Animal Planet is making a footprint in Burger King’s kid meals, as the Discovery-owned cable network continues its recent push to gain new attention from children. The BK deal includes limited edition, eco-friendly paper-based kids toys and activities. The special edition Burger King Jr. Meals will begin Monday at 14,000 Burger King restaurants worldwide, and will run for five weeks, or until supplies last.

The partnership is a push to minimize plastic waste found in kids’ meals and spark an early curiosity for the animal kingdom. The move follows McDonald’s move for eco-friendly Happy Meals, which includes plans to transition to more sustainable materials for Happy Meal toys by the end of 2025.

“Burger King shares our enthusiasm for inspiring young minds and fueling their curiosity. We were also excited by their commitment to finding alternatives to plastic King Jr. Meal [toys] and enjoyed having this opportunity to reach millions of children around the world with a fun, educational and sustainable offering that can help them learn more about the animal kingdom and inspire lifelong animal lovers,” said Carolann Dunn Discovery's VP of consumer products licensing. 

The King Jr. Meals include six different paper activity books that spotlight different animal themes, including safari, ocean, pets, endangered animals, wilderness, and cute and cuddly. The activity books consist of coloring sheets, infographics, stickers and more with the option to unfold into a 55-inch animal fact poster. Each book also comes with a QR code that will unlock additional interactive activities, such as a 3D walk through the Safari. 

“Animal Planet is dedicated to providing quality wildlife content to a global audience through compelling storytelling across Discovery’s platforms, a mission we deepen through our consumer products offerings and our partnership with Burger King,” said Dunn in a press release.   

This is not the first kid-targeted brand partnership for Animal Planet. It recently struck a deal with Target to launch a toy line, and it launched an educational kids magazine, “Animal Planet," with DC Thomson Media.