Postal Stamps to Celebrate Nature!
Stamps are tiny works of art — small enough to fit in your hand, but often packed with incredible detail. For over 30 years, the United Nations Postal Administration has issued special stamps to raise awareness of endangered species. In 2017, twelve colourful stamps featured animals and plants newly added to the CITES endangered species list — from the Masobe gecko to the Natal ginger.
That got us thinking: why not design our own?
Make Your Own Endangered Species Stamp
You don’t need a printing press to make a stamp worth celebrating — just a few household materials and an animal or plant you care about.
What you’ll need:
- A soft eraser, a piece of craft foam, or a raw potato cut in half
- A blunt pencil, craft knife, or carving tool (adult supervision needed for cutting)
- An ink pad or paint
- Paper, cardstock, or an envelope
How to make it:
- Choose an animal or plant — pick something endangered, or simply something you love from the natural world.
- Sketch a simple version of it, focusing on its most recognisable shape or pattern (a fin, a leaf, a spiral shell).
- Carve your design into the eraser, foam, or potato, cutting away the background so your shape stands raised.
- Press your stamp into the ink pad or paint, then stamp it onto paper. Try a few in a row, like a real sheet of stamps.
- Add a border, a value (“1st Class”), and the name of your animal or plant, just like a real postage stamp.
The stamps in the photo above were made of cutout images from magazines of animals, and a biomimicry-inspired message was added to each stamp. Worth just as much as any stamp from a post office, because they carry a message: this animal matters because it is beautiful and important, and it’s worth protecting.
The Biomimicry Angle
Making a stamp forces you to ask a very biomimicry-kind of question: what is the single most important detail about this animal? A real stamp designer can’t fit every feature of a rhino or a gecko onto a few square centimetres — they have to notice what matters most and leave the rest out. That’s the same skill biomimicry researchers use when they study an animal: not copying everything about it, but identifying the one clever trick worth learning from.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is biomimicry?
Biomimicry is the practice of looking to nature for solutions, then applying what we learn to design and problem-solving. Instead of inventing from scratch, it means studying how plants, animals, and ecosystems have already solved a challenge — like staying cool, collecting water, or absorbing carbon — and adapting that strategy for human use.
How does biomimicry help address climate change?
Nature has been adapting to extreme conditions for billions of years, so many organisms already hold working solutions to problems we now face at a larger scale — cooling buildings without electricity (termite mounds), collecting water in drought (the Namib beetle), protecting coastlines from storms (mangrove roots), and capturing carbon (corals, forests, kelp). Biomimicry means studying those solutions and applying the same principles to human design.
How can children get involved in biomimicry?
Children don’t need special training to think like a biomimicrist — just curiosity and a habit of asking “how does nature solve this?” Simple ways to start include a backyard scavenger hunt for nature’s patterns, a “design-an-animal” challenge for a changing climate, or building a small model (like a passive-cooling structure or a water collector) inspired by something they’ve observed outdoors.
Is biomimicry only for scientists and engineers?
No — biomimicry is as much a mindset as a profession. Anyone can practice it by observing nature closely and asking design questions. Professional biomimicry practitioners apply it in architecture, materials science, and engineering, but the same core skill — careful observation followed by “what if we built it that way?” — is exactly what this post’s classroom and family activities are designed to build in children.
Åsa Jomård
In 2015, Åsa completed a course in Biomimicry: A Sustainable Design Methodology at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. With over 10 years of experience exploring nature for inspiration and as a former member of Ben, Biomimicry Education Network, she brings both academic background and creative teaching experience to her work. Her materials seamlessly integrate stories, nature observations, and design challenges, making them perfect for inquiry-led learning in early primary contexts.
AI was used as a Thinking Partner.
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