Collection: Wild Animals

Wildlife plush, and the widest collection in the store. Bears, lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, zebras, sloths, foxes, wolves, raccoons, hedgehogs, otters, deer, moose, pandas and koalas — plus a deep bench of birds and bugs: owls, eagles, cardinals, hummingbirds, butterflies, a luna moth and a firefly.

Wildlife is where realistic plush shows its work, so it is the category we are pickiest about. Markings are stitched and shaded rather than printed flat, and the faces stay animal instead of drifting cartoon, which is why these pieces suit older kids and collectors as well as toddlers.

Good for zoo trips, for a child working through a phase about one particular animal, and for the harder requests — the possum, the groundhog, the sasquatch — that most plush shops simply do not carry.