While Dunedin does not have its own zoo, 100 animals painted on walls around the city may be "the next best thing".
Painting a 2m-tall numbat, a typically much smaller and endangered Australian marsupial, on a wall in central Dunedin was how local artist Bruce Mahalski said he spent his Christmas Day.
He tried to paint an animal every Christmas.
"It's my little tradition because I usually spend Christmas Day by myself and I like having a task.
"I just enjoy painting, I don't think I'm particularly good at it but I enjoy doing it."
The numbat was but one painting in Mr Mahalski's long-term plan to paint 100 animals, as seen at Tūhura Otago Museum's Animal Attic, around the city.
He began the project about five years ago, and had painted images of about 40 specimens around Dunedin.
They served as memorials to animals the world was losing, he said.
"Dunedin doesn't have a zoo but that's sort of like the next best thing, even though a lot of the animals are pretty old and tired."
Many people loved the Animal Attic and the museum had supplied him with photos of the exhibit, and provided him with paint in the past, Mr Mahalski said.
He considered the animals of the attic to be taonga and there were already enough paintings of native animals on walls, many of them done by his hand.
"Places like the Animal Attic are one of the last sort of treasure houses of showing what we're losing."
He hoped people liked the painting and would not angrily say "what's this numbat doing on a wall, rather than a native bird?"
Mr Mahalski said his paintings were small enough that they did not need resource consent for a mural from the Dunedin City Council, and he would happily paint over them if people did not like them.
He encouraged anyone who "would like an Animal Attic animal on their wall" to get in touch with him.
