24 Cute Baby Animals Who Will Melt Your Heart (and Share How Incredible They Truly Are)

A baby lar gibbon ape
Simia Attentive/Shutterstock.com

Written by Jeremy Phillips

Updated: October 31, 2022

Share on:

Advertisement


Why is it that a baby animal of almost any species in the world is instantly cute? AZ Animals is a site based on academic research and carefully sourced facts, but let’s be honest — there are some things science simply cannot explain, such as cute baby animals!

Baby animals are cute, and I refuse to apologize for loving every image and video of them I can get my hands on.

Therefore, I present to you rare cute baby animals, and a fact about each you’ll enjoy almost as much.

1. Cute Baby Sea Turtle

Watch as this little guy makes his way from his freshly-hatched egg towards the water so he can join his friends as quickly as possible. These sea turtles aren’t rare cute baby animals, but they are definitely cute!

Fun Sea Turtle Fact: Female sea turtles will travel hundreds, and sometimes thousands of miles in the water, but will almost always return to the exact same beach to lay a new set of eggs. Whoa!

2. Determined Baby Wolf

Chew that stick all you want buddy — you can do it!

Fun Wolf Fact and also rare cute baby animals fact: Wolves pups are born deaf and blind like dogs and weigh no more than a soda can.

While your average wolf may trot along at 5 miles per hour, they have been known to sprint close to 40 MPH when there is food on the line.

3. Cute Baby Ducks (aka Ducklings)

There wasn’t sound with this video originally, but you can almost hear the pitter-patter of these cute baby animals’ duck feet, can’t you?

Fun Duck Fact: A typical duck egg takes just under 30 days to hatch. Which as you know, gives us even more baby animals to ogle. A win for ducks, and win for me and you, am I right?

4. Glorious Baby Elephant

Talk about a mini-me! I can’t get enough of this baby elephant waving its ears at us.

Fun Elephant Facts: A newborn elephant can weigh over 260 pounds!

And just because elephants are so magnificent, I’ll include a second fact. Like narwhals (yes, that’s a real animal), elephant tusks are actually teeth. I would strongly suggest a visit to your dentist if your teeth ever look like that.

5. Cute Baby Hippo

What his ears lack in size, they make up for in raw speed. Hippos are by far one of my favorite cute baby animals…because, well see for yourself.

Fun Hippo Fact: A fully grown hippopotamus can eat over 75 pounds of grass in a single night. A pet hippo would beat mowing the lawn, but where would she sleep?

6. Cute Baby Rabbit

I wish I could be in the room with this cute rabbit as he starts to explore what’s outside the basket.

Fun Rabbit Fact: A baby rabbit is called a kit (like a fox.) A male rabbit is called a buck (like a deer.) And a female is a doe (also like a deer.)

7. Cute Baby Sloths

Sloths are known for being slow, but I choose to believe they just enjoy the world around them more than most!

Fun Sloth Fact: The real reason sloths are slow is that they have an extremely low calorie diet, mainly consisting of leaves. Thus they move slow to conserve energy.

8. Cute Young Rhea

This young rhea drinks about like I do, except he didn’t spill on his new shirt right before an important meeting.

Fun Rhea Fact: Native to South America, rheas cannot fly but they can run up to 40 miles per hour.

9. Cute Baby Puppies

I can’t get enough of this salt and pepper colored puppy. Neither can his friend!

Fun Dog Fact: Dogs are born without teeth, but just like me and you (and other mammals) they grow a set of baby teeth that are eventually replaced by their adult teeth. By 6 months old, dogs usually have the teeth they’ll use for the rest of their lives.

10. Fun Baby Piglets

Three little piggies, playing in the dirt. One fell down and he got…dirty!

Fun Pig Fact: Like a dog, pigs can be trained to learn to respond to their name. And in many cases much earlier than dogs can.

11. Relaxing Baby Owl

This cute owl is doing his best to hide, but we see you bud. We see you. And we want to play!

Fun Owl Fact: Unlike many birds, owls fly nearly silently. Given that they are also nocturnal hunters (meaning they look for food at night,) owl prey often wouldn’t even know what hit them before it was too late.

12. Hungry Baby Ostriches

When I grow up, I want my job title to be whatever this person’s is. Feeding cute baby ostriches all day is ok by me.

Fun Ostrich Fact: Ostriches can grow to be 9 feet tall and over 300 pounds as adults!

13. Fluffy Baby Horse

Who knew horses could be so fluffy? I for one approve.

Fun Horse Fact: Horses‘ height is typically measured in “hands” rather than feet or meters. Yes, those hands, which by the way are around 4 inches wide.

14. Sleeping Baby Hedgehogs

You can pet these sleepy buddies if you want, but make sure you are gentle!

Fun Hedgehog fact: It may not look like it, but hedgehogs have around 6000 quills on their backs!

15. Stretching Baby Gorilla

Yaaawwwnnn!! Is this what they call the “Life of Riley?”

Fun gorilla fact: Baby gorillas love to swing, roll down hills, wrestle, and even tickle each other for fun.

16. Playing Baby Goats

Baby goats are both lovable and cute baby animals, and enjoy sparing practice with their sprouting horns.

Fun goat fact: If you find yourself in the north Georgia mountains, you need to make a pit stop at Goats On the Roof, where you can take selfies with adorable goats!

17. Young Playing Giraffes

These parents seem to be on the verge of intervening!

Fun giraffe fact: Giraffes are often thought to be mute, but they can communicate with various sounds, including a loud cough during courtship.

18. Cute Baby Donkey

This guy may be alone, but appears content munching on some grass.

Fun donkey fact: A donkey is physically stronger than a horse of comparable size.

19. Curious Fawn

They say curiosity killed the cat…do you really want to follow in its footsteps, buddy?

Fun fawn fact: The bleating sound that fawns can make when trying to locate their mothers or feeling upset sounds like crying.

20. Happy Calves

Anybody for a veggie snack?

Fun cow fact: Cows have an all-around broad view of the world–they possess a visual field of 330°!

21. Super Fluffy Baby Chicks

Is there anything more precious than a sweet little cottony-soft baby chick?

Fun chicken fact: Chickens evolved from dinosaurs and are the closest living relatives to the T. Rex.

22. Curious Baby Kittens

If I can just…get..out…of…this…basket…!

Fun cat fact: Genetically speaking, a house cat is 95.6% tiger!

23. Hungry Baby Birds

Feed me, mama! Feed me!

Fun bird fact: Some birds are so smart that they have the ability to create and use tools.

24. Cute Baby Alligator

Want to see this guy all grown up and with a whole bunch of his friends? Check out the most alligator infested lakes in the United States.

Fun alligator fact: Alligators keep growing for their entire lifetime.

Up Next…

  • The 10 Ugliest Animals On Earth We covered the cute ones. Now here’s a look at some pretty ugly animals, folks!
  • Baby Wolves: 7 Wolf Pup Pictures & 7 Facts Don’t you just love a cute puppy? Take a look at these adorable wolf pups and learn some facts about them, too.
  • Cute But Deadly: The 10 Most Vicious Animals That Look Cute! Some animals may look adorable…but beware! These animals’ looks are truly deceiving.


Share this post on:

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us? Contact the AZ Animals editorial team.