World Wildlife Day
Besides being a dedicated dissectologist, I’m also a very zealous zoophilist. I absolutely adore animals—furred, feathered, finned—I find them all fascinating. No surprise then that my stash includes a plethora of animal and wildlife-themed puzzles of all kinds. It’s only fitting that my blog for this month celebrates World Wildlife Day.
United Nations World Wildlife Day happens on March 3rd every year to celebrate the diversity of wild animals and plants and the contributions of wildlife to the planet. In 2013, the UN General Assembly proclaimed March 3rd as a day to raise awareness of the world’s flora and fauna. My biggest challenge was deciding which of the multitude of wildlife puzzles to feature this month! Since World Wildlife Day is all about preserving the amazing diversity of animals, I decided on some designs that showcase the incredible variety of wildlife and habitats.
My first puzzle has variety in abundance, and I had SO much fun assembling this one! Hello Animals of the World was my first puzzle from Chronicle Books and I was so impressed with the quality and sturdy pieces, I’ll be back for more! I’ll admit, I was in a foul mood when I sat down with this 500pc puzzle, but within a few minutes the goofy, whimsical animals had me smiling.
Hello Animals of the World by Chronicle Books
The image features 300 animals--many of them rare or endangered--illustrated by NY Times bestselling author, Brendan Wenzel. I was pretty pleased with myself at how many I could identify as I put the puzzle together. (Five years as a zoo docent and five more as a zoo supervisor helped! More on that later…) This would be a fun puzzle to work with any kiddos in your life, and the little kids might enjoy looking at Brendan’s board book “Hello Hello” that features 30 of the animals in the puzzle! I was really impressed with the note included on the back of the poster. I’ll let you read it here:
Eeboo’s Beautiful World 100pc puzzle is another great choice to assemble with a child and identify all the plants and animals as you put it together. No surprise that illustrator Kelsey Oseid considers herself an “amateur naturalist” who specializes in nature-themed work.
Littles will love the bright colors and happy animals in eeboo’s Rainforest Life and at 20 pieces, they can be proud putting it together themselves over and over. You can help them name each animal and learn more about them!
I went under the sea with Mudpuppy’s 500pc Ocean Illuminated puzzle. Another first for me—I hadn’t done a glow in the dark puzzle before. The bright colors really pop against the dark background, and there are “secret” animals that appear after you expose the puzzle to light and then shut off the lights to see the glow. The back of the poster tells you the names of all the ocean creatures. The orange wobbegong was my personal favorite! I wish I could’ve gotten a good photo of the glow in the dark effect, but you’ll have to take my word for it and try this one or the Forest Illuminated version!
I’ve always liked the Minimal Realism style of the late Charley Harper, and finally did my first puzzle featuring his unique art. Wildlife Wonders from Pomegranate features species from his 1990 work, The Florida Keys. If you’re a fellow fan of Harper, Puzzle Warehouse has a great variety of his designs to check out!
Wildlife Wonders by Pomegranate
I’d forgotten how much I enjoy round puzzles, so it was a nice change to put together the 500pc Nature’s Beauty from Ceaco, that features species from the other side of the country in the Pacific Northwest. The poster features a nice bio of artist Shane Koehler—an outdoor educator and conservationist from Oregon who knows his subjects well!
If you’re a fan of photographic puzzles, I have to give a shout-out for my fellow Nebraskan, Joel Sartore. Joel has been on a mission to document the earth’s amazing diversity by taking portraits of 15,000 at-risk species living in the world’s zoo and wildlife sanctuaries for his National Geographic Photo Ark project. Some of those incredible animals are featured in the 1000pc Photo Ark Greatest Hits from New York Puzzle Company. It’s hard to resist the cuteness of the 500pc Photo Ark Baby Animals. Those fuzzy owls!
Photo Ark Greatest Hits by New York Puzzle Company
Photo Ark Baby Animals by New York Puzzle Company
The prairie and its wildlife are near and dear to my heart, so I love this 300pc shaped puzzle The Great Plains from Galison. When I saw that one of the animals was a black-footed ferret, I had to have it! (See the bison’s right front leg.) Thick, sturdy pieces and a great design. This one’s a keeper!
It’s hard to believe that the once vast grasslands are one of the most endangered ecosystems on earth. Black-footed ferrets were actually declared extinct for years, until a tiny population was rediscovered in Wyoming in 1981. I had the privilege of supervising one of the breeding programs to reintroduce BFFs to the wild, so I was able to play a small part in what is now considered a conservation success story. And I got to go to work and see these little guys every day…
I hope you’ll find a new wildlife-themed puzzle to enjoy and be inspired to learn a bit more about the animals for World Wildlife Day!
Dawn @fivewolves
Wonderful blog very interesting
And, now I want a black-footed ferret! I added one of the puzzles you did to my wish list as well. Very fun!
Our son-in-law Jon Ching is an oil painter who paints amazing combinations of wildlife and plants, often exotic birds, fish and flowers. The Pomegranate company has made two of his images into puzzles. He's a full time artist based in Los Angeles. His emphasis has been on protecting endangered species and their environment.
The faces in that first puzzle are amazing! Definitely adding that one to my wishlist!
