Third party, fire and theft cover, legal protection, replacement car, windscreen cover - these are the things you would normally want alongside your student car insurance as minimum. You certainly wouldn't be worrying about whether your policy protected you against car-trampling horses or car-eating monkeys. However, animals account for a large amount of damage caused to cars both on the road and off.
Although deer, pheasants and the odd badger make up most animal/car related incidents in the UK, overseas, monkeys, parrots, and moose are just some of the creatures that cause chaos to foreign drivers. While campervanning in New Zealand, I came across a sign at one car park warning of wild parrots with a penchant for vandalising cars. Sure enough after only a few minutes we spotted a Kea (a cheeky mountain parrot indigenous to New Zealand), merrily chomping away on someone's door trim while they were busy enjoying the scenery.
More locally, the monkeys at Longleat Safari Park are notorious for their car-eating and general car-wrecking habits. An alternative route is even available for visitors wishing to avoid their cars getting mauled by the pesky primates. A disclaimer sign has even been posted on the entrance to 'The Monkey Jungle' to warn visitors that their cars are likely to get damaged and the park cannot be held accountable which is likely to prevent any successful damage claims being made from unhappy car owners.
Even animals that you would hope are safely shut away in their fields can every now and again prove a menace. Stories of cows, sheep and horses that have found their way onto the roads and caused drivers grief crop up in the news every now and again. The spectacular video of the horse in Israel jumping over a car has got to be the best example of this. Narrowly missing the driver, the horse manages to jump onto the bonnet of the car, over the roof and off the other side almost entirely unscathed.
Hearing the driver trying to explain this to his car insurance provider would have been pretty amusing to hear. It certainly isn't a story student car insurance providers are likely to hear often when customers try to make a claim.