Move over Kung Fu Panda, there’s a new bear in town. Meet Kumo, aka Cloud or Claude, an Asian Black Bear at the Asa Zoo in Hiroshima, Japan who has developed this amazing skill in captivity after his mother was killed in a trap. If you’re impatient, feel free to skip ahead to the 1:10 mark:
For more on this guy, here’s a short news piece, as well as the requisite Jedi Remix!
(via Tosh)
A Bigfoot was recently sighted by a North Carolina scientist / wordsmith:
Blogadilla artist’s rendering based upon Tim Peeler’s description:
The latest craze in China has people painting or dying their dogs so they appear to be wild animals. The results are, well, shocking to say the least. One of my Asian friends sums it up best: “Look what we did! It’s like God found a way to give me a pet tiger!”
This craze isn’t just limited to Golden Retrievers that look like tigers. There isn’t a more appropriate animal mashup in China as the fluffy puppy that appears to be a panda cub:
No word yet if this is all just a response from the Chinese government to protect their citizens against the Teenage Mutant Ninja Poodle.
(via Britzgerald, via What’s On Xaimen)
Meet some of the most ancient living species on the planet: Triops.
(photo: Triops World)
The order of life they belong to, Notostraca, has been on the planet since the Upper Cambrian Era (542 million years ago), and at least one species of Triops, Triops cancriformis, has remained unchanged since the Upper Triassic (220 million years ago).
These ancient creatures, often called “Tadpole Shrimp,” are siblings to modern crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, shrimp). They are incredibly resilient: their eggs can withstand drought, can survive dried for 25 years, and can survive temperatures of 176ºF. Some species of Triops are exclusively female – bearing “hermaphroditic” glands which allow them to self-fertilize. Oddity Bonus Round: they are called “Triops” because they have three eyes – two compound eyes near the front of their heads, and a third central “naupliar” eye which allows them to detect light overhead.
There are a number of Triops science kits available, where these amazing creatures can be grown similarly to “Sea Monkeys.” I have recently purchased a kit and I will be posting the results of the Blogadilla Triops Research Laboratory on our site, stay tuned.
Third Eye Bonus Round:
• The awesome Taiwanese site “Triops World.”
• A recent giant (8 in) species of Triops found in the Ukraine: LINK.
This is the best thing to come off the Internet since the piano-playing cat (aka Keyboard Gato):
(via Pops)
