Friday Fun Thing: Cuteness...and More

Apologies...life's been busy, so the blog hasn't. Might as well start posting again as it ended last, with a Friday Fun Thing, even though it's a Thursday.

In the news today is a story about the birth of a panda at Zoo Atlanta. The zoo's Panda Cam will have videos of mother and baby starting Friday, Sept. 8, at 10 a.m.

What this news brought to mind was a story from the summer of 2005 that was easy to miss about the baby panda explosion in China. One zoo in Sichuan (southwest China) had 16 pandas born in one season. The pictures (each site a little different) of 16 of the fuzzy adorable little critters are simply too cute not to view and can be seen here, others as a slideshow here and here, and if that weren't enough, video from Reuters of the "panda kindergarten" here. There are numerous other sites, but these were the best of the ones sampled and it's mostly the same pictures repeated elsewhere.

If 16 baby pandas all at once don't peg your cute meter, try PandaFix.com for frequent doses of panda goodness, including links to a number of panda cams.

If pandas aren't your thing and you feel you're missing out on the "awwwwwww" factor here, there's a blog that will help you out of your dilemma and straight into Cute Overload. Check it for regular picture postings of (mostly) baby critters of all sorts.

If, on the other hand, you can do without cute but really like amazing (with occasional cute thrown in), check out the astonishing wildlife photos of Tanja Askani, a German wildlife photographer who specializes in wolves; she lives on a wildlife preserve with them and has captured moments on film that you won't believe. If you have the time and/or interest, this Web site has hundreds of her photos of wolves, wolf cubs, deer, rabbits, owls, birds of prey, funny little bright red squirrels that appear to have been in the henna bottle, and more. If you click on the thumbnail of the deer and sunflower (on the left where it says "andere Tiere"), you'll see a small sample of a number of her brilliant and unusual animal shots. (And good luck tearing yourself away!)

By the way, if you browse her photos long, you'll find yourself wishing for a way to translate German to English...you'll find several language translators linked at the CFLC Reference Desk here (under Translation Tools).

All together now, "awwwwwww!"

SUBJECTS: FRIDAY FUN THINGS