lion

This is one video that you do not get to see every day, animal lovers. A tug of war enrichment game between a lioness and three professional wrestlers. Yup, you read that right. And guess who the winner is.

It's amazing, how easily we forget just how strong and dangerous these adorable fluffy big cats are. We look at pictures of wild animals and sometimes wish that they would interact with us puny humans - looking at insane videos of people who are part of a lion's pride, we feel jealousy, but then seeing a tumblr thread like this reminds us of just how dangerous they are. 

Although we don't love that this animal is in captivity in the first place, we are glad that the people working at the San Antonio Zoo are trying to give her such enrichment programs and make her day a little more fun. 

If you ever wished you could adopt a wild animal, the chow chow doggo is the answer to your prayers! Lions and tigers and bears - oh my - all in one floof of a dog. The chow chow look may be inspired by all the wild animals, but it's wild in its cutest form. This post alone should adequately convince you to get yourself a chow chow bestie today. Scroll down for all the wildness and cuteness below. 

If you're a cat lover anything like us, then one thing is definitely true about you - you think ALL cats are purrfect, and that, of course, includes big cats. Wild cats are adorable, and that's just fact. No matter how scary they are or how dangerous, if a wild cat turns onto his back and shows off its belly, we would definitely want to pet it, no matter the risk.

Today, we're going to show our love to the most definitely underappreciated wild cats in our midst. And, we're going to prove - once and for all - that big wild cats are just as awwdorable as the tiniest itty bitty kittens. 

Welcome to the world, little cub! 

On Jan 26th, Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) announced that they The Singapore Zoo has welcomed its first baby lion cub conceived through assisted reproduction, and we are so excited. This is amazing news, giving hope to everyone that the more technology will advance, the higher the odds of us being able to preserve species and potentially even help save them from extinction. 

Read more details and check out pictures and video of the awwdorable cub and his mom below!

If you're a cat lover like us, you have a soft spot in your heart not just for house cats but also for big cats. You'd pet them if you could, and you know it. And you wish you could spend more time around big cats like that and get to know them better, learn about each of them - what makes them special and different and what their personalities are like. 

Well, say thank you to tumblr user carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory for deciding to share their big cat knowledge with us and teaching us - unlucky big cat lovers who can't spend time with big cats - about what makes wild cats unique. Reading this has both educated us and made us want to cuddle a snow leopard even more. 

Our hearts may just burst completely wide open and there's nothing that can be done about it. It's a phenomenon called cuteness overload and this cub has all those characteristics in the making. 

We've seen dogs frolicking in autumn leaves, heck we've seen cats enjoying the beautiful Fall weather, but lion cubs? Lion cubs in piles of fallen leaves and attacking them? Well, never have we ever seen anything so precious! 

Autumn is still here, and these photos are the only things keeping us warm right now. With winter right around the corner, we think we could all use these heartwarming images to help us brace for the inevitable cold. 

There's a reason that all of us cat lovers also have a special place in our hearts for big cats, and it is that all big cats are basically regular cats... enlarged. They have the same faces - just bigger, they are just as silly - just bigger, and they have the same habits... just bigger. 

And so, their bleps are also... bigger. And though in this case, bigger is not necessarily better, it is definitely just as cute. Regular cat bleps are some of our favorite all time cat pictures, but they're, of course, not the only animals who can do the blep. Foxes are already strong blepping competition, and now, the big cats are officially entering the race too. You be the judge deciding who you think is the master of the blep. 

Istanbul's Aslan Park is home to two big cats who have become best friends. A white lion called Pamuk and a Bengal tiger called Toby who are both only 18 months old have taken over our hearts with their adorable friendship. When they were just  four months old, the zookeepers attempted to separate the cubs, but the cubs had other plans. 

Daily News reports that Gökmen Aydın, the general par manager, said: "We wanted to separate them as both belong to different species. Then we realize uneasiness in animals. We started to think about the cause. When they got together later, we saw that they want to stay with each other. They became friends within four months," and we just can't help but awww.

Pamuk and Toby sleep most day, like all cats do, but they play together a lot and absolutely hate being separated for any reason whatsoever. "They sometimes sleep while hugging each other," added Aydın, and okay, que some more awws right about now. We wish them a long friendship even as they grow older and as much happiness as they have in general. Their story brought us immense happiness for sure. 

Check out pictures of Pamuk and Toby together below! And if you're interested in more happy friendships between species, take a look at this Pitbull and rescued fox cub who are total BFFs.

Another week, another list of twitter animal shenanigans. Animal twitter always has so, so much to offer. People love animals, they can't help but tweet about them, and we're always happy to see the animals that people enjoy so much. It's a vast landscape - animal twitter - and we have learned to navigate it for you, finding the most talked about twitter animals of the week.

Weekly, we bring you the very best - the funny, the weird, the cute, all of it. From cats setting off atomic bombs, to mosquitos and flies conducting studies, and everything in between. With these tweets, you'll be able to get your week started the right way, with the kind of conversation-inspiring tweets that'll give you motivation to talk to people even if it's Monday and you're too tired to get up.