The news has been relentless with concerning news lately, particularly when it comes to the environment, climate change and animal conservation. While some government agencies are busy with their Twitter rebellion over the gag order on dissemination information on science and climate change, National Zoos are busy with their own Twitter 'battle' - a very cute, adorable and much needed one at that.
Zoos and Aquariums across the country have been busy these past few days with an intense "Cute Animal Tweet Off." Yes, you read that right. They are battling it out over Twitter as to which one of them has the cutest animals. The battle is intense and so is the level of cuteness. Regardless of your political stand, it would be hard to contain yourselves with each of their submissions.
It all started when the Smithsonian National Zoo announced the birth of a female gray seal on Jan. 21. The announcement was relevant for many reasons. For one thing, the baby seal's mother is the record holder for being the oldest gray seal to give birth in a zoo, and for another, the gray seals have been removed from the list of endangered species in 2016. But what caught many people's attention is the sheer cuteness of the pup, hence the beginning of the #CuteAnimalTweetOff.
Zoos across the country were quick to take up the challenge, both in the animal cuteness and the puns. Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California was quick to tweet an "otterly adorable" photo of Brook, while Maryland Zoo tweeted a photo of their baby Sifaka Lemur as their submission.
The competition was intense when Virginia Aquarium accepted the challenge with an otter/osprey combination and a tiny baby sea turtle.
The National Zoo that triggered this perfect "competition" wasn't backing down and almost knocked off the competition when they tweeted a photo of Redd, the endangered Borneo orangutan infant and a yawning photo of a Ferret, showing that they're not even threatened by the other competitors.
However, the battle took an unexpected turn when even zoos from London and Calgary joined in. The ZCL London Zoo tweeted a video- yes, a video- of their Sumatran tiger cubs, while the cuties from Calgary Zoo sent out adorable kisses to their competitors.
#TBT to when our adorable Sumatran tiger cubs were just a few days old! #cuteanimaltweetoff pic.twitter.com/C6QmJHYmLw
— ZSL London Zoo (@zsllondonzoo) January 26, 2017
Almost as a last minute entry, the Denver Zoo sent in their entry of an adorable red panda cub seemingly waving to the other competitors.
Needless to say, the Cute Animal Tweet Off was a resounding success as they were able to showcase the many animals that need our attention and gave us all a much needed break from horrid news. The Aquarium of the Pacific sums it all perfectly: we're all winners in the Cute Animal Tweet Off.