I’ve always been pretty interested in science and also, ofcourse, stuffed birds (like me) and other animals.  I was pretty amazed to find a SCIENCE article about usthough.  OK it’s a bit old – itdates back to April 2001… but the findings are still true and, in fact,probably more so now.  The pointwas to compare stuffed fauna diversity with real ditto ditto. The story seemsto have originated from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – the guys with the pandalogo.  They counted the number ofspecies available in plush forms and found stuffed-animal biodiversity to berising rapidly: up nearly 800 percent in the decade form 1991- 2000 (see http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28501).

Back in 2001, the WWF director Ruth Aberg said, "Whilethe number of living species continues to plummet, the exact opposite is trueof their toy counterparts," "This is particularly true in America,where polyester-fiber-filled replicas of even the most endangered species canbe found in glorious abundance." This rise in stuffed-animal biodiversityseems to have been made possible by humans' growing interest in environmentalissues: Science-themed toy stores have popped up in large shopping precinctsaround the world – from Canada to China you can now find full shelves and evenentire sections of such retail giants as Toys 'R' Us are devoted to animalsfrom around the world.

But, I wonder, is such consumer demand for plushbiodiversity a good or a bad thing? According to the WWF, 885 animal species were in danger of extinctionworldwide in 12001 (its higher now!), and another 165 classified as threatened.Of these 1,050 at-risk species, weirdly around 1000 were to be found in massquantities in children's toy boxes and on collectors' shelves.  If our non-stuffed friends can buy avery rare animal or bird do they feel better about it going extinct in thenon-plush version or worse? 

I was thinking of conducting an update of this 2001 WWFsurvey myself.  I guess you’d haveto do it through toy stores around the world.  For example I have seen rather a rich collection of stuffedanimal life nestling under stuffed leaved canopies in big toy stores in theUSA.  To name just one: WildRepublic, a major manufacturer of stuffed animals, produces more than 100species of animals, including Halima The Snow Leopard, Brunei The ProbiscusMonkey, and Adoncia The Poison Dart Frog. 

As I travel the world I’ve encountered lots of local plushiesrepresenting local wild-life. Naturally the iconic stuff is stuffed to be sold locally.  For example, here in Oz you can ofcourse buy kangas, possums, koalas and – rarer- echidnas.  In Gibraltar one can hardly avoidstuffed ape shopping and in Morocco the street vendors push plush camels intoyour hands at every turn.

There are, I observe, fewer of the single theme (plush wildlife) stores in Europe but maybe more National Geographic shops where loads ofdifferent wild-life plushies can always be found.   My ‘local’ Nat Geog has a very large collection ofstuffed penguins who I am hoping one day to liberate.  If you read a new report about a raid on a large store inSydney that left all merchandise intact but following which no plush penguinscould be found – you’ll know I did it!