Snow babies – cutest animals in the snow – in pictures

Camilla de la Bedoyere shares some stunning pictures and amazing facts about cute baby animals in the snow!

You can find out more in Camilla’s book Snow Babies

Camilla de la Bedoyere

  • Slip slidin’ away… Even baby emperor penguins can take a tumble when it gets too icy. A careless slip can be costly though. Without being able to benefit from some buddy body warmth an isolated chick will soon die from the cold if it isn’t snapped up first by a hungry giant petrel
    Emperor penguin chicks

  • Woolly wonders: King penguin chicks look so different from their black and white parents that for a long while scientists thought they were a completely different species, and named them “woolly penguins”. Their fat, down-covered bodies help them survive while waiting for Mum or Dad to return with the next meal. And it could be a long wait… up to three months!
    King penguin chicks

  • Missing you, Dad… After being totally dependent on Dad for many months, an emperor penguin chick finally gets to know its Mum. She takes over the childcare while Dad - who hasn’t eaten for nine weeks - treks up to 100 km to fetch more food for the family
    Emperor chick

  • Kiss me quick… A newborn harp seal has a thick white fur coat for camouflage on the Arctic ice. The pup can’t join its mother on fishing trips until its adult coat grows in, so it depends on her high-fat milk. Once it’s weaned the pup will have to wait four weeks until its waterproof fur has grown – and during that time it will lose half its body weight
    newborn harp seal

  • Living on the edge: life in the mountain forests of China can be harsh, especially when there is snow on the ground for six months of the year. It’s an unusual habitat for a monkey but shy golden snub-nosed monkeys call it home. Little is known about their lifestyles, and now deforestation and hunting threatens these precious primates’ survival
    Snub nosed monkey

  • Stop, that tickles! Sea otters lack the layers of insulating fat that keeps other marine mammals warm in icy waters. Instead they have the densest fur of any animal, with up to 400,000 hairs in one square centimetre of skin. Sea otter spend most of their time in the water, floating on their backs
    Sea otter

  • Golden snub-nosed monkey: I need somebody to love… Like other primates, golden snub-nosed monkeys are intelligent, curious animals. They live in large family groups and the adults share the job of looking after the youngsters. If mum is busy, a baby snub-nosed monkey gets its cuddles from aunties, grannies and big sisters
    Golden snub-nosed monkey

  • Best friends forever: a sea otter mum and her pup have an incredibly close bond. She’ll teach her youngster how to hunt and how to use a rock to crack open clams. Groups of dozing sea otters sometimes hold hands while they nap so they don’t float away in the currents. A hundred years ago sea otter populations crashed from a million to a mere 2,000 after intensive hunting on the Pacific coasts. They are still endangered today
    Sea otters

  • There’s snow time like play time! In winter Siberian tigers forego their normal nocturnal lifestyle and use what little daylight there is to hunt and play; a mother must increase her hunting success by 50 per cent to feed a litter of two or three cubs. Deer, wild boar and even bears are targeted by these huge carnivores. Extra: Cubs are born blind and helpless but they grow quickly, increasing their body weight four times in just one month
    Tiger cubs

  • Anyone know the way to Madagascar? You have to pity this poor penguin, left in charge of the youngsters while everyone else goes out for dinner. Emperor penguin chicks huddle in crèches where a few adults supervise them. The chicks may all look alike, but parents recognise their own baby bird by its voice
    Penguin chick

  • More seasonal cuteness in Camilla de la Bedoyere’s Snow Babies – available at the Guardian bookshop
    Snow babies cover
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