Photos of cute baby animals are a good antidote to the global doom and gloom following the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, and Kyiv’s zoo has joined in an online craze to lift the mood worldwide.
Under the hash-tag #cuteanimaltweetoff, Kyiv Zoo is now sharing on social networks pictures of the baby animals living in the zoo. On Jan. 31 the zoo posted pictures of four small animals on its Facebook page.
The craze started on Jan. 25 when the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in the Unites States tweeted a photo of a female gray seal pup born on Jan. 21. In less than a day the cute photo earned more than 1,500 likes.
Soon zoos and oceanariums around the globe followed suit, sharing pictures of their cute baby animals under the hashtag #CuteAnimalTweetOff. The participants say that the craze is the best way to distract people from negative thinking and gray everyday routines.
“We just had to take part in this, the cutest-ever flash mob, as we have lots of nice kids in our zoo,” Kyiv zoo press officer Olha Buratynska told the Kyiv Post. “We gladly shared their pictures on our Facebook page.”
So far the zoo has posted pictures of six of its baby animals – twin Welsh goats, two female baby lynxes, a baby hippo and a pony foal.
“On Jan. 27 our Welsh goat Strilka gave birth to two nice little goatlings, so we decided to post their photos” says Buratynska. “One of them is even smiling in the photo.”
The cute six-month-old pony Shustrik has very cheerful character, and is also very photogenic.
The six-month-old pony Shustrik liles to play a lot and has cheerful character. (BOGDAN SKULSKIY)
The two six-month-old lynx sisters, Roksana and Raya, are very playful.
The mother lynx licks her little cub. (Courtesy)
The lynx cubs have very caring parents – Kunak and Rika – and the zoo posted a charming photo of one of the little lynx cubs being licked by her loving mother.
The little female hippopotamus, named Bigi, turned one on Jan. 24.
The little female hippopotamus comes from Italy. (Courtesy)
She was born in Italy, but has been living in Kyiv since August. At first she was very frightened, but Bigi has now got used to her new home, so when the weather gets warmer Kyivans will be able to admire her, says Buratynska.
Ukrainian Facebook users were impressed with the photos. One, Anna Zahorodnya, wrote that “it’s high time to show the world these cuties” while another, Nastasia Tumanovskaya, wrote that “all of them are very sweet.”
The pictures of the baby animals were all taken by the zoo’s photographer, and the zoo plans to share them widely.
“We have piles of photos of our nice animals, and we will publish them on our social networks,” said Buratynska.
“Such cute photos improve people’s mood.”
