Zoologist Perfumes: The Toronto Game Developer Who Turned Animal Kingdom into a Collaborative Perfume House

Zoologist makes perfumes about animals: a bat cave, a camel’s desert, a panda’s bamboo forest. Founder Victor Wong comes up with the animal and then picks a perfumer whose style suits it, so the house has no single signature, and each bottle is closer to a short film than a product line.

From Game Development to Fragrance

In a 2018 interview, Wong describes starting Zoologist as a hobby in 2013 and later leaving his job as a video-game 3D modeller. He recalls a childhood music lesson using Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals among the inspirations for its theme.

Wong’s role includes matching a subject with a perfumer’s style. It is a collaboration across several perfumers, not a requirement that every release have a different creator: both Camel and Panda credit Christian Carbonnel.

That’s the fun of it, and the risk: loving Panda tells you nothing about Bat.

Bat: The Original and the 2020 Version

The original Bat, made with Ellen Covey, won in the Independent category at the 2016 Art and Olfaction Awards. Wong describes that milestone in his later interview.

Zoologist announced the original Bat’s discontinuation in June 2019. The maker’s current Bat (2020) page credits Prin Lomros. These are different compositions sharing the animal name.

Bat version	Perfumer	What to match when researching
Original Bat	Ellen Covey	Original-version reviews and the 2016 award
Bat (2020)	Prin Lomros	The 2020-version product description and reviews

What Bat (2020) Smells Like

The maker’s Bat (2020) note pyramid pairs tropical fruit and soil with hay, incense, minerals and jasmine, then woody, leathery and animalic effects.

Read it as a place, not a bat: overripe fig and guava hanging in a tropical cave, wet soil and stone underfoot, and something warm and furry in the dark. Zoologist says the animalic and leather notes are synthetic and the perfume uses no animal products.

In reviews of the 2020 edition, one wearer likes how a strong fruity opening becomes warm and leathery. Another finds the damp soil initially challenging but enjoys the scent more as it settles into smoky, mineral and green impressions. A third finds the animalic character too strong to keep wearing.

Those three reactions are really about three stages of the same perfume: loud fruit, then damp earth, then animal warmth. It’s the most daring thing Zoologist makes, and not one to wear to a job interview.

Finding a Sample or a Bottle

Use Zoologist’s own shop or its stockist directory to find a bottle or a sample set. Make sure the listing says Bat (2020) if that’s the one you want.

For a different approach to unusual combinations, Imaginary Authors pairs fragrances with fictional books. Aftelier follows an individual perfumer’s natural-material palette. Our niche-house guide helps you choose which work to explore next.