Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The Sloth Bear In Our Nation's Capitol

Honestly, people. This is a pet blog. Ahem.

Okay, so today (only two months after the fact) I'm sharing a little about the trip my family and I took this summer to Washington, D.C. And by a little, I mean this guy:

Ken -Sloth Bear
Image via flickr
The (most adorable creature at the Smithsonian National Zoo) Sloth Bear!

Only, I was using my crappy-@ss camera on our trip, so I borrowed that picture up there (of a similar bear at the San Diego Zoo). This is the photo I took.


I tried.

And moving right along (for your continued visual delight)...a couple other "borrowed" photos.

 Sloth Bear cub (in 2006 at the National Zoo)

Balawat and Hanah
flickr
   
 Sloth Bear cub and mama (in 2006 at the National Zoo) 

 Yeah, if you've ever wondered what a Koala x Black Bear x Sloth would look like, this is it. I have never squeed at anything (publicly) more than when looking into the precious face of this animal (who was sitting, belly exposed, not a foot from my face).

Sloth Bear Fast Facts: Classified as vulnerable (due to habitat encroachment), the omnivorous Sloth Bear is native to the forests of India, and a few surrounding countries. Its favorite meal is ants and termites, but having a "sweet tooth," also enjoys honey, sugarcane and yams.  

Bit of Trivia: The Hindi word for bear (bahlu) inspired the name of Rudyard Kipling's bear character "Baloo" in The Jungle Book.

(Click here for many other awesome Sloth Bear photos!)

*****

And that concludes today's nature lesson. ;)

In other news, 

These are the creatures that make me squee the most when I'm not in a zoo (full of wild animals).







;-)

Happy Mid-week!

5 comments:

  1. Clever how you found a sloth bear with the white necklace like Dewi and JF's valentine necklaces. I bet you could give him a valentine of his own with PicMonkey. :)

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  2. Oh my gosh, I've never seen one of those!! Adorable! Your kids are just as "squeeeable" :)

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  3. The bears are just so sweet. Really they are also quite funny to look at. Your babies are adorable. Sending hugs. Have a terrific Thursday.
    Best wishes Molly

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  4. Thank you for the bear pictures. Heinous like a stuffie
    Benny & Lily

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  5. Too cute! And I learned something new about Baloo!

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