Stereotypical animal imagery

In the classroom everyone chooses an animal they like in order to draw a picture of it and its day.

I’m wondering why it feels like there’s a collection of certain kinds of animal species the children tend to pick up. A giraffe, a lion, a kangaroo, a horse, a lizard, a tortoise… Quite an international bunch. The children may never have even seen representatives of these species in real life. Why doesn’t anyone choose, let’s say, a brown hare or a mole living in the backyard?

Do the species that end up being drawn get chosen based on the available sample images? In the classroom, there are numerous books on animals (a lot of charismatic, big mammals) and postcards that can be used as a model for drawing. There are plastic animal toys, even some plush toys. The selection of the animal pictures that have ended up in the classroom seems rather random. Routes to different animal imageries are opened via the internet through the tablet computers that the children use – or at least to the ones highlighted by the search engines. A lot of this animal imagery is rather stereotypical. Now one child finds a drawing tutorial for drawing a giraffe.

I wonder if some have chosen a certain species because they have seen a fascinating nature documentary about it? Or, if they have encountered this animal in the zoo? Or is it possible that, for some reason, they just feel they like this animal or find a particular characteristic associated with this animal appealing?

How do these stereotypical animal imageries come about? How do they become a part of the shared visual culture? Do they escape from children’s books, animations, comics, or children’s programmes? All the human-like, super cute, big-eyed creatures? Oh, they are sooo adorable.