The taming of the sengi

After a necessary hiatus needed to work on my MSc, I'm posting once again, because I need to let you all know about this insanely adorable animal:

Commonly known as elephant shrews, these creatures are also more accurately known as "sengis", a term from the Bantu languages of Africa. They are not actually related to shrews, and belong to a different family altogether (Macroscelididae, as opposed to the shrew's Soricidae). The above is known as a 'round-eared sengi',

Another one.

Bonus: munching sengi (click for animation). Not sure if this is the same species as above, but from the eye size and markings I'd say no.

Next up, the rufous sengi.

Rufous sengi looking as cute as possible. Image credit: California Academy of Sciences

But I've saved my favourite 'til last, the black and rufous sengi:

They are native to Africa, and their long noses are used to poke under leaves in finding food (mainly insects).

Read more about these guys here.

Penguin with cartoon eyes: the Adelie Penguin

Hello everyone, I've had a little gap in posting due to being ridiculously busy, but I have another adorable creature lined up for you. It looks a little cartoonish, but I assure you it's real - the Adelie Penguin. These guys are around 70cm tall to put them into perspective, so less than half the size of an average person.

Source: The Guardian. Please note that golden syrup isn't actually part of the penguin's natural diet. :P

 

Just chillin'.

And, a little treat for you, because you've probably been anxious to see penguin porn for the entire day:

Image credit: Peter Prokosch

Yeah, they are actually mating, even if they look cute while doing it. If you look carefully though, they're doing it in front of some kids in the background. Shameless.

Born to be round: pearlscale goldfish

What's cuter than a sweet little goldfish? A sweet, round little goldfish. I shall introduce you to a particular variety that is born to have a "golf ball" appearance, the pearlscale:

Cute little thing, huh? Due to their body shape, they tend to be slow swimmers and tend to be best kept with other "fancy" varieties of goldfish, so that competition for food is equal. Their name, as you might be able to guess, comes from the round white covering on top of each of their scales.

Pearlscale with telescopic eyes

"I shouldn't have eaten the whole tub of flakes."

"Can't... get up..."

Love them :)

Ball of fluff

Russian Dwarf Hamster, courtesy of Cute Overload :)

Fat little birds looking moody special

I'm back... and this time I have a very specific gallery of images to show you: fat little birds looking especially moody. Don't believe I can create a whole post on such a niche topic? Well, here...

Hummingbird (image credit: John Wise)

A little owl (image credit: Mike Watson)

There, I proved you wrong, didn't I? Who knew there were so many moody little birds. Maybe they're tired of being called cute.

I'm afraid I don't know the species of the birds that aren't captioned, but feel free to enlighten me...

Introducing something with fluff... the pika

An American pika

I've covered some birds and fish now and so I'm going to move into mammal territory - with the pika. There are actually 30 different species of this guy, and they come from the same family as rabbits and hares, but the thing they have in common is that they're all alpine/mountainous creatures, living in crevasses/burrows.

Adult and juvenile black-lipped pikas (China). Image credit: David Blank

Another pika, species unknown

Some people may be wondering whether the pika was inspiration for the Japanese-originated Pokemon, Pikachu. I really have no idea, but there is a similarity there.

Round 'n' cute birds in plush form...

Slightly cheating here as these aren't 'real' animals, but I thought they qualified for a post as they are extremely round and extremely cute :)

These are felt birds, by Mahteeka, and are based on real species. Some previews:

Scarlet Tanager

Blue Jay

Black-Capped Chickadee

More featured here, where there are contact details on buying any or commissions :)