Who is the Fluffiest of us all?

Guess what! Those were rats!^^^^ GIANT EVIL RATS^^^ ("rats" spelled backward is "star")

It's a maned rat (Lophiomys imhausi)! It lives in East Africa and it is beautiglor. It's pretty small for a rat, growing up to 21 inches in length.

That's actually not small I was JOKING

But…but…here’s the scary part! These cuties smear their fur with poison from the bark of a tree called Acokanthera schimperi, which looks like this:

Thus they are poisonful

BUT THIS IS NOT A PLANT BLOG SO JUST ERASE THAT IMAGE FROM YOUR MIND!!!

They eat normal rat stuff ’cause they’re rats

Scary Colorful Worms.

This slightly beautiful worm is a bearded fireworm (Hermodice carunculata). It’s so pretty, right? I agree. It’s a worm from the order Polychaeta that lives in Caribbean reefs across the Antilles, the Maltese archipelago, the Mediterranean, and the waters of Cyprus. Its habitat is mostly on reefs.

Now, what’s so horrible about that?

Look out, world—the bearded fireworm is DESTROYING REEFS!!

They eat all sorts of corals, and, to make it worse, they have a sting that—well…stings?

Bearded fireworms are very slow animals, but don’t be like, “Omg haha it #canthurtme.” A) Why are you doing hashtags?; and B) YOU IDIOT IF ITS BRISTLES TOUCH YOUR SKIN THEY INJECT A NEUROTOXIN INTO YOU WHICH CAUSES BURNING AND NAUSEA!

Here’s the nice, kawaii, awesome part. The sting symptoms clear up in just about thirty minutes, and, at worst, a few hours. AND, many fish are currently doing their part to control the bearded fireworm population. These include the creole fish (Clepticus parrae, which, as a bonus, is absolutely beautiful):

the pineapplefish (Cleidopus gloriamaris)—these things are adorable, by the way; “gloriamaris” means “glory of the sea”:

and the absolutely beautiful French angelfish (Pomacanthus paru):

By the way, young P. paru look way different. I’ll save that as a surprise in a later post…

BEHOLD THE WOOLLY PIG!

Betcha never knew that pigs and sheep could crossbreed!

Well, they can’t. (Ha ha! Gotcha there.)

In real life, this is a Mangalitsa pig (like all domesticated pigs, its binomial name is Sus scrofa). It is a natural breed of pig that is descended directly from wild boars. The creature is so fluffy and adorable, and not only that, it’s considered a rare breed of pig.

I want one. Give or take 7,832,912,843,564,078.