Huntington loved wild cats — from 1898 on, she created hundreds of jaguar, leopard, lion, and tiger sculptures in all shapes and sizes. She became one of the earliest female wildlife sculptors in America. Huntington’s father was a zoologist and paleontologist who worked at the Boston Society of Natural History and nurtured Huntington’s love of animals. Huntington would later say: "I had a feeling for animals from the time I could crawl around."