Otter Sledding Is America’s Next Great Winter Sports Phenomenon

Hockey is dead. Curling never happened. Everyone knows the best winter sport is otter sledding.

Check out these otters enjoying a bit of fresh snow at the Buffalo Zoo. It’s a four-otter race and Gump clearly knows what he’s doing. I’m calling the lead otter “Gump” because 1) he looks like a Gump and 2) otter identification is not my strong suit and these little guys look a bit too old to be Luke and Leia. Damnit, I’m a blogger, not a zoologist.

Anyway, they’re clearly handling a bit of winter weather much better than the Buffalo Bills are. They need fans to come help them shovel just so they can play a bad football game in a little bit of snow. But these otters can play in all conditions, no questions asked.

They do get a bit camera shy, though. Look at this little buddy get a look at the lens and scamper off.

I’m disappointed that the #ottersledding hashtag on Twitter is pretty bare. It did give us this National Geographic video entitled “Otter Chaos.” That’s some great wordplay right there.

While we’re at the Buffalo Zoo, let’s meet Scout, a one-year-old red panda that just wants to be your friend.

Animals are way better at winter than human.