i tried to make a safari cake with zebra stripes for the bottom and then leopard for the top. the zebra turned out ok, not great, but not bad for the first attempt. the leopard was a complete disaster. i used whipped cream/cream cheese icing, airbrushed it for color and then added the fondant spots. many of the spots started to slide down making the cake look very messy. I took the spots off, touched up the color, and tried again. still no good. i gave up, tinted some of the cream cheese icing and piped on the spots. does anyone have any suggestions/ideas to prevent this from happening again. many people i make cakes for don't like total fondant covering but don't mind accents

the animals were my first attempt at sculpting

I think it's the type of icing you're using that's causing the problem.