A trickster is a character in a story who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and defy conventional behavior.
In researching the topic of tricksters, I found it most interesting that the majority of stories involving these characters predominately came from Native American and African cultures, and often appeared in animal form. If, according to C.G. Jung, tricksters were the preservation of the shadow in pristine form, then I am grateful for these delightful characters and their often mischievous ways.