Bear blogging is clearly the it-trend of summer 2008. So, lucky for us, an adorable baby bear story unfolded in our own back yard yesterday. A 30-pound black bear cub climbed a tree in a heavily populated Frederick, MD neighborhood yesterday, where he hung around for almost 5 hours. NBC4 has video of him being generally adorable and licking a lot. He finally came down of his own accord, spotted an apple in the yard......

Photo of Golden Lion Tamarin, courtesy of the National Zoo, Jessie Cohen, NZP photographer Last week, panda lovers of D.C. shed many tears over the news that Mei Xiang will not be giving us a new baby panda this year, despite earlier signs indicating otherwise. This week, the Zoo would like you to remember that it does, in fact, have many other newborns at which to gawk. An email sent around by FONZ last......

The fickle nature of the giant panda's reproductive system has foiled us once again. The National Zoo gave up the ghost this morning and announced that Mei Xiang's latest maybe-pregnancy won't result in an adorable panda cub for us to hug and squeeze and love forever. The Zoo said Mei either lost a developing fetus or once again experienced a "pseudopregnancy." From the release:In a pseudopregnancy, an animal's hormonal changes and behaviors are identical to......

We got pretty excited about the potential cougar spotted on the University of Maryland campus in College Park last week, if only for the endless stream of terrible, double entendre-based jokes that it spawned. But it turns out the 'cougar' wasn't a cougar at all -- surveillance photos indicate the cat people saw was probably a Savannah cat. Savannah cats like the one pictured at left are hybrids of domestic short hairs and larger African......

Thanks to a reader for forwarding this email from the University of Maryland Department of Public Safety: CAMPUS ALERT July 31, 2008 There have been several reliable sightings of an animal fitting the description of a cougar on the campus. The description of the sighted cat is: light tan and tawny brown, about 4 feet long with a 4 foot tail, and weighing about 50 pounds. Several sightings have been reported from the area of......

The home of Berwyn Heights, Md. Mayor Cheye Calvo was raided on Tuesday, reports the Post, and police recovered 32 pounds of marijuana inside. A SWAT team also shot and killed Calvo's two dogs when they entered the home. Now, considering we're the home former Mayor Marion "Bitch Set Me Up" Barry, it's hard for the District to laugh too hard at this nearby small town. Then again, 32 pounds is a lot of marijuana.......

It was three years ago today that the National Zoo welcomed Tai Shan into the world. We fell in love immediately with the little fella, whom we named after the first press release deemed him the "size of a stick of butter." The Zoo later officially gave him a different name (despite our best efforts otherwise). His first three years have been filled with some ups and downs — becoming the unchallenged object of affection......

Looking to adopt a needy puppy? WJLA brings word that over 80 dogs that were rescued from an inhumane puppy mill in Tennessee have been taken in by The Washington Animal Rescue League and the Washington Humane Society. A total of over 700 dogs were rescued from the same place in June, along with 25 horses and donkeys, 20 cats, four parrots and 15 chickens. This latest group adds to the already large total of......

What is it about fox attacks that seem almost funny, when they should be downright scary? Is it because foxes are smaller and cuter than say, mountain lions or bears? We can't help but notice that we've noted a number of rabid fox attacks in the region over the last few years. There was the one in Herndon in 2004, the one just last month in Arlington, and now NBC4 reports that another rabid fox......

Your apartment feels awfully lonely without anybody else there. You could really use a running companion. You want someone to share your inexplicable hatred of the mailman. Whatever the reason, you've decided you're in a good place to adopt a pet. For many people in the area, that's when the hard part starts. The Washington Post has a story today about how the Washington Humane Society is overhauling their adoption requirements to make pet adoption......

According to a press release today from National Zoo Director John Barry, the earthquake that devastated some areas of China on May 12 put the Wolong Panda Reserve and the viability of its programs at risk. D.C.'s own adult giant pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, were born in the reserve's breeding center, and the National Zoo has been working on panda conservation with Wolong for more than 20 years. Located in China's southwest Sichuan......

The Examiner reports on a new master plan for the future of the National Zoo set to be unveiled on Thursday that includes a call to build an aerial tram running the length of the 163-acre park. Other proposals include expanded exhibits, new visitor centers and a public plaza on the current site of the Great Ape House. The image at left is of the Skyfari aerial tram at the San Diego Zoo, which might......

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will be at the Verizon Center March 27-30, and you know what that means: it's time once again for the Elephant Walk. The year's Elephant Walk, when the circus elephants arrive by train and walk to the Verizon Center, is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, March 24. The exact start time often varies due to the capricious personalities of the animals, but you can......

The Associated Press has a shameful story this morning accusing the National Zoo's beloved panda cub, Tai Shan (aka Butterstick), of injuring a zookeeper. Pandas don't do anything wrong, AP! They are only adorable and cuddly and lovable and that's all. Didn't you get the memo? So the story is that Tai Shan entered his yard through an unsecured door Tuesday during a routine feeding, where he attempted to "play" with a zookeeper he encountered......

Boing Boing picked up on a small but adorable protest held in Washington last week that we missed. A Greenpeace activist, dressed in a polar bear suit, was arrested on Jan. 31 after protesting in a paddleboat in a park pond in front of the Department of Interior. Greenpeace set up the boat and costume to protest the Bush Administration’s delay in issuing a final Endangered Species Act listing for the polar bear due......

This is what a baby Asian elephant looks like. Wouldn't you like to have some of this out of control adorableness? The Associated Press reports that if all goes well, the National Zoo could be getting one of its very own late next year. The zoo conducted two artificial insemination procedures on Shanthi the elephant this week. They'll be monitoring her hormones for the next ten weeks to see if it worked, with the hopes......

If you know anything about DCist, you know we're suckers for anything the adorable animals who live at the National Zoo are up to. So you can imagine our reaction when FONZ sent out a press release announcing the sale of National Zoo Animal Vocalization Ringtones. Oh, the zoomanity. There are 25 animal vocalizations available for download, each for $2.99. All three of the Zoo's pandas are on offer, as well as the Sumatran tiger......

>> Yesterday we profiled Five Four, the hardest working all girl band in the city, with the cutest shoes, in a Three Stars piece. Tonight you can see those shoes up close and personal at DC9, $8. If that's not the dose of local music you were hoping for tonight, how about Meredith Bragg at the Black Cat, or Gist at Iota? >> Ever thought, I'd like to get a new perspective on Scientology. A......

It wasn't a very merry Christmas for Michel Morauw, the manager of the Park Hyatt Washington Hotel. NBC4 reports that an MPD officer shot and killed Morauw's dog on Monday in a small park adjacent to Rock Creek Park at 24th and N Streets NW. The officer reportedly said he was on foot patrol and entered the park "when an unleashed dog attacked him." The officer fired his gun at the dog, and the dog......

The Associated Press brings the heartbreaking tale of a stolen car taken from near 10th and S Streets NW on Wednesday with a blind kitten inside that needs medical attention. Two employees from Homeward Trails Animal Rescue were getting ready to take two foster animals to the vet -- a dog, and Wonder, a kitten born without eyes. They said they were standing outside the car at about 4 p.m. for just a few moments,......

Euros Childs is best known as the frontman of Welsh popsters Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. Formed in 1991, the group, along with the Super Furry Animals, Catatonia and others repped for Wales during Britain's Britpop era in the mid-1990s. The group, a critical darling that never quite found their place in the mass populace, called it quits in 2006 after a long career that included 10 albums. Since the group's split, Euros has released three......

It's hard to identify Jim Fairchild without first acknowledging that he was formerly the guitarist in the Modesto, Ca. group Grandaddy. Fairchild, however, has kept himself busy since the group's demise in 2006, touring with numerous other bands and also finding the time to record and release his first solo record under the moniker All Smiles. The resulting Ten Readings Of A Warning, a collection of charming, laid back lo-fi pop that belies his......

Artistic duo Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick have a specialty matched by few contemporary artists. They create worlds — historical yet relevant, real yet fantastical — and document those worlds through staged photography, installation, and found objects. This is intellectual art at its best. Kahn and Selesnick’s most recent creation, Eisbergfreistadt, is on view at Irvine Contemporary until December 8, and tells the story of the post-World War I Baltic port town of Lubeck,......

Mark down an initial battle victory to the owners in the long and strained D.C. doggy wars. The Examiner reports on a change in the regulations governing the establishment of off-leash dog parks in the District that should make it easier to create fenced-in spaces for dogs to play. Dog owners in the city have long complained about a dearth of spaces where they could legally let dogs off their leashes to get exercise. Among......

Ostensibly, Heima is a documentary about Icelandic post-rock quartet Sigur Rós. Unlike with most rockumentaries, however, the band only appears in about half of the shots in the film. The rest of the screen time is devoted to the people, animals and foreboding landscape of Iceland ("heima" means “at home” or “homeland” in Icelandic). So it’s not hard to see why Iceland Naturally, a partnership between the Iceland tourist board and a handful of Icelandic......

TUESDAY: Tomorrow is a treasure trove for science and sci-fi junkies. Our reviewer raved about The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula. Hear author Eric Nuzum muse on the undead at Wonderland Ballroom, 1101 Kenyon St. NW, which will offer drink specials, while Olsson's will have books for sale at the bar. Fangs and capes encouraged. 7 p.m. Over at Politics and Prose, author Ira Flatow will discuss his lengthily titled......

England's "Britpop" movement in the mid-1990s has proven to be one of the most enduring music trends of recent memory. Checking the local club listings will reveal all sorts of dance nights aligning themselves with "Cool Britannia," Creation Records and the like. Not many of the bands from that time are still together and making music though. The two stewards of the movement, Blur and Oasis, continue to release records now and then, although......

Oh noes! A widdle kitten from our own widdle city has been found to have a terrible disease that causes animals to viciously attack anyone in its path! How could an adorable kitty do such a thing? It's all too true, reports the Post. The kitten was found at the Anacostia Farmers Market and actually bit five different people before being captured and testing positive for rabies. Anyone who might have had contact with the......

Voting for the National Zoo's Name the Baby Anteater contest ended on Aug. 26, but we now finally have an official name for the long-nosed bundle of joy: Aurora. The female name beat out the other choices by a healthy margin of votes (1,600 vs. 1,200 for Isabel and 1,100 for Pilar), and now that zoo officials have finally determined the anteater's gender, the winner of the boy's name contest is moot (though we did......

We read all the local columnists, so you don't have to. This week we find meat-eaters being compared to Michael Vick, a lot of bum opinions on city schools and District residents being called "granola." Courtland Milloy: According to Milloy's Wednesday column in the Post, your choice to eat a hamburger isn't all that different than Michael Vick's decision to brutally fight, torture and kill dogs for money. "We'll kill a duck, deer, turkey --......