Check out the most adorable baby animals of the year. Enjoy.
Let's get started with this wallaby who was born albino
In Berlin, a sable antelope (rappenantilope) licks her lips
Baby hippo
He looks all slick and shiny because that's just how baby hippos look. His tongue is sticking out because he just told a sassy joke. Two penguins
Penguins are often seen as one of the rare cases of an adult animal being cuter than their babies, but these two are out to prove conventional wisdom wrong and out-cute the competition. This gorilla baby has the most soulful eyes
If you stare into them for too long, you may never be able to love again. This is a brand-new aardvark
The most squeezable schnoz. And this is a brand-new elephant
He is covered in hay because hay is the fleece pajamas of the elephant world, and dude just wants to be comfortable. This barasingha fawn has something to tell you...
See the stars in the eyes of this fennec fox-ette?
This baby rhino cannot BELIEVE how rude you are
This is the look of shock that will inevitably be followed by grave disappointment. I hope you apologize for offending this little guy. But the red coati baby accepts that apology...
...and forgives you for everything and loves you unconditionally, because that's just what coatis do. More importantly, Tilly, this orphaned baby wallaby, was raised with the help of this backpack
Here's a baby armadillo who is also a ball
Did you know that armadillos are always born as quadruplets? Adorable, ball-shaped quadruplets. And here's a puppy who is also a cowboy
This tiger cub is hanging out with a stuffed version of himself because he has good taste
But this burrowing owl chick jumping around is even cuter
This tapir is also jumping cutely
This Egyptian tortoise is very small
This baby panther doesn't understand why he's ranked this low on the list
"Have you seen me?" he mews, shaking his oversized black paw. This fox kit answers that question
Actually she is just playing in the snow, not even trying to be adorable. Amazing. This giraffe would like you to know that...
What? Sorry, I lost my train of thought when I looked at her eyelashes. This is a sand kitten
Someday it will grow up to be a sand cat, and it will still be the cutest thing that sand has to offer. This photo is from a nursery in China that is teeming with baby pandas
This baby marmoset senses that your computer screen is getting increasingly smudged with want-to-pets
This baby marmoset doesn't really care. But this lion cub definitely does care...
...because he really wants a nice scratch. Pet him, you monster! Baby sea lion: "What are you doing?"
"You can't touch things through the computer, dude." Listen, someone found this baby javelina orphaned at Big Bend State Park in Texas
Red pandas ain't so shabby themselves
This one says "SURPRISE!" This baby walrus hopes that you all consider baby walruses the next time you're thinking about looking at pictures of baby animals
Because they are tactile, cuddly beings who love to hug and be hugged, and that, my friends, is the true meaning of squeeeeeeeeee Uh-oh, someone put a little sweater on this gibbon!
Probably he jumped like 10 spots on this list thanks to that dang sweater. This tiger cub's face is maybe trying too hard
But also it is TOTALLY WORKING. May 2012 go down as the year that we all discovered echidna babies are called puggles
Which is probably the most important thing anyone has ever learned, ever, anywhere, in history. This baby mountain gorilla from Rwanda can't believe you think he's handsome!
He is blushing under all that fuzzy baby gorilla fur. The San Diego Zoo's panda cub got many checkups this year
But this was the most important one. That belly. A koala joey in a coffee mug
And the absolute number-one most lovable baby animal of the year...
..is this white lion who is literally staring straight into your eyes, past your soul, and is looking right into the very depths of your heart, where he is upending your most tightly kept secrets and insecurities and self-doubts and replacing them with a deep peace, honest warmth, and his love. All in a single picture! Baby animals are magic.
