The Cincinnati Zoo is abuzz about two new friends.  Tommy T., the Zoo's star cheetah cub, and Pow Wow, the Anatolian Guard Dog puppy, are like two peas in a pod. Cheetah Days, the adorable new blog has all the pics to prove it.

These baby small-clawed otters are getting right into the holiday spirit at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo, as they pose for a “family photo.” Not yet ready for primetime visitors, these four little ones were born on October 24 to their proud parents - mom, an eight-year-old female who hails from the Singapore Zoo, and dad, a nine-year-old male originally from Tokushima, Japan.

Sloth babies are ridiculously cute. Case in point: this adorable two-toed sloth at the Central Florida Zoo born this summer. While sloths in captivity appear brown, grayish or even yellow, wild sloths often appear to have greenish coats because they move so slowly that algae grows on them during the rainy season! 

We all need more baby sloths in our lives.

A troupe of young gorillas awaits visitors to the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam.  Photographer A.J. Haverkamp has collected an impressive set of images showing Mom Dafina with her precious baby Dayo.

After a snack with Mom, baby Dayo gets ready for piggyback lessons...

"Dafina walked a couple of times around with Dayo on her back. He knows how to do it, he faced the right way all the time. Dafina could even signal him to climb a bit higher on her back. You can tell by the look on Dayo's face that he loves to be on that warm & soft back."

Dayo almost has the hang of it, but backwards is sometimes easier (and softer!)

Cincinnati Zoo's new star, cheetah "Tommy T.", is caught taking a cat nap last sunday with some furry friends of his own.

photographs by ethan gardner

If there's a winter storm brewing where you are, make like a fisher baby and cuddle up for warmth. Born at the Minnesota Zoo, these little siblings are perfectly paired. In the wild, fishers raise their young in cozy dens made from rocks, roots, or other found shelter.

Big babies can be awfully cute, as evidenced by new arrival Paula the baby hippo at Zoo Berlin. Only two weeks old in this series of photos taken on Tuesday, the little girl already weighs 88 lbs! Fully grown, Paula will weigh about two tons.

While somewhat ungainly on land, underwater hippos take on a graceful quality as the water makes them (relatively) light on their toes. Hippos do not in fact swim underwater, but sink to the bottom where they trot along the bed.

More pictures and video below the fold.

Onlookers were helpless watching this vicious attack! Actually, we can't figure out what zoo this great series of pics comes from, but we had to share them all the same.

This past Friday the L.A. Zoo unveiled its newest little baby koala. While this fuzzy little friend was actually born in April, at that time it was only three-fourths of an inch long and immediately climbed into mom's pouch. Called a joey, this little boy or girl has been in the pouch ever since. That is, until last week! These are the first pics of the little guy out of the pouch with mom.

Between six and twelve months, little koalas are weaned from milk to eucalyptus as they stick their heads out of the pouch to eat partially digested leaves. After a year, the joey will leave the pouch for good. 

Photos by Tad Motoyama/Los Angeles Zoo