Human scientists and ecologists have documented numerous cases that environmental factors affect both distribution and diversity of human cultures and biological organisms, respectively. This study examines the link between the environment, animals in nature, and animals in folklore. Through systematic and quantitative analysis of large databases in ecology and folkloristics, we demonstrated that annual mean temperature and annual precipitation can affect animal distributions in nature, which restricts trickster animals in folklore. Our results, therefore, emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary research on human cultures from perspectives of both ecology and human science.