OMG, what is that??? The blog.

A Halloween miracle

2011-10-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of BBC News.

Halloweentide is fast approaching, and with it, a British News Source's fancy turns to the magic that is animals with pumpkins. Seriously. Every October every news outlet in the UK is legally required (Queen's orders!!) to do a photo essay or something on zoo animals playing with pumpkins or dogs spray-painted like cheetahs or what have you. Check The Guardian! They always do one. Check The Daily Mail! (Gross...or DON'T.) They always do like, seventeen. And now today, the BBC brings us this delightful little somethin' somethin' about a rare breed of adorable, future (small "t" small "p") tea-party-hosting baby hazel dormice.*

Clearly this story was written by Britain's top Internet Cuteologists because it includes phrases like "The endangered siblings currently live in a small pumpkin which acts as both a secure nest and a tasty snack" and--on the topic of hourly feedings--"'We use a tiny paintbrush dipped in formula milk.'" Ehhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY LIVE IN A PUMPKIN!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good God, someone get a stop-motion animation team on the case as soon as possible.

Fun facts about dormice: they spend up to 3/4 of their lives asleep. Insert your "get this dormouse in to do my job!"/"wake up, SHEEPLE"/"teenagers these days" joke here.But seriously, get these dormice in to do my job.

*All tiny British wildlife host tea parties. OBVIOUSLY.

A story SO INCREDIBLE it revived this blog

2010-11-11T11:49:00.001-08:00

If you've been wondering where I am, I've been applying to grad school. It has eaten my whole life. My life is still in the process of undergoing the process of digestion in the belly of the academic beast, but then today I read THE MOST AMAZING STORY OF ALL TIME. Check it out: Dick Van Dyke Rescued By Porpoises. Really.

That's amazing, right? Right? Then I was looking for a nice picture of a dolphin to post with this story, and so of course NATURALLY I thought, "Hmm, one of those pictures of dolphins in space would be even better." Then I found this picture from Jweekly.com and I realized that, yes, obviously Jewish Cowboy Dolphins in Space are CLEARLY the thing I should post here. So thanks, Jweekly.com for providing me--and the WORLD--with this delightful and entirely possibly image of dolphin ingenuity at its finest.(if Republicans don't slash the science budget, fingers crossed for the future!)

Anyway, this Dick Van Dyke story is awesome, and the headlines it inspired are even awesomer. (Yes, Dick Van Dyke Was Rescued By Porpoises Recently/) Take away lesson: if you are a celebrity, and animals rescue you/play poker with you/interact with you in any way outside of the realm of the expected, please tell the internet. The internet will thank you. THANK YOU.

Wonderful amputee monkey warms hearts, slaughters chickens

2010-07-13T12:45:00.000-07:00

This story is amazing on so many levels:

1) The title. Never Slaughter a Chicken in Front of a Monkey

2) It's so heartwarming! Yet so violent. Somebody in Hollywood needs to option this. Michael Cera will play the monkey.

3) These closing lines:

" It helps look after Li's dog's puppies and even wiped away Li's tears when he was grieving the death of his father.

Li said: 'It sat besides me quietly and extended his only arm to wipe the tears on my face. He would softly pat my face and head, and look at me with great sympathy.'"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My heart just fell out of my chest.

NEON SUMMER

2010-07-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

SUMMER SUMMER SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NEON NEON NEON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know what's going on in this video, but I like it. The ending also makes me feel a bit dirty but in the best, summery-est way possible. Thanks to my friend Wade for exposing me to "Sweet Raisin (She's Just a Meow Meow)," the summer dance trend that is sweeping the nation. (Or at least my apartment.)

PS--If you know, or are one of these people, please pleeeeeeeease let me be friends with you and your hairless cat.

This next video saved my 4th of July. Seriously, it was going along pleasantly enough, nothing too horrible nothing like WOW fantastic, and then, while at Minneapolis' 10 Second Film Festival, this little gem of neon wonder flashed into my life . CHAUNCEYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pink handfish: badasses of the undersea kingdom

2010-06-06T17:55:00.001-07:00

Soon it shall happen. Marine life shall rise up against us, its human oppressors and horrible, horrible BP polluters. It is only a matter of time that life as we know it shall change irrevocably, horrifyingly, eternally. It is inevitable, now that we know there are FISH WITH HANDS.

You don't believe me? Check this s&%^ out:

"You ever been bitchslapped by a FISH before, wise guy?"
That's what he is saying.

On the other hand, all I could choke out of my meager human vocal chords upon first viewing this picture was a resounding moan of terror. Look at this little undersea brawler, just bruising through the ocean, looking for the crazy mofos who got oil all up in its home. (Disclosure: actually it lives in Australia OF COURSE, but still, he is mad, and somebody's gonna pay.)

The funny thing about this little monster--er, wonder of nature--is that it is known simply as a pink handfish. The name totally sounds like something my seven-year-old niece would come up with.* You can read more about it here, you know, if you're into that sort of thing.

*Who, um, doesn't actually exist yet, but I'm sure someday will. Journalistic integrity!!!!

For your viewing pleasure...more baby otters

2010-06-06T17:44:00.000-07:00

This clip was an obvious choice for this week's update because

a) Otters are always cute. To everyone, everywhere. If we sent otters into Taliban strongholds they would lay down their weapons and just stare in awe at the perfect adorableness of the mighty otter. Then everyone would hug each other and do what small animals do best, namely, to have tea parties with their other small animal friends.
b) The clip is named "Adventures in Otter Space." This speaks for itself.
c) It's a musical montage!!!!!!!! I watch a lot of teen dramas, so I love musical montages.

You can thank my best friend and fellow otter appreciator, Sarah, for the next two magical minutes of your life:

Baby sloths=love

2010-05-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

My friend Jared brought these amazing sloths into my life this week, and the world is a better place for it. I'm going home from work in 9 minutes, and I hope, so are you. What better way to kick off the weekend than with SLOTHSSSSS???!!!

Seriously, these things are so adorable that they could steal your girlfriend, break into your apartment to make sweet love and then write a bestselling erotic novel about their passionate love affair and you (or I) wouldn't even care. THEY ARE THAT CUTE.

Dwarf lemurs!!!!!

2010-05-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

If I've learned anything from doing this blog, it's that an animal's awesomeness is 98% of the time directly proportional to how many photos there are of a scientist (or eccentric Panamanian menagerie owner, your guess is as good as mine) holding a pair of the wee babies of the species in the palm of their learned (or crazy) hand. So you know this previously unprofiled species of lemurs is the good stuff. (As are all lemurs. Yes, they are all awesome. As evidenced by unofficial OMGwhatisthat.blogspot.com mascot, Binkie.)

These little friends will grow up to become dwarf lemurs, of which there are two kinds: the fat-tailed dwarf lemur:

And the Coquerel's dwarf lemur:

And because I am legally compelled to post every single picture of touching animal friendship I can find on this blog, here's a photo of a fat-tailed dwarf lemur, and his pal, another "nocturnal prosimian." I am not exactly sure what that means, beyond the fact that it would be an excellent band name. (...Or not, ok. But if you do name your band this, send me like $5 or something.)

All photos are from the Duke University LEMUR CENTER. Duke just went up 500 awesome points in my book.

Wallaby on the loose!

2010-04-01T18:00:00.001-07:00

Always reliable crazy conservative news outlet Fox is reporting that there is a WALLABY loose in Florida. This is important because I can't come up with anything else for the blog this week and it's almost time for 30 Rock. Anyways, this family's pet wallaby (????) escaped in Florida and is apparently at large. Fun fact: the wallaby escaped by hippity hopping away down a street called WONDER LANE. Fun fact #2: Beatrix Potter totally wrote this news story. The wallaby left home because he wanted to go to a cricket match. Shhhh.

If you see the adorable escapee, please contact your nearest animal cricket league and/or actual helpful animal-related professionals.

Baby De Brazza's Monkey is the best thing to happen to Denver since Casa Bonita

2010-04-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

There is a new monkey at the Denver Zoo, and the world is a better place for it. Check out this little guy! "Oh my! Let me give you a hug"--that is what he's saying. Check out this article for an amazing picture of monkey and mom, plus a video. Wow! Maybe it's just the cocktail I had post-work talking, but between this and the legendary Casa Bonita , I can totally see a Denver road trip sometime in my future.

Tamarins=love

2010-03-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

Thank you Jezebel/Getty for this wonderful image. My day just got 5000x better.

Oh wait! I just read this article and it's now 50,000,000x better! Apparently this lil' guy lives at the London Zoo's new NO BARRIERS NO RULES exhibit where you can walk through and interact with nature's greatest gift: primates (etc.). I am totally checking this out this when I go to London next month.

Small friends 4eva

2010-03-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, I am back from my vacation in sunny Austin, TX for the annual SXSW music festival. And I have a problem. That problem is that I am no longer on vacation. Oh--also that I can't find any frickin' new weird animals on the internet. COME ON SCIENTISTS,DO I HAVE TO FUND YOUR EXPEDITIONS MYSELF??? Fortunately, I did stumble upon a site some friends had told me about, which had blown my mind...and which I had promptly forgotten till now. It's the Tiny Animals on Fingers Flickr set, and it will change your life. It is the Mary Tyler Moore of websites. It will take a nothing day and blah blah give you one blog entry so you felt like you got something done before you go watch Season 3 of Mad Men on DVD.

If anyone has any weird animal coverage suggestions, feel free to comment! Otherwise I shall return next week with some Daily Mail story on dogs that are bigger than their owners or toads in a rock band.

Goth penguin!

2010-03-14T20:19:00.000-07:00

Here we have another reader tip, this time from my friend Keri. This all black penguin may be the perfect animal for me to profile here on OMGWhatisthat.blogspot.com, as it is both a) a wacky animal and b) totally goth. And if you have ever read this blog's sister blog Diamonds Fur Coat Champagne, you will know I like kind of um, dark post-punk. Yes, that's how I shall put it. Now I shall go off into the night to hang out at my local Hot Topic and hassle the "normal" shoppers. You guys just don't GET IT, maaaan. (Joking!!! Joking!!!!)

Anyways, check out this blog's coverage of the greatest penguin of our time. I love the quote where the photographer who papped this penguin calls him/her? "an absolute monster" because of the size of the penguin's legs. That is just the kind of intolerance and superficial judgment that this penguin is trying to get away from by listening to The Cure and writing sad poetry. Come on people, it's 2010!!! Let's celebrate our differences. Also, please note Goth Penguin, Nightshadowe, let's call him, is looking rather emotively at the camera. This is so his Facebook pic.

Otter magic!

2010-03-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

Deputy weird animal expert and my BFF Sarah sent me this adorable otter who just loves being tickled! Wait--I think "adorable" is an understatement. Post pictures of this otter in war-torn nations and there would be no more strife. This--ladies and gentlemen--is the Otter of Peace. The Otter of Love. Heck, let's just create a cult around this otter in the depths of the MN Northwoods near the Canadian border and build giant otter sculptures that will baffle and amaze future generations.

I bring you your new lord and master...of YOUR HEART.

The Daily Otter

My Verreaux's Sifaka wants to party all the time, party all the time, party all the tiiiiime

2010-02-14T17:46:00.000-08:00

Another winning selection from my favorite The Daily Mail!!! This time it's shots of a full on all monkey dance party. This is awesome because I was at a dance party last night, too!!!! And the thought that monkeys (in this case, something called a Verreaux's Sifaka) might show up next time--like, maybe if we email them in advance--is really, really inspiring.

Giant rabbit not only big, but also "possessed"

2010-02-14T17:37:00.001-08:00

Yes! My favorite bizarre-quality (I was gonna say low-quality, but figured this made more sense) English rag The Daily Mail has given us fans of weird animals the best possible Valentine's Day gift! Namely, another story about a giant rabbit. The story is pretty run-of-the-mill "OMG we have this giant rabbit named Ralph" till you get to this gem of information:

TV medium Derek Acorah, star of 'Most Haunted', visited Mrs Grant at her home in Sussex, believing the rabbit was 'possessed". . . They said it was pretty spooky and he had a good old chat with Ralph about the spirits in our house. He seemed to think Ralph was channelling the spirit of a ghoul.

WOW. And you're welcome everybody! Seriously, don't look into his eyes. That rabbit wants nothing more than to eat your soul.

The White Stuff: baby albino snapping turtles

2010-02-01T19:45:00.000-08:00

(Oh my God, even I hate myself for writing that headline. Weird Al-based story titles just should not be.)

My best friend and frequent animal suggester Sarah recently posted this Zooborns story about baby albino snapping turtles on my FB page. (Yes, I like to abbreviate everything; call it the J-Lo effect. FB=Facebook to those who don't know me IRL.) Check them out! So cute...yet so deadly. JUST LIKE THAT TOTAL LADYKILLER CHUCK BASS ON GOSSIP GIRL. (Only one more month till the show returns from its winter hiatus and my life as I know it can resume. One month of ETERNITY!!!!)

"I'm so widdle! And white!!! Yes, yesssssss, stick your finger in my mouth. Yessss."

One of the best things about this story is that the wee baby albino snapping turtles currently live in North Dakota! So technically I could just get in my car one day and be amongst these majestic beasts in a matter of hours (I live in Minnesota.) I say "technically" because I definitely will not be doing that...unless possibly they get some albino bat babies as well. In which case I would tip off my other best friend and fellow Minnesotan, PRINCE, and get him to purchase the entire zoo as his own personal freak animal wonderland. What? I saw him on Friday. Through glass and like 5 feet away, but I DID see him. And now we are besties.

Cat businessman takes Japan by adorable fuzzy storm

2010-02-01T19:36:00.000-08:00

Japan has had stationmaster cats, ambassador cats, and probably more than a few of those cats with wigs. Now allow me to introduce Business Cat. He's just like you and me! He works hard, he likes his coffee (catnip) breaks, and he spends more than 50% of his day on the internet. This guy is a modern hero. I don't know what they're selling, but I'm buying it!

Maned wolf=best wolf

2010-01-08T14:58:00.000-08:00

Wolves are pretty cool, right? I mean, there have been A TON of bands with the word "wolf" in their name lately. I know what you're thinking: how can wolves get any better? I'll tell you: WHEN THEY LOOK LIKE REALLY TALL FOXES.

As has previously been discussed on this blog (I think; I'm too lazy to check and I gotta go home soon to eat delicious TACOS), foxes are one of the best animals. I love their dainty little black legs. I love how they love grapes!!! (Hence, they probably like wine and GET THIS: so do I.) And I love how somehow (and with 100% no scientific basis for which to say this) they are totally the perfect combination of CAT and DOG. (You see it, too, right? RIGHT???) And so it stands to reason that, if they had even longer legs, they would be even better. And oh yeah--they'd also be maned wolves, but who even knows what I'm talking about by now anyways.

So maned wolves live in parts of South America. They are sometimes referred to as "a Red Fox on Stilts" (yes, by people other than me. I would call them "tall foxes") and "Skunk Wolves" (figure it out.) God these things are awesome.

Behold!

MEGAFISH!!!!!!

2010-01-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

I haven't updated this blog in awhile. Sorry for that. Holidays blah blah crap. But in the spirit of giving, I would like to present you all with the latest giant creature to grace the pages of this blog. That's right: just when you think animals can't get any bigger, ladies and gentlemen I give you:

MEGAFISH (An actual National Geographic headline.)

Giant Mekong Catfish

This pic of a young Chinese fellow and his friend Hal, the Mekong Giant Catfish, is a still from a forgotten Disney film of the 80s entitled "The One That Got Away." The premise is simple: late one night while making a wish that his parents will not get divorced, our young hero is visited by a MAAAAAGICAL CATFISH who promises to help him reunite his family...though a series of underwater hijinks and hilarious mixups that can only ensue when you get a giant catfish involved. (My apologies if I already trotted out the Disney divorce film joke in an earlier post. I searched for "divorce" on the last three months' updates and got nothing. So I'm running with it. Oh, also this movie is not real.)

Arapaima

Nothing and I mean NOTHING says male bonding like stripping down to minimal clothing together, diving into the Amazon and capturing a super long fish that's basically the same size as you. Don't be fooled; these guys all got along famously. Afterwards they all threw back a couple brewskis together and exchanged pictures of their kids. They all agreed to be Facebook friends, but there were a lot of Arapaimas online and the human gentlemen couldn't figure out which one was their pal. A real pity.

My hamster wants to party all the time, party all the time, party all the tiiiiime

2009-11-25T12:19:00.000-08:00

First of all, sorry for the Eddie Murphy song reference. But hey it's half an hour before I'm done with work for the Thanksgiving holiday and you know what? To hell with it. I am putting my brain on pause for the rest of the weekend.

And so let's get to it. From the people who brought you "the real Boomtown Rats" (namely, The Daily Mail) comes the rat pack!!!! Although really they're not rats; they're hamsters.

If The Daily Mail continues to do stories on rodent bands, I would be the happiest person on earth. It never gets old. In spite of the inherent magic of wee rodents cranking out crucial jams, however, it does seem that our "journalist" friends are having a hard time keeping the hamster band jokes aflowing. Which is just too bad. Witness this gem of a line (it's the only really quality one):

A spokeswoman said the hamsters were initially reluctant to play their instruments without receiving payment up front.

She said: 'We used quite a bit of peanut butter and chocolate spread to get the hamsters to play with the instruments and pose.'

GROAN!!!! But in the best way possible. Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it, and happy Wednesday to the rest of you. (What?? It's halfway through the week! CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON IT'S A CELEBRATION.)

Puggle VS Puggle

2009-11-12T14:54:00.001-08:00

It's a slow week here in the world of weird animals. I've been looking all week and finding NAUGHT, and so this is it. The only post of the week. Suggested by my BFF Sarah!

So Zooborns this week had some photos of newborn puggles. If you're anything like me--always on the lookout for hybrid creatures/obsessed with finding freaky stuff on the internet--then you're probably imagining this kind of puggle, a heartwrenchingly cute combination of beagle + pug.

He's just begging someone to put him on an inspirational workplace poster.
(Unfortunately I was unable to come up with an inspirational slogan that a puppy might say, but I did find out this fascinating piece of information from Wikipedia:

Hang in there, Baby was a popular catchphrase made by a motivational poster. The poster featured a picture of a small kitten, hanging on to a tree branch. . . . A copy of the poster was famously presented to Spiro Agnew by 100 of his supporters in Congress when he was under pressure to resign in 1973.

HA HA HA!!!! What a bunch of elected nerdos.)

Um, anyways, there is another kind of puggle and it looks like (get ready) THIS:

It's a baby echidna. The adult of the species was covered "extensively" in this "article," Echidna, mon amour. (Yes, it still cracks me up that the researcher was "seized by a passion" for echidnas. I mean, HUBBA HUBBA, am I right???? "If you're not busy, take ME to lunch," yeaaaaah???)

The Zooborns pix are considerably cuter. They look slightly more charming, slightly less OH MY GOD PUT THAT AWAY BEFORE I CALL THE COPS. Check out these two, telling secrets to their best puggle BFF. Just like me and the previously mentioned Sarah. Or, on second thought, wait--not at all.

Puggles=love!

4EVA Quolls

2009-11-06T14:22:00.000-08:00

Quolls are the best. Like many of their Antipodean kin, they have a totally awesome name that's either disgustingly cute ("numbat") or close to unpronounceable (ahem, "quoll"). I mean, I can say it, being a hyper-gifted online animal finder and supremely advanced pronouncer of words of all kinds, but you know not everyone is as gifted, am I right?

I also love quolls (sure I just discovered them a couple days ago, but love comes quickly, right? To quote the Pet Shop Boys.) for the following reasons, all of which I gleaned from a very casual scanning of Wikipedia:

1. They are referred to as "native cats." YET THEY LOOK NOTHING LIKE CATS!!!!!!! Insanity!

2. They develop a pouch, but only at certain times of the year. That is just weird. Don't try to argue with me, scientists. It's weird. It comes and goes? Like maybe my arm could just come and go, depending on whether I need to say, text message people all day when I'm at work or, like when I need to high five someone?

3. This little gem of information: "Their molars and canines smell strongly of gasoline." Oh also, the article wants to stress that they don't have prehensile tails. This is probably for the best, as who wants something that can just grow body parts and also lift up stuff with their tail. It'd just be too much! Imagine the power they would possess. Beyond that they already possess: the power to make us love. Ahhhhh....

Presenting...the numbat

2009-11-06T14:00:00.000-08:00

I had the worst day yesterday. It was straight up horrible. It was one of those days when you're all like "Ohhhhh my God I just want to go home and drink my bottle of wine and watch 30 Rock and wait for the weekend to come" and then when you're on your way to buy yourself flowers, your muffler falls off and you're trapped at an upscale grocery store parking lot for the next 40 minutes.

Those are the type of days that make you even more grateful for weird Australian animals. They've got such caaaarazy names! They look like drawings little kids/my crazy hippie ex-roommate who believed in alien cults would make! And so let's all take a moment, in these last few hours before we can all go to happy hour, and celebrate

NUMBATS

This s#&* is so good, it don't even need a caption.

If you want to learn more about these long-tongued little fellows, check out Project Numbat. You can purchase numbat earrings from them! (For me...you can purchase them for me.)

Just in time for Halloween: baby bats!!!!

2009-10-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

What would Halloween be without my annual baby bat roundup?? I know you guys love pictures of baby bats in blankets, and this year I found a whole new heartwarming crop of them. I am gonna go ahead and say that this concludes my very special Halloween edition of OMG What Is That.Blogspot.com. HAPPY HALLOWEEKEND EVERYBODY!!!!

Halloween party animals!

2009-10-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

YES. Trust the UK tabloid media to provide me with a veritable FLURRY of Animals Enjoying Halloween stories. Well, OK! Magazine inspired me with this piece, complete with really splendid pictures of lemurs hangin' out with a pumpkin. (Definitely click on it: I couldn't link to any of the photos.) And then, something magical happened. The more I googled, the more media outlets appeared to be doing similar stories. Apparently this is a "thing," a trend that is sweeping zoos across the world, this serving zoo denizens a spooooky Halloween meal out of a pumpkin. So let's enjoy, shall we, seeing how our animal friends across the globe celebrate Halloween.

SCOTLAND

The best part is that the marmoset's name is Princess Leia.

AUSTRIA

USA

Halloweekend Special: Tasmanian Devils!!!!

2009-10-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

For those of us (me) in the Central Time Zone, Halloweekend starts in just over 2.5 hours. And of course, the waiting is UNBEARABLE. I mean, what could be better? It's Halloween, and it's the weekend. Together at last! So in that spirit of waiting for work to be over/it being Halloween, here is one of however many I end up coming up with Halloweekend Special animals. And so without any further ado, here is the inaugural animal (and also perhaps the only one I will think up, I mean come on, I always talk about bats, it seems)...the strangely cute (considering its name and the disproportionately high number of rough and tumble mailroom employees I have seen with "Taz" tattoos) Tasmanian Devil!

Baby Taz=so cute!

"Heeeeey guys!" That's what he's saying.

Something nice

2009-10-07T19:23:00.001-07:00

Allow me to start off with "in these troubled times."

Okay.

"In these troubled times," it's vital that we all help each other out. And I read about this organization today and figured that, beyond talking about giant bunnies/otters who will (one day, evolution willing) be seen shopping next to you at the record store and crazy cat hair innovations, sometimes it's appropriate to actually try and do something good. And so here comes a link to the American Animal Hospital Association. They provide medical assistance to animals who are abandoned or whose owners are having trouble paying the bills. I think this is fantastic! And you know what? You can donate on their site AND JUST IN TIME FOR THE APPROACHING HOLIDAY SEASON.

Tiny pigs FINALLY available as pets

2009-10-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

I still don't know exactly what they are, but I love that these pigs are tiny and cute, and that the news anchor looks like a post-punk, English Carson Daly. Thanks to my friend Jaina for sending this video my way.

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WAIT--THAT CAN'T BE REAL?!?!?!

2009-10-07T19:02:00.001-07:00

It's been a couple days since The Daily Mail,my favorite news source for wacky animal stories, posted this. So far there has been no retraction. And so it must be real, right? RIGHT? It just looks so adorably...photoshopped. But since it must be real, allow me to present you with...

The tiniest/cutest baby hippo OF ALL TIME. Somehow, finding out that there are pygmy hippos was even more shocking to me than discovering giant otters. But I searched on Wikipedia and there they were, and so, as mentioned before, they must be real, right? RIGHT???? They like to live by water, are reclusive, and are nocturnal. Perhaps I am part pygmy hippo. Except for the reclusive part. That only happens sometimes.

Celebratory cute baby animal round-up

2009-09-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

So I just narrowly prevented an air conditioner from falling out my bedroom window. (Calm yourselves: I live on the ground floor. At most it would've been super annoying and I would've sworn a lot.) And so to celebrate (and because my computer's battery is running down), I present you with these wonderful picture of a mama and baby Siamang. Ahhhhh!!!!

From Zooborns

And this herd of baby capybaras. BFFs on parade!!!

From the LA Times Blog

And finally these kissin' baby meerkats!

From the Telegraph.co.uk site

Everybody's so happy! YAY!!!

Dressing up animals: kitty wigs edition

2009-09-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

A coworker keyed me into the fabulous and fantastic world of KITTY WIGS!!!!!! At first I thought it'd be really disturbing and kinda sad, but it is not. In fact, it totally reminds me how, as a kid, I used to dress up my awesome, dearly departed cat Dusty up in Halloween costumes such as a witch, a hula girl, a cowgirl, and a gypsy. Also possibly more: I was realllly into this. It was fun, okay???? DON'T SAY THAT THIS IS KINDA DISTURBING AND KINDA SAD. It's not. It's adorable. Quirky. But not in that "movie starring the preacher dude from There Will Be Blood as the love interest" sorta way.

Check out the Kitty Wigs website, if you haven't already. My coworker told me that the above picture reminded him of Diablo Cody, which gives the site like 500 extra points in my book. And hence this post.

Coolest French people ever and their incredible backpacker cat

2009-09-25T14:55:00.000-07:00

A coworker keyed me into this INCREDIBLE (read: I wish this was my life, kinda) story. This young French couple decided to backpack from Miami to Tierra del Fuego, all while spending (I believe) a euro a day. AND HANGING OUT WITH THE COOLEST CAT EVER THE APPROPRIATELY NAMED "KITTY," who they encountered in Louisiana, and has been their traveling companion ever since. You can read about the journey and check out some amazing photos on their website Turn of the World.com. It's handily equipped with Google Translate.

Also check out the article and video over at the Urlesque site.

He has a tiny cat umbrella in the video. Ahhhhh it's too much--I love him!!!

Baby sloth bonanza!!!!

2009-09-25T14:31:00.000-07:00

What's cuter than a baby sloth? This post proves the answer: A SLOTH IN A BOX. This first guy here is my desktop theme at work. I was sick the week of my birthday and it made me totally mopey and self-pitying...until I looked into this lil' fellow's adorable, kinda weird eyes. And all was right in the world. I strongly encourage you to google image "Baby sloth." There are more cuddly, Precious Moments-eyed wee slothy creatures than you could ever imagine. AND THEY ARE ALL THE BEST THING EVER.

*Pictures from LA Weekly, Daily Motion, Trip Advisor, and The WB)

Badger and Otter: Best of Friends

2009-08-24T20:03:00.000-07:00

I am always so excited to find out about Unusual Animal BFFs. And these two are especially delightful! The young badger and otter were orphaned at an early age and struck up one of the most unlikeliest/adorablest friendships!!! Check out the video of them playing at Secret World Wildlife Rescue in England. This place sounds wonderful! And yes, I did rip off the headline of this post from the following video on YouTube. It sounds like a super heartwarming illustrated mid-century children's book.

The tiny BFFs make the funniest little giggling noises. Well, depending on your POV, they either sound cute and sweet, or like something that lives under the stairs at your grandparents' creepy old house and that runs around making mischief at night. Your call!

Muffy and Tiddlesworth's ocean adventure

2009-08-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

Continuing the (possibly annoying) mental theme I seem to have in regards to all small animals, I readily assumed that these guinea pigs are a) British and b) on their way to the most delightful picnic/tea time/garden luncheon. "It's the most delightful day for an outing, wouldn't you say, Muffy?" they seem to be saying. But OH DIP this is Peru, friends, not Albion, and well, let's just leave it at that. Ideally the pair was released afterwards to frolic and scamper in a charming wee boat made of a hollowed out coconut and a handkerchief for a sail, a tiny conveyance that would bring them safely and shipshapedly to their friends across the ocean.

(Photo from The Spokesman Review.)

Momongas!

2009-08-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend, the lovely and talented Stacy for leading me to these tiny fuzzy bundles of adorableness. (Also thanks to Cute Overload for not putting up one of those "I steal photos" gifs since I credited them for their hug-inducing photo PLEEEEEASE!) There is not a lot out about these cuddly lil' fellows, although I did find some sort of online squirrel forum called The Squirrel Board which has some pretty awesome pictures of tiny baby squirrels, including two baby squirrel BFFs that could probably bring about world peace in 93% of the world's war torn regions if they were to become international ambassadors. UN, think about it. Heck, that cat ambassador in Japan is doing wonders for his proud nation, and their pancakes in particular.

Caaaarazy 4 Crocs!!!!

2009-08-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

I should just change the name of this blog to "ThingsISawOnTheDailyMailTodayAndRippedOff.Blogspot.Com." Tonight I was looking frantically on all the places I usually steal my news from, and then I thought, "Why not give the Daily Mail a look see? I want to start watching this "True Blood" show my friends are always on about." And what do you know, there, at the bottom of the Daily Mail website was a picture of this dude Chito and his best bud, some...um...flat thing. That "flat thing" turns out to be a giant crocodile who is now Chito's BFF after dude saved him from a nasty gunshot wound IN THE EYE. Chito, I commend you, sir. There exists no greater love than that between a man and his croc.

Repost from the UK: The freakish Frankenstein's monster that is the nation's ideal pet

2009-08-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

God I love The Daily Mail. Sometimes I confuse it with The Sun, with its infamous Page 3 Girls (because everyone needs a little nudie break between the news about the recession or the war in Iraq. SERIOUSLY. That stuff is HEAVY.) Which is an insult to any newspaper--SORRY!!!

Anyways, The Daily Mail is all animals riding public transit and nutty headlines. And now all the wackiness we know and love it for has been combined into one totally breathtaking, absolutely vital weekend news story. Once again, the headline was so good I ripped it off verbatim.

No joke: I want one. So freaky cute, like Chuck Bass on Gossip Girl.

ALL BRITISH COMMUTER CAT SPECTACULAR (ok not "all")

2009-08-05T22:26:00.000-07:00

This entire lengthy post goes out to my friend, Angie, who started a thread elsewhere about AMAZING CATS. And, as you will see, not technically "all" of these cats are British. I just liked the title, and I said I would post an entry entitled that because I liked the way it sounded, and so I did. DEAL WITH IT PEOPLE)

I Can Has Window Seat???
Commuter Cat Is Star of Bus Route
Is he ever! The title is so whimsical and wonderful, I half expect it was written by a Yorkshire Toad who wrote it up on a little typewriter while sipping some PG Tips and making witty repartee with his Mole Wife. Check out the excellent video!

Mystery Cat Takes Regular Bus to the Shops
There's also this guy, Macavity, another English cat who just can't get enough of buses! This story is a classic, and it has the awesome 4-pane "story board" presentation-style photo, which I looooove. I thought I had posted about this before, but apparently not. I did blingee.com it out, once, which was pretty awesome, and totally worthwhile to do yourself if you're bored at work!

Cat Saves Japanese Railway
Stationmaster Cat Draws Tourists
Then there is the lovely Tama, a stray who totally revived a Japanese railroad route. I love that they refer to her as "Stationmaster Cat"! Each one of these stories has video footage, and let me tell you, if you're having a crappy day, just watch one, and NO MORE! Crappy day gone.

So hats off to you, commuter cats. And also to you, Angie, for letting me totally rip off your witty and entertaining posting to another source. Ride on, furry buddies, ride on.

Wait, what am I?

2009-07-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

That's what this baby okapi is asking Life. "Am I like, a zebra? Or a weird horse? What about my striped leggings--does this mean I'm a rollergirl?" So many questions. And since I am totally getting a repetitive stress injury from typing all the time at my new job, I am just going to direct you to the "There's a New Okapi In Town" story at Zooborns.com. Thanks as always to my BFF, Sarah, for forwarding this my way!

Adorable dormice!

2009-07-29T21:08:00.001-07:00

Dormice! They sound so cozy. So Wind in the Willows. And since I've just described the rock'n'roll rats of the previous entry as having that weird tiny animal speech pattern I imagine everything cute has, I am not even gonna delve into that. So here you go. Here's just a bunch of pictures of dormice, doing what they do best: being adorable. And here's a link in case you want to read about them. I love them so much. I just imagine them wearing little bonnets and calling each other "Mother" and "Papa" even though they're married to each other. And the Mother Dormouse is always baking pies and the Papa Dormouse is really forgetful but teaches the Dormouse children valuable life lessons.

(Pic credit: Wildlifetrust.org.uk)

(Daily Mail)

(The Guardian)

(Cheshire Wildlife Trust)

Look to your laurels, Bob Geldof, here come the real... Boomtown rats!

2009-07-29T20:51:00.001-07:00

Yes, I totally lifted that headline and this picture direct from the Daily Mail. They were just too good to not reuse them. Apparently some people from Holland were inspired to teach their pet rats to "play" these itty-bitty instruments after seeing a widdle guitar in a shop window. (Because, as you already know, tiny creatures like rats speak with an adorable lisp and use cutesy words to describe things. They can't help it! They are just that inherently heartwarming.) These Dutch people are truly people after my own heart. Thanks to my friend Tony for finding this. Anything where animals rock out is a-ok in my book.

Read more!

Grammar monkeys on patrol!

2009-07-14T18:07:00.001-07:00

Um, how did I miss this? How did THE WORLD MISS THIS??? Apparently, according to National Geographic, monkeys can understand grammar. I mean, sure, most people know about Koko, the sign language gorilla. But WOW. Read more HERE.
The article describes how "previous research in cotton-top tamarins had shown that the animals can understand basic grammar, for instance, identifying which words logically follow other words in a sentence." And now our scientist friends have demonstrated that tamarins can recognize suffixes and prefixes, and when they are used incorrectly. During the study, when a suffix was used out of order from what the monkeys had been previously hearing, they turned dramatically towards the researchers. THEY WERE THAT UPSET!!!! What sticklers those little tree-swingin' guys are. This is so exciting! Now in my ideal future universe when we are record shopping alongside giant otters and hanging at poolside Vegas bars with giant salamanders, we can have book clubs with tiny punk rock-lookin' monkeys. DREAMLAND!

Baby bats continue to astound with their strangeness, heartwarmingness

2009-07-14T17:56:00.000-07:00

As often happens, my best friend and frequent Cuteoverload.com reader Sarah has opened my eyes (and now yours!) to this adorable yawning baby bat! "Oh it's 11am! I can't believe I stayed up this late into the morning! I am so tiwed!" That is what he is saying. Because as you know by now, I'm sure, all baby animals have an adorable lisp.

(Picture from Northern Territory News in Australia.)

Rein of the giant creatures: Coconut Crab edition

2009-06-26T16:56:00.000-07:00

Coconut crabs sound so fun, don't they? All relaxing on the beach, sipping pina coladas, maybe jammin' a little "Margaritaville." They sound like the ULTIMATE SUMMER CRUSTACEAN!!!!! Total good times, beach buddy. Then you find out they are giant. And nobody's laughing anymore.

Check this guy out. I found him on Webecoist.com, a website that apparently shares my fascination with lifeforms that are much larger than they should be. In the past this blog has envisioned hanging out with giant otters at say, the grocery store, or at a picnic, maybe. Not these crabs. They just wanna sit on your garbage can and scare the @#%^ out of you. Fortunately, like most giant things, they live nowhere near me. They are native to Guam and the Pacific Islands.

Echidna, mon amour

2009-06-16T21:43:00.000-07:00

Ahh yes. Another reader nominated creature, this time from my friend Jaina. This week's update features a questionably cute (Is it? I just can't decide. I have to go with "yes". His funny, stumpy lil' arms and legs just make me want to visualize him having a tea party, or going sailing in a toy boat with a frog and a pygmy jerboa, or something that British animals do.), but 100% smart little dude known as the echidna. This photo (and this info)come from the NY Times, who chose to caption the image with the quote "Muse Opiang was working as a field research officer when he became seized by a passion for the long-beaked echidna," which for some reason strikes me as really funny. "Passion," maybe. Like, dude's all into painting the echidna's toenails for her or turning up sappy love songs that remind him of echidnas when he's in his car.

So why is this interesting? For one thing, echidnas have a larger capacity for reasoning and remembering than humans. "Among humans, the neocortex that allows us to reason and remember accounts for 30 percent of the brain; in echidnas, that figure is 50 percent," the article says. Also they lay eggs, which strikes me as kind of wacky for some reason. Check out the article here. It's worth it for the line about echidnas being made up of Babar and a boatload of other creatures. Babar! He made Arby's fun.

Pygmy jerboas: nature's ultimate Furby

2009-06-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

A while back, my friend Jessica posted this on her facebook page and let me tell you people it is a WONDER. Thanks to my time-wasting obsession with weird and super cute animals, I am well familiar with jerboas. But this one--WHOA. When I was in preschool, I loved dinosaurs but I really had no sense of depth perception, or how to draw a line correctly, and so all the brontosauruses and such that I drew either had massive football shaped tails that dwarfed their bodies or wee little tiny diamond shaped heads that could in no way jive with the size of the rest of their appendages. This is kinda what the little dude in this video reminds me of. He's like, part tiny Easter chick, part some kind of wildly popular children's holiday toy that I can't think of the name of right now. I WANT ONE SO BAD.

Unlikely BFFs Part XXII: Bobcat and fawn edition

2009-05-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

These unlikely best buds have been rockin' the internet and warming hearts for a week or two now. During the recent Jesusita fire near Santa Barbara, this fawn and bobcat kitten lost their homes. The bobcat was found near Arnold Schwarzenegger's ranch, all dehydrated and sad and near death. When the good people at Animal Rescue Team brought the kitten in, she ran to the fawn and a beautiful friendship was born. Animal Planet, (where I picked up this story), is quick to point out that the rescue organization doesn't usually pair wild animals of different species together, but was out of room due to the many fire-related animal refugees. If you can help out some animals displaced by the blaze, read the original article and check out the sites listed below. Any amount helps!

Animal Rescue Team

Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network

FINALLY, Japan creates supercute, superglowing green primates

2009-05-27T20:21:00.000-07:00

Once again, my BFF Sarah did all the legwork for this story and just forwarded it my way so that I could do as little work as possible and still give this blog weekly updates. EXCELLENT. And what a story it is!

Scientists in--where else?--Japan have genetically engineered glowing monkeys. Sure, they glow green only under a special light, which is probably not available to you and I--NO, not even at Spencer's Gifts. Notice the 4-pane split screen photo I selected for this story (because I love split screen photos; check 'em out, each pane is so different, all with their own lil' glowing marmoset personalities!). The photo shows just a tantalizing glimpse of what their specially glowing hair roots, blood, and skin look like under the aforementioned superscientific light. How did this miracle occur? Through the careful splicing of a jellyfish gene into the wee embryonic monkeys. While this innovation may seem like the perfect accompaniment to Japan's recent crop of robot models/teachers or the Deadhead who just wants to keep reliving that magical LSD trip at the circus, these little dayglo primates were actually bred to study Parkinson's and ALS. Read more in the wonderfully named Yahoo news story Green Glowing Monkeys Have Green Glowing Babies.

Waterskiing Squirrel!

2009-05-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

If you're like me, you enjoy watching local news for the awkward banter between newscasters, the low-rent commercials for businesses you'd never previously known existed like Cell Phone Galaxy and Big Ed's Grab'n'Go Liquor Depot, and--of course--for that vital last five minutes of news, where instead of helping our friends and neighbors to better understand Conflict in the Mideast or How the Economy Works, they do a heartwarming, undercover investigation on what your dog goes when you're at work all day, or how a cat in Fayetteville, AR seems to be nursing a baby raccoon as its own kitten. I live for that crap. And so must you, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this blog. Therefore, you have probably already seen a waterskiing squirrel. Waterskiing squirrels are a fuzzy, daredevil staple of late Friday night news programs during the summer. But you know why that is? Because they're awesome. Finally it's nice outside, and in the spirit of spring/summer making its way to Minneapolis, I present you with....

Twiggy, the Waterskiing Squirrel. Don't forget to wear your life jacket!

"The Superb Lyre Bird"

2009-05-22T16:03:00.001-07:00

Drew told me about this creature a week or two ago, and up until now I have been too busy doing boring crap to look it up. It's the lyre bird! They're famed--according to BBC host David Attenborough--for their beautiful song. And it's true; it's hypnotic! Just like those little plastic birds where you rest the bird (well, its tiny little underside sensors) in the palm of your hand and it begins to warble. You know the ones--you used to be able to find them in the tacky lawn ornament/gift departments of WalMarts and plant nurseries, AND YOUR PARENTS WOULD NEVER BUY YOU (me) ONE. Anyways, it's like that, but as Attenborough goes on to explain, it's EVEN MORE COMPELLING because the lyre bird likes to throw a few surprises in there for his listening audience, namely sounds the bird has picked up from living in a jungle, surrounded apparently by BBC and National Geographic photographers who set things on fire a lot. Watch/listen for yourself!

This graduation season, give the gift of SLOTH

2009-05-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

This week's featured post on baby sloths comes courtesy of my best friend Sarah, and once again, the Zooborns website!!! Sure, everybody knows that sloths love to party (courtesy of a certain SNL sketch), but did you also know that the little ones are totallllly cute? (I needed to think of a word besides adorable or heartwarming. The English language does not have enough. No--never enough for this blog.) This fellow above is a Bradypus sloth who lives at the Aviarios Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica, the world's only sloth sanctuary. They give injured or orphaned sloths a home, and are all about sloth education efforts. Here's a video of some baby sloths at the sanctuary:

Check out the Aviarios site's adoption program!

Adopt me! The perfect gift for that someone special.

More incredible features of the site include: A volunteer program that you don't have to spend a ton of money to participate in! An opportunity to sleep with sloths living, sleeping, and playing around you!! That's right, there's a small, veeeery affordable boutique hotel at the sanctuary. Seriously, nearly any one of my friends (HINT STRONG HINT) could afford this as a nice gift for me, as say, a birthday gift, or even a Thursday gift. There is also a section entitled "Sloth Magic" where you can read stories about sloth's effects on people's lives. Seriously, this is good stuff. Sloths 4EVA!!!

Aye-aye, I love you!!

2009-05-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

Whenever I have seen baby aye-ayes while google imaging stuff, I have always kind of thought they might not be exactly 100% real. You know, like, that gross human dog thing that sometimes comes up, or other similar photoshop nightmares. Not that baby aye-ayes are nightmares--oh no!!! They are weird-lookin', to be sure, but they are also kinda cute in a freaky way. Just the way I like 'em!

Read the article Second Aye-Aye Ever Born in North America at Zooborns.com. And definitely watch the video. "Meep!" he says. Meep. Just straight up heartwarming. Meep. Photos below from the Zooborns article. Thanks to Sarah for sending me this.

Meep! They are endangered, and only two US zoos have these little guys as part of breeding programs: the Denver Zoo, where this wee little fellow was born, and the San Francisco Zoo. Meep meep meep. I love him.

Giant amphibian of the week: giant salamanders

2009-05-08T21:04:00.000-07:00

"Heeeeey ladiiiiiies!!!!!" That is what this guy is saying.

They can grow to just under six feet long. They live in China, Japan, and ahhhhhhhhh--what's this???--the eastern United States. Wow. So close, but yet so far. Thank God there is an extensive system of great lakes and rivers throughout this country so that giant salamanders can get wherever the hell they want and take up residence in our brooks and ponds, where they will set up giant underwater Club Meds for their brethren in giantness, giant otters and giant turtles. Maybe giant rabbits, too, but I guess they'd probably have to be outfitted with scuba gear, and frankly I don't really know how much giant rabbits would be into that.

These are the biggest known amphibians living in the world today (like how I left that window open just in case they find a bigger one, say, living in the New Jersey sewers or something? That's professionalism.) They can live up to fifty years in captivity, which I figure is long enough to teach one how to talk. Check out this charming family anecdote, once again from Wikipedia:

The male fertilises the eggs externally by releasing his sperm onto them, and will then guard them for at least three months, until they hatch. At this point, the larvae will live off their noticeable stored fat until ready to hunt. Once ready they will hunt as a group rather than individually.

Just imagine, oversized, pudgy gangs of these things, patrolling our waterways! Hunting together, and then later bro-ing down for a round of underwater flag football! That's what giant, freaky underwater family is all about.

I love how people always pick up giant animals like that. It's like, "Just me 'n' my buddy, Rod the Giant Salamander, hangin' out before the big game!"

Giant reptiles part XXIV: giant turtle edition

2009-05-08T20:51:00.000-07:00

Another Maley suggestion. Check this guy out! He can grow up to six feet in length, which means he could totally party with those huge South American otters, but not really the giant toads, because they are big, sure, but scale-wise, it just wouldn't work. But whatever, right? The otters and turtles could go to Wisconsin Dells together, or like, to the movies, or say a record store. Sadly, the Cantor's giant soft-shelled turtle is endangered. It was last seen in Cambodia six years ago, but I mean, when you find out that Cantor's turtles spend 95% of their life buried and unmoving, with only eyes and mouth visible, only surfacing twice a day to breath, it's really not all that surprising that no one sees them all thaaaaat often. Scientific fact: the other 5% of their life is spent water skiing and eating Bugles brand snacks.

Solenodons: cuddly, near-prehistoric, poisonous shrew creatures

2009-05-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

Special thanks to my friend Maley for suggesting the three awesome/freaky animals featured in this week's critter roundup on OMG What is that???. They are truly weird, in the best possible way. Take for example, the solenodon. Their name sounds like a prehistoric dinosaur type, which is funny because according to Wikipedia, the species resembles "very closely those that lived near the end of the age of the dinosaurs." Hmm. But that's not all. Besides looking totally bizarre, check out this little pearl of knowledge from our friends over at Wikipedia:

Solenodons have a few intriguing traits, two of them being the position of the teats (2) on the female, almost on the buttocks of the animal, and the second being the venomous saliva that flows from modified salivary glands in the mandible through grooves on the second lower incisors.

Yes, that's right. This is one of NORTH AMERICA's, and the world's only venomous mammals. The only existing subspecies now live in Haiti and Cuba, although they were once prevalent throughout North America. They no longer are, because they're endangered. :-(

Study suggests pterosaurs not just scary, also kinda gross

2009-05-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

National Geographic is reporting that a recent University of Tokyo study contends that pterosaurs--previously the largest prehistoric creature believed to have taken to the sky--actually might have been simply too heavy to fly. The findings are based on a study of modern birds that shows anything heavier than 90 pounds, with a wingspan greater than 16.7 feet, just straight up couldn't flap it's giant, terrifying wings fast enough to keep the bird/winged reptile/pegasus in the air.

So what do they think pterosaurs did with their wings? Did they just bumble along on the ground running into stuff and screeching? NO. They think they might have swam. Gross. Just imagine: you're at the beach, splashing around with your friends and suddenly you see a ripple in the water and THIS THING swimming at you. In the sky, fine. In the water, hellz no. I don't care what pterosaurs got up to when they were flying around. Just keep 'em out of my swimming pool.

That being said, the whole rest of the article is all like, "Well here's a theory I kind of thought up while standing in line at the coffeeshop, but on second thought it doesn't really make any sense. But I'm saying it anyways because I'm a scientist. Even though it doesn't really make any sense, just so ya know." Read more in this National Geographic article, including reasons why hell, who knows, maybe they could fly! like really light bone density and wacky atmospheric conditions.

Sonya=love

2009-05-04T10:31:00.000-07:00

My friends Pete and Sarah showed me this video last weekend and it is a strong contender for Most Adorable Creature of All Time. You got some tough competition now, Binkie.

Binkie, original cutest animal ever

This video is of a slow loris named Sonya who lives with some people in Russia, where it is both legal and ADORABLE to keep slow loris at pets. I love Sonya. I love her owners. Hell, this video makes me love everything.

Agoutis: neurotic but awesome

2009-04-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

According to the LA Zoo website, where I dug up this picture, "Brazilian Agoutis are nervous animals always on the lookout for danger." They also live in small social groups and mate for life. Sounds like a more pro-commitment me! And instead of "danger" they mean "vodka"! Hey-oooo!!! I just pwned myself. Here's some agoutis.

Here's a Daily Mail article about the first baybay agoutis born in the UK.

Check out this link for another awesome agouti picture. It chronicles a bird rescue in Belize!!! That's pretty damn cool. AND they have an agouti. Belize Bird Rescue.

Baby lemurs

2009-04-24T22:22:00.000-07:00

I am pretty sure my BFF Sarah checks out Zooborns.com every day as soon as she gets to work. I imagine her sitting there with a coffee, waiting frantically/impatiently to see which adorable exotic animals were born in which zoos, just waiting for it to be something weirdly charming like this tiny baby lemur, which she sent me. So hats off to you, Sarah, and here's some tiny baby lemurs in your honor.

Zooborns: A labor of lemur love

"Read about me in the previously mentioned article!"

We've seen it before with bats, and now we're seeing it with lemurs: nothing is cuter than putting a tiny animal in a sock.

These guys look like the ad campaign for a live action Disney film in which precocious twin baby lemurs cook up a crazy scheme to make their divorcing parents fall in love once again and stay together as a family. Voiced by Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus.

Pangolin: the cutest animal with scales out there?

2009-04-19T21:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Sharyn for giving me the heads up on pangolins, a true contender for the Weird Adorable genre of animals. Check 'em out! Are they kinda creepy because of the scale thing? Or weirdly heartwarming because of their itty bitty widdle faces? You be the judge!

And just in case you're thinking "WTF is a pangolin?" as someone so eloquently put it on a picture I saw while looking for photos, it's a scaly anteater native to Africa and Asia.

Amazing vending machine-using crows!

2009-04-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

My friend Jaina recently posted a link to this blog The Triumph of Bullshit via Twitter, and I was blown away by how awesome it is. It's funny, it's smart, and it gave me this story so I don't have to actually think up weird animals or weird animal news to look up and post on this blog. Everybody wins!

So this fellow, Joshua Klein, came up with the idea of training captive crows to pick up and return coins in exchange for peanuts. The hope is that these crows will pass on their crow knowledge to wild crows, who will stop being goth and haunting lovesick poets and do something positive for society. But I'll let him speak for himself:

The goal of this project is to create a device that will autonomously train crows. So far we've trained captive crows to deposit dropped coins they find on the ground in exchange for peanuts. The next step is to see how quickly we can get wild crows to learn the system, and then how quickly they can learn it from each other.

Once we've got system down for teaching coin collection we'll move to seeing how flexibly they can learn *other* tasks, like collecting garbage, sorting through discarded electronics, or maybe even search and rescue.

You can check out more info at his website here. I found the photo on The Triumph of Bullshit. (I'm hoping they won't think it's bullshit that I used it.)

Hedgehogs galore!

2009-03-16T20:01:00.000-07:00

They live in gardens! They're tiny and run on itty-bitty legs!!! What's not to love? These creatures are so little and adorable, you just know they have heartwarming tea parties with their froggy neighbors.

Soooo wittle!!!! As has been previously reported on this blog, adorable baby animals cannot properly produce the "L" sound.

Pink animals round II: Dolphin edition

2009-03-16T19:54:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you recall the beauty and romance of the pink iguanas I posted several weeks ago. Now thanks to my friend and coworker Stacy, OMG, what ist hat??? The blog is pleased to present you with...the pink dolphin. You can find all kinds of fairly credible actual "news" news sources that have reported on this albino little fellow living in a Louisiana lake, but frankly I prefer this Nerve.com article.

"Shockingly Pink" Dolphin Will Warm Our Hearts, Sass Up Our Oceans. The real magic is in the headline, I believe.

Crazy about cavies!!!

2009-03-07T12:21:00.000-08:00

So apparently last year this guy in Milwaukee found this pet cavy just hanging out in the middle of the street and from the looks of this picture, totally made a new fuzzy BFF!!! The Oregonian here has a pretty good write-up of the heartwarming saga.

Freaky baby armadillo

2009-03-07T12:17:00.000-08:00

Is it wrong of me to think that, in a weird way, it's also kinda cute? Sure it looks kinda larval, but it's so itty-bitty!!! Thanks to Stacy for alerting me to this creature. Lil' Squirmy--as I'm going to call him--was born about a month ago at the Minnesota Zoo.

"Wuv' me!!!"--Lil' Squirmy

You can find another pic on the City Pages blog.

Animal Magic: Astounding Victorian Taxidermy

2009-02-26T23:17:00.000-08:00

I first read an article about Victorian hobby taxidermist Walter Potter and his crazy animal dioramas when I went to the Christmas All Tomorrow's Parties in 2007. It was so incredible that we taped up the article in our chalet, and now, after not thinking of it the other sixty-something times I posted on this blog, I bring a selection of fine scenes to you. Note: according to the Guardian article that I read, all the animals were discovered to be already dearly departed before Potter used them.

First two pictures from show.me.uk, last one from boingboing,net. Google image this fellow and you will find all kinds of even crazier stuff!!! Seriously, there are cat weddings, pig bands, and bird funeral processions that I either couldn't find or wouldn't fit on the page. Google image away!

Ladies and gentlemen...allow me to introduce...the binturong!

2009-02-26T23:08:00.000-08:00

And the animal of the week for February 22-28 is...the binturong!! Hailing from the rainforests of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, the binturong enjoys hanging out in tree canopies, watching old movies, and having a prehensile tail. Also commonly referred to as a "bearcat," "Asian bearcat", or "Palawan bearcat," this fuzzy little dude has been known to make chuckle-like sounds when pleased, and wail if annoyed.

Me and my giant rat

2009-02-20T14:43:00.001-08:00

Two years ago, this "unknown giant rat" was discovered--like many great previously undiscovered creatures--in Indonesia. From the Fox News article:

"The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat," said Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. "With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the camp several times during the trip."

Eesh. Giant AND friendly. But...lovable? I think Blingee.com can make that happen!!!

Glitter Graphics

Ahhhh!! BEST FRIENDS??? Totally adorable. Lean on me, lil' buddy, lean on me.

Kittens Inspired By Kittens...the remix

2009-02-20T14:09:00.000-08:00

It was only a matter of time. After the phenomenal success of 2006's Leprechaun in Alabama newsclip Chopped and Screwed remix, we as Americans expect every popular YouTube video to have an appropriately catchy remix to play after we've exhausted the hilarity of the original video. And I couldn't think of anything to post today, so I just searched for "Kittens Inspired by Kittens" again, and found this hot techno remix! This one's a banga-langa!

That video of a little girl narrating a book about kittens that everybody's been telling me about

2009-02-12T18:17:00.000-08:00

It is FANTASTIC!

"Brainstorm!

Magic!"

And the song in the middle just adds so much. I love this kid. Someone get her a book deal, ayyyyyyyy-yoooo!!!

Foxes on a trampoline!!

2009-02-12T18:05:00.000-08:00

This next video comes courtesy of my BFF Sarah. IT IS AMAZING. Who knew foxes would enjoy hanging out on a trampoline so much, and that we in turn would gain so much enjoyment from their happiness? Truly it is beautiful when nature meets a suburban backyard.

Click link to watch totally awesome video

Rabbit wedding

2009-01-30T20:28:00.000-08:00

I think the concept of people making animals get married is really funny. And my wrists are starting to hurt from typing so much today. So fortunately after some strenuous googling, I dug up this BBC story from 2006 about the marriage of two very large bunnies. From the article:

A bowler hat was placed on the head of Roberto, aged three, who is 3ft 6in long and is believed to be the biggest rabbit in the world.

Organisers dressed Amy in a mini veil and a wedding band was placed around her paw.

What a blushing bride. For any true romantics out there, I definitely suggest clicking on the link.

Scientific forays into heartwarmingness: marmosets and their marmoset language

2009-01-30T20:16:00.000-08:00

Marmosets, previously known largely for their ability to look ridiculously heartwarming (see photos), have been revealed to have a recently discovered incredible new reason for awesomeness. They talk. Well, they have tiny adorable dialects, with distinct accents and stuff. AND THEY ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES!!! Japanese macaques and chimps have their own special primate languages, too. Man, I hope that when Obama said this administration would bring back science to its rightful place or whatever, I hope that he meant increased funding for studies in ADORABLENESS. Check out the story at the National Geographic site. Primate Dialects Recorded in South America--A First

Great ideas in natural selection: pink iguana species discovered

2009-01-22T21:27:00.000-08:00

He's an iguana. He's pink. What's not to love? And how long till Paris Hilton snaps one of these up? You KNOW they'd look better with a diamond collar than a plain ol' green iguana.

Pink iguanas or "sparkle lizards," as I believe the scientific community must now be required to call them, were actually discovered in 1986, but was only recently declared to be its own heartwarming species. They live, where else!, in the Galapagos.

France welcomes new weirdadorable baby lemur into the world

2009-01-22T21:24:00.000-08:00

Welcome to life, you freaky cute green-eyed little charmer. He was born at the Besançon Zoo in France just in time for the Inauguration, which I'm sure he totally watched on TV with a bunch of baby geckos or something.

More adorable than your coworker's baby pictures

2009-01-15T23:00:00.000-08:00

Embarrassing confession: as a child I owned probably like fifty or so stuffed animals. No baby dolls. Did not want. (This was probably somewhat telling inasmuch that my life plans include a) someday having an awesome career and b) if that fails, to live in a decaying Victorian house with lots and lots of CATS.) And so, when my grade school class performed a Thanksgiving play and I was assigned the role of a pilgrim lady, there was a big debate about whether I could swaddle my favorite stuffed baby buffalo in a blanket and bring 'er to that special feast, or if I had to carry around some foreign, plastic HUMAN baby. In the end, I went with the baby. Anything for the play, you know. But when you see these amazingly "ahhhhh"-inducing photos sent to me by my BFF Sarah, you'll understand my dilemma.

Who knew a monkey and a sloth could be tiny buddies? Ahhhhh meter ranking: ULTRAHIGH.

These are all zoo babies, and so hence the site Zooborns.com. Shockingly heartwarming!

Pallas' Cat: Central Asia's Best Kept Secret??

2009-01-07T20:49:00.000-08:00

Check out this caaa-razy kitty! It's called a manul, or Pallas' cat, and it lives in Central Asia. So adorable! So weird, kinda!

Look at 'em! There's a bunch of little Pallas buddies, hanging out in a box together! The greatest gift of all? So freaky cute!!! Kinda like Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl....

Underwater wonders: the squid edition

2009-01-07T20:29:00.000-08:00

Amazing. This thing, the oh-so-adorably-named piglet squid, is real. Way to go nature!!! While google image searching this thing, I came across a website dedicated solely to squids. Incredible! If only these people would do a similar tarsier-themed website.

Even more animal BFFs

2008-12-17T19:42:00.000-08:00

I'd like to say this is in honor of my BFF Sarah coming to my fair city for Christmas, but really it's just because someone posted it somewhere else and I instantly knew it was perfect holiday fodder for this blog. It's a "real life Thumper and Bambi"! With a real smooth jazz soundtrack!!!

Deer and bunny BFF

In honor of last week's finale of "Paris Hilton's My New BFF": the kinkajou

2008-12-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

I don't know how it happened, but somehow SOMEHOW I saw almost every episode of the MTV soon-to-be-classic Paris Hilton's My New BFF, and once it ended last week (or maybe two weeks ago? I am too lazy to look it up), there was a giant, pink, reality show shaped hole in my heart. And so, to keep the magic alive, here's a tribute to the exotic pet who totally WASN'T Hilton's BFF...the kinkajou who bit her.

Kinkajous are nocturnal rainforest dwellers, which means they are PARTY ANIMALS!!!! Alas this perfect pairing was not a match made in heaven, and Paris' new BFF is now a human, Brittany Flickinger.

The littlest froggie

2008-11-30T19:27:00.000-08:00

This little fellow was discovered on the same animal-findin' expedition as the loung-a-roo pictured first in the post below. Dude is only 0.6in long and is so tiny that he was "detected only when it produced a soft call from among leaves on the steepest part of the forest floor," according to National Geographic.

Totally tree kangaroos!

2008-11-30T18:49:00.000-08:00

This golden-mantled tree kangaroo was recently discovered maxin' and relaxin' with a crew of super chill scientists who discovered a ton of new animals (or in the case of this cute little dude, never before known to inhabit Indonesia).

And this Goodfellow's tree kangaroo was discovered when I tried googling the guy above. Clearly it's safe to say that when nature puts a kangaroo in a tree, the internet wins.

Ahhhh!!!

Tiny tarsiers possibly even more awesome than big ones

2008-11-30T18:38:00.000-08:00

Behold, the pygmy tarsier. Long thought extinct, they were recently discovered alive and adorable (?) in Indonesia. MSNBC really brought this story to the fore with their recently published piece entitled (of course) Real life furbies rediscovered. Hey-yoooo!!! Everybody knows nothing makes online news readers click "read more" faster than an outdated Christmas toy reference!!!

More awesome pictures of lizards in outfits!

2008-11-15T23:56:00.000-08:00

My dream: a bartender lizard

This site is incredible. You can get an anti-Bush or a cowboy lizard outfit/harness!!!

Ok, so it's not an outfit, but best buddies are the greatest accessory!!!

VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!!

2008-11-04T10:21:00.000-08:00

Barack the vote!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes We Can Has

Adorable party otters

2008-10-27T13:06:00.000-07:00

Economy eeshmonomy. Otters=LOVE.

When bigger is better: the giant otter edition

2008-10-27T12:49:00.000-07:00

According to Keri, who introduced me to the wild and wonderful world of giant South American otters, they can grow up to six feet long. Just imagine, sitting next to one of these guys at the coffeeshop, or seeing two of them in the frozen foods aisle of your local grocery store!! Wow! I wish!!!

And check out this amazing picture that I couldn't figure out how to resize:

Yum yum yum

Ahhhhhh!!! So cute, so crazy!!! They look like a character in a Pixar or a live-action kids' movie where a little boy learns to believe in himself with the help of Ottie, the giant otter he finds living in his bathtub! To learn more about actual giant otters, check out Giant Otter.Org. They have a section about ecotourism!!! Oh how I want to go on a giant otter themed vacation!

Adorable baby kangaroos, now available in regular or albino

2008-08-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

I can't post the pictures, due to some whim of flickr, but believe me when I say these pictures will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Please see Dark Roasted Blend, a blog devoted to drinking coffee and lookin' at weird stuff. Two of my greatest life joys!!!

And here's a link to Corpus Callosum, a site for my more scientific-minded readers (yeah kids, OMGwhatisthat.blogspot.com is probably not an acceptable source for your school papers), with pictures of a lovable albino baby kangaroo!!!

2008-08-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

If normal-sized animals are cute and amazing, then tiny ones must be even MORE cute and MORE amazing. I believe this is a scientific fact. I learned it in 7th grade science class.

Check out this beautiful collection of wee friends.

Dog costume party, UK style

2008-08-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Olivia for sending this to me just in time for me to post it when I am too lazy/tired from working two jobs in one day to do the stressful work of googling "weird animal news" until I find something entertaining. So, here is a link to a Dog Costume Party at the Nelson's Head, an awesome pub nearby where I used to live. You can bring your own pizza inside, and there are always frogdogs*!!!

*Frogdog below. This frogdog looks decidedly unfroggy, but totally proud to be an American.

Ewww...but it was inevitable that it be posted here. The Montauk Monster!!!!

2008-08-08T23:34:00.000-07:00

I saw it first a couple days ago, on Colbert, having given up on Gawker a couple months ago for some reason I can no longer remember. It is, of course, the Montauk Monster, the toast of summer 2008, which we will perhaps remember fondly for at least another week. Here it is, in all its gross, decaying glory, the underwater hell beast that totally crashed out on the beach, to our delight, and disgust.

And here's the wonderful picture currently gracing the desktop of the timeclock-computer at the record store where I sometimes work. Finally! A change (in decomposition) that we can believe in!

A tribute to a very special badger

2008-08-08T23:23:00.000-07:00

Just under two weeks ago, a tragic event occurred, an event which has been haunting me every day. And so I feel I must pay tribute to a very special badger. Here's the story: after a fun and low-key tubin' trip to the Cannon River, some friends and I were driving back to Minneapolis on some winding country roads. As we ascended a hill, we saw a badger crossing the road. It was too close to stop. There was a collective intake of breath. Then--miraculously--the badger made it across. A sigh of relief. Then...tentatively...foolhardily, or perhaps, bravely, a second badger tiptoed into the road.

There was nothing for it. If we swerved, we would hit the badger who had made it safely across. So the entire car gasped, and suddenly there was a THUMP as we hit the badger. Silence reined throughout the car. I had never been in a vehicle that had hit an animal before.

Now, as a coworker tried to tell me, "maybe he made it...but probably not." And in that case, this little badger died for his friend. And that's heartwarming. Last night we drank a toast to that brave badger, and today I would like to dedicate a post on omgwhatisthat.blogspot.com, with some pictures of my favorite badgers throughout history.

God rest your soul, little buddy. You were a brave, brave lil' badger.

Roger the nutria

2008-08-08T23:20:00.000-07:00

This is a follow-up to the picture of the guy with the lollipop-lovin' nutria at a county fair. And this picture is from someone's flickr page. I really hope they will be okay with me posting it, because it is incredible. Look at this nutria!!! We named him Roger one day at work. Do you know what he is saying? He is saying...

"I WUV DUM DUMS!!!! MORE WOOT BEER DUM DUMS!!!!"

Little known fact: all nutrias have a slight speech impediment, due to their giant rat-beaver teeth.

Night of the flying colugos

2008-07-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

This is a colugo. According to a Berkeley University article, this "'flying' lemur of Malaysia is the champion of all gliding mammals, able to drop from the forest canopy, glide more than the length of two football fields, execute 90-degree turns and then alight gently on a tree trunk."

Colugos were formed millions of years ago after a squirrel and a bat met at a tree-shrew party in college, decided they didn't give a damn about what society thought, and would stay in Malaysia forever to produce their race of flying squirrel bat children.*

*Not scientifically proven.

Party shrew!!!

2008-07-29T08:45:00.000-07:00

This little dude loves to PARTAY!!! (Well, not this exact type of little dude--I couldn't find a picture of Malaysia's pen-tailed tree shrew, but this is a tree shrew nonetheless.) According to this BBC report, the party shrews drink fermented flower nectar (Ahhhh....) that would give them "a 36% chance of being drunk by human standards." Except the booze doesn't seem to effect them!!! They just keep partyin'!!!

There are also some videos on the BBC site, including one with the waaaaay British tag "slow loris fancies a tipple." Indeed!

Man feeding lollipops to giant rat creature

2008-07-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

"Yesss, eat my precious nutria, you have a long day ahead of you here at the El Paso County Fair!"

2 fast 2 furious: that lizard that runs on water!!!

2008-07-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

Here he is, in all his glory! The lizard that runs on water! This is one of the finest of all God's creatures, significantly better than narwhals, and almost as amazing as mouse-lemurs or tarsiers.

A tribute to geeps

2008-06-28T00:39:00.000-07:00

Goat plus sheep, together at last. But its offspring is just TOO LONG!!!