Gifts for Kids Who Love Animals (And Really, What Kid Doesn't Love Animals?)

If you could walk with the animals, and talk with the animals, they might just ask you to stick around. But what if you could stick them around? Find out with ten perforated pages featuring your child's favorite animals, so they can turn their room into a zoo, piece by piece. 

There are few things in the world as adorable as baby animals. It’s basically why the internet became so popular. You probably have baby animal videos in another tab right now, don’t you? Put the phone down, and encourage your child's developing pattern and color recognition skills with a creative activity you can proudly display on the fridge.

Meet your kiddo's new beastly besties: the Bunk Buddies! Super plush, and wonderfully detailed, these heirloom-quality best buds are meant to be taken along for the ride. Kids will love their ferociously loyal friend Scout, and find inspiration everywhere with Hazel's artistic spirit. This brave bunch is full of creativity, curiosity, and always ready for the next new discovery.

Saving the planet is no game, but your kiddo can learn how to help by playing one! Have a whale of a time challenging family and friends to this classic game with a wild twist: Match the endangered animals, and bee the first to shout “BINGO” to win.  Part of the proceeds from the game are donated to charities dedicated to saving these animals and their habitats, so this one game your family really otter be playing.

It doesn’t get more classic than going back to the farm, and hearing that old familiar voice introduce us to all his chatty animal friends! Point the arrow, pull the string, and the farmer will guide your child through all the sounds of the farm. 

Let your child explore the savanna with a landscape that comes alive! Pop ups, pull tabs, and movable flaps pull together an image of how these animals live and interact with their environment. Hugely informative, with lots of easily digestible facts and charming illustrations of the savanna, and the plants and animals who call it home, this is an activity book animal lovers will open up again and again.

Here at CAMP we’re all about bringing people together, so when someone poses the eternally divisive question: “Are you a cat or dog person?” we scoff, turn up our collars, and proudly sneeze — because we are ridiculously allergic to both but that sure as heck doesn’t stop us from loving them. The folks at MudPuppy share the same sentiment and they’ve got something for everyone regardless of what animal you prefer. 

Growing up, most of my attempts at drawing animals resulted in heated exchanges between my sister and I about how “It’s not a chicken wearing a tuxedo, it’s a penguin that’s trying his best!” and me storming off into my room wishing I had the Petit Collage How to Draw Animals of The World Kit. Would I have gone on to be an illustrator for National Geographic or The Discovery channel? We’ll never know, but don’t take that chance on your little one. 

How do you improve upon a game that has been around for more than two centuries and is played and enjoyed by millions of people around the world? The same way you improve anything — just add animals! Your kids can play Mah-Jong to sharpen their focus, memory, and calculation skills. Instead of traditional drawings of bamboo and Chinese characters, this set of Mah-Jong tiles features stunning illustrations of animals native to the Asian mainland. 

The folks over at Dreamimals somehow found a way to make going to bed an experience your little one looks forward to! Before drifting off to sleep alongside their animal companion, your little one is invited to write down their dreams and tuck them inside the plush pillow animal before bedtime. These super-soft pillow animals enhance creativity and encourage positive thinking — each one also comes with 60 dream wishes and a storybook! 

Inspired by the award-winning board game of the same name, this board book helps kiddos develop skills like counting and color recognition. With plenty of flaps for little hands to lift and explore, they’ll be channeling their inner sneaky, snacky squirrel as they burrow away for clues and fun treats! 

The Linkimals from Fisher-Price combine play, learning, and sensorimotor development for your child all in one adorable and bright plaything. The Linkimals A-to-Z Otter comes with a belly full of buttons to press that rewards your baby with playful songs and phrases introducing the letters of the alphabet and first words that start with each letter. The Linkimals Smooth Moves Sloth, on the other hand, proves that Sloths are anything but boring and slow — this sloth moves and boogies to the beat and claps along to the music. The best part? When other Linkimals friends are around, they interact with one another by singing and lighting up with them!

The 23” inch Elephant Rocker by GUND helps your child gently rock into playtime with their elephant companion. In gender-neutral colors that complement any nursery, this super soft animal friend is a hit with every toddler we’ve met. P.S. We apologize in advance if you hear elephant noises coming from your little one’s room late into the night. 

You know how you always hear about scientific experiments being conducted by humans on mice? I like to think that Mouse Trap is a game designed by mice for humans to play and now we’re all just a part of their experiment. What’s the point of such an experiment? I don’t know but hot dog, I’m having a ton of fun playing! 

Did you know that Crocodiles can have anywhere from 66 to 110 teeth?! In Crocodile Dentist, players take turns pressing down each of the Crocodile’s teeth with the goal of avoiding pressing down on the single achy tooth. If you just so happen to press down on it then watch out because there’ll be a big bite in store for ya — ouch! (It doesn’t really hurt — but half of the fun of this game is in dramatically pretending it does.)

When researching this game (yes, I’m a very serious investigative toy journalist) I learned that hippos can eat up to 88 pounds of food a day! Then I realized that my sofa weighs about 80 pounds and then imagined what I would do if I came home and a hippopotamus was eating my sofa at which point I quickly realized I don’t have an “Emergency Hippo Sofa Eating Plan” in place for my home so basically what I’m saying is that these hippos are HUNGRY and you’d better feed them otherwise you’d might as well say good-bye to your favorite ottoman. Also, the game is tons of fun! 

Designed for children ages 7+ and featuring comic illustrations from artists of The Oatmeal, Exploding Kittens is a hilarious and highly strategic, kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette. The object of the game is to avoid drawing the “Exploding Kitten” card and using all of the other cards in the deck help you avoid it. If you don’t explode, YOU WIN! “Barking Kittens” is an expansion pack for the game and introduces some new cards to make the game all the more fun (and stressful.) Disclaimer: No kittens actually exploded during the playing of this game. All of our little meow friends are safe.

Despite what the name of this product may suggest, you won’t actually be receiving a call from a cat (sadly). These two cat-shaped phone stands can assist you and your little one in propping up your phone to watch videos, read, video chat, and much more! Made of durable lightweight silicone, these phone stands are easy to store, sanitize and most importantly, aren’t as emotionally withdrawn and finicky as real cats (“Mr. Whiskers, why don’t you love me?!?!?!”)