Zooland, Thy Name is Beijing: More Animal Stories from the Capital

With the Year of the Ox upon us, it seems that every creature below the heavens has made tracks online recently except for our bovine friends. For one, as you may have heard, bird flu was recently observed among the swans of Haidian. But fortunately, it's not all bad news for the city's critters.

Man on a goat chariot

At a market in northern Beijing, a man was captured on video getting around by a most unusual means – a small goat-drawn cart that seems to have been pulled straight from a steampunk petting zoo.

With horns slicked back on its head as if freshly combed, the goat sported a pair of circular blue sunglasses as well as the end of a plastic bottle over its snout to ensure that it wasn't tempted by any of the market's produce. It also appeared to be chewing, so there may have been a small amount of food stored in the bottle as an afternoon snack.

The fellow who shot the video of the vehicular novelty explains in a voiceover that the old man and his horned friend were unable to respond to questions regarding the animal's breed, perhaps because the man was unable to hear the question (as the videographer notes, he appeared to be wearing a hearing aid), and definitely because goats can't talk.

Cat's rear-end frozen to a manhole cover

A cat in Shunyi recently found itself in a situation only slightly preferable to that of the child in A Christmas Story who licks the frozen poll at recess. With its cries for help, the orange feline caught the attention of local residents who discovered that its butt was frozen to the manhole cover on which it sat.

Netizens following the story as it played out speculated that the cat had urinated, consequently freezing itself to the metal sewer cover. However, the rescuers explained that it had most likely dipped its posterior into the nearby pond, which had not fully frozen, and later become stuck after popping a squat.

Fortunately, the cat was safely removed from the predicament by a team of rescuers and subsequently brought to a veterinarian.

Tortoises show off a new look

Paying tribute to their ancient ancestors, the Beijing Zoo recently gave its young tortoises some special winter wear – green knitted sweaters with dinosaur spikes.

While adorable, this practice is, in fact, ill-advised for long-term use. Tortoises are cold-blooded creatures, meaning that they primarily receive heat from outside their bodies rather than from within, so rather than capturing heat generated by the body (as is the result when a mammal wears a sweater), the clothing may actually prevent the transfer of heat from the environment, and therefore make the animals colder. Hopefully, the sweaters were not kept on for too long.

READ: Zooland, Thy Name is Beijing: Animals Invade the Capital

Images: Reddit, Weibo