Who minds the grounds — the studio behind Zoologee plush stuffed animals
Forty years of soft animals
We started in 1984 as The Petting Zoo, making plush for the gift shops of zoos and aquariums, and for a long time that was the whole business. If you grew up visiting an aquarium in the United States there is a fair chance one of our animals came home with you and is still in a cupboard somewhere.
In 2025 we became Zoologee. The name changed; the studio, the animals and the people choosing the fur did not.
What we actually do
We design every animal in house, from the reference photographs through to the embroidery on the face. Production is overseen by the same small team year after year, which is why the pile on a Wild Onez today feels like the pile on one from five years ago.
Our filling comes from recycled water bottles — around fifteen million a year. That change took three years and several samples we threw away, and it is the thing we are proudest of.
Where you will find us
Zoos, aquariums, museums, national parks and independent gift shops across the country carry the collection, and this site lists what is available to order directly. Ordering is handled by the partner store the buy button takes you to; they hold the stock and they run the checkout.
Our desk is in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Write to us about an animal and you will get a keeper who can tell you what is inside it.
What Zoologee plush stuffed animals are for
Zoologee creates soft, lovable animals for imaginative play — not for a display shelf. Every plush we design is meant to be carried, slept on and argued with, which is why the quality we chase is in the hand rather than in the photograph. Families have trusted that for forty years, and the customers who find us in a zoo gift shop tend to come back for the next one.
The collection runs from pocket animals and backpack clips through to jumbo plush a child can lean on. Our eco-conscious Earth Keeperz line is filled entirely with fibre from recycled water bottles; the rest of the collection is moving the same way. Keeping that honest matters more to us than the word on the swing tag.
What we are really in the business of is the small adventure a child has with an adorable animal they met for real at the aquarium or the park. Bringing a cuddly favourite home from that day is what the charm is — delighting one child at a time, a few more smiles out of a gift, and the care to make a toy that is still loved in a decade.