If one were to examine the stuffed-animal collection of the average, say, Canadian or Danish child, and then take a trip to some local forest, what would quickly become apparent is the faunistic disparity between the referents of the child's toys and the actual non-human inhabitants of the land in question. So my question is this: Why do babies in industrialized countries in temperate regions all play with tropical animals? Would it not make since for a child in Seattle to play with, say, cloth representations of stray dogs, feral cats, bears, elk, rats, and urban skunks?
At first glance, of course, one suspects some sort of subtle continuation of a colonialist mentality. Perhaps Canadians are—knowingly or not—teaching their children to squeeze, manipulate, and chew on the heads of those living south of the tropic of Cancer. Maybe Danish children are learning to associate tropical inhabitants with juvenile stages of development.
Whatever the reason, the fact that little boys in New York and Paris play with elephants and giraffes—not caribou and muskoxen—is never questioned. Perhaps urban skunks don't sell well. Or maybe elephants are just more fun.
Little Eléa also participates in this strange practice, which you can observe in
this video.
