Tortoise Fashion Show

Why did the chicken cross the road . . . on a tortoise? This is no joke! Katie Bradley, from Vancouver, Canada, encourages us to ask this very question and others while contemplating the many delightful suits she knits for her pet tortoise. You must check the wide selection of high-fashion clothes out -- and don't forget to note the blasé model, who is clearly an old-hand at the cat-walk!
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gallery/2013/nov/22/woolly-suits-for-tortoises-in-pictures

Panda Party Poopers

You can imagine my delight and eagerness when I read the headline "Baby panda party" and the description that the video would show me how they "celebrate turning 100 days old." Well, this has to be the most boring party of all time. Can't they ferment some bamboo juice or something? Call in someone to play a rousing song on the erhu! Let's get this party started!
http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/ID/2415858475/

Chatty Cub

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/video-raw-white-lion-cub-debuts-at-serbia-zoo/article14685328/

I'm not sure that the above photo is of our little star in the link above it, but I am sure that this little gaffer at the Belgrade Zoo -- who was just introduced to the public on Thursday Oct. 3 -- is a talker! He has something to say, and, by golly, he's going to say it! And you'll listen because he's one of rarest creatures in the world. Or is it because he has the most adorable pot-belly you've ever seen?

Shadow Dancers

I think this stunning photo of vicuña, a South American animal closely related to llamas, is one of the most gorgeous, inventive portraits I've ever seen. At first I was taken by fact that the helicopter's perspective emphasizes the flatness of the desert around the animals, and only then did I notice that their shadows show their shapes like cave-drawings. This is photography as Romantic-era poetry: photographer George Steinmetz makes the world new again for us by teaching us to perceive it in an original way.

Wedding Flight

You must watch this amazing short film of the wedding flight of a virginal queen bee. It's from a new film that I'm dying to see -- More Than Honey, which explores the global crisis facing honeybees. As The Guardian site notes, the director Markus Imhoof used mini-helicopters and high-speed cameras to capture this incredible extraordinary video; "it took 10 days to get 36 seconds of footage at Heidrun Singer's hives in Austria." Thanks to their incredible patience, we have this jewel of a video:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2013/sep/06/queen-bee-wedding-flight-video

!Bienvenidos, olinguito!

Meet the most recently identified carnivore, the olinguito, which has been described as cross between a teddy bear and a house cat. Hellooooo! Best animal ever! Just one more reason why I think South America has some of the most wonderful animals in the whole world. (Google "pacarana" if you don't believe me!) News sites are exploding with this great news, but I think the BBC site has the best coverage because it includes more photos of this beautiful creature: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23701151 Turns out that zoos were mystified at their inability to breed it, only for the scientific world to realize now that they were trying to cross an olingo with an olinguito (translation: small and adorable olingo. Spanish rocks, too.)

Norman, the Scooter Dog

 

Meet Norman, widely known as "the scooter dog" because he has just been inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records for setting the record as the fastest scooter-riding dog. (I can't imagine he'll have much competition in this category.) But what really impresses me are his bike-riding abilities. He pedals perfectly, like he's in the Tour de France. Check out the video on his awesome website. If it doesn't make you feel like you're losing your mind, then you have a much stronger grasp of your sanity than I do.
http://www.normanthescooterdog.com