscle, with horns wide enough to make doorways a real problem. The idea that red sends a bull into a rage is a myth, though. Bulls can't tell red from green, and it's the movement of the cape that provokes them. That makes a were-bull less a creature of blind fury and more one that's easily set off by anything sudden, which might be the more unsettling version.
The best-known were-bull is the Minotaur, half man and half bull, kept at the heart of the labyrinth on Crete. Zeus took the form of a bull to carry the princess Europa across the sea. Readers of Percy Jackson will remember the Minotaur turning up there too.
Were-Cat
A were-cat would keep most of what makes cats so self-assured. Cats can see in about a sixth of the light people need, each ear swivels on its own to track a sound, and their whiskers measure whether a gap is wide enough to squeeze through before they try. They also sleep somewhere between twelve and sixteen hours a day, so a were-cat might find a good part of its life happening with its eyes shut. However dignified the human half, there would always be the risk of being caught chasing something that moved across the floor.
Japanese folklore has the bakeneko, a house cat that lives long enough to gain the power to change shape. In Europe, people believed witches slipped out at night as cats. Harry Potter readers will think of Professor McGonagall, who can turn into a tabby whenever she likes.
Cats from mythology coloring pages
Were-Crow
Crows are among the cleverest birds alive, so a were-crow wouldn't lose much brainpower in the change. Crows use sticks as tools, remember individual human faces for years and have been seen warning each other about people who once treated them badly. They even gather around a dead crow, which scientists think is a way of learning where danger lies. A were-crow would never forget a slight, and neither would every other crow in the neighbourhood.
The Morrigan, the Irish goddess of war and fate, appeared over battlefields as a crow. In Norse myth, Odin's two ravens flew around the world each day and brought him the news. In the film Maleficent, her raven Diaval is turned into a man and back again whenever she needs him.
Were-Fox
A were-fox might hunt partly by magnetism. Foxes pounce on mice hidden under snow, and researchers noticed they succeed far more often when jumping toward the north-east, which suggests they use the Earth's magnetic field to judge distance. Their hearing is sharp enough to pick out a mouse rustling from across a field. Foxes are also far noisier than most people realise, and a fox's scream on a winter night can sound alarmingly human.
In Japan, the kitsune gains a new tail as it grows older and more powerful and can take human form. China has the huli jing and Korea the kumiho, fox spirits that pass as beautiful women, and the kumiho has become a favourite in Korean TV dramas.
Were-Hare
A were-hare would see trouble coming from almost any direction. A hare's eyes give it nearly all-round vision, with only a small blind spot just in front of its nose. Unlike rabbits, hares don't dig burrows. They rely on speed instead, reaching around 70 kilometres an hour and zigzagging to shake off anything chasing them. In spring, hares stand on their hind legs and box, which people long took for males fighting. It's usually a female fending off a male who's been far too persistent.
In British and Irish folklore, witches were said to turn into hares to steal milk from their neighbours' cows. In a Welsh tale, the boy Gwion Bach turns into a hare to escape the sorceress Ceridwen, who promptly turns into a greyhound.
Witches from mythology coloring pages
Were-Horse
A were-horse would be built to run and would rarely rest deeply. Horses can doze standing up by locking their legs in place, though they still need to lie down for short spells of proper sleep. They have the largest eyes of any land mammal and can see almost all the way around themselves. Horses also say a great deal with their ears, nostrils and the whites of their eyes, so a were-horse might find its feelings much harder to hide than its human self was used to.
In Scotland, the kelpie is a water horse that lurks in lochs and rivers and can take human form, though a strand of water weed in its hair always gives it away. Ireland has the púca, a shapeshifter that often appears as a dark horse. Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races is built around fierce water horses that rise out of the sea.
Were-Hyena
A were-hyena would be far more social than the reputation suggests. Spotted hyenas live in clans run by females, recognise each other's voices across several kilometres and hunt most of their own food rather than scavenging it. Their jaws can crack the bones other predators leave behind. Their famous giggle isn't laughter at all but a sign of nerves or excitement, which means a were-hyena would give itself away every time it felt uneasy.
In parts of Africa and the Middle East, old stories told of neighbours who were ordinary people by day and slipped out of the village as hyenas after dark. Unlike werewolves, they didn't need a full moon. Any night would do.
Were-Jaguar
A were-jaguar would have the strongest bite, for its size, of any big cat. Rather than going for the throat the way lions do, jaguars often bite straight through the skull, and they can crack a turtle's shell. They're also strong swimmers that hunt caimans in the rivers, which sets them apart from most cats. Every jaguar's rosettes, the rings with spots inside them, form a pattern unique to that animal. A were-jaguar would be happiest near water, deep in the forest and very much alone.
"Were-jaguar" is a real term archaeologists use for the half-human, half-jaguar figures carved by the Olmec of ancient Mexico. Across Mesoamerica, a nahual was a person who could take an animal form, and the jaguar was the animal form of the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca.
Aztec mythology coloring pages Tezcatlipoca coloring pages
Were-Owl
A were-owl would live almost entirely by sound. An owl's eyes are fixed in their sockets, so it turns its whole head instead, up to about 270 degrees. Many owls have one ear set slightly higher than the other, which lets them pinpoint a mouse moving under snow. Fringed edges on their flight feathers break up the air so they fly in near silence. It's a perfect design for a night hunter, and a lonely one for a person: awake while everyone else sleeps, and unable to finish a meal without bringing up the fur and bones a few hours later.
In Welsh myth, Blodeuwedd was made from flowers by two magicians and later turned into an owl as punishment. In Mexico, the lechuza is a witch said to take the shape of a huge owl at night. And in ancient Greece the owl was the symbol of Athena, goddess of wisdom.
Were-Serpent
A were-serpent would read the world through its tongue. Snakes flick their forked tongues to collect scent and press it against an organ in the roof of the mouth, and the two tips tell them which direction a smell is coming from. Many feel vibrations through the ground with their jaws, and some can sense the body heat of prey in total darkness. Since snakes swallow food whole and may only need a meal every few weeks, a were-serpent would be content to do very little for very long stretches.
In French legend, Melusine turned half serpent every Saturday and made her husband promise never to look at her that day. In India and Southeast Asia, nagas are serpent beings who can take human form. Fantastic Beasts revealed that Nagini, Voldemort's snake, was once a woman under a blood curse.
Were-Shark
A were-shark would feel the world through electricity. Sharks have tiny gel-filled pores on their snouts that pick up the faint electrical signals from a beating heart or a twitching muscle, even from a fish buried in sand. A line of sensors along each side picks up movement in the water. Many sharks have to keep swimming to push water over their gills, and they replace their teeth constantly, going through thousands in a lifetime. A were-shark would rarely be still and would never run short of teeth.
In Hawaiian legend, Nanaue was the son of a shark god and a human mother, born with a shark's mouth on his back that he kept hidden under a cape. Hawaiian stories also tell of shark guardians who watched over particular families.
Sharks from myth and fantasy coloring pages
Were-Spider
A were-spider would be patient beyond most people's limits. Many spiders wait hours or even days for prey to blunder into a web, feeling every vibration through their legs. Weight for weight, spider silk is stronger than steel, and a single spider can spin several kinds for different jobs. Most spiders have eight eyes, though plenty still see poorly and rely on touch instead. A were-spider would know what was happening in every corner of a room without ever looking up.
In Japanese folklore, the jorōgumo is a spider that takes the form of a beautiful woman, and one well-known story is set at a waterfall. The Greek weaver Arachne was turned into a spider after a weaving contest with Athena. And Spider-Man got his powers from a single bite.
Were-Swan
A were-swan would be a mix of grace and temper. Swans are among the heaviest flying birds and need a long running start across the water to get airborne, and their wings are strong enough to hurt a person who gets too close. Most pair for life and defend their nests fiercely. They also spend a lot of time upending, tipping head-down in the water to reach plants on the bottom, which is a good deal less elegant than their reputation.
In the Irish legend of the Children of Lir, four children were turned into swans by a jealous stepmother and spent 900 years on the lakes and seas of Ireland. In the ballet Swan Lake, Odette is a princess under a spell that turns her into a swan by day.
Celtic mythology coloring pages
Were-Tanuki
A were-tanuki would be one of the odder were-animals, because a tanuki isn't a raccoon at all. It's a raccoon dog, an ancient member of the dog family and the only one known to slow right down for winter in colder places. Tanuki eat almost anything, from fruit and insects to frogs, and they share toilet spots that work a bit like a neighbourhood message board. A were-tanuki would be adaptable, easygoing and not especially fussy about dinner.
In Japanese folklore, tanuki are cheerful shapeshifters who change form by putting a leaf on their heads, and statues of them stand outside shops and restaurants for luck. The film Pom Poko follows a group of tanuki using their shapeshifting to save their forest, and the Tanooki suit in Super Mario Bros. 3 lets Mario turn into a statue.
Japanese mythology coloring pages
Were-Tiger
A were-tiger would be the largest cat in the world, bigger than a lion, and would wear a set of stripes no other tiger shares. Unlike most cats, tigers like water and swim easily, often cooling off in rivers during the hottest part of the day. Their night vision is far better than a human's, and a tiger's roar can carry for kilometres. Tigers are solitary animals that need enormous territories, so a were-tiger would likely want very little company and a great deal of space.
In Malaysia people told stories of the harimau jadian, a person who could become a tiger, and tiger shapeshifters appear in old tales from India and China too. In Colleen Houck's Tiger's Curse books, an Indian prince has been trapped as a tiger for centuries.
Werewolf
The werewolf is the one everyone knows, but the real wolf is more interesting than the horror version. Wolves live in families, usually a breeding pair and their pups from the last few years, and they can travel dozens of kilometres in a day. A wolf's howl carries for many kilometres, partly to keep the family together and partly to warn other packs away. A werewolf built on a real wolf would be loyal, tireless and far more interested in its pack than in chasing villagers.
In Greek myth, King Lycaon was turned into a wolf by Zeus, which is where the word lycanthropy comes from. The full moon came along much later, mostly from films. And Twilight fans may remember that Jacob's pack turn out not to be true werewolves at all, just shapeshifters who happen to take wolf form.
