hug everything

I do too. But it lives its whole life. So you have to take it seriously eventually, right? And be respectful and shit.

There’s some good news for the endangered North Atlantic right whale. The recently ended calving season, which runs between mid-November and mid-April, saw 23 new calves born. This is the fourth highest number of new calves born on record and the highest it’s been since 2009. Amy Warren, scientific program officer with the New England Aquarium's Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, said her colleagues were surprised to see so many new calves born this season.

Read more.

You get the whole walk cycle and the little sprint at the end.

Sometimes her sprints last for like 4 or 5 seconds and she can shoot herself off the couch or into a wall if she gets a grip with her back claws. If she does it next to a wall, her head smacking into it sounds like someone is trying to break into the house. She doesn't wake up.

I cannot, sadly, teleport to Idaho this week. But if you’re in Idaho and have Thursdays or Fridays off, please go see this fluffball on my behalf.

So many people showed up they had to split the session into 2 groups so we didn't overwhelm the birb

This lil guy is Nox! They aren't 100% sure what sex it is, but they're pretty sure he's male.

He's a brancher, so he can't fly yet but is real good at jumping. In the wild he'd be jumping from branch to branch to build up his flight muscles, but he'll be flying soon

Nox is 5 weeks old, weighs 190g, and has reached his adult size, but his flight and tail feathers haven't grown in yet. He'll be a full adult next week!

The Northern White Faced Owl is from Africa, usually between the Sahara and the equator (according to Wikipedia, staff just said Africa). It used to be believed that this and another species, the southern white faced owl, were the same species but are now recognized as separate birds

His lil whiskers are called bristles, and they function like cat whiskers! He's just learned to tear meat, the trainer had big tweezers to give him lil bits of rabbit (some were placed on her glove and some were put right in front of his beak!)

He kept bobbing his head around, which is called triangulating and helps him figure out how far away things are.

*checks notes* these are also known as transformer owls! Like screech owls, they can stretch themselves real tall and thin to try and camouflage itself as a branch (search for transformer owl and you'll see what I mean)

After today he'll spend time with a foster parent to teach him how to Bird, then he'll join the legion of ambassador birds they have out here!

(PS his feathers are so fluffy my phone had a hard time taking clear pictures of them)

If you're near Boise this is absolutely worth a trip, they have so many other birds to see, and there's a walking trail just outside as well as a huge ampitheatre they use when it's not too hot out