Zoo Portraits is a series of photorealistic images by the photographer and artist Yago Partal in which wild and domestic animals appear dressed in human clothes and posed like fashion models. A rhinoceros wears a black leather jacket, a grizzly bear a chunky knitted sweater, and each outfit is chosen to suit the character the animal seems to have. The series went viral soon after it began in 2013, and behind the humour sits a conservation idea: each portrait is paired with information about the species’ habitat, diet and threats. Here are 36 of the portraits, each with a short fact about the real animal.
What Zoo Portraits is
Partal describes the work as photomontages: animal images digitally combined with clothing and styled in the manner of studio portraits. The look is deliberately polished, with plain backgrounds and careful lighting, so the joke depends on how convincing each image feels. It is digital art, not photographs of animals actually wearing clothes, so no animal was dressed up for these pictures.
The fun comes from matching. A tough-looking animal gets tough clothing, a gentle one gets something soft, and our habit of reading personality into faces does the rest. The project later grew into a book published by teNeues, with a Spanish edition titled Retratos Animales, and into a follow-up series, Animal Kinhood. The artist’s archive gathers 170 pieces made between 2013 and 2022.
Why dressing animals works as conservation art
People tend to care more about animals they feel they can relate to. By giving each species a recognisable human style, the portraits invite viewers to stop and look at animals they might otherwise scroll past, such as the aye-aye or the northern tamandua. Partal’s project then turns that attention towards facts about where each animal lives and what threatens it.
It is worth remembering the other half of the illusion: the personalities belong to the artwork, not the animals’ biology. A rhino in leather is no more rebellious than one without it. The captions below focus on the real creatures behind the costumes.
Portraits 1 to 9: from forest antelope to Alaska’s giant bear
Bongo
The bongo is a large forest antelope from central and west Africa, recognisable by its chestnut coat with narrow white stripes and long spiralled horns carried by both sexes. It is shy and mostly active at dusk and night in dense forest. The eastern subspecies, the mountain bongo of Kenya, is among the rarest antelopes in the wild, and zoo-bred animals have been used to help reintroduce it.
Bull
Domestic cattle descend from the aurochs, a much larger wild ox that once ranged across Europe, Asia and North Africa before the last known animal died in Poland in 1627. A bull is simply an uncastrated adult male. Cattle are among the most economically important animals ever domesticated, providing milk, meat, leather and draught power.
Sea Otter
Sea otters live along the North Pacific coast and have the densest fur of any mammal, which keeps them warm in place of the blubber other marine mammals rely on. They are famous for floating on their backs and using stones to crack open shellfish. By eating sea urchins they help kelp forests survive, which makes them a classic example of a keystone species.
Ostrich
The ostrich is the world’s largest living bird and lays the largest eggs. It cannot fly, but it is the fastest animal on two legs, reaching around 70 km/h in short bursts. The popular idea that ostriches bury their heads in the sand is a myth; they lower their heads to tend eggs or to lie flat and stay unseen.
Raccoon
Raccoons are native to North America and have spread to parts of Europe and Japan after escapes and releases. Their front paws are extremely sensitive, and much of their sense of the world comes through touch. They adapt easily to cities, where bins and attics offer food and shelter.
Pygmy Hippopotamus
The pygmy hippo lives in the forests and swamps of west Africa, mainly Liberia, and weighs a small fraction of its larger relative. It is shy, mostly nocturnal and solitary, which made it hard to study in the wild. The species is listed as endangered, threatened by logging and hunting.
Domestic Goat
Goats were among the first animals to be domesticated, roughly 10,000 years ago in the Near East, descending from the wild bezoar ibex. They are agile climbers and browsers that eat leaves and shrubs rather than mostly grass. Today they supply milk, meat and fibre in almost every country.
Aye-Aye
The aye-aye is a lemur from Madagascar with a remarkable long, thin middle finger. It taps on bark, listens for hollow tunnels made by grubs, gnaws a hole and fishes the larvae out, a way of feeding found in no other primate. Local superstitions that it brings bad luck have led to it being killed, adding to the pressure from forest loss.
Kodiak Bear
The Kodiak bear is a subspecies of brown bear found only on the Kodiak Archipelago in Alaska. Large males rival the polar bear as the biggest land carnivores on Earth. Salmon runs in the islands’ rivers provide much of the fat they need before winter.
Portraits 10 to 18: elephants, sloths, wolves and the famous rhino
African Bush Elephant
The African bush elephant is the largest living land animal. Its huge ears help it shed heat, and its trunk contains tens of thousands of muscle units, allowing it to pick up a single fruit or pull down a branch. Poaching for ivory and habitat loss have made it an endangered species.
White-Tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer is the most widespread deer in the Americas, found from Canada to northern South America. When alarmed it raises its tail to flash the white underside, a signal to other deer that danger is near. Fawns are born with white spots that help camouflage them on the forest floor.
Alpaca
Alpacas were domesticated in the Andes thousands of years ago, most likely from the wild vicuña. They are raised mainly for their soft fleece, which contains no lanolin and is valued for warm, lightweight clothing. They are smaller than llamas, which were bred more as pack animals.
Sloth
Sloths live in the rainforests of Central and South America and have one of the slowest metabolisms of any mammal. They move so little that algae can grow in their fur, giving them a greenish camouflage. Most come down from the trees only about once a week, to defecate.
Polar Bear
Polar bears depend on Arctic sea ice to hunt seals. Under their translucent, hollow-looking fur their skin is black, which helps absorb heat. Shrinking sea ice is the main threat to the species, which is listed as vulnerable.
Beagle
The beagle is a British scent hound originally bred to hunt hares in packs. Its powerful nose has made it a favourite for detection work, including sniffing out undeclared food at airports. It is also one of the most popular family dogs because of its friendly temperament.
Wolf
The grey wolf lives and hunts in family packs, usually a breeding pair and their offspring. Domestic dogs descend from an ancient wolf population, which is why the two species can still interbreed. Wolves have returned to parts of Europe and North America where they had been wiped out, sometimes with major effects on local ecosystems.
Panda
Giant pandas live in the mountain forests of central China and eat almost nothing but bamboo, spending much of the day feeding to get enough energy from it. A modified wrist bone works like a thumb for gripping stems. Conservation work helped the species move from endangered to vulnerable in 2016.
Rhino
The rhinoceros is paired with a black leather jacket, an outfit whose tough image suits a heavy, armoured animal. Rhinos’ horns are made of keratin, the same material as human hair and nails, yet poaching for horn has pushed several species to the edge of extinction.
Portraits 19 to 27: tapirs, cats, lemurs and island marsupials
South American Tapir
The South American tapir is the largest land mammal native to the Amazon region. Its short, flexible snout works almost like a small trunk to grab leaves and fruit. Tapirs spread seeds over long distances through their droppings, which is why they are sometimes called gardeners of the forest.
Domestic Cat
Cats were domesticated from the African wildcat in the Near East, probably when farming settlements attracted rodents and rodents attracted wildcats. A cat buried alongside a person in Cyprus about 9,500 years ago is among the earliest evidence of the bond. Unlike most domestic animals, cats largely domesticated themselves.
Leopard
The leopard has the widest range of any big cat, from sub-Saharan Africa to parts of Asia. It is a powerful climber and often drags prey up into trees, away from lions and hyenas. Its rosette-patterned coat provides camouflage in light and shade.
Lemur
Lemurs are found naturally only on Madagascar and nearby islands, where they evolved in isolation for millions of years. There are around a hundred species, ranging from tiny mouse lemurs to the large indri. Many are threatened by deforestation, making lemurs one of the most endangered groups of mammals.
Giraffe
The giraffe is the tallest living animal, yet its neck contains just seven vertebrae, the same number as a human neck; each bone is simply much longer. Its long tongue lets it strip leaves from thorny acacia trees. Wild giraffe numbers have fallen sharply in recent decades.
Border Collie
The border collie was developed in the borderlands between Scotland and England to herd sheep. It is often ranked as the most intelligent dog breed and is famous for controlling a flock with an intense stare. Without enough work or exercise, it can become restless.
Silvery Marmoset
The silvery marmoset is a small monkey from the Amazon forests of Brazil. Like other marmosets, it gnaws holes in tree bark to feed on gum and sap. Group members often help to carry and care for the infants, which are usually born as twins.
Arctic Fox
The Arctic fox lives across the Arctic tundra and has one of the warmest coats of any mammal. Most turn white in winter and brown or grey in summer to match the landscape. Its small ears and short muzzle reduce heat loss in extreme cold.
Tasmanian Devil
The Tasmanian devil is the largest surviving carnivorous marsupial and now lives wild only on the Australian island of Tasmania. It is known for a loud screech and a very strong bite for its size. A contagious facial cancer has devastated wild populations, and the species is listed as endangered.
Portraits 28 to 36: bears, tigers, farm animals and rare forest dwellers
Common Brushtail Possum
The common brushtail possum is a nocturnal Australian marsupial that has adapted well to suburbs, where it often lives in roof spaces. In New Zealand, where it was introduced for the fur trade, it became a major pest that damages native forests and birds. The contrast shows how the same animal can be native wildlife in one place and an invasive species in another.
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly is the North American brown bear, named for the grey-tipped “grizzled” hairs on its coat and recognisable by the muscular hump on its shoulders. The portrait’s knitted sweater suits an animal of cold northern forests. Grizzlies eat a varied diet, from berries and roots to fish and carrion.
White Bengal Tiger
White tigers are not a separate species or subspecies. They are Bengal tigers carrying a rare inherited variation that reduces pigment, giving a white coat with dark stripes and often blue eyes. Most white tigers today live in zoos, and breeding for the colour has raised concerns about inbreeding.
Lamb
A lamb is a sheep less than a year old. Sheep were domesticated in the Near East roughly 10,000 to 11,000 years ago and have been bred for wool, meat and milk ever since. Lambs can recognise their mothers by voice within days of birth.
Owl
Owls are mostly nocturnal birds of prey with forward-facing eyes and exceptional hearing; in some species the ears sit at different heights to pinpoint sounds. They cannot move their eyes in their sockets, so they turn their heads instead, up to about 270 degrees. Soft-edged feathers let many owls fly almost silently.
Pig
Domestic pigs descend from wild boar and were domesticated independently in the Near East and China roughly 9,000 to 10,000 years ago. Pigs are highly intelligent and social, and studies show they can learn complex tasks. Despite their reputation, they wallow in mud mainly to cool down, because they have very few sweat glands.
Silvery Lutung
The silvery lutung, also known as the silvered leaf monkey, lives in coastal and riverside forests of Southeast Asia. Adults are grey-silver, but babies are born a bright orange colour that changes within a few months. Its specialised stomach helps it digest a diet of leaves.
Indian Muntjac
The Indian muntjac is a small deer from South and Southeast Asia, nicknamed the barking deer because of the dog-like alarm call it gives. Males have short antlers and tusk-like upper canine teeth. It is famous among geneticists for having the lowest chromosome number of any mammal, with just six in females and seven in males.
Northern Tamandua
The northern tamandua is a tree-climbing anteater from southern Mexico, Central America and north-western South America. It uses a strong prehensile tail to grip branches and a long sticky tongue to eat ants and termites. When threatened it can rear up on its hind legs and defend itself with its large front claws.
What the series leaves you with
Zoo Portraits works on two levels. On the surface it is a cheerful game of matching animals to outfits, and it is easy to see why the images spread so widely. Look a little longer and it becomes a reminder of how varied animal life is, from a deer with seven chromosomes to a lemur that hunts with one long finger, and how many of these species are under pressure in the wild.
If the portraits make you curious, the best next step is to learn about one of the less familiar animals and the organisations working to protect it. More of Partal’s work is on his Zoo Portraits website.
Sources: Yago Partal: Zoo Portraits. All images © Yago Partal. Species facts are general zoological knowledge.
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