Look at the preview picture in the embedded video down there. What kind of animal does that look like to you? A tired, elderly elephant that somehow never had a trunk? The result of a bizarre interspecies crossbreeding between a naked mole rat and a capybara? Some plodding creature that wanders through a gloomy desert in a Dr. Seuss illustration?
Actually, believe it or not, it’s a bear.
That’s right, that’s a bear. I’m sure they don’t have any bears like this at the Build-a-Bear Workshop. I’m sure that in the world of the Berenstain Bears, a bear such as this would be scolded by Mama Bear for playing with the hedge clippers. I’m sure that if Bear and Ojo found themselves looking like the bear below, environmental inspectors would be rushing to the Big Blue House to see what horrible toxic substance was attacking their skin.
But in real life, this can happen to bears.
This bear’s name is Dolores, and she lives at the Leipzig Zoo in Germany. And not just Dolores, but all the female bears at the zoo, are suddenly and inexplicably losing their hair.
Also in news from the animal kingdom, a new study has taught us some interesting information about fiddler crabs. If you’re a male fiddler crab, it doesn’t matter if you’re sloppy and wear glasses with masking tape on them and ill-fitting clothes that went out of fashion before you were born. As long as you protect the female crabs from intruders, they’ll flock to you like Paris Hilton to Rick Salomon, or Pamela Anderson to Tommy Lee.
