So Squee! Friday presents: The Numbat

If you’re not from Australia, it’s likely you’ve never heard of an adorable little marsupial called the numbat. Some refer to them as the “marsupial anteater” because they live exclusively on a diet of termites.

Photo courtesy of Australian Geographic. 

Numbats are quite small; including the bushy tail, they grow to be between fourteen and eighteen inches long. Unlike most of our previous So Squee! guest stars, these little guys aren’t nocturnal. They are the only marsupial that are fully active by day, spending most of their days digging up termites, which they snatch up with their long tongues. They are also one of the few marsupials whose females do not have a pouch to carry their babies in.

Hand-raised baby numbats at Perth Zoo.

Although these little guys used to live all across southern Australia and in several areas of Europe, many of their numbers were wiped out by the European red fox. By the 1970’s, only under a thousand of them remained. Luckily, conservation efforts began in 1980 and have managed to increase the population. While numbat sightings are highly increased, they are still classified as endangered.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

 

14-week-old otter pups learn to swim

This video may be a few years old, but it never ceases to bring a smile to the faces of animal lovers. Two baby otters at Longleat Safari and Adventure Park in the United Kingdom eagerly follow their foster mom out to a paddling pool where they will be learning to swim.

The two siblings aren’t particularly eager to enter the water at first, immediately crawling back out of the pool when set into the water. It takes a few minutes of coaxing with rubber ducks and other floating toys before the two are eagerly darting about under the water and having a great time.

One of these babies eventually moved to a zoo in Spain. The other remains in England with it’s mother and father, Rosie and Romeo.

#TheoandBeau, the adorable due who nap together every day!

Need something adorable to get you through your day? Just follow the #TheoandBeau hashtag on Instagram!

Jessica Shyba recently began posting photos of her son Beau, just shy of two years old, on Instagram with their new puppy, Theo. The adorable duo take naps together every day at the same time!

Awwww!

Brooklyn man builds a bus stop on his own property to keep waitingtravelers safe.

When Brooklyn Center resident Jerry Evans saw that only a thin strip of sidewalk was all that was available for families with children waiting for the bus in front of his home, he knew he couldn’t ignore the sight of kids restlessly playing just inches away from fast and dangerous traffic.

Evans built and installed benches, set back from the sidewalk with a retaining wall, in his own front yard to give bus patrons a safe place to wait.

This October, Evans was honored with one of the city’s Random Act of Kindness awards.

So Squee! Friday presents the Slow Loris!

The Slow Loris is one of the few mammals in the world that is also venomous (the platypus also shares this dangerous trait). It can be difficult to remember that fact, though, once you glimpse their adorable faces!


Photo from internationalanimalrescue.blogspot.com

These nocturnal cuties have the ability to stay completely motionless for hours, blending into their habitats. They have a special system of capillaries that keep their limbs from falling asleep! Although they do tend to move slowly and have a slow metabolism, they are able to move quickly if they are startled or scared.


This slow loris doesn’t quite know what to make of this tiny rice ball!

Do you think he’s decided that it tastes good?

The slow loris has an omnivorous diet that, in the wild, is typically about 50% fruit, 30% animal protein, and 10% bark and sap exuded from Gluta trees. Their animal protein come from birds’ eggs and insects.


Being tempted with some fruit!


This little guy enjoys a tasty banana!

The slow loris is a vulnerable species, threatened by the illegal wildlife trade, the exotic pet trade, and habitat loss. Some hunters and villagers in Southeast Asia believe that the slow loris has supernatural powers and can ward off evil spirits and cure illness, which causes many to be killed and sold for traditional medicine. These villagers also believe that certain parts of a slow loris can be used to curse enemies.

If you’d like to learn more or help save the slow loris, please visit the International Animal Rescue. This rescue rehabilitates slow lorises that have been surrendered by their owners or rescued from the illegal exotic pet trade. You can even help sponsor a slow loris named Cepat, who is unable to be returned to the wild due to his owners removing his teeth.

To see Cepat and learn more about his rescue, check out this video:

World’s rarest mammal, the Saola, sighted in Vietnam earlier this year.

The Saola, also known as the Vu Quang ox or the “Asian unicorn”, is a forest-dwelling, antelope-like bovine from Eastern Indochina. They are also, unfortunately, one of the rarest mammals on Earth. Villagers have hunted the fragile species to near extinction – the Saolas gentle and calm nature means they are also generally unafraid of Asian villagers, who will kill them on sight in order to display the horns in their homes - a symbol of honor.

In fact, no Saola has been sighted in the wild since 1998, until now. Earlier this September, a photograph was finally taken of a Saola in the forests of central Vietnam, although the news article doesn’t specify whether the photo was taken by a human or by trail cam. In the area where the Saola was discovered, forest guards have been tasked with removing snares and cracking down on illegal hunting, both of which are two of the largest threats towards this species.

If you are interested in learning more about the Saola, and are interested in saving the rapidly-declining species, please visit the Saola Working Group at www.savethesaola.org

Corgi at the Playground!

Buddy Templeton, one of the two Youtube corgis who captured our hearts while swinging on baby swings, recently revisited his favorite park playground and slid down his favorite twisty slide! Watch as this little pro runs around the playground to go down the slide again and again.

5 animated gifs to brighten your morning.

Here’s a collection of animated gifs of animals who will help make your day brighter.

1. This dog, helping bottle-feed a lamb:


2. This cat who wants pets and doesn’t care what you’re busy doing.


4. This seal, who wants to give you a kiss!


5. This three-day-old otter learning to swim:


5. This herd of corgi puppies coming to give you cuddles!

9 tips for living a good life from Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, or better known as American author Mark Twain, had nine great quotes to inspire happiness and good living.

1. “A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.” 
Learn to like yourself, and be comfortable with who you are.

2. “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
Sometimes the limitations we face are self-made. Overcome your self-consciousness, and you can overcome the barriers you’ve set for yourself.

3. “Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.”
Humor is one of life’s greatest tools to fight negative emotions.

4. “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”
When you’re angry, you hurt yourself more than anyone else. Make an effort to resolve your issues and talk about your feelings.

5. “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”
How often have we met people with an attitude of entitlement? Have you noticed that these people almost always seem unhappy and frustrated? Learn that you can shape your own life through your own choices - you’ll be happier once you do!

6. “A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.”
Don’t just come up with ideas… follow through with them! Take the criticism or praise in stride, but don’t allow those things to become a barrier of excuses. Be prepared for others to disagree until they see the final result of your work.

7. “Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.”
The longer you dwell on your problems instead of making plans to better yourself and your life, the more you will suffer. Don’t let the victim mentality crush your life! Try to focus on the positive aspects of your life and you can learn to pull yourself away from negativity.

8. “The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer someone else up.”
Have you ever performed an act of kindness and realized how good you feel after? When you help someone, they’re not the only one who benefits – you will emotionally benefit, too. Help spread positivity!

9. “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Do something that makes you happy, even if you’re afraid you won’t succeed. Write that book you’re afraid no one will read. Paint that portrait you think no one will like. Go on that vacation you’ve always been telling yourself you’d take time for. Teach yourself that craft you always rationalized wouldn’t be financially beneficial! When you grow old, lament the things you never tried, not the things you tried and failed.

So Squee! Friday presents... the Japanese dwarf flying squirrel!

This tiny little cutie, also called a momonga, lives in the sub-alpine forests of Japan! They live in tree trunk cavities. Inside, they build nests of moss and lichen. They are also nocturnal animals; their huge, anime-like eyes help them see in the dark.

They can leap between trees using a membrane called the patagium that allows it to glide through the air.

They are also very popular pets in Japan, similar to their cousins, the sugar glider (which we will probably end up covering eventually on SS!F due to their insane cuteness).

Momongas eat buds, bark, and leaves from trees as well as fruit and fruit seeds. Check out this little dwarf eating noms at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo:

Want to see more of this little cutie? Visit the Momonga subreddit forum on reddit here.

8-year-old uses profits from Kool-Aid sales to buy new toys and foodfor less fortunate children

"Some kids are born athletes. Others excel at art or science. Jaxon Evans has the compassion gene. The 8-year-old Bakersfield, California resident organized a Kool-Aid stand to raise money to buy toys for homeless children."

You can read the full article here.

20 photos of human kindness in action.

Link: 20 photos of human kindness in action.

I’ve been really sick since last weekend, so I might have to rely on reblogs for the next couple of days. Please click the text above to see the photos.

Adorable mouse tries to take home enormous biscuit.

We all have those days where we come up against tasks we feel are impossible to tackle. If you’re feeling like that today, take a moment to watch this mouse struggling to take home this enormous biscuit. Hard work and perseverance will pay off!

A New York bus driver saves a woman about to jump off a bridge.

Bus driver Darnell Barton was driving his normal route in Buffalo, New York last Friday when he saw a woman holding on the wrong side of the guardrail on a bridge.

“Traffic and pedestrians were going by as normal,” Barton told WIVB news. Footage from inside the bus shows Barton attempting to speak to the woman, but after receiving no response, he pulls the bus over and leaves a group of high school students headed toward Buffalo State College to help the woman. The woman was about to jump from the bridge and onto the Scajaquada Expressway below.

Barton took the woman by the arm and convinced her to come back to the inside of the guardrail. Once she was safely on the other side, Barton sat down next to her and comforted her, telling her that whatever she was going through, it wasn’t serious enough to warrant her jumping. He stayed with her until a counselor could arrive to help.

“I was supposed to be there for her at that moment, and I was,” Barton somberly recollects. When he returned to the bus, the students burst into applause. No news yet on the condition of the woman, but hopefully she’ll realize she deserves help and continues working with counselors.

So Squee! Friday presents: The Chinchilla!

Chinchillas are tubby little bundles of joy gentle rodents that come from the Andes Mountains in South America. They live together in what I can only imagine to be downright adorable little herds. They’re named after the Chincha people who live in the Andes.

 

OMG that face. I can’t even omg so cute.

Have you ever seen a chinchilla rolling around in dust? That’s how they bathe! Because their fur is so dense, it cannot air-dry, which can lead to fur rot or fungus growth. So unless your chinchilla likes hair dryers (set on no heat, of course), don’t get him wet! Their fur also protects them from fleas, and they rarely release dander, so they are hypoallergenic. Good news for allergy sufferers who would love to have one of these cuties as a pet!

This little dude is about to get clean!

In the wild, chinchillas live in burrows or crevices. Because the gestation period is 111 days, baby chinchillas are born with a full body of fur and open eyes.

Babies that are bottle-fed and handled often at a very young age become much more gentle and comfortable with humans as they age.

They are incredibly popular as pets. However, since their teeth never stop growing, it’s vital for them to be worn down. Wooden sticks and chew toys are necessary to keep their teeth from overgrowing. But remember, no matter how many toys they have, that’s no substitution for daily human cuddles and attention!