Wildlife Treasury
“Hey, Rhinoceros… says here you sleep standing up, and you only eat at night!”
Okay, show of hands… How many among us were the proud owners of that cool, green, plastic box?
Yep, the one with the flip-top lid? The one that, inside, held a veritable treasure trove of file cards featuring some of the coolest (and also the most obscure) animals known to man?
Raise your hands proudly, fellow 80s lovers–– for you shared in the joy of owning the one and only Wildlife Treasury.
Beginning with that mail-order starter pack of 24 cards, and then continuing every month with another 24 cards, that green box was bound to be chock-ful of, well… wildlife.
And just like the eternal question of how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop, no one’s quite sure how many cards there were, total. One report puts the number at well over 1,000. But that’s just crazy!
From the deadly Piranha to the just-weird Giant Clam, any and every animal you could think of was included… it was just a matter of waiting a whole darn month for the next shipment.
And really… how could your mom say ‘no’ to buying you such an awesome collection of wicked-cool animal cards? (Our –heh heh– favorites were, of course, the titmouse and the dik-dik.)
During the late 70s and into the first part of our favorite decade, you either had your very own green box, or you may as well have had a giant ‘L’ tattooed on your forehead.
“They’re all in my Wildlife Treasury!”
We ♥ Wildlife Treasury.
Best of the 80s 
Several years ago, I purchased what I think is close to a full set of these cards. It’s two green boxes with over 900 cards. Even as an adult, I enjoy them. Beautiful photography and interesting facts.