My wife and I visited the Bronx Zoo during a recent snow storm and, to our delight, we had the place to ourselves. We spent a long time watching a mama tree kangaroo busy protecting her joey snuggled safely in pouch. While the baby kangaroo didn't emerge that day, we are delighted to share these new pictures of him and his proud mom courtesy of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Check out mom's claws!

Matschie's Tree-kangaroo lives in the mountainous rainforests at high elevations, living alone or in very small groups, usually comprising just a mother, joey and a male. They spend most of their time in the trees and come down occasionally to feed. Like all kangaroos, they are are quite the hoppers and can leap up to 30 feet (9 m).

A photo of mom and another baby born earlier this year.

Photos by: Julie Larsen Maher ©WCS

According to a 16th century German tradition, the birth of this particular breed of pig in mid-winter is great luck for the new year. What better way to ring in '09 than with these "lucky charm" piglets born at the Berlin Zoo.

This energetic dolphin calf was born at SeaWorld San Diego on Nov. 28, 2008. Estimated to be a healthy 35 - 40 lbs. and 3 1/2 - 4 feet long, the calf is regularly nursing from her mother, Tobie, and growing steadily.

When mom has a 2 foot long horn on the end of her snout, one might think it would impede nuzzling. Not so! Born Dec. 9th at Lion Country Safari, after 16 months of gestation (!), baby white rhino Jazi and mom Taraja demonstrate a good deal of muzzle to muzzle bonding.

And sometimes muzzle to rump.

As we have said in the past, cute is in the eye of the beholder. Newborn baby aardvarks may not be your typical bundle of furry joy, but keepers and mama aardvark, Raachael, at the Detroit Zoo are enamored with their most recent arrival, baby Amani, born Dec. 8th.

Oversized ears and a long snout make aardvark's experts at seeking out and slurping up termites. However, their relatively primitive brains (for a mammal) make them rather clumsy so keepers are keeping a close eye on the new family.

Addax, also known as screwhorn antelope, are critically endangered in their native home of the Sahara Desert. Luckily for the rare addax, they adapt well to captivity and breed fairly easily. Luckily for us, they are adorable! 

Spotted:  Interspecies conoodling at the San Francisco Zoo...

Photographer Susan Pettitt caught these kangaroos coming nose to nose with a wild squirrel just the other day at the San Francisco Zoo...

Meanwhile, at the Artis Zoo, A.J. Haverkamp comes through again with some heart warming photos of Dayo the gorilla baby coming face to face with a meerkat and her own baby...

Momma meerkat valiantly protects her babe, but we suspect Dayo is "meer"ly curious...

Unfortunately this vid starts with an ad, but it's definitely worth waiting through. These lucky ducks from the Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney, Australia get to open all their presents at once.

If these guys don't remind you of "Gizmo" from Gremlins, I don't know if anything will. A.J. Haverkamp captured these priceless marmoset moments at the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam just the other day. There are actually two babies in that fluffy mound, can you make out both? Thanks for the incredible pics A.J.!

Another early Christmas present, this time for Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas, with both King penguin and Gentoo penguin hatchings in the last week and a half. In the pictures below, a little Gentoo penguin chick takes a ride in a sleigh, via tupperware. Gentoos build their nests out of rocks, which are then jealousy guarded. Particularly nice rocks are offered as gifts by male Gentoos to females to curry favor.