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Zoo in Michigan proudly welcomes the arrival of two adorable baby bintlets

Great news! What's a bintlet?

bintlets potter park zoo, potter park zoo facebook, potter park zoo instagram

A dose of cuteness the world needs to see.

Michigan’s Potter Park Zoo was thrilled to announce the arrival of some new residents this year: bintlets.

Um, just what is a bintlet, you may ask? Binturongs (the adult version of a bintlet) are fascinating creatures hailing from the rainforests of Southeast Asia, where they love to hang out in the lush treetops. It’s 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 Brittanica, 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-atarian, the way it likes to swallow the small fruit whole. Yeah … they’re basically a walking contradiction on four legs.

Perhaps the coolest thing about binturongs: 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) will still be viewable at the zoo’s habitat.

Officials added that sadly, only two of three bintlets made it, due to sickness. Despite 24 hours of care from veterinary and animal care staff, the third bintlet passed away. 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.

binturongs, baby binturongs

100% adorable.

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OMG. A baby bintlet in a baby bathtub. To what do we owe this pleasure?

This one has its little eyes open.

potter park zoo,

Sooooo teeny!

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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 here. With more than 350 residents of all sizes and species, there’s sure to be no shortage of wholesome critter content.

The funny thing about love is that the person we fall in love with, more often than not, we run into by accident. Another strange twist is that the love of our life is likely to show up when we least expect it.

The following story, which feels like the promise of a hit rom-com, comes courtesy of a twist of fate created by the World Cup and an Airbnb.

In 2013, after six years of battling an illness, Ana was living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Having been financially drained by years of being sick, she invested the last of her money to buy two bunk beds and convert one of her bedrooms into an Airbnb for small groups of friends.

The Airbnb was a last-ditch effort to pay her rent and medical bills. A year later, the modest investment grew into a success, Ana’s health began to return, and the World Cup, one of the largest sporting events in the world, was coming to Rio.

To take advantage of the soccer fanatics flocking to the Cidade Maravilhosa (Marvelous City), Ana and her roommate, Fabio, turned a half room in their apartment into an Airbnb rental to give tired soccer fans a place to sleep.

“Though it was a small (pantry!) room, we added a bunk bed and listed two beds on Airbnb. One day after the listing went live, we had tons of requests for ‘Fabio’s Pantry,’” she shared. “It was fully booked for the entire World Cup period except for one week in July.”

Around this time, Ana was feeling well enough to go on her first vacation in years and took a quick trip to Uruguay. Just before she left, Ana received a reservation from a man named "Darko B." for the only unbooked days in July.

“I have always been a big fan of the movie ‘Donnie Darko’ and thought it was a strange coincidence, but didn't think anything of it,” Ana wrote. “I accepted the request, let him know I would not be there for check-in and Fabio would care for him until I was back the following week.”

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Tina Platamura

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Sheila Smith made headlines last week with an obituary that was as honest in what can only be described as a brutal sense. Brutal for the departed, her father Leslie Ray Charping, and brutal for the family that had to endure his life and death.

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