Echo the Elephant Plush Toy

Echo the Elephant — the soft toy almost every baby ends up with, made rather better than most

An elephant is the default first soft toy, which is exactly why it's worth caring what it's made of. Echo is filled with 100% recycled stuffing, made by Make Believe Ideas in partnership with London Zoo — a ZSL conservation zoo — and suitable from birth. Velvety fur, soft ears, a friendly trunk, around 30 x 20cm, and nothing rigid anywhere.

🐘 Ears first, everything else second

Babies go for the ears. They're the flattest, thinnest part of a soft toy and the easiest thing for a hand that can't yet grip to close around — which is why an elephant works earlier than a round, solid toy does. The trunk does the same job a little later, once they can hold on and pull.

♻️ 100% recycled filling — and a zoo that benefits

The stuffing is 100% recycled rather than virgin polyester. And this isn't a badge-only partnership: Make Believe Ideas state that every purchase supports ZSL's vital conservation work here in the UK and around the world. The animals in the range are ones ZSL works on, so the elephant on the nursery shelf has a real counterpart somewhere — a conversation that arrives sooner than you'd think.

🤿 A fact to keep for later

Real elephants use their trunks as snorkels when they swim. Useless to a newborn, excellent at three.

What we like about it

• Suitable from birth — no minimum age to work around
• Filled with 100% recycled stuffing rather than virgin polyester
• Velvety fur with soft ears that a very young baby can hold
• A proper cuddle size at about 30 x 20cm, not a keyring animal
• Made with London Zoo, and every purchase supports ZSL's conservation work
• One of eight animals in the Zoo Crew

Specification

• Suitable from: birth
• Size: approx. 30cm x 20cm
• Filling: 100% recycled stuffing
• Care: surface wash only
• Made with: London Zoo — a ZSL conservation zoo. Every purchase supports ZSL's conservation work

❓ Frequently asked questions

Surface wash only — what does that mean in practice?
It means no machine and no soaking: you clean the outside with a damp cloth and a little mild soap, then let it dry fully. Worth knowing before you buy, because a soft toy given to a newborn will be dribbled on, and this isn't one you can throw in with the towels. Our honest advice: if it becomes the one they can't be without, buy a second. A spare is worth considerably more than it costs on the day the first one goes missing.

How big is it?
About 30 x 20cm — roughly a sheet of A4 with a bit to spare, so a proper armful for a toddler rather than a token animal. The lion, sloth and bush baby are the same; the giraffe is taller and narrower at 32 x 9cm, and the penguin chick is the round one at 25 x 23cm.

How does buying it help ZSL?
The range was created with London Zoo, and Make Believe Ideas state that every purchase supports ZSL's conservation work in the UK and abroad. We'd rather quote them than put a figure on it we can't verify — but it's a real partnership with a conservation charity rather than a licensed cartoon.

Can it go in the cot?
It's rated from birth, but safer sleep guidance is to keep the cot clear of soft toys for the first year — so for a newborn this is a daytime companion, kept out of the cot until around 12 months.

Is it a grab-and-shake toy or a cuddle-up-to one?
A cuddle-up-to one. It comes along in the pram and the changing bag, and gets properly carried about from around a year. If you want something a newborn can actually hold and wave, the Clip & Go Elephant is the smaller version of the same animal at 20 x 16cm, with a clip for the pram and a textured teething ring.

Does it make a good newborn gift?
It's the safest guess in the range. An elephant is the animal nobody objects to, the recycled filling and the ZSL link give it something to say beyond cuteness, and it photographs well next to a new baby — which, let's be honest, is where a good many of these end up.

🦁 Meet the rest of the Zoo Crew

Eight animals, all from birth, all with the same recycled filling. Sizes differ more than the photographs suggest, so they are listed:

• Echo the Elephant — this one, 30 x 20cm. The classic, and the easiest ears to hold.
• Lennon the Lion — 30 x 20cm. A fluffy mane against velvety fur, so the most texture of the eight.
• Giggles the Giraffe — 32 x 9cm. The tallest and slimmest, and the easiest to carry about by the neck.
• Sonny the Sloth — 30 x 20cm. The calm one, for winding down.
• Pebble the Penguin Chick — 25 x 23cm. Almost round, and the easiest to hold with both arms.
• Bouncy the Bush Baby — 30 x 20cm. The one nobody else's toddler has, and gently weighted.
• Honey the Pygmy Hippo — 31 x 16cm. Long, low and also weighted, so she sits up.
• Raffles the Red Panda — 30 x 16cm, where the tail is the whole point.

Beyond the plush, the Clip & Go animals are smaller with a pram clip and a teething ring, the hand-puppet cloth books put the animal on your hand, and Never Touch the Zoo Crew! is the silicone touch-and-feel book the range grew out of. See it all in our Zoo Crew collection.

Our guides to when soft toys and comforters are safe to introduce and the best toys for babies under 6 months go into more detail.

❤️ From our family to yours

Carefully chosen products for babies, toddlers and parents. Browse the whole Zoo Crew range and the rest of the Make Believe Ideas collection — free UK delivery on orders over £25.