Cute animals — especially endangered ones — get a lotta human attention. But a few are getting a level of human care that I'd never imagined was even possible:

Penguin suit, redefined. Pierre the penguin was going bald, so the biologists at the California Academy of Sciences got him a custom-made wetsuit. Apparently, the suit did its job — and Pierre's keeping warm, gaining weight, and growing back his hair. (And he didn't even have to join Hair Club for Men!)

"There are no plans to make him a matching surfboard," reports the Associated Press. (In other breaking news, it turns out the AP has a sense of humor!)

A turtle's fake shake. Sea Turtle, Inc., a turtle conservation agency, is working to get Allison the turtle a prosthetic flipper. Apparently, Allison was found missing three flippers. And although she's done well under human care, when you consider that an Atlantic green sea turtle like Allison can grow to 450 pounds and live a century or so, her long-term prognosis with only one flipper is not promising, according to her docs. So the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the UT Dental Branch in Houston volunteered to create a new flipper to resolve her "quality of life issue."

Knut gets nutty. According to The Atlantic, cute polar bear Knut's a "knut"-case. "Knut is a combination of abused child-soldier and abused child-star — treated as a useful spectacle, with too little regard for his long-term psychological well-being." Sad stories have never looked so adorable! Meanwhile, polar bears are still not on the U.S. endangered species list; a decision to include them or not must be made by May 15, ruled a federal judge in Oakland.

^{_{Bottom photo by Patrick via Flickr.}}