Beautiful Animals

Wonderful emperor penguin photos, firefly. Gads, I love them. Makes me think of the Emperor symphony..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdLwRu_v6vI

I think it was the emperors I read a depressing article about in the new yorker a couple of years ago.

Oh, irish, I loved that. I'm going to send that link to certain friends...

Fennec fox

As I clicked on this, my server (bla bla) and my browser couldn't understand.

but wait, that is a beautiful fox.

Fennecs are desert dwellers. Those ears are supposed to help them keep cool. If they were any bigger, they could help them fly to someplace cooler.

BTW, fennecs are the smallest of the foxes. They are tres beautiful.

At the other end of the fox size spectrum is the red fox:

I wouldn't be surprised to hear that red fox live somewhere in the city's borders. And fennec foxes seem to me like an invention of Jim Henson.

The aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry kept a fennec as a pet and adored it; he wrote a whole part for a fennec in his all-time best-seller:

tsar, Red foxes have become residents of the Big Apple. So have raccoons and coyotes. These three species are very smart and very adaptable.

High Seas, Thanks for reminding me of Le Petit Prince and le petit renard.

Coyote in Cental Park:

I knew of raccoons, coyotes, foxes, and a beaver, but only could suspect foxes as possibly holding city residency.

What amazes me about coyotes on islands like Manhattan and on the Cape is that they had to get there by crossing a bridge.

wonderful photo, Robbie.

I misremembered, tsar. (The old synapses ain't what they used to be.) I knew there were foxes in a city. It turns out they're in London. Couldn't find anything about NYC. They are on Long Island.

Sorry.

Crossing a bridge, littlek? These species are so clever and resourceful, I'm surprised they don't build a bridge.

Osso, glad you like that photo. I love it.

Photo taken at St. Paul's Cathedral, London:



Crown Heights, Brooklyn:

Earlier this year traffic in downtown Manhattan got hopelessly tied up after a coyote was spotted exiting the Holland tunnel

He kept evading platoons of policemen armed with tranquillizer guns for days, but sadly he was finally caught and taken back to New Jersey.

That raccoon looks like he's thinking, 'Oh crap! Paparazzi everywhere! You can't escape em!'

And that London fox looks pretty healthy as well.

High Seas, I guess it's kind of naive of me to think the authorities should leave the coyotes alone. What harm can they really do? They're not going to attack humans or pets accompanied by humans.

Police got so annoyed at the downtown coyote evading their crack units for days they started making announcements it's illegal to feed the critter - which the West Village residents must have been doing. There are a few coyotes permanently living in wooded areas uptown. Anyway more can come over - they don't have to cross a bridge, they know how to swim. This is a hilarious video of a mama otter giving her pup a swimming lesson while the pup wants no part of it (am in a car right now ie slow connection so can't double-check the link, would appreciate it if you could confirm it's the right one - thanks!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpTqV6LPl8c

It seems to be the right video (matching your description). Quite cute indeedie!