Our animal friends have got social distancing down to a fine art whether you measure that virus-proof buffer in feet, meters or even bears.
1) Gull Of Duty
Listen up, buoys and gulls, social distancing is the new normal because... well, just beak cause! The flocks of seagulls above have found the perfect way to keep in touch without, y'know, actually touching OR running, running so far away. (images via gianna elena at top and ANDI2.. above)
2) Bears Repeating
OK, so you've been told to keep one bear's length of space between yourself and others but how does that work if only two bears are involved? Easy: just enlist your invisible bear friend to safely fill the gap? Humans who want to go that route had best think twice, however, as enlisting bare friends might be frowned upon unless you're at a nudist colony. (image via Pedro Ribeiro Simões)
3) Shingle File
Cat on a hot tin roof? Busted! Indeed, in the time of coronavirus one wouldn't want to stray within a whisker of someone else for fear of going viral, and not in a good way. We should all follow the example set by the cool cats above – they're not likely to catch either COVID-19 or Cat Scratch Fever, and you don't need a TED talk to know that's true. (image via Paul Dineen)
4) A Ruff Distance
Why grovel when you can “gravel” instead? You won't catch this pair of pooches being road hogs, that's for sure. Only one problem, though... it's really hard to smell a butt from six feet away. (image via Mike McBey)
5) Why Fly Wi-Fi
Bird Flu seems like a thing of the past now that “Bat Flu” has altered all of our lives for the bitter. That said, these high-flying virus vectors have taken the concept of “Bird Flew” to a higher level while still maintaining sufficient distance between individual flyers. (image via Paul Cone)
6) Not Two Crows For Comfort
Call it a caws for celebration when our animal friends get into the swing of things by maintaining social distancing guidelines. Not that that's anything to crow about: a group of crows is called a “murder” so yeah, best for all concerned if they stay the heck away from one another. (image via Ben Grantham)
7) Sheep Thrills
Looking on the bright side of social distancing, counting sheep has never been easier now that the fluffy mutton mob has separated itself into individual woolly clumps. That's a good thing – all that working from home plus riding herd on kids whose schools have closed means we ALL could use a good night's sheep... er, sleep. (image via Neil Alexander McKee)
8) Deer Prudence
The buck stops here... about six feet behind that other buck's butt. That's really the whole point of social distancing, and it's relevant whether you're a 20-point buck or a buck shy of a 20-piece KFC bucket ordered on your phone and delivered to your door by DoorDash. Next time, try DeerDash. (image via yrjö jyske)
9) From Dawn To Tusk
They say elephants never forget and when it comes to avoiding community transmission of coronaviruses, they never forget to keep their distance. You might want to do the same, or at the very least use a mask to cover the junk in your trunk. (image via Phil Kates)
10) Coo The Credits
Now here's a scene we'd all like to see: people and pigeons occupying space without getting in each others' face. One might call their actions “pigeon perfect” but don't give the flying rats TOO much credit... you just know they'll toss caution to the ill wind as soon as someone tosses out a handful of birdseed. (image via GoToVan)
