Our relationships to animals - beloved, feared, valued, or rendered invisible - are complex and often contradictory. Animals occupy a unique place in natural mythologies, continually being represented and re-imagined along with ideas of the wilds. In my own representations of this familiar imagery, I attempt to explore the social construction of the ‘natural’ world, and the roles this has in our national identity. However, despite the blurred boundary between the human and the ‘natural’, or perhaps even due to these tenuous relationships, there still exists a very personal longing for meaningful interaction.