Market Insight: Fairtrade & Eco-Friendly

The Plush Toy category partner for Autumn and Spring Fair International, Dowman Soft Touch, offers an unmatched selection of realistic plush animals, from domestic pets to more obscure creatures.

Dowman has always tried to raise awareness of the lesser known and sometimes endangered species and has worked with many zoos in designing and supplying particular kinds of animals to support their own conservation programmes.

This month our Plush partner draws attention to the Pantheris Tigris, the largest of all the big cats and one of the few animals at the top of the food chain with no natural predators. The largest, the Siberian can grow to nearly ten feet in length with an average weight of 200 kilos, the heaviest known was 465 kilos.

Tigers like to feed on larger animals like deer and pig but they will also eat rabbits and fish. Originally there were recognised to be eight sub-species of tiger however, three of those sub-species are now extinct. Wild tigers are spread out across Asia but the species is thought to have come from Southern China. It is impossible to count tigers in the wild but experts estimate there are now less than 6,000 left.

Click here for more information on the Meerkats or Dowman Soft Touch.