When news of his return to the jungle reached Akeela, the elderly wolf decreed that Mowgli must be sent to the man village before the tiger arrived. Unfortuately, the "mancub" refused to return and ran away. Once Shere Khan found out about Mowgli, he hunted the boy down and attempted to kill him. In the original version by Rudyard Kipling, the enmity between Mowgli and Shere Khan continues until Mowgli manages to start up a stampede which crushes the tiger to death.

In the Diseny version, Mowgli's friends intervened and distracted him long enough for Mowgli to tie a flaming tree branch to his tail, sending the cat running for the hills in fear of the fire and getting his rear end burned by the same flame.

In Disney's Tail Spin, Shere Khan is an anthropomorphic Tiger rather than a normal one. Here, he is a wealthy CEO who dislikes Baloo.