Animal Planet

Published 12:01 am Friday, August 5, 2011

Try some Jackson Browne: Animal trainers say a beluga whale was probably reacting more to the movement of musicians than the music in a video that shows the marine mammal bobbing its head to a mariachi band at a wedding reception.

But what the animal experts didn’t see, after the video camera turned away, was the beluga lining up with wedding guests for “The Chicken Dance.”

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Already has the tux: A wayward emperor penguin, rescued on a New Zealand beach six weeks ago, is now the star of his own webcam. Named Happy Feet, the penguin soon will be returned to the wild. But while he recuperates he has attracted at least 120,000 viewers who can watch him sleep and waddle a bit in a large fridge.

It sounds kind of tame, but frankly, we were a little burned out on Shark Week.

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Banana republic: Herald film critic Robert Horton says fans of the original “Planet of the Apes” movies should enjoy the prequel “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” which shows how a medically enhanced chimpanzee leads the eventual ape takeover of the Earth.

Let’s see: A 512-point drop in the stock market. A dysfunctional Congress. Persistent unemployment.

I, for one, welcome our new simian overlords.

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