A dose of cuteness the world needs to see.
Michigan’s Potter Park Zoo was thrilled to announce the arrival of some new residents in 2022: bintlets.
You might be asking yourself, Um, just what is a bintlet? Well, bintlets are baby binturongs, fascinating creatures that hail from the rainforests of Southeast Asia where they love to hang out in the lush treetops. They're one of the few animals with a prehensile tail, meaning it can hold and manipulate objects.
Binturong: The bearcat that is neither bear nor cat.www.youtube.com
Though they are often called "bearcats" due to their hodgepodge appearance, binturongs are neither bear nor cat. They belong to the Viverridae family, a very unique species group containing all seemingly cat-like critters, though none are actually felines. According to Britannica, they have even been reported to be affectionate pets, much like the domestic house cat. But still—not cats. Very misleading.
Also: The binturong’s teeth technically classify it as a carnivore. However, it might as well be classified as a fig-etarian by the way it likes to swallow the small fruit whole. They’re basically a walking contradiction on four legs.
Perhaps the coolest thing about binturongs is that getting up close and personal with one might have you thinking you waltzed into a movie theater. They mark their territory by secreting a substance that famously smells just like buttery popcorn. Nature’s creativity is endless.
Threatened mostly by deforestation and illegal wildlife trade, binturongs have been listed as “vulnerable” on IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List. That makes the birth of Potter Park’s bintlets—the first bintlet birth at the zoo in more than two decades, WILX News reported—all the more special. Baby animal news is great. At-risk baby animal news is even better.
Potter Park posted to its Facebook page congratulating Thistle, the zoo’s female binturong, on her newborns. WILX added that where Thistle would remain with the bintlets for a few months time, the binturong father (named Barry—Barry the binturong, it’s just too perfect) would still be viewable at the zoo’s habitat.
Officials added that, sadly, only two of three bintlets survived. Despite 24 hours of care from veterinary and animal care staff, the third bintlet passed away from an illness. Still, in the video we see two healthy, squeaking babes right next to their happy mama.
"Love how the mom looks right at the camera like she is saying aren’t my babies the cutest babies ever," one person commented.
And now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for—close up photos revealing all the bintlet cuteness.
100% adorable.
A baby bintlet in a baby bathtub. To what do we owe this pleasure?
This one has its little eyes open.
Sooooo teeny!
According to Smithsonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute, bintlets are born with their eyes closed and will cling to their mothers until independent. Sometimes for even longer. Relatable.
Special thanks to Potter Park Zoo and Thistle for delivering some happy news to get us through the week. We got a sweet story and fun animal education—it doesn’t get much better than that.
If you’d like to check in on all the animal shenanigans happening at Potter Park, you can follow the zoo on Instagram. With more than 350 residents of all sizes and species, there’s sure to be no shortage of wholesome critter content.This article originally appeared three years ago.
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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
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Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.