There are lots of baby animals here, but they are not ready to show off just yet. In fact, they are all hiding in their nests or dens. You’ll need a lot of patience to find them all, but don’t worry if you can’t, because there are some tricks and everything will be revealed on the next page.
If you watch baby lions playing under the heat of the African sun, it is difficult to imagine that, when they grow up, they will become powerful lions, whose length can exceed 8 ft 2 in (2.5 m) excluding their tail, or agile lionesses, who can even kill an enormous buffalo!
But, there’s plenty of time for hunting… in the meantime, mommy lion makes sure they have enough of her milk and keeps them safe.
The lion cubs are lively and they can take liberties that, throughout the whole savannah, are reserved only to them! Like, for example, biting the biggest male lion’s tail, the head of the pride, without him getting angry or telling them off!
The cubs’ fur is light brown, but they are mottled on their thighs and legs, which makes them almost invisible when they are lying down to rest. As they grow, these marks will slowly disappear and they will develop an adult’s plain fur.
The cubs are loved by the whole tribe and there will trouble for any animal that comes near with bad intentions. Lions are the strongest African carnivores, and just the presence of the lioness and the large males is enough to keep hyenas and leopards away. Given that lions live in groups, when the lioness has to go and hunt someone stays and babysits the cubs, so they are never alone.
To move the cubs around, the lioness seizes them by the scruff of the neck in a bit of rough way. Not having hands, she can’t do it any differently and she doesn’t harm them in any way.
Would you believe it if we told you that a little dog like a Chihuahua belonged to the same species as a big, wild wolf? Better still, that it is the same animal. Yet it is true: all our four legged friends that bark and wag their tails descend from their wolf ancestors.
The wolf is always the bad guy in fairy tales and stories, but he doesn’t deserve this reputation. Orphan wolf cubs, who are raised by the people who found them and fed them, behave just like our pet dogs, growing fond of their owners. Maybe, the history of dogs started out this way: thousands of years ago a child adopted a little wolf cub that had lost his pack, and he took it back to the barn, where they became friends. That friendship has lasted up to the present, even if the wolf, over the centuries, has changed form, becoming a poodle, a terrier, a little Chihuahua, or a Great Dane.
Newborn puppies are small and uncoordinated, their eyes are shut, just like most carnivore babies. They can afford to do this because their moms can feed them their milk and protect them: a female with her pups will not hesitate to risk her life to defend them.
After a few days the pups, and even the wolf cubs, open their eyes and start to look around: you can see straightaway that they are intelligent baby animals, they are inquisitive and… so cute! For its owners, a dog truly is a man’s best friend.
DOMESTIC DOG
WEIGHT OF THE PUPPIES AT BIRTH: IT VARIES, FROM A CHIHUAHUA TO A GREAT DANE
These wolf cubs spent their first weeks in their den, but now they are out and they are looking around under the watchful eye of mommy wolf.
The habitat of a polar bear, the biggest carnivore in the world, is not the most welcoming of places. But the bear’s fur and a thick layer of fat mean he can swim perfectly comfortably in the icy waters of the North Pole, among the icebergs and year round snow. Polar bears are wanderers, always in search of seals, which are their favorite prey. But when a bear is about to become a mom, she changes her habits, she stops wandering and digs a refuge where she will spend the winter.
It is in this den, dug out under the snow, that the bear cubs will be born: they are tiny compared to their giant mom, who is 1,100 lbs (500 kg) in weight and 8 ft 2 in (2.5 m) tall, while reaching 4 ft 11 in (1.5 m) at shoulder height! The cubs’ eyes are closed and their fur is not very thick, but the warmth of their mother is enough. Her milk is so nutritious that, when they come out of the den in springtime, they will weigh more than 33 lbs (15 kg). They play happily in the snow, under the watchful eye of mommy bear, who will look after them and nurse them for more than two years.
WEIGHT OF THE CUB AT BIRTH 1 LB 5 OZ (600 G)
It can be very difficult to distinguish a hare from a wild rabbit; they look so similar at first glance. Even their babies are quite similar, but whilst hares are born in the open air, in the grass, little rabbits are born in warrens dug out of the earth. This difference in habitat has changed the way they grow.
Not having anywhere to hide, the little hares have to learn to survive quickly. They are born with their eyes open, totally covered in soft fur and can jump nimbly after a few minutes. It does take them some time to run as fast as their parents do, but they are much more alert than newborn rabbits.
- WEI G HT O F THE BABY AT BIRTH3–4
.5OZ(90–130G)
The European rabbit can also be found in Australia, where it was imported more than two centuries ago.
Rabbit warrens are long, underground tunnels, where mommy rabbit makes a warm, soft nest of grass and fur: the baby rabbits are well hidden and safe here. Which is very convenient, because they are born with their eyes shut, with a thin layer of fur and they are very vulnerable. Let’s say that they are a bit clumsy compared to the little hares. It takes the baby rabbits days to open their eyes, but they grow fast. And. in about a month, their fur is thicker and they can finally come out of their warren and follow their parents in the search for food.
A big black nose in the middle of a round face, and big, hairy ears make the koala unmistakable. It is perfectly suited to its environment, the Australian eucalyptus forests. The koala is a marsupial, and its babies measure just 0.7 in (2 cm) at birth. They reach the pouch straight away and they stay there for 6 months, during which they develop. The babies then come out and hang onto their mother’s back. She will carry them with her through the evergreen leaves of the eucalyptus trees, where the koala bears move slowly. When necessary, though, they can run on all four legs along the ground. Their hands and feet are perfect for gripping onto the branches, but at the same time, they are the strangest in the world: koalas have two opposing thumbs and three fingers, whilst they have a very big toe and the second and third toes are joined together to look like one toe with two nails!
The wombat looks like a small bear, like the koala, but it doesn’t have big, hairy ears and it doesn’t climb trees. The wombat is an Australian marsupial as well, and its baby grows in the pouch for over nine months.
When it comes out, the baby follows its mother for about a year and a half, then it leaves to make a life of its own. One of the strangest characteristics of the wombat is its poop, which is shaped like cubes: it deposits it in little piles that look like bricks, and which communicate to other wombats who the territory belongs to.
A roe is a little, agile deer, who can’t quite keep up with its parents’ great leaps as soon as it is born. That’s why it stays hidden away among the vegetation for a while, while its mother goes to look for food. As it grows, the baby roe loses its markings, and its fur will turn a uniform brown shade like the other adults, darker in winter and lighter and brighter in summer.
If it is a male, the roe will grow horns, or rather antlers: because they are not really horns like oxen or goats have, they drop every year and grow back for the next season.
Roe deer live in Europe and Asia in woods and cultivated fields, where you can see them jumping and playing with their family, made up of females and babies.
Don’t panic: this baby crocodile isn’t about to be eaten! The crocodile’s nest is a little mound of compact earth, about 6 ft (2 m) in diameter, where the female buries her eggs to protect them from predators.
