Celebrate Mother’s Day With Nine Baby Animal Livestreams
This Sunday, celebrate the moms of the animal kingdom with kittens, polar bear cubs, eaglets and more
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Spring is just about in full swing in the northern hemisphere. Snow has melted, and bears have begun emerging from hibernation with their cubs. Among the flowers blooming in your backyard, you might find a nest of baby bunnies. (Don’t panic and don’t move them—in three weeks, they’ll be grown up and hop out of your hair.)
These baby animals and more are starting to scamper around—just in time for Mother's Day. Enjoy these live cams of busy animal mamas and their young ones to help celebrate motherhood all across the animal kingdom.
Puppies at Warrior Canine Connection
The puppies shown on Warrior Canine Connection’s “puppy cam” are hard at work, even when napping in a puppy pile. Warrior Canine Connection trains golden and Labrador retrievers to be service dogs for disabled veterans, and pairs veterans with service dogs-in-training. The organization, based in Maryland, teaches their clients how to train the dogs with positive reinforcement.
Rhinos in Denver
In late April, the Denver Zoo in Colorado announced the name of their baby greater one-horned rhino, Joona. The zoo has a camera set up in the den she shares with her mom Tensing. As Alex Scoville writes for Colorado Public Radio, Joona’s name means “treasure” or “joyful in nature,” which is apt because as the weather warms up, the pair are spending more time outside.
Baby greater one-horned rhino is OUTSIDE. For now, Tensing and baby seem to be hanging out in just one corner while they get situated, but we’ll have more to share soon—including baby’s name because it's the LAST DAY to vote for her name. Vote now: https://t.co/mFZHZ9noC7 pic.twitter.com/4RIhtcf5JW
— Denver Zoo (@DenverZoo) April 21, 2020
The Baby Goats of Beekman 1802
Beekman 1802, which sells skincare and body products made with goat milk, is based at a 19th-century farmhouse in upstate New York. As spring has come around, the company says many of their goats are in kidding season, so the “goat cam” is pointed at the nursery. Goats can give birth twice a year, usually in late spring and winter, and tend to have one to three kids at a time.
Kitten Rescue Sanctuary
For cat shelters, spring means kitten season, which usually peaks in June or July and can last until November. The Kitten Rescue Sanctuary in Los Angeles, California, hosts a live video feed of its kitten room, where viewers can watch the kittens sleep, wrestle or get a visit from a mama cat. As the Guardian’s Rachel Ellison reports, this kitten season may be especially difficult for shelters this year.
Snow Leopard Cubs
If you’re looking for bigger cats, check out the Melbourne Zoo’s snow leopards. With an outdoor camera and a view inside the den, there are two opportunities to catch a glimpse of the rare cats. The three kittens were born in February, and at the end of April, the zoo announced their names: two females are Asha and Manju, and the male is Sikari. In the wild, snow leopards live in mountain ranges from the Himalayas to the Siberian mountains in Russia.
Polar Bear Cubs at Ouwehand Zoo
The Ouwehand Zoo welcomed a set of twin polar bear cubs on March 19. Now the pair, named Akiak and Sura, can be seen bounding around the zoo’s tundra exhibit with their mother and grandmother in a livestream. At night, the webpage shows a highlight reel. In the wild, polar bears spend over half their time hunting for food, so zoos offer enrichment activities like toys and pools.
Orangutans and Siamangs
The San Diego Zoo’s “ape cam” shows what’s swinging in the “Lost Forest.” The exhibit houses three orangutans, including six-year-old Aisha, and three siamangs. Siamangs are the largest members of the gibbon family. In late 2018, the exhibit had an unexpected new member, a baby siamang now named Sela. Nowadays, the two youngest apes are inseparable.
It's really important that we keep you informed about this developing friendship. Aisha and Sela are slowly becoming inseparable--when Sela's mom Eloise allows it. #WorldOrangutanDay
— San Diego Zoo (@sandiegozoo) August 19, 2019
Pictures: Liz Sauer pic.twitter.com/CiJOh6MLAq
Great Horned Owlet Triplets
A family of great horned owls in Charlo, Montana, is going live, too. Protected by both parents, the trio of fluffy youngsters is beginning to venture out of their nest, a stage called “branching,” according to a comment by the Owl Research Institute. Entering this stage of life puts the owlets at about six weeks old. At about nine or ten weeks old, they’ll start to fly. Great horned owls can grow to about five and a half pounds with a wingspan of four feet.
Baby Baldy
The cliffs of Catalina Island, California, offer dramatic views for a family of bald eagles in a livestream by the Institute for Wildlife Studies. One chick hatched on April 5, so at about four weeks old, it should now be covered in a coat of grey down and learning to stand. It could take a couple more months for the chick to leave the nest, which they usually do when they reach between ten and 14 weeks old.
In 1963, there were only 417 breeding pairs of eagles, but conservation efforts have brought that number up to more than 7,000 individuals.