The Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a duck-billed, semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal. Biologists explain, as much as is possible.
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As their ice sheet hunting grounds melt due to global warming, polar bears are moving inland, and mating with the grizzly bears that live there.
More:
“Polar Bear-Grizzly Hybrids, Aka Pizzly Bears, May Be Growing More Common Due to Climate Crisis,” Alyse Stanley, Earther
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“The Bucket,” a desert video by John Wells of the Southwest Texas Alternative Energy and Sustainable Living Field Laboratory (The Field Lab) in Terlingua, Texas, who notes “the swimming bees were rescued.” Ehru music by Doug Maxwell.
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Giant panda twins Mei Lun and Mei Huan were born and raised in Atlanta, but not as a birthright citizens, and at age three they were returned to China. But since they were raised as Americans, the pandas only understand English, and their new Sichuanese-speaking keepers are finding them difficult to handle. Panda researchers in China can recognize basic panda vocalizations, but the twins probably speak panda with a Georgia drawl.
Mei Lun and Mei Huan don’t like the local food, either. The cuisine at the Chengdu Panda Breeding Center is not up to the standards of Zoo Atlanta, where the beasts feasted on sugarcane, bananas, rice gruel, carrots, apples, sweet potatoes, and high-fiber panda biscuits, not just bamboo and steamed bread.
More:
“U.S.-born panda twins return to China, but struggle with the language and food,” Simon Denyer, Washington Post
“Zoo Atlanta Panda Twins Move to China, Don’t Care for Country’s Food and Can’t Understand Chinese,” Kelli Bender, People
“American-born pandas return to China, struggle with adapting to local language, food,” Alex Linder, Shanghaiist
“Returned giant panda twins prefer western lifestyle,” Xinhua, via Global Times
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The Super Bowl murders 22 cows, figures Meghan Walsh:
“Every cowhide makes about 10 balls, according to Kevin Murphy, the general manager of Wilson Football, official NFL ball-maker since 1941. Wilson wouldn’t say exactly how many balls it produces in a season, but the Chicago company did share that the Super Bowl alone requires 216 footballs — each team gets 54 for practice and 54 for game day (the Pats and Hawks had theirs within 24 hours of winning the AFC and NFC championships last year). Wilson, true to its roots, favors cattle from the Midwest — Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska — but all the leather eventually makes its way to a factory in Ada, Ohio.”
–“How Many Cows Does It Take to Make a Football?” Meghan Walsh, OZY
And then there are the 650 million chickens who died so the game’s TV viewers can eat their wings ….
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The Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park made a rare juvenile female Ailuropoda melanoleuca available for public observation today, and hundreds of researchers participated. Review of preliminary field notes indicates wide agreement that the specimen is a widdle bitty roly-poly fuzzy-wuzzy cutise-wootsie-poo.
BBC News named its Women of the Year for 2011. The list: Gabrielle Giffords, Adele, Eman al-Obeidi, Sarah Burton, Nafissatou Diallo, Jelena Lecic, Princess Charlene, Pauline Pearce, Rebecca Leighton, the Duchess of Alba, Corporal Kelsey de Santis, and Sweetie the panda (aka Tian Tian).
As you might expect, the last choice endeared The Beeb to women in the UK and worldwide.
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Many animals at DC’s National Zoo were upset by the recent earthquake. Even before the quake struck, red ruffed lemurs were alarm-barking, Iris the orangutan yelled, and the flamingos huddled together in a big pink ball.
The Giant Pandas were neither stirred nor shaken. They just sat there, chewing bamboo. Those critters are tough. They’re from China. They were probably thinking: “Pah. You call that an earthquake?”
Two Colombian soldiers were wounded last week when FARC guerrillas set off a bomb planted on a horse. There are no reports on the condition of the horse; we presume it is carne de hamburguesa.
The Horse Bomb is a new addition to the terrorist stable. It is unknown if the unfortunate animal was an Arabian, which of course would implicate Al-Qaeda.
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