And does this mean all the baseball teams that make it through the 2020 season will be getting plastic awards?
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Carnivore kindergarten is where one would learn to hunt and kill. Hunters will often hang the heads of their kill as trophies. This trophy is plastic, so no kill happened. But Leona participated, so she still got a trophy.
I think the comic’s “participation trophy” point is simply that participation trophy tend not to be as fancy as trophies for victories, so a kindergarten participation trophy might be plastic. That doesn’t mean that all participation trophies would be plastic.
I agree with TedD
Yes. You can see the horns of some plastic ungulate poking out.
I originally thought it was participation trophies are cheap and so plastic and didn’t really get why this would be funny or why the rhino is pointing out the trophy is plastic. (Which seemed kind of rude really….)
But TedD’s observation that a *hunting* trophy would be an actually head (see the horns). So the rhino is not pointing out that it’s plastic per se; but that it’s not an actual head.
Is she supposed to be a lion?
TedD has it. She didn’t get a real kill, ergo plastic.
And, yes, she’s a lioness.
I believe it’s more socially acceptable to call her a “lion” now.
The lion is the king of beasts,
And husband of the lioness.
Gazelles and things on which he feasts
Address him as your highoness.
There are those that admire that roar of his,
In African jungles and velds,
But, I think that wherever the lion is,
I’d rather be somewhere else
In this case the operative “trophy” does not refer to the whole item, but just the skull mounted on the plaque. She got a “participation” trophy (with a plastic skull) because it was kindergarten (and she did not actually kill an animal). I don’t think it was meant to imply that all participation trophies are plastic.
Kilby: I don’t think all the kindergarteners got plastic participation trophies. I think some of them (the winners) managed to kill an animal and got a real trophy. (I’m not sure if I’m parsing all the modifiers in your comment properly; maybe we’re in complete agreement.)
@ WW – We probably are. I think a range of interpretations are possible, and I don’t think it matters too much which one you pick: the strip seems to work fine (at least for me).
@Kilby: Yep, it works for me to. I was pleasantly surprised to find I enjoyed it, once TedD explained it. When I saw “participation trophy” in a comic, I immediately interpreted it as “grumpy old man complains about kids and their participation trophies,” and (wrongfully) dismissed the whole comic.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Carnivore kindergarten is where one would learn to hunt and kill. Hunters will often hang the heads of their kill as trophies. This trophy is plastic, so no kill happened. But Leona participated, so she still got a trophy.
I think the comic’s “participation trophy” point is simply that participation trophy tend not to be as fancy as trophies for victories, so a kindergarten participation trophy might be plastic. That doesn’t mean that all participation trophies would be plastic.
I agree with TedD
Yes. You can see the horns of some plastic ungulate poking out.
I originally thought it was participation trophies are cheap and so plastic and didn’t really get why this would be funny or why the rhino is pointing out the trophy is plastic. (Which seemed kind of rude really….)
But TedD’s observation that a *hunting* trophy would be an actually head (see the horns). So the rhino is not pointing out that it’s plastic per se; but that it’s not an actual head.
Is she supposed to be a lion?
TedD has it. She didn’t get a real kill, ergo plastic.
And, yes, she’s a lioness.
I believe it’s more socially acceptable to call her a “lion” now.
The lion is the king of beasts,
And husband of the lioness.
Gazelles and things on which he feasts
Address him as your highoness.
There are those that admire that roar of his,
In African jungles and velds,
But, I think that wherever the lion is,
I’d rather be somewhere else
In this case the operative “trophy” does not refer to the whole item, but just the skull mounted on the plaque. She got a “participation” trophy (with a plastic skull) because it was kindergarten (and she did not actually kill an animal). I don’t think it was meant to imply that all participation trophies are plastic.
Kilby: I don’t think all the kindergarteners got plastic participation trophies. I think some of them (the winners) managed to kill an animal and got a real trophy. (I’m not sure if I’m parsing all the modifiers in your comment properly; maybe we’re in complete agreement.)
@ WW – We probably are. I think a range of interpretations are possible, and I don’t think it matters too much which one you pick: the strip seems to work fine (at least for me).
@Kilby: Yep, it works for me to. I was pleasantly surprised to find I enjoyed it, once TedD explained it. When I saw “participation trophy” in a comic, I immediately interpreted it as “grumpy old man complains about kids and their participation trophies,” and (wrongfully) dismissed the whole comic.