[Cranes flying south for the winter, at sunset in Germany. Photo via AP.]

With a little bit of clever video editing, these hamsters start in a 3 x 3 formation and disperse randomly. Then they get their act together and do whatever it is that hamsters in balls do: be really cute.

How do you fight off a shark attack? Pull its tail, apparently. That's what happened today in Australia when a dive instructor was bitten in the leg and butt and a swimmer yanked the shark's tail, which then fled.

[A northern plains grey langur (or, Semnopithecus entellus) looks for grapes inside a pumpkin at the Nyiregyhaza Animal Park in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary today. Image via AP]

In this clip we are shown how spiders are affected by various drugs. California better watch out before it's doing nothing but building hammocks and resorting to being someone's b*tch during the Winter months for warmth! Watch inside.

Check out this amazingly cute video of a kitten playing hide and seek inside a McDonald's bag. If Happy Meals came with kittens like these, we'd all be a whole lot fatter, wouldn't we?

Kittens Charlie and Spike are afflicted with Myotonia Congenita, a.k.a. Fainting Goat Syndrome. Read: They are super-adorable because they faint at the slightest sound. You may not laugh, but you will smile lovingly and probably cry.

Since a moat separates the lions at the National Zoo from the rest of us delicious mammals, you'd think that the zookeepers would not want them to know how to swim... but then we wouldn't have this adorable video!

This Sengis (aka Elephant Shrew) sounds an awful like my possible twin: adorable, permanently hungry, and efficiently hunts prey through a network of paths. Regardless, you've got to see this animal in action!

Scientists have found a new species of monkey in northeast Burma, which they have named the Burmese snub-nosed (Rhinopithecus strykeri). Local hunters provided them with skulls and skin, leading to the find. Scientists estimate the population numbers 260-330 monkeys.

According to a new conservation study, one-fifth of all plant and animal species qualify for the Red List of Threatened Species, meaning they are "facing wipeout." So, basically, if we work hard, we can probably finish them off by 2100.

Watch a walrus do crunches, leg flexes, arm stretches, and really get a superb all-round body workout. After watching this you have no excuse but to.. find a walrus of your own to train.

Everyone's favorite World Cup-predicting octopus, Paul, died today at the Sea Life Center in Oberhausen, Germany. Officials say he passed "peacefully in his sleep," and that a monument would be erected in his honor. Rest in peace, buddy. [Der Spiegel]

Residents of southern Exmoor today are mourning the death of "The Emperor" — a 300-pound, nine-foot tall red deer, who was gunned down by a savage hunter. Experts say he was Britain's biggest wild animal. The Emperor was around 12-years-old.

The Hawaiian island of Kauai has canceled Friday night high school football games this season, because migrating seabirds mistake the stadium lights for the "moon and stars," then "fall from the sky and [get] eaten by cats." Stupid cats. [AP]

In this video, a parakeet with mad skills dances to Willow Smith's hit, "Whip My Hair." The only thing that would make this bird more impressive is if it could add color to its environment by whipping its feathers.

The headline says it all here, honestly. Here's a video that Science Channel host Danny Forster took with his iPhone (and posted to his Twitter page) this morning of two goats, in Mumbai, tied to—and dancing around!—a box.

Longcat (context) really does exist! This is Stewie, a Maine Coon who belongs to a Reno, Nevada woman. Stewie was just confirmed to be the world's longest cat, measuring 48 1/2 inches. Inside, video of Stewie's record-breaking moment of truth.

Meet Cooper! Cooper is a cat. Cooper likes bananas. And, while the whole cat-eating-fruit thing has been done before (and better, IMO) by Rich Juzwiak/Winston, here's a cute video of Cooper eating a banana while dressed as a banana split.

Is there anything cuter than a sleeping puppy? Not likely. But wait! How about a sleeping and dreaming puppy, full of little yelps and half-barks and everything else that makes non-sleeping puppies so cute? Yes, yes, definitely cuter. Video inside.