What’s more adorable than a sleeping baby animal?
Of course, a wobbly infant animal is taking its first steps.
For most prey animals, it’s critical to get up and mobile as quickly as possible after being born to avoid harm.
Lion cubs, for example, can afford to be more leisurely in their learning.
Lion cubs, for example, can afford to be more leisurely in their learning.Either way, seeing a mother nudge and prod its deformed-legged youngster into taking its first step is enough to melt even the most callous of hearts.
To that end, MailOnline Travel has compiled a list of videos – including giraffes, pandas, and elephants – to pique your sense of empathy.
Giraffes carry their calves for around 400 to 460 days, at which point they give birth standing up.
The calf emerges facing forward, with its head and front legs first, then falls to the floor before being assisted by its mother. It will be out and running within hours of its birth.
This video was taken by Mara Naboisho Conservancy in Kenya’s Masai Mara. According to the uploader, a prowling jackal came within meters of the struggling calf but was scared away by the mother.
This video was shot at Ukutula Lodge in Pretoria, South Africa. According to Blood Lions, this footage was taken at a volunteer program that has come under repeated fire with allegations that cubs are being bred to enter zoos or canned hunting facilities.
Cubs are born in a remote den in the wild, and they don’t open their eyes for a week. The helpless creatures begin crawling about a day or two after birth, and at three weeks old, they can walk.
The cub is said to be nine days old in this video.
Photographer Brendan Cole, from Johannesburg, South Africa, shot this newborn impala at the Mala Mala game reserve, where he formerly worked as a ranger.
Bambi on ice springs to mind as the little animal struggles to find his feet, assisted by his mother.
These antelope species live in eastern and southern Africa. Gestation can last from six to seven months, with births generally taking place at noon in a secluded spot.
After the first few weeks of its birth, the fawn is hidden from danger and joins a nursery group within its mother’s herd.
With a handler, a one-day-old ostrich chick learning to walk at the Aux Faisans Marans breeding farm in Quebec, Canada.
This flightless bird, which is native to Africa and can weigh up to 145 kg, is a far cry from this wobbly little guy.
Eggs are laid in communal nests and hatch after nine weeks in the wild. Only around 10% of eggs that do reach maturity ever survive to one year old, and only approximately 15% of one-year-olds survive past their first birthday.
These two four-month-old giant panda cubs were born in Canada’s Toronto Zoo last October, and they’ve already taken solid steps and crawled over logs.
Furthermore, last November, Smithsonian National Zoo’s panda cub Bei Bei took his first steps in the adorable video below.
Bei Bei is seen stumbling around in his first baby panda steps in a video taken in Washington, DC, and uploaded to the zoo’s Twitter and Instagram accounts.
A rare, endangered Chinese bear that is usually caused for much celebration when it is born in captivity – about half the time, it’s twins.
When the cub is firstborn, it’s pink, blind, and toothless; and it takes between nine and twelve weeks to crawl. Clearly, this pair is making excellent progress.
This unsteady youngster was born in November 2013 and is also from the Toronto Zoo.
Young cub’s eyes are shut until it is eight weeks old, after which they start to open. They have light-down fur and weigh less than 0.9 kg at birth. Around two months after their birth, they begin to walk in their den.
An elephant stays pregnant for two years, but it is quite developed by the time they are born, and they learn to walk in the first week.
A newborn elephant’s mother is essential in the early phases, as seen in this video from a camp in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The baby has poor control over its trunk, which wiggles about and causes problems with balance.
‘All elephants were treated with care, and no animals were harmed in the making of this film,’ claims the video’s uploader.
The newborn giraffe
The tiny lion cub
The en-deer-ing impala calf
The wobbly ostrich chick
The ambling panda cubs
The squeaking polar bear
The floundering baby elephant
