Baby Animals! Newborn Seal and Panda Born at the Zoo—Check Out Their Adorable First Pictures!

New England Aquarium and Taipei Zoo have both welcomed adorable new additions recently

By John Boone Aug 12, 2013 7:29 PMTags
New England Aquarium Fur Pup SealNew England Aquarium

Mondays are hard on everyone. So why not brighten your day with newborn animals?

Yes, we said it: newboen animals! It's a newborn animals party and today we have two cute, cute, cute baby animals for you to gush over. First up: This baby seal, born at the New England Aquarium in Boston.

The Northern fur seal infant was born on Aug. 6, just before midnight to mother Ursula, a 15-year-old fur seal, and father Isaac. It is Ursula's second pup—she gave birth to Flaherty in July 2012—and she apparently "demonstrate[s] great maternal instincts."

Semi-unrelated side note, if only because it's not that important: Ursula weighs 97 pounds. Isaac weighs 500. Imagine that lovemaking session.

Kathy Streeter, the aquarium's marine mammal curator, arrived the next day and explained, "I could hear Ursula calling...I thought she was still in labor, but when I entered I saw the pup laying a foot or so away from Ursula. Shortly thereafter, the pup and Ursula called to each other, but Ursula seemed exhausted and lay on her side so that the baby could find her and nurse." 

The sex of the newborn isn't yet known, as aquarium staff don't want to get too close to the pup too soon and break Ursula's trust. The aquarium says the two bonded overnight and are very close.

Northern fur seals are rare and now protected under the Marine Mammal Protection act. The baby seal will make its aquarium debut sometime in early fall.

Around the globe, Yuan Yuan gave birth to a baby panda at the Taipei Zoo last month on July 6. You can watch the birth, the entirety of which was filmed by zoo staff, if you are interested. It's definitely...interesting.

Taipei Zoo

Yay, I'm a baby panda!

The zoo is currently voting on names for the baby girl.

Like the rare baby panda twins that were born at Zoo Atlanta last month, the newborn panda originally looked like a weird little pink alien, but has since grown into her black-and-white fur.

And the best news of all: The Monday newborn animals party doesn't have to end now—because the Taipei Zoo has countless videos of the newborn panda on their YouTube page. Watch away!