The Cutest Baby Animals Born During the Pandemic
Updated: Jul. 16, 2020This is the type of news the world needs right now.
Welcome to the world, babies!
The sight of adorable animal infants—emerging into the world in nature, as well as at zoos, shelters, and rescue organizations—brings some much-needed relief (and cuteness) to these trying times. It was tough to narrow it down, but here are our favourite photos.
Baby sloth
At Costa Rica’s Asis Wildlife Rescue Center in La Fortuna and Las Pumas Rescue Center in the Guanacaste region, wildlife experts have been caring throughout the pandemic for a total of 332 animals—including several newborns, like this sloth. One of the country’s most iconic animals, sloths are either two- or three-toed, spend 90 per cent of their time hanging upside down, and are usually solitary.
“A baby sloth is largely dependent on its mother,” report the experts at the rescue centres. “Abrupt separation has a major emotional impact on the animal especially when it is feeding time, and so caregivers pay keen attention to them during rehabilitation.”
Check out more adorable pictures of baby sloths!
Baby howler monkeys
A well-meaning would-be Good Samaritan found these baby howler monkeys—so named because of the loud sounds they make to communicate with their troop and claim their territory—and brought them to the Asis Wildlife Rescue Center, believing they were abandoned by their mother.
The centre calls this a “common misunderstanding, which does more damage than good for the monkeys, who retreat and face physical and emotional consequences from being pulled out of the wild” and away from their moms. The centre will attempt to create a small troop with these and other monkey babies—teaching them how to be monkeys again and rely on their own instincts—before releasing them within the next year.
Here’s what wild animals have been up to while humans are in quarantine.
Baby jaguarundi
Costa Rican wildlife experts are also caring for this baby jaguarundi. Also known as Eyra cats, these felines can make 13 distinct sounds, ranging from a chirp to a whistle. This unfortunate little cutie was so small when found that it had to be bottle-fed, lying on a keeper’s lap along with a comforting stuffed animal. Baby mammals such as this one, say the Las Pumas experts, can spend up to one year in recovery before they’re deemed capable of caring for themselves enough to be released back into the wild.
Learn how COVID-19 is affecting the world’s most endangered animals.
Baby tropical screech owl
Members of this winged beauty’s species are found throughout South America and Central America. And although some screech owls enjoy decent ecological resiliency at the moment, this young little creature hasn’t been as lucky. It’s currently being looked after by the Asis wildlife crew until it’s ready to fly off on its own.
Baby anteater
Found alone in a Costa Rican village soon after it was born, this tree-dwelling lesser anteater baby, shown here at three months old, is a Las Pumas success story: It was released back into the wild after being cared for and rehabilitated. This is good news not only for the baby but for the entire Tamandua genus, some of whose members are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
Meet the wildlife veterinarians saving mountain gorillas in central Africa.
Baby greater grison
This relatively solitary member of the weasel family—sometimes called a South American wolverine and mistaken for a honey badger—was found by local villagers in central Costa Rica when it was under threat of attack from a dog. They brought it to Asis, where it received care and was released back into the wild. Although pretty defenseless when it’s young, an adult grison is a fierce hunter and is known to swiftly kill its prey—mice, birds, lizards—with a bite to the back of the neck.
Baby African lion
African lions are considered a vulnerable species, with populations declining. And although zoos have been criticized by some as “menageries” that do not necessarily have animals’ best interests at heart, accredited zoos have become important for the conservation and reintroduction into the wild of animals such as lions. Plus, with revenue tight during the pandemic due to lost safari income from tourism that helps fund anti-poaching programs, lions need help more than ever. This sweet, sleepy cub was born at the Kuku Zoo wildlife park in Sudan during the pandemic.
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Baby crested grebes
The pandemic hit at the busy time of year for birds of all kinds, and it seems a person can’t walk out to a park or down by a river without encountering fluffy feathered babies everywhere. In London, as the city was preparing to open at the beginning of June, this mother grebe shuttled her ducklings around one of Wanstead Park’s waterways. Found across Europe, crested grebes are known for their elaborate mating dances.
More ducklings!
These mallards, seen on Lafarge Lake in Coquitlam, British Columbia, this past May are as cute as can be. Reports indicate that ducklings abound everywhere there’s been a pandemic-related shutdown—more likely to be paraded around by their proud mamas because there have been fewer people present to harass them. These common but oddball ducks will mate with ducks from other species and are thought to be the ancestors of pretty much all domestic ducks, Mental Floss reports.
Baby American puma
This gorgeous cat is one of two American pumas born during the current health crisis at the Africa Bio-Zoo, a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre in Cordoba, Mexico. We’re not so sure what we think about their names, though: Pandemic and Quarantine. Also known as panthers, mountain lions, and catamounts, these babies will grow to be up to eight feet long and weigh as much as 180 pounds.
Baby elephant
This Sumatran elephant, born at the Taman Safari animal theme park in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, in May, was promptly named COVID. Sumatran elephants are critically endangered due to poaching for their tusks, as well as deforestation and habitat loss; this baby is one of an estimated 2,400 to 2,800 Sumatran elephants left in the world, according to One Kind Planet.
Check out the amazing things elephants can do!
Baby donkey
This wobbly donkey foal was born just minutes before this picture was snapped at Lower Drayton Farm in Staffordshire, England, back in April. It’s just one of the who-can-say-how-many farm animals born during the coronavirus pandemic, having a bath and some quality time with mom before getting to work in the fields.
Baby ring-tailed lemur
After being rejected by its mother, this baby ring-tailed lemur—a species listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List—was receiving care from zookeepers at Safari Park in Krasnodor, Russia. Animals can be rejected by their mothers for a variety of reasons; they may be too small or weak to avoid predation, for example, the VioVet blog reports, or their mothers may be too short on resources to care for another infant.
Here are the animals that look nothing like their baby pictures.
Baby yellow Lab
There are an estimated 10,000 guide-dog teams working in the United States, according to the organization Guiding Eyes for the Blind. And new ones are being born and trained all the time—like this little fellow named Damon, two-months-old at the time of this photo, snapped in late June. He’s taking a snooze after a taxing morning with his handler, who was attending a climate event in Washington, D.C., with the House Democrats.
Next, check out these photos of nature rebounding during the pandemic.
