If you're into plastic vultures, give us a call!

This is one of our plastic vultures. We have a new one, too, and I haven't managed to get it online yet. When a customer called looking for plastic vultures for his son who had a serious fascination with them, Sue was able to tell him about the one that isn't online yet. He purchased both, and here is his reply:

Hello Sue

This is [DL], I ordered 2 Vultures for my 4 yr old son Ameer. I would just like to say that you were right, he is one happy little camper I could not believe how fast it came. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

We will continue to shop at Tapirback

-- Regards [DL]

If you don't see it on our site, give us a call toll-free at (888) 325-3179 or send e-mail. We do our best to give you the best customer service we can. It's like breathing air. It's not that hard. We love to see you happy! And the vultures have a happy home, too, so it's win-win. What could be better?

"T" is for Tapir!!! . . . and T-rex and Toucan

How about a nice T-rex dinosaur 3-D puzzle? We have TWO T-rex puzzles in stock. You can take your pick between the one with an open mouth (above) that looks like it's roaring, and the one below with his mouth looking a little more friendly. These puzzles can be taken apart and put together any number of times. We even give you a plastic case that looks like a fossil to keep the pieces in if you don't want to store it on your shelf in the finished condition. The case also makes these puzzles good for travelling.


And of course, at Tapir and Friends Wildlife World, T is ALWAYS for Tapir! Tapir conservation is the reason we started the gift shop in the first place, and we have lots of tapirs! The unusual European-style tapir bumper sticker shown above is always a favorite.

We also have tapir jewelry to match your favorite tapir species. Can you believe that? Corinna Bechko makes these for us with the colors to your specifications. The tapir above is a Malayan tapir, and we carry earrings, pins, and pendants. You choose from a selection of colors, and you choose a color for the bead on the earrings and pendant!

We think this nice round tapir earring could be either a mountain tapir or a Baird's tapir. It has no crest, so you'd have to use your imagination if you'd like it to be a lowland tapir. This tapir, too, comes in a variety of colors and bead types, and you can get it as a pin or pendant, also. Corinna also makes a charming striped baby tapir, which could easily pass for any species!

In the plaster and ceramics department, we have this wonderful baby mountain tapir figurine made by hand in Colombia by tapir researcher and artist Sergio Sandoval especially for the Tapir Preservation Fund. Our baby tapir was first moulded in clay, then cast in plaster. The paint is all done by hand.

Oops, how did the toucan get here? He's interrupted our flow of tapirs, but we're going to let him stay. "T" is clearly also for toucan! We have this toucan in the stuffed animal form you see here, but we also have toucans made of plastic. We have have toucan jewelry made by Corinna! Come see all of our cool and charming toucan toys and gifts!

Now that we've had our toucan break, we're back to tapirs! Yes, we have so many, we haven't even put all of them on the blog. You can see our full collection of tapirs here. Above, you see our stuffed tapir, Yanisa. She's made by Hansa and everyone loves her!

These four tapirs (one of each species) show clearly differentiated traits. They're made by a Canadian biologist who loves animals so much that he got his PhD and works in a zoo. He knits each tapir for us by hand, and we've had these popular and lovable animals in stock for about 10 years or maybe longer.

Believe it or not, it's hard to find plastic tapirs! This nice example of a Malayan or Asian tapir is comparatively new to us.

Well, here we go. "T" is for Tapir! Audrey Jakab created this lowland tapir design and donated it to us in the year 2000. It's been one of our all-time favorite gift shop tapirs for nine years. We sell this design as a t-shirt and as a sweatshirt.

And this Baird's tapir t-shirt and sweatshirt have been with us even longer - since 1999! The lettering is not crooked. Years ago when we made our first scan, we didn't get it straight on the scanner. We promise, the type is straight on the shirt! It's funny how you get used to something. This scan has been with us for ten whole years and feels just like family :) Come along and join us, too! Wear tapirs - they're great for all occasions, and you can help let people know how important it is to preserve them in the wild. Your tapir shirt will make a great conversation piece!

"S" is for Siamang, Stegasaurus, and a lot of other animals, too!

Look at this beautiful siamang jewelry! It comes in a variety of colors and unique beads to complement or match. You can choose earrings, pin or pendant.

We found lots of animals in Tapir and Friends online gift shop that begin with the letter "S"! Just for starters, here are four beautiful hand-made, hand-painted dog pins! You can see these dogs and a large selectin of our other animal jewelry in our web album. The album will give you a link back to our order page. Pictured above is our shiba inu dog pin.

Here's our shih tsu dog pin.

Our samoyed portrait pin.

And our wheaten Skye terrier dog pin.

We discovered that quite a number of our plastic sea life animals start with "S." What about this colorful sea snail?

Toy seahorse models are always a favorite. I love the colors on this stand-up plastic seahorse!

This bright seahorse is actually a 3-D plastic puzzle. We have lots of animal puzzles, and many of them are sea animals.

We even have plastic sea cucumbers!

We have lots of sharks, and shark starts with "S," but I thought we'd get specific and show you our sand tiger shark stuffed toy. It's been one of our most popular animals. Did I get a lot of "s" sounds in that first sentence :)

Look how colorful our Spinosaurus 3-D puzzle is! What fun! We also have Stegosaurus. See below. He's purple and red!

We have a number of nice plastic squid as well. The one shown below is our giant squid, which comes in two sizes.

Starfish are pretty! This one comes in blue, but we have just about any color you could want. Check them all out with the "starfish" link. The current technical name for them is "sea stars," because they are not really fish, but the old name works for us, too. We grew up with the name "starfish," and it brings back memories of days at the beach!

This little guy is a plastic skate. We have plastic toy or replica skates and rays in quite a few sizes and colors.

Sale on featured toy animals: stuffed black-footed ferret, plastic lobster, and Walter the Friendly Stuffed Crocodile (or alligator?)

What do a stuffed crododile (alligator), stuffed black-footed ferret, and plastic lobster have in common? Usually, not very much. But today we have a few extra of each of these items. We don't have them falling out of our bins and boxes like tribbles, but we would like to move them out and make some space. WHILE OVERSTOCKS LAST, if you buy two or more of the stuffed crocodiles, this week only, we'll give you a 10% discount on the second one. Or if you buy a stuffed crocodile and a stuffed ferret, we'll give you a 10% discount on the crocodile. If you buy two or more stuffed black-footed ferrets, we'll give you a 10% discount on the second one (please note, the sable ferret is not included in this offer).

If you order 20 of our F464 B4 plastic lobsters, we'll give you a 10% discount on the second group of 10 (that is, 10 for the regular price and 10 at a 10% discount). You can order more, of course! See our plastic lobster and our stuffed ferrets below. We do have other plastic lobsters, but please note, the discount applies to the F464 B4 lobster you can see below.

Toy animals that start with "R"

Ring-tailed lemur starts with "R." The one you see here is our cuddly and popular stuffed ring-tailed lemur. We have ring-tailed lemurs made of plastic, too. Our toy lemurs are among our most sought-after animals!

The obvious "R" animal is rhino. Do we have rhinos? Yes, yes, yes! Check them out in our online gift shop: rhino jewelry (above), plastic rhino models or replicas, and even rhino 3-D puzzles!

This plastic rhinoceros would make a wonderful gift for a rhino-loving child or friend, and would make a nice addition to your realistic animal collection!

So, what's a turtle doing here with the "R" animals? We have two varieties of ridley sea turtles! Believe it or not, we have both the Kemp's ridley turtle above and the olive ridley sea turtle below. They're made of hard plastic and are beautifully-made realistic sea turtle replicas that you can use for school projects, decorations, and much more. Come see them on our site!

"Q" is for . . . Quills?

We looked around for animals that start with the letter "Q." There are a few, but unfortunately, we don't have any! A "Q" animal could be a quail, a quagga, or a spotted-tail quoll. The next thing that came to mind was "quills"! We have quills, and they're attached to our two adorable porcupine puppets! One is a finger puppet (above), and one is an adorable hand puppet (below).

The quills on our two porcupines are made of soft fabric and are guaranteed not to scratch or poke!

Visit ABC Wednesday for more things that start with Q!

"P" is for Pteranodon, Panda, and Pig

Our plastic pteranodon may tickle your fancy for dinosaurs and other extinct animals. Check it out on the plastic dinosar page of our online gift shop!

This pronghorn is just one example of the many wonderful hand-painted animal pins we carry.

What about pot-bellied pigs? Isn't it cute? See this pig and our other stuffed pigs here. We also have pig Peeper Keeper eyeglass holders you can find via the same link.

This adorable pink pig (like the pronghorn) is a hand-cast and hand-painted pin. We have lots of them in our shop! Look through the online album, then just click the link and place your order!

"P" is also for panda, and we have several. We have this popular giant panda 3-D plastic puzzle, for one.

We also have panda Peeper Keeper eyeglass holders. Here's the panda the way you'll receive it (above). Below, we've added a pair of shades so the panda will look as cool as it will at your house!

We even have a red lesser panda. Imagine that!

We have one more animal that starts with "P." How about this nice pentaceratops dinosaur puzzle?

"O" is for Octopus, Opossum, Okapi

These charming "dancing octopus" resin fridge magnets are available in our online gift shop.

You can also find this curly-tentacled plastic octopus in our shop along with a gorgeous stuffed octopus and many more plastic octopi.

"O" is also for okapi, and we have TWO different plastic okapis! Take your pick, or get them both.

Another very popular animal that starts with "O" is the opossum. We have two. The one shown above is a cute, snuggly opossum finger puppet with soft-as-silk fur.

Our stuffed plush opossum is approximately life-size and looks very real. It's actually confused a few people and is bought as a gag gift as often as it is for a cuddly "pet" opossum.