Best-selling Author Raises Plight of Endangered Species for #inktober

A best-selling children’s author has doodled 31 endangered animals to draw awareness of their plight as part of a social media drawing challenge.

Environmentalist Inbali Iserles, the talent behind the Foxcraft and Tygrine Cat series, regularly takes part in #inktober, an Instagram challenge taking place in October, but this year, she decided to sketch a diverse range of threatened species, including a Galapagos penguin, a British hedgehog and the critically endangered Darwin’s fox.

Inbali said: “While I’ve always enjoyed Inktober, I wanted to do something more this year – to shine a light on some of our most fragile species. I was keen to raise awareness of the plight of these vulnerable animals, and inspire dedication among my readers to address some of the most pressing issues of our time: principally climate change and the destruction of natural habitats.”

The Cambridge based author, who illustrates her own books, said drawing “such a diverse array” of animals proved challenging at times.

“I discovered that, as a rule, feathers are easier to draw than skin! I loved drawing the avocet, with its remarkable profile. While embarking upon the rhino, chimpanzee and tiger I was especially aware of the need to do them justice — their faces are so familiar to us, full of complexity, nuance and character. 

“But without a doubt, the saola was the hardest animal to draw for the saddest of reasons — there are very few photos of this astonishingly rare creature.”

For many years Inbali lived in central London, where a fascination with urban foxes inspired her successful Foxcraft trilogy, which has sold over 650,000 copies worldwide.

An ardent animal lover, she’s renowned for her fantasy novels written from the perspective of its animal protagonists.

Inbali is one of a team of authors behind the New York Times’ bestselling Survivors series, writing under the pen name Erin Hunter.

Her first book, The Tygrine Cat, won the 2008 Calderdale Children’s Book of the Year Award. Together with its sequel, The Tygrine Cat: On the Run, it was listed among The Independent’s “50 books every child should read.” 

Inbali attended Sussex and Cambridge Universities. She now lives in Cambridge with her family, including her principal writing mascot, Michi, who looks like an Arctic fox, acts like a cat, but is in fact a dog.

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Press release from Inbali Iserles

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