Facts and Fluffles

[Jubal]

Because I think we need a thread like this.

The point is basically to post cute pictures of animals and interesting facts about them, whether it's letting people know about animals they've never heard of or making particularly interesting observations about pets!

So to start...





This is a Pyrenean Desman - it's related to moles and mostly lives in mountain streams in northern Spain. Their big back feet help them swim, and that huge nose is for detecting invertebrates to go for and eat.

[Glaurung]

I approve of this thread I'm wondering whether fen raft spiders are cute enough to make an appearance...

Meanwhile, when I first looked at the picture, I thought it was an echidna. Interestingly, these also seem to have evolved from an aquatic ancestor.

[comrade_general]

We add the "O" for "O god wtf is that??"

[Jubal]

There are however also mouse opossums, which seem to try and bridge the gap...


...though they have some of the same habits as their less cute cousins at times!

[Glaurung]

Possums are Australian wildlife, and therefore the cuteness is surely only a disguise. They probably have vicious tempers and hidden venomous fangs, and it wouldn't surprise me if they're the larval form of drop-bears.

Meanwhile, according to Wikipedia, the word "possum" is actually derived from "opossum", because of the similarity of the two animals, and "opossum" in turn comes from a Powhatan (native American) word, roughly transliterated as "wapathemwa".

[Jubal]

I guess there may be a lot of old languages that primarily survive in colonised countries in the form of names - if I recall rightly a lot of Australian animal named are derived from the aboriginal ones.

One example being...



The numbat, whose name comes from the southwest Australian Nyungar language - whereas wombat, which I would have presumed to be closely related etymologically, is apparently from the now extinct Dharug language spoken around Sydney. There may of course still be a linked etymology, but I'd guess it's unlikely to be as simple as one might have assumed.

[Glaurung]

In a further example of cute Australian wildlife, the BBC is reporting the birth of baby echidnas (a.k.a. spiny anteaters) at Taronga Zoo, in Sydney. Apparently these are called puggles.

[comrade_general]

If Dougie snuggled plenty of puggles perpendicularly, how many perpendicular puggles did Dougie snuggle?

[Jubal]

The puggles are short-beaks by the looks of it, very cute (There are, IIRC, three species of long beaked echidna and one of short-beak).

[Pentagathus]

Why are baby animals so much cuter than baby humans?

[Jubal]

Fur, probably.