Kindergartener’s Drawing Baffles Internet As No One Can Work Out What It Is

The internet is divided on what exact animal a kindergartener’s drawing depicts, with guesses ranging from ducks and sea cucumbers to a polar bear.

When Arthur Kendrick’s 5-year-old son presented him with the artwork, the Texas native had no idea what the “animal” was supposed to be.

With a long green body, webbed feet and his son’s name “William” printed in bold, Kendrick didn’t know what to make of the unusual creature.

Sharing the artwork with Reddit’s r/Funny sub, he asked users: “Any guesses on what animal my 5 year old drew?”

Fellow Redditors had plenty of suggestions, with the post receiving almost 50,000 upvotes and more than 10,000 comments.

‘The Feet Are the Only Clue’

In 1947, Viktor Lowenfeld—a trailblazer of art education theory—published Creative and Mental Growth. Believing that a child’s social, physical, intellectual and creative growth is reflected in their artwork, the book contained his theory on the “Stages of Artistic Development.”

According to Lowenfeld, children begin to develop visual ideas between the ages of 4 and 6. At this point, children’s drawings represent what they feel is most important about the subject—so it’s not surprising if their representation of a human or animal doesn’t match up with reality.

Children also have little understanding of space at this age, and color choices tend to be emotional rather than realistic.

It took Kendrick and his wife a while to figure out what William’s drawing represented, as the feet “are the only clue.”

He was also shocked by the response from Reddit users desperate to know what animal it was supposed to be.

“I posted it before I went to bed and forgot about it until the morning,” he told Newsweek.

“When I checked my Reddit account and had 8,000 messages I was really confused for a minute.”

‘I Don’t Know Where the Confusion Is Coming From’

Redditors’ guesses were wide-ranging, with elus1vet suggesting plankton—the usually microscopic sea creatures made famous by SpongeBob SquarePants.

“CLEARLY a frog,” said rawrc, while ConfidentGennel5258 believed the drawing was a dog.

Lunaris52 guessed a platypus and bevybloom an iguana, but tonguetwister described the creature as a “sea cucumber, but with style.”

“I’d say it’s more of a pickle, really,” wrote erst77.

“Without question: The Prince of Wales,” said DickweedMcGee. “I thought it was a photograph at first….”

“Polar bear and nailed it,” commented Keeps-ittooreal, while WheresTheDonut suspected it was a “whale.”

Anonymouswallabee guessed a chameleon, but PsychoNerd92 said the answer was obviously a “William.”

“I don’t know where the confusion is coming from,” he said. “The kid labeled it and everything. Toe to tip, this is a William.”

Unfortunately, there could be only one right answer, with NurmGurpler correctly guessing a duck.

“He said he drew it because he said he wanted a pet duck,” Kendrick said.

“Chameleon was the top guess, and honestly probably the best guess, even if it was wrong, [but] Team Duck took the day.”