Ice, Ice Babies: The Cutest Cold-weather Creatures in Pictures
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With claws like linoleum knives and a swat that could smash your skull like a pumpkin, a fully grown polar bear is one of the most fearsome predators on planet Earth, reaching a standard height of almost 8 feet (2.4 meters) and a body mass as great as 1,600 pounds (about 725 kilograms). But this mountain of muscle, like many of the ice-hardened inhabitants of the world's frozen reaches, has some ridiculously cute babies. Click ahead to see more adorable little furballs and featherheads from the Earth's coldest climates.
Image Credit: Scott Schliebe/USFWS
"These are my polar bear cubs. You get your own!" It makes perfect biological sense for an adult polar bear to assume a protective posture in the presence of her offspring. Such an instinct helps ensure that the cubs will survive, and with them, the adult's genes get a better shot at future proliferation. For this reason, it seems that the existence of juvenile cuteness is probably no mere accidental byproduct of body development. In fact, many scientists believe the cute factor plays a key role in eliciting just the kind of protective response that the menacing mommy shows in this picture.
Image Credit: Susanne Miller/USFWS
Some animals come into this world ready to tangle at a moment's notice. Many venomous snakes, for instance, produce hatchlings that are fully equipped with fatal doses of poison just a quick chomp away. Newborn mammals, by comparison, are comically helpless. Like this Weddell seal pup, which apparently just slipped on a banana peel, most mammalian infants are soft, slow, clumsy and weak. But as we've seen before, they're not without a built-in defense mechanism: the all-powerful "Awww" factor. As it turns out, battle-hardened adult mammals are helpless to resist the round faces, large eyes and flopping limbs of their young, and they respond instinctively to these signals with the desire to teach, defend and provide for the cutest critters among them. But you might wonder, "Why do humans fall hook, line and sinker for this wonderful trick, even when it's being played by a member of a totally different species?"
Image Credit: Steven Profaizer/National Science Foundation
Some researchers theorize that the human brain's cuteness detection software is locked into permanent overdrive. In other words, our brains are so careful to make sure they're sending all the warm, fuzzy feelings we need to feel about our own babies, we end up responding accidentally to images of way too many other things, including baby mammals, birds (like these Adelie penguins), turtles, ladybugs, and even inanimate objects. Apparently, it's better to have loved and lost a chair or a caterpillar than never to have loved at all.
Image Credit: Peter Rejcek/National Science Foundation
While Antarctica may be the most barren of the continents, it's certainly not without its juvenile charms. This 2-week-old Adelie penguin chick's chubby, slouching posture and curious face seem just too hilarious and huggable to belong to a creature so closely related to dinosaurs. Yet they do, and dinosaur descendant or not, most of us wouldn't turn down a chance to take one home for a few days. In the next image, you'll see some roly-poly furballs from the wild woods of Alaska.
Image Credit: Zee Evans/National Science Foundation
Brown bears like these two cubs and their watchful mother are part of a big family, including the Kodiak brown bear and the infamous grizzly. All three species of North American bears (brown bears, black bears and polar bears) inhabit the state of Alaska. See two more of these wide-eyed cubs with their mother in the next image.
Image Credit: Roy Wood/NPS
It looks like a monster of a wrestling match, but actually, these brown bear cubs are nursing. Some subspecies of bears undergo extended childhood phases, during which cubs remain under the care of their powerful matriarch -- for example, grizzly mothers might nurse their young for as long as two to three years. Some observers report that when the little rompers are hungry, they make an incredibly loud, whining fuss until their mother finally decides to feed them. Next, you'll see a different mammal from the snowy plains of Alaska.
Image Credit: NPS
This is the chillest fox in a long history of chill foxes. As far as carnivores go, the crafty and resourceful arctic fox is one cool customer, keeping camouflaged against the northern tundra with its pale coat. It's obvious that a bleached color pattern like this is useful in a snow-covered landscape, but what happens when the snow melts, or when the arctic fox enters a different visual backdrop?
Image Credit: Keith Morehouse/USFWS
Little guy looks sleepy! Whether napping, hunting or huddling for warmth, the arctic fox is the chameleon of canines. When the seasons change and the snow of the animal's habitat melts, the color of the fox's fur coat changes to match the environment. Take a look at the next image to see a baby arctic fox at the opposite end of the color spectrum.
Image Credit: Art Sowls/USFWS
In the springtime, a female arctic fox usually gives birth to a new litter. Each of these prodigious seasonal births can produce more than two dozen pups. Next you'll see a feathery Antarctic creature with something of a weight on its shoulders.
Image Credit: Mike Boylan/USFWS
The giant petrels of Antarctica incubate their eggs for about 60 days, one egg at a time, and then continue to chaperone their hatchling chicks for weeks in the admittedly rather uncomfortable-looking manner we see here. One supposes Antarctica must be pretty cold in order for this to be appealing.
Image Credit: Peter Rejcek/National Science Foundation
You think playground arguments between human children are bad? These baby royal penguins on Macquarie Island are each the princes and princesses of their own little Antarctic kingdoms. Next you'll see a wonderfully blubbery little creature that's clearly ready to pass its first swim test.
Image Credit: Mike Usher/ National Science Foundation
"Hey guys!" A baby Weddell seal, surrounded by sparkling bubbles, pokes its face out of the water to pose for a quick glamour shot. Weddell seals are the southernmost-dwelling mammals in the entire world, and even the little ones quickly learn feats of chilly underwater athleticism that could bust any Olympic record. Mothers begin to take their seal pups into the water for swimming lessons when they are just 2 weeks old, and by the time they've been out of the womb for 2 months, the burgeoning pups can typically dive to depths of 300 feet (about 90 meters) in the shockingly cold Antarctic waters. Good thing they've got plenty of baby fat! Check out another Weddell seal pup on the next page.
Image Credit: Dr. Bill Servais/D.D.S. McMurdo/National Science Foundation
Pup looks curious; mom looks tired. One can sympathize with both, since this baby Weddell seal is just a few days old. Even at birth, seal species like these are some deeply blubbery megafauna. A wide-eyed newborn tends to weigh more than 50 pounds (about 23 kilograms) -- more than five to seven times the average birth weight of a human baby. Check out a mammal cub from Alaska on the next page.
Image Credit: Laura Hamilton/National Science Foundation
This grizzly cub awkwardly tests the waters in Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. When grizzlies and other brown bear subspecies are combined, the refuge is believed to be home to about 2,300 members of the genus Ursus. For this reason, campers in the Kodiak refuge are advised to store their food in bear-proof containers and to avoid camping within 100 feet of a fresh water source, where bears might come to drink. Most of all, remember: No matter how cute and harmless the cub seems, there's almost certainly a massive mama nearby.
Image Credit: Steve Hillebrand/USFWS
"Hey, wait up mom!"
Image Credit: Steve Hillebrand/USFWS
Pool party! When researchers decided to study the way swimming muscles mature in young emperor penguins, these juvenile birds weren't too shy to show off a bit of the old splash 'n paddle. Scientists at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, selected a troop of 10 adolescents for the study and observed them at play in this chilly lane.
Image Credit: Kristan Hutchison/National Science Foundation
On Petermann Island, just off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, a mother gentoo penguin stands alert as her fuzzy young chicks scramble into "cuddle puddle" formation. Whether they're fighting over a stash of edibles or just huddling for warmth, these babies (like many polar life forms) don't seem to have much of a concept of "personal space."
Image Credit: Zenobia Evans/National Science Foundation
One can see why this mother giant petrel of Antarctica is more than a little alarmed -- parents generally don't like to see one of their children crammed into sack by a stranger. But don't worry! This U.S. Antarctic Program participant isn't some crazed chick-napper. He's just using the bag to weigh the baby bird before giving it back to its mother. Researchers measure characteristics like the weight, length and wingspan to learn how large the petrels grow in their icy natural habitat. True to their name, giant petrels are massive creatures -- some adults attain a wingspan of 80 inches (205 centimeters).
Image Credit: Jeff Otten/National Science Foundation
Adult gentoo penguins are avid divers, bearing the sleek, oily, waterproofed outer feathers that we recognize in other full-grown penguins. These young ruffians, however, have plopped their soft, downy bodies amongst the rocks to vegetate after a huge meal.
Image Credit: Zee Evans/National Science Foundation
Despite how tiny and mind-shatteringly innocent baby Weddell seals may look to us, they learn and grow at a rapid gait. By the time a pup like this reaches the age of 1 month, it will already be a legitimate bruiser, weighing more than 250 pounds (about 115 kilograms). When it's fully grown, it will max out at around 10 feet (3 meters) of body length and almost 1,000 pounds of blubber, muscle and bone. Check out the next image to see how the Weddell seal pup's coat changes color during the first few weeks of its life.
Image Credit: Steven Profaizer/National Science Foundation
These two awesome lumps -- one fully grown and dark gray, one juvenile and maturing toward the same shade -- live on Ross Island, Antarctica.
Image Credit: Michael Hoffman/National Science Foundation
A skua chick huddles down to keep away from the cold Antarctic wind. While this juvenile is just a tiny fuzzball, adults of the great skua species are sturdy predators that can reach 24 inches (60 centimeters) in length. The great skua is a far-ranging species that glides over the ice of both the Arctic and Antarctic zones.
Image Credit: Ariana Owens/National Science Foundation
It's a bit hard to tell what's happening here: Is this mother Weddell seal giving her pinniped pup's little flipper a blubbery nuzzle, or is the squirming youngster accidentally kicking his mom in the face?
Image Credit: Robyn Waserman/National Science Foundation
Polar bear cubs are born inside warm burrows, dug by their mothers out of Arctic snow and ice. For the first several months of a baby polar bear's life, the dark heat of the den is all it knows. Once the cubs emerge, they're still a little gawky, but they can have great fun with their brothers and sisters, romping and flailing in the snow.
Image Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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