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 :)

The Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker proves you can be lumpy AND cute

Image credit: Charlene-SJ

This truly is a weird little fish. The Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker is a lesser known creature, but that doesn't stop it being any less cute (at least I think so). They grow up to 1-5 inches (5 being exceptionally huge). The weirdest thing about them is that they have little sucker pads on their tummies, which makes them stickable to almost anything. You know, like those ornaments you sucker to the inside of car windows. Most of them are apparently found in the North Pacific.

image source: islandwood.org

According to The Featured Creature, a Japanese aquarium placed balloons inside of their lumpsucker tank. Apparently the fish loved it. Photographic evidence:

source: divematrix.com

source: divematrix.com

And if that wasn't enough, here's an awesome video of one of these guys in action. The little eel-type fish can't get enough of it, he's like 'what even ARE you?!'.

The moral of this post: you don't need fur or feathers, or even complete symmetry, to be round 'n' cute.

Chaffinch collapses under own weight of adorableness

Image credit: ronbose8

At least it looks like it, anyway. I think it is a chaffinch but I've had to identify it myself - so someone correct me if I'm wrong please :)

Round Little Robins

The Red-Breasted Robin is one of the most iconic birds in the UK, and with how cute it is, it's not surprising. An especially rotund robin who ate all the crumbs poses adorably for the camera:

Source The Mirror

And here's another one, since The Mirror is keen to keep tabs on especially round robins:

The closest thing you'll get to a real life Angry Bird.

One thing's for sure, these little guys will not starve through the Winter.

Adorable Pea Frog

Frogs have some extreme potential to be adorable, but they're even cuter when they're tiny.

The aptly named Pea Frog:

These recently discovered guys come from Borneo and live in carnivorous plants, such as pitcher plants. It's amazing how small they are.

Here's another one balancing on a pencil:

Definitely not his natural habitat.

I might just start obsessively buying pitcher plants until I find one.

First post :)

Welcome to the Round 'n' Cute blog. Have you ever noticed how many animals out there are just overwhelmingly cute due to how fat (and/or round) they are? I have.

I'd like to open this blog with one of my favourites, the Long Tailed Tit. This guy is common throughout Europe and Asia, and is a tiny little thing growing around 13-15 cm.

Image credit: Gary Shilton/RSPB. Check out the little grumpy one on the far right :p

Image credit: BBC

Image credit: Grahame Thompson

The best part of these guys is the way they move. They're extremely hyperactive:

 

Hope you enjoyed this post :)