Video roundup: animals edition
A bunch of nifty and/or cute animal videos:
Encounter with a leopard shark. Yikes! Poor penguins. But still, fascinating.
Baby otter Sidney playing. KAWAIIIIII!!! This has brightened up my day and made me laugh two or three times now. Description says "Sidney is not a pet. I am a professional animal caretaker and work at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, CA. Otters do not make good pets and are illegal to own personally." Fair enough, but it's really hard not to look at this video of a baby otter playing with baby toys, on a rug, in a living room, and not think "pet." One of the commenters says "Clearly it's being taken good care of, so I really don't have a problem either way," but also calls it "an adorable abuse of power."
Baby sloths at Costa Rica's sloth rescue center, Aviarios del Caribe. The third video, labeled "The Funniest Baby Sloth Video Ever!!!", is not particularly funny, but the second one, with the baby sloth trying to climb out of the cardboard box, is TOTALLY ADORABLE.
Flapjack octopus. I have a flapjack octopus stuffy (named "Eeep!", to be pronounced in a high-pitched startled squeak because it always looks startled), and a guest last week remarked that real flapjack octopuses couldn't possibly have the cute little earlike protrusions that my stuffy has, so we looked it up. They turn out to be fins rather than ears; nonetheless, the flapjack octopus is yet another one of those animals that can't possibly have come from Earth. It's clear from watching this video that real-life flapjack octopuses must really be animated creatures, possibly from a Miyazaki film.