December 21 marks the winter solstice, the longest night of the year for the northern hemisphere, and it's been celebrated by cultures around the globe.
Unusually large ears are the most distinctive feature of the fennec fox, a member of the world’s smallest canid species and native to the Sahara Desert encompassing much of North Africa.
History of Valentine s Day
Like Halloween, the origins of Valentine s Day are rooted in paganism, specifically in a fertility festival known as Lupercalia, says National Geographic.
The festival – which was “wildly popular” until the fifth century AD – was celebrated annually on 15 February. It was customary for men to use whips fashioned from the skins of a goat or dog to spank young maidens in order to increase fertility - “an early form of IVF if you will,” says Tom Chivers in the Daily Telegraph.
Lupercalia was so popular that the young Christian Church was unable to stop pagans taking part, and so it eventually began to modify the festival into a Christian celebration, linking it to the legend of St Valentine.
Editor s note: This is part of a series of videos offering an up-close perspective on the animal kingdom. A special 360-degree video camera system was set up in zoos and other facilities to show how the animals view their world as they interact.
Also visit our special 360-DEGREE LIVES page (
http://t.asahi.com/360lives), where you can watch all the previous videos.
With its beady eyes and chubby face, the quokka, a type of small kangaroo, is referred to as “the world’s happiest animal” because its mouth often curves in the shape of a smile.
The Saitama Children’s Zoo in Higashi-Matsuyama, Saitama Prefecture, is the only zoo in the world to exhibit the marsupial outside Australia, its native home.