Shriramana Sharma via Unicode: > > for animal in animalKingdom: createEmojiProposal(animal) > > Emoji are a veritable Pandora box.
It makes sense to look at where (animal) emojis came from and then decide how this might need to be expanded to avoid cultural bias etc. A large bunch of the original animal emojis was meant for the Eastern (Chinese/Asian) and Western (European/Mediterranean) zodiac signs. There are several other astrological traditions that involve animals which have not yet been covered. My very superficial first research <https://github.com/Crissov/unicode-proposals/issues/388> (which largely ignores the three Southern-hemispheric continents of South America, Africa and Australia/Oceania) indicates that about a dozen animal emojis should be added for this reason alone: - Crane - Goose - Hawk or Falcon (or generic Bird of Prey) - Raven or Crow - Seagull - Swan - Badger - Beaver - Otter - Seal - Seahorse There are other culturally established sets of pictographic animals that might be used for systematic additions to Unicode, e.g. street signs. The existing Australian road signs <https://github.com/Crissov/unicode-proposals/issues/106>, for instance, would suggest 3 additional animal emojis: - Kangaroo - Ratite (Emu) - Wombat If we were to take a look at existing pictographic scripts, some of which have already been added to Unicode, we will see some other local favorites, e.g. in Egyptian hieroglyphs (U+130D2..131AC), also cf. L2/15-208 <http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2015/15208-hieroglyphs-as-emoji.pdf>: - Jackal - Donkey - Hippopotamus - Panther - Oryx, Gazelle, Ibex - Vulture, Buzzard, Falcon - Ibis, Flamingo, Stork, Heron, Cormorant - Ostrich - Swallow, Sparrow - Goose, Pintail - Catfish - Dung Beetle - ... Alas, Mark Davis tells us in L2/17-206 <http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17206-emoji-and-vendors.pdf> that all that matters is expected popularity and an interest (and no veto) by a handful of US-based companies (or their representatives). Please note that popularity, of course, does not equal (neither global nor local) usage frequency, and the methods to assess the predictions are really shaky.
