See this video on TV!

RIGHT THIS MINUTE, Jan 27, 2012

See this video on TV!

RIGHT THIS MINUTE, Feb 1, 2012

FOX News’ RED EYE, Feb 2, 2012 (link pending)

NBC’s THE TODAY SHOW, Feb 2, 2012 (link pending)

Happy New Year, Teddy Bear!

See this video on TV!

RIGHT THIS MINUTE, Jan 2, 2012

FOX News’ RED EYE, Jan 5, 2012 (at approx. 40:50)

As Teddy is quick to tell you — Merry Christmas! (And, never share your holiday cookies.)

See this video on TV!

RIGHT THIS MINUTE, Dec 14, 2012

Dallas, Texas, USA, December 7, 2011

The video, entitled "Teddy Bear, the porcupine, doesn’t like to share," went viral in late November 2011, when YouTube viewers shared the clip on dozens of other video sites. Within days the video topped half-a-million views. Why? Well, the corn-hungry porcupine is rather vocal about not wanting to share his corn and English-speaking viewers insist they heard him protesting in human words, saying "It’s my corn," "Stop that," and "Get Back" — or even some stronger explitives. Then, the video went global. German viewers say he is speaking German, Dutch viewers insist it’s Dutch, and now Russian viewers hear Russian words in his grunts and groans. Even more surprising, some folks feel that his human-like sounds are more than coincidental. The International Business Times (UK) writes "the video has gained soaring popularity among viewers with most agreeing that it is an example of animals borrowing the human language to communicate with us, and have labelled it as "clear intelligence"." Huh?

National TV shows quickly jumped to air the popular video. "Teddy Bear" has already been featured on THE TODAY SHOW (link pending), GOOD MORNING AMERICA, INSIDE EDITION, RIGHT THIS MINUTE and RED EYE (at 19:50). Numerous regional TV and radio stations across the U.S. have also broadcast the video, but it has surprisingly not yet hit the radar of local Dallas/Fort Worth media.

And, the Internet is continuing the buzz. Videos are popping up of people recording the reaction of their pet while watching Teddy’s video. And, some websites are featuring the video to illustrate their mission – several Christian sites are sharing it as "an example of God’s amazing creation," and a healthy eating site says that Teddy’s corn gluttony "is nothing more than a porcupine version of our human snacks laden with high-fructose corn syrup."

Zooniversity’s owner, Allison Blankenship, hand-raised Teddy since he was an ophaned baby and says "Teddy’s always been vocal…and a bit spoiled. But, the viral video came as a huge surprise. I never heard the human-like words when I posted it ." Teddy is a popular education animal at the Dallas-based wildlife education company. As one of their animal ambassadors, Teddy travels to schools, libraries and events throughout Texas and is known for his ewok-like chatter while he nibbles on a wedge of sweet potato during  his part of the wildlife show. "He’ll usually mumble and moan into my microphone, while I teach audiences about his natural behaviors, " says Blankenship, "He always steals the show." Well, it looks like he stole it again!

Watch Teddy’s NEW video: "Teddy, the talking porcupine, likes pumpkin, too!"

Teddy now has a Facebook fan page www.facebook.com/TeddyPorcupine and he’s on Twitter www.twitter.com/TeddyPorcupine

We will be forever indebted to all of you. We owe Colby’s life to our two amazing avian veterinarians — Dr. Anna Osofsky and her medical team at West Carrollton Pet Hospital, who saw Colby through the first critical 48-hours, and to Dr. Hugh Hayes and his amazing team of technicians at Summertree Animal Clinic, Dallas, who painstakingly nursed Colby through three weeks of intensive care. Our love and thanks to all the family, friends, and facebook fans who prayed and sent those powerful positive, healing energies to her every day. Hugs and kisses to our St. Thomas Aquinas Zoo School students, who added Colby to their nightly bedtime prayers. Without your medical expertise, without your unwavering love and your heartfelt pleas, this little feathered teacher wouldn’t still be with us.

What happened? One tiny cut. One microscopic bacterium. That’s all it took to take a robust, high energy, applause-motivated parrot to the brink of death. One Sunday, three weeks ago, Colby looked a little fluffed-up, so we gave her the day off. "Rest, little one." The next morning at 6 am, she was unresponsive and mouth breathing. At 7 am, we were at the avian veternarian for emergency care. At 9 am, we were told she had little chance of surviving. Twice more in three weeks, we got that same phone call. "We wouldn’t be doing our duty if we didn’t tell you that Colby is critically ill, she may not make it. You should come visit." Septicemia. Nasty, blood-borne bacteria that used to be called "blood poisoning." One cut, one bacterium, that’s all it took to devistate this outwardly hearty, but secretly delicate, creature. It took nearly super-human medical intervention to keep her going — three strong antibiotics, anti-inflamatories, narcotics, detoxifiers, tube feeding, subcutaneous fluid therapy, probiotics – all administered with care, two to three times a day, for three long, arduous weeks. There she laid, on the floor of an incubator, looking helpless. You can read the progress reports on Zooniversity’s facebook page, but you’ll have to read between the lines to sense the real angst that Zooniversity’s educators and keepers felt each day. Our hearts were breaking as we dealt with the roller-coaster daily reports. A final plea was posted for prayers and healing on a particularly bad day during the second week. By that same evening, Colby had rallied, she fought back. You can’t tell us that prayer and positive energy doesn’t work! It’s been an exhausting lesson, but one that every wildlife person has to learn — every life is fragile, every life can end when you least expect it, every life is precious and worth saving, no matter what it takes.

Colby still needs more time to fully recuperate, so it’ll be a while before she can travel, show off, and bask in applause again – but she’s still here! Colby obviously has many more students to teach and many more people to inspire — she has a reason to be here. "Good bird, Colby." And, please keep those well wishes coming her way, as we’ve learned you never know when they’ll be needed. With our sincere gratitude — thank you, everyone.

"Sid" needed a new mama, so he traveled all the way from the jungles of Guyana to adopt Zooniversity’s owner, Allison, as his new mother. He’s turned into a real hip-baby — you’ll find him perched on her hip with arms around her neck while she does chores or just napping in those rare, quiet moments. Some of our Facebook fans met him online last Fall, when we were calling him "Dante." But, due to overwhelming demand by friends and family, we’ve renamed him "Sid," after the comical, prehistoric giant ground sloth in the animated Ice Age movies — hence, the kid-friendly name change. "Sid" doesn’t seem to mind at all. Actually, he doesn’t seem to mind anything, as long as a juicy grape is involved!

Two-toed sloths are found throughout tropical South America and are built for life in the jungle treetops. They spend nearly all of their time aloft, hanging upside down from branches with a powerful grip using their long claws. Sloths even sleep in trees, and they sleep a lot — up to 20 hours every day. The sloth is the world’s slowest mammal. So sedentary in fact, that in the wild algae can actually grow on their furry coat — earning them the "slothy" reputation that we equate with human laziness. Even when awake, they often remain motionless and are silent. At night they eat leaves, shoots, and fruit from the trees and get almost all of their water from juicy plants. Food can take up to a month to digest, due to their slow metabolism. Sloths are clumsy on land and usually only go to the ground to defecate. The sloth’s weak hind legs provide no power and their long claws are a problem on land. They must dig into the earth with their front claws and use their strong front legs to pull themselves along, dragging their bellies across the ground. If caught on land, these animals have no chance to evade predators, such as big cats or humans, and must try to defend themselves by clawing and biting. And, believe us, you don’t want to battle with an upset sloth — they are stronger than they look and can do some serious damage! They are also surprisingly good swimmers, sometimes falling directly from rainforest trees into rivers to stroke with their long arms.

"Sid" will be ready to travel with us this Spring and Summer to meet our school and library audiences. (A long day of birthday parties would still be too stressful for this baby, so he won’t be available for parties for awhile.) Be sure to invite "Sid" to meet your students — and be sure to bring along some grapes.

This sweet baby has been with us for a couple of months now and is tame and gentle and has already been traveling to meet our school students and party guests. He was shared with us by another wildlife expert, who found this lone, unclaimed baby in a sleeping poach when cleaning a cage full of adults. His name? Thanks to a plea for a suitable name on our Facebook page, we had lots of imaginative suggestions. One of our favorite librarians suggested "Diego," Greek for "teacher," and a name that is quickly recognized by any child under the age of 15 years as that cute, cartoon boy, who rescues rainforest creatures — what could be more appropriate?

This sweet, nocturnal marsupial will soon grow to be the size of a large kitten, especially at the rate he’s been chowing down on bugs and tropical fruit. He has bonded to our keepers and he is easy to hold and to pet. Be sure to invite him to your next event — he may even show you how he hangs upside down by his tail!

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Read other blog entries about "Faith": Cancer: Exotic Animals Battle It Too and Blind "Faith," the Fennec Fox