This week, stage plays with anthropomorphic animals are being performed on both sides of the Atlantic.

An adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book is being presented at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, Ireland. The classic tale of man-cub Mowgli's adventures amongst the denizens of the jungle is brought to life with actors in animal roles wearing minimalist animal costumes.

Meanwhile, in Decatur, Georgia, USA, the PushPush Theatre company is presenting The Squirrel Trap. In this play, office drudge Gil finds his attic is inhabited by a talking squirrel – who readily dispenses advice on personal relationships. The role is played by a bearded actor in ordinary clothes with the addition of a large bushy tail.

This Thursday (July 21) sees the final performance of Squirrel, or The Origin of a Species, playing in the Redrum theater at Fort Fringe in Washington D.C., USA

A two-man comedy by Michael Merino, Squirrel is a dialogue between nineteenth-century naturalist Charles Darwin (played by Ian LeValley) and an American Grey Squirrel (played by Carlos Bustamante).

The play is presented as a series of skits, jumping about about in time and setting but roughly following Darwin's life between his voyage on the HMS Beagle and his writing On the Origin of Species. Bustamante brings the Squirrel to life with only a grey hat with ear flaps, and his own squirrelly movements.

Anthropomorphic animals will teach young children some basic entrepreneurial skills in a new book written by Eric F. Steimle and illustrated by Jason Burns. [tip: Harvard Heinous]

In Jason Squirrel Starts a Company (Amazon), the bushy-tailed protagonist grows tired of fetching heavy bags of nuts each day, and having no leisure time, and thus devises a plan to create a nut-collecting company.

After being denied a startup loan from Stan the Banking Turtle, Jason educates himself on the various aspects of running a business (from finance to marketing to staffing), and finds an investor in the form of Grandpa Crow. Overcoming various obstacles, Jason's dream is eventually realised and he expands his woodland business empire by hiring a group of raccoons.

Steiml, based the book on his own experiences in starting a business, saying "I thought there should be more books for younger children that talk about building your own company."

Police were called to Kimbrough Middle School in Mesquite, Texas, after a squirrel was seen behaving erratically. The concern was that this can be a sign of rabies.

As a baby squirrel hopped towards a policeman in the grounds of a school, he took out his pepper spray, apparently to defend himself against the potentially infected animal. As school children pleaded with the officer not to harm the creature, the squirrel advanced and the man reacted by spraying it. The squirrel became disorientated and started writhing on the ground.

A Mesquite Animal Control officer was called and cleaned the spray off the squirrel. After being given a satisfactory bill of health, it was released back into the wild.

A video recording of the pepper-spraying incident, made by students, generated outrage after it was posting on YouTube. Having received over 700,000 views in one week, comments on the video are split between those condemning the officer's actions as heavy-handed, and those sympathising with his need to maintain personal safety in the face of a possibly rabid animal.

For the past few weeks, deputies at the Oklahoma Sheriff's Office have found their vehicles being vandalised, with tampering to the electrical wiring.

Closer examination revealed the wiring had been chewed through, with the culprit leaving a mass of tiny footprints in the engine compartment. Deputies have since observed a squirrel dropping down from under one of the vehicles, which showed signs of recent squirrel habitation, and have called in animal control. So far, attempts to trap the vandal squirrel have failed.

In a sign of the times, the Scofflaw Squirrel now has a Twitter account.

An exhibition of the works of Walter Potter, Victorian taxidermist and collector, is being extended at London's Museum of Everything.

Walter Potter (1835-1918) was a self-taught English taxidermist who created elaborate anthropomorphic tableaux of small mammals and birds. These dioramas, along with various other odd items, were put on display in Potter's museum in Bramber, Sussex.

In an hour long interview, the Nostalgia Critic celebrates the Animaniacs, with guests Tom and Nate Ruegger, Sherrie Stoner, John P. McCann, and Paul Rugg.

The Nostalgia Critic covers a fair amount of ground with the crew, including the abundance of freedom granted to the writers, sneaking jokes by the censors, the music, the differences between animating studios, creative influences, and Cartoon Stars' addictions. Unsurprisingly, there is also a lot of ribbing and joking around to be had.

Animaniacs ran to 99 episodes from 1993 to 1998, and one movie, Wakko's Wish, in 1999. The series also produced a spin-off: Pinky and the Brain.

Squirrels may be small, but are extremely complex creatures.

Squirrels will actively try to deceive people, pretending to hide their nuts when they think they are being watched, but actually keeping them hidden in their mouths. They have different calls for different things and can learn by watching other species, even humans. Physically they have a number of exceptional features, like the ability to jump ten times their body length.

The New York Times' City Room notes the choice of the New York City Parks and Recreation's official mascot – Pearl the Squirrel. [strawdog/furryne.ws]

According to Disney Interactive artist Adam Koford, Pearl beat several feathered competitors:

We almost went with an owl, or one of the hawks that live alongside Central Park, but the squirrel was a bit funner to draw.

Furry fans might know Adam as the creator of the Laugh-Out Loud Cats (archive), a pair of anthropomorphic feline hobos drawn in early 20th-century style who use 21st-century Internet slang. He also illustrated the HTTP 4xx status errors (available in poster form).

Update: Pearl in fursuit form.

On February 13, Alton Towers, working with Sega Europe, unveiled a Sonic the Hedgehog-themed roller coaster ride, and a hotel room to match. Which might just be the closest thing to being inside a Sonic game.

The room features a colorful wallpaper that resemble opening stages of Sonic games — a tropical forest on a backdrop of blue sky and sea, complete with checkerboard platforms. The lamps are modeled after Emeralds and plushies of characters can be found in the bathroom. It also has a PS3, XBox 360 and Wii, complete with several Sonic games.

I thought it was a typo when my coworker informed me she had seen an advert claiming former Beatles member Paul McCartney had written something with "Furry" in the title. It seems as though it should say "Urban Fairy Tale," a common enough phrase.

Semantic quibbles regarding the differences and/or overlappings of furries vs fairies aside, it is indeed furry, and "is about two squirrels and a frog, who embark on a mission to set free some animals" (per Bookinformation.co.uk).

More info at the above URL, Billboard.com, or just Google the title.

BBC Online has a story on the new red squirrel refuge in Whinfell Forest, Cumbria. The story includes a couple of very good pictures of the endangered squirrels.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Grey squirrels' faulty memories turn out to be good for forests, but the nut-hoarding habits of their red cousins are not, U.S. scientists say.

Full Article

Are you (or is someone you love) a squirrel? Then you might want to read this article. It shows how squirrels started out 36 million years ago in Western North America and spread outwards fairly quickly.

It's an interesting article, showing how archaeology, geology and genetics can cooperate in giving us a better understanding of the current animal world.

Like something out of an early "Toy Story," the kittens cluster rigidly around a table laden with tea and cakes, while nearby two rakish squirrels smoke their pipes — watched by a two-headed lamb and conjoined twin piglets.

Read the full article here.