Animal Signs That Made Me Smile (10 Photos)

October 30, 2026

By Vidar

Some signs are written for the animals

A Calgary bookshop asks you to mind the bat on its door. An Ontario wheat field warns you about sharks. Someone is still looking for Gary, and in Paris a giraffe and three sheep have broken through the no-entry signs. Ten signs about animals, from lost-pet posters to a door for hedgehogs.

More: Funny Signs (8 Photos)

🦈 “Please Do Not Feed the Sharks” — By Anne Melady near Dublin, Ontario, Canada 🇨🇦

Shark fins cut through the wheat in a field along Highway 8 just west of Dublin, and a small sign by the road asks you not to feed them. Farmtario reported that Anne Melady drew four fins on a quarter-inch sheet of plywood; one neighbor cut them out and another fitted a bracket so they turn in the wind. She put them up in July 2021 to cheer people up during the pandemic, blogTO wrote: “We need some fun.”

💡 Field Fact: The sharks did not retire after the harvest. Melady moved them into a tributary of the Bayfield River behind her home, to give people more smiles.

More: Please Do Not Feed the Great Wheat Sharks

🦇 Sleeping Bat Warning — The Next Page in Calgary, Alberta, Canada 🇨🇦

“Attention. Please open the door carefully as there is a bat sleeping on it.” The arrow points left, and there it is, hanging on the wooden frame of the bookshop at 1217A 9 Avenue SE. CTV News reported in October 2021 that an Alberta wildlife group rescued the bat.

More: A Sleeping Bat at The Next Page Bookshop in Calgary Becomes an Unlikely Star

🐕 Doggie Stick Library

A yellow cabinet, rows of sticks on wooden pegs and a hand-painted sign with paw prints. The borrower in the photo has already picked one out. Take a stick, bring it back later, maybe a little shorter.

More: Cute Signs (10 Photos)

🐶 “Have You Seen This Dog?”

It looks like a lost-dog flyer. The dog is not lost. “Now you have. Have a GOOD day.” Every tear-off tab at the bottom says the same thing: have a great day.

More: Funny Signs (20 Photos)

🐌 “Gary, Come Home”

A missing-pet poster for a snail, taped to a pole by a busy road. Anyone who grew up with SpongeBob knows exactly who Gary is.

💡 Nerd Fact: The poster nods to the 2005 SpongeBob episode “Have You Seen This Snail?”, in which SpongeBob forgets to feed Gary for several weeks and Gary runs away.

More: Clever Signs (9 Photos)

🦔 Barnes Hedgehog Highway — Barnes, London, UK 🇬🇧

A hole at the bottom of a garden wall, two little steps and three blue hedgehogs asking you to keep it open. The door is for hedgehogs moving from garden to garden at night. Barnes Common’s history of the project says founder Michel Birkenwald and his friend Robin have drilled more than 1,000 holes in Barnes and Sheen, each with a plaque asking people to keep it open.

💡 Hedgehog Fact: The doors are small. Smithsonian reported that Wildlife Watch recommends a hole of roughly five inches square.

📷 Photo: The wub / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

🐧 Penguin Crossing — Robben Island, South Africa 🇿🇦

Two penguins, one big and one small, on a road sign on Robben Island in Table Bay. Drivers here are asked to watch for African penguins, which nest on the island. SANCCOB says the island has the longest-running monitoring of African penguin breeding success, started after the 2000 MV Treasure oil spill.

💡 Penguin Fact: The warning matters. IUCN wrote that the global African penguin population has crashed by more than 80% in just over 50 years, and the species is listed as Endangered.

📷 Photo: ShannonHampton / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

🐑 Jumping Sheep — By Clet Abraham on Rue Rodier, Paris, France 🇫🇷

Three sheep hop over the white bar as if it were a fence. Photographer meuh1246 documented the sign on Rue Rodier in the 9th arrondissement. Count them before you fall asleep.

💡 Artist Fact: Not every city fights the stickers. The Guardian noted that some local governments have worked with Abraham on signs for International Women’s Day.

More: Street Sign Art by Clet in Paris and Bretagne

🔗 Follow Clet Abraham on Instagram

📷 Photo by meuh1246 on Flickr

🐿️ “Overstekende eekhoorns!” — Bourtange, Netherlands 🇳🇱

“Crossing squirrels!” A local warning sign on a tree in the village of Bourtange, with a squirrel photo where the road-sign symbol would be.

💡 History Fact: The village grew up around a fortress. Bourtange is a star-shaped fort built in 1593 during the Dutch Revolt and restored between 1967 and 1992 to how it looked in the mid-18th century.

📷 Photo: Donald Trung Quoc Don / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

🦒 Giraffe Breakout — By Clet Abraham in Paris, France 🇫🇷

A giraffe has broken through the white bar of a no-entry sign and is now looking around the 11th arrondissement. The sign still says no entry. It just has a resident now.

💡 Artist Fact: The Guardian described Abraham as a French painter and sculptor who goes out at night with a pack of removable vinyl stickers, looking for road signs to change.

More: Street Sign Art by Clet in Paris and Bretagne

🔗 Follow Clet Abraham on Instagram

📷 Photo by meuh1246 on Flickr