Guide

Custom zoo animal trading cards: collectible facts and personalities

Zoos, sanctuaries and wildlife centres are full of animals with personalities worth sharing. Trading cards turn them into something visitors can collect and keep.

Why zoos and sanctuaries use trading cards

• They make animal facts memorable. Stat bars and fun facts are a playful way to share how an animal lives, what it eats and what makes it unique, and children enjoy collecting them.
• They give animals a personality. People care more about an animal they feel they know, which can make a visit, an adoption programme or a donation drive more personal.
• They are a keepsake from the visit. A card works as a small souvenir for gift shops, education programmes, school groups and birthday parties.
• They are collectible. A set of cards across the animals in a collection encourages visitors to come back and find the ones they have not met yet.

A fun, interactive way to explore the zoo

Trading cards can turn a zoo visit into a scavenger hunt. Here is one way a zoo or sanctuary could use them:

1. Visitors buy a mystery pack. The gift shop or front gate sells packs of animal cards, and nobody knows which animals they will get until they open it. Part of the fun is the surprise.
2. They go find the animals. Each card becomes a mission. Kids (and grown-ups) head out to track down the animals in their pack, read the fun facts, and compare the card to the real thing.
3. They take it home to remember the day. A card of an animal they actually met is a keepsake that lasts longer than a photo on a phone. Friends and siblings can swap duplicates to finish the set, and it gives families a reason to come back for the animals they missed.

It works well for school trips, birthday parties and summer camps, and it gives the gift shop something more memorable than a standard souvenir. To make mixed packs, create a card for each animal and order them together, then split them into packs yourself before you put them on sale.

Features that suit zoo animals

• Stats and fun facts. Use the stat bars for traits such as Strength, Speed or Sneakiness, and fun facts for diet, habitat and quirks.
• Card note. The Just 4 Looking note, with its blue eye, tells people the animal is for admiring from a distance. Do Not Pet works too.
• Your name and Instagram. Use the owner line for the zoo or sanctuary and the Instagram line for its page.
• Several cards, one design. Make a card for each animal, and choose a matching border colour for a consistent set.

How it works

1. Open the card builder and add the animal’s photos, name, stats and fun facts.
2. Choose a Card note and the finishing touches, then save the card.
3. Choose a pack, from 12 to 108 cards. Larger packs lower the price per card, and you get 20% off the whole order when you buy two or more packs.
4. We print on real trading card stock and ship to your door.