Lions in Bath – and other animal invasions

Stroll around almost any city these days, and you're likely to face down a lion. Or an elephant. Or a bear. Or even a giant cow. Life-size animal sculptures are pawing our streets unchecked, covered in polka dots or glitter-paint or union flag stripes – it's a psychedelic zoological invasion. Bath is the latest city to unleash artist-decorated sculptures – 100 painted lions, sponsored by local businesses, go on display from today until September, to raise money for charity; these follow the 106 paint-daubed pigs that stormed Bath's streets in 2008. More than 250 elephants, customised by artists such as Marc Quinn and Jack Vettriano , are meanwhile bringing a splash of colour to central London. And the Buddy Bears, a collection of 2m-tall beasts raising their paws jauntily to the sky as if dancing to YMCA, have travelled from Berlin to 15 cities, including Tokyo, Pyongyang and Jerusalem – and are currently conveying their message of "peaceful co-existence" in Astana, Kazhakstan. But by far the best-travelled animals are the many thousands of oversized cows that have, over the last decade, been popping up all over the world – from Chicago and New York to London, Brussels, Mexico City and Istanbul. Dubbed "the world's largest public art event", the Cow Parade is said to have raised more than £14m for charity by auctioning the bovine artworks – designed by such luminaries as David Lynch, Radiohead and former Czech president Václav Havel – to buyers such as Oprah Winfrey, Ringo Starr and Princess Firyal of Jordan. Animal husbandry never looked so sparkly.