Hey, why wasn't I invited to this party? After all the times I've posted about tapirs!

From the Facebook page of Zoo de Cordoba, Argentina.

 
From Howletts Animal Park in England.

Courtesy of Wired, where they're falling all over themselves coming up with different ways of describing this new species from South Sudan: "looks like a tiny flying bulldog," "manages to simultaneously resemble a badger and bulldog. With black-and-cream coloring reminiscent of a frothy stout," and "striking, panda-like bicolored patches." We sympathize with their enthusiasm.

New giant tarantula discovered in Sri Lanka. With an eight inch leg span. Not much else needs to be said about that except maybe "Whoa, cool!" 

This is a new book about baby sloths. Of course, all of us liked sloths before sloths were cool. (I wrote a book with a sloth on the cover way before this one.) But it's not their fault they're popular, you know? So I'm betting you still want a book full of baby sloths. You can read more about it here.

 
Here's something you don't see every day: a baby pangolin drinking from a bottle. This orphan named Fikile is being raised by the Tikki Hywood Trust in Zimbabwe (photo from their Facebook page).

It's World Pangolin Day! Check out the official website for depressing info about the threats facing these unique scaly mammals, adorable video of a baby sticking out its tongue, and facts that even I didn't know, like that there are eight species of pangolin.

I recommend that you check out my article for the Associated Press on pet insects. It is highly relevant to our interests.

-Wombat (No Relation)

Readers of this blog are no doubt familiar with the Marabou stork and as much as you love ugly animals, I'm going to guess that you don't find that that photo gives you a healthy appetite.

So imagine my surprise when I was recently given this bar of chocolate, a souvenir from Norway:


The bird is even reproduced on the chocolate itself:

According to the blog's Norway correspondent, this link explains that the company held a competition to design a logo in 1907 and they just liked the drawing. You have to wonder if they didn't see an actual photo of a Marabou stork till it was too late... or if they were just really our kind of people.

-Wombat (No Relation)

A baby sifaka from the Duke Lemur Center! They're the only place that's ever successfully bred the Coquerel's sifaka. There are only 56 of these lemurs in captivity and like probably everything on Madagascar they're endangered in the wild. And aren't they amazing little gremlin babies?

It's a toad sofa!

More Year of the Snake awesomeness

From Eataku via Archie McPhee's Geyser of Awesome.

Want to know more about why this duck is so ugly? Read this informative post all about caruncles.

This coming year will be the Year of the Snake. These cute snakes are being sold at a market in Japan, which, as we've seen before, is a country that really appreciates its ugly animals.

Sick of cute animals in holiday outfits? Here, have an alligator instead. More on Buzzfeed. Happy Holidays!

Headline from Scientific American - how could you need to know more to be thrilled? But go ahead and click if you do. Don't miss the links to photos of its cool relatives, but maybe don't scroll down too far unless you want to know a little too much about the horror of snake sex organs.

-Wombat (No Relation)

Check out this article about the new vultures at the National Zoo in the Washington Post.

Why not try some of these? It's Urechis unicinctus, a marine spoon worm also known as the fat innkeeper worm, or, if that doesn't sound delicious enough, the penis fish. And you don't even have to cook it! In China you might find them in a stir-fry, but in Korea, it's eaten raw. A little salt and sesame oil and you're good to go, a nice light meal after all that heavy holiday fare.

These guys have an interesting cuisine of their own. They secrete their own slime net to catch particles of food. And they're hospitable, hence the "innkeeper" name: they share the tunnels they dig with small fish and other marine animals, which also eat their leftovers.

All in all, a perfect symbolic animal for this holiday, right?

Happy Thanksgiving!
-Wombat (No Relation)