We’ve seen the weird cold sky lights sparkle after a brush of Revontulet’s tail.
Now for something warmer. And, perhaps an answer to why the Firefox browser’s logo shows a red-coated animal, when Revontulet’s real-world counterpart is white (in winter) or dark (in summer).
Behold, Ailurus!
1tomm/Shutterstock
That’s not a fox. And even though “Ailurus” means “cat” in Greek, there doesn’t appear to be anything cat-like about it in this video.
It’s a little easier to see why 19th-century boffins gave it that name in this compilation video (which contains the above footage but without that perfect background music), as the creature moves around:
But it’s not a cat, nor a bear despite its name: red panda.
Taxonomists haven’t been able to connect this caniform to any of its fellows in Order Carnivora, so they just put the red panda in its own genus — out of tradition, named Ailurus — and moved on to other things.
Pictured: Other things.
One of the browser war victors. (Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.)
Mozilla says their logo is both a fox and a red panda (fire fox), but it’s okay to combine apples and oranges when you’re computer nerds, not professional cat name herders taxonomy nerds.
The rest of us simply want to know where red pandas come from.
Featured image: Image by Jason Goh from Pixabay
Flight To Wonder 