Most Used Animal Prints Explained

“ Looking good tiger! ” - more than once I’ve heard this phrase whilst cycling around town in my leopard printed coat. A comment like that always makes me smile, thinking ‘ a tiger has stripes, a leopard has spots, should be easy to see the difference’. But that's not always the case, time for some explaining.

For more than a century animal print has been a favorite amongst designers, from classy zebra printed handbags to tiger-print coats or leopard print sportswear, animal print will always make a strong statement and never goes out of style.

Being a lover of animal prints, especially leopard print, I want to share with you the 5 most used animal prints.

 

So you’ll know how to spot the tigers from the leopards and the zebras form the cheetahs.

 

Tiger

Known for its distinct stripe pattern, the tiger (Panthera tigris) is the largest of all big cats and lives in Asia.

The tigers fur has large vertical dark stripes on a red/orange fur, which becomes gradually lighter on the underside of the tiger.  

 

 

Zebra

The Zebra is a collective name for several types of African equids (horses), the plains zebra (Equus quagga) being the most common. Zebras live in Africa, from Ethiopia to South-Africa.
Like the tiger its fur has a stripy pattern, but is easily differentiated by the black and white contrast on its fur (where the tiger is black and reddish-orange). Each zebra has a unique individual pattern.

 

 

Giraffe

Like the zebra, giraffe (Giraffa) is also a collective name and has several subspecies. All subspecies of the giraffe live on the African continent, all the way from West-Africa to South-Africa.
The fur of the giraffe has reddish-brown polygonal spots on a sand color base. Like the zebra, each giraffe also has a unique coat pattern.

 

 

Cheetah

Being the fastest land animal, the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) lives mostly on the Southern part of the African continent, and in a few places in Iran.
The cheetahs distinct spotted pattern is created by more than 2000 solid black dots on a tan colored base.

 

 

Leopard

The leopard (Panthera pardus) has the biggest distribution of all wild cats and is most common Africa and parts of Asia.
The pattern of its fur consists of small, densely packed rosettes. These rosettes are made of a dark circle with a warm brown colored center, on a light brown base.
This pattern allows the leopard to be perfectly camouflaged in its surroundings, making it one of the most difficult animals to spot in the wild.

 

 

 

Note: being a lover of animals and big cats, discussing these animal prints means that you should be inspired by the animal fur and print this on a fabric. By no means do I justify the use of actual animal fur.