Amazing and funny animal photos (21 photos)

These furry (and other!) heroes aren't just snapshots, but small stories filled with kindness and sincerity.





An elephant at the zoo. Washington, D.C., 1926.



A cat, a rooster, and a fox in one enclosure. Moscow Zoo, 1964.





Author: A. Anzhanov

A live-action remake of the famous folk tale "The Cat, the Rooster, and the Fox" played out at the zoo—only instead of a village courtyard, there's a zoo courtyard.

A hippopotamus named Skipper drinks milk, 1941.



Photographer: Alfred Eisenstaedt

A rare pygmy hippopotamus calf named Skipper was found abandoned by his mother in Liberia in 1941. The baby was transported to the United States by boat with an amateur zoologist. Due to Skipper's skin, he had to be constantly moisturized to prevent it from drying out and flaking. Hippos are the third-largest mammals on Earth, after the elephant and the white rhinoceros. But there's also a surprisingly compact relative of theirs—the pygmy hippopotamus, which, especially as a baby, looks almost toy-like. It's this contrast that makes him truly charming and unusual. A prime example is Mu Dan, a pygmy hippopotamus from a Thai zoo, whose photos took the internet by storm in 2024, turning it into a viral sensation.

Little girl with a lamb, 1950s.



Photographer: Heinz-Jürgen Goettert

Prague. 1970s.



Photographer: František Dostál

A gentleman feeds a squirrel. Sweden, 1945.



Helen Martini, the wife of the lion keeper at the Bronx Zoo, cares for three tiger cubs after their mother refused to feed them, 1944.



Photographer: Alfred Eisenstaedt

A sooty tern chick stands alone on the beach, waiting for its parents to return from their daily hunt at sea, 1954.



Photographer: Fritz Goro

A lonely chick on the beach is like a child left behind in kindergarten: it sits and anxiously wonders if its parents have forgotten it.

A seal in front of a research vessel in Antarctica, 1965.



Photographer: Fred Greenberg

Rikki the monkey and his trainer, Stepan Isahakyan, playing chess. Yerevan, 1965.



Author: Miroslav Murazov

Askania-Nova F.E. Falz-Fein Biosphere Reserve in the Kherson region, Ukrainian SSR, 1964.



Photographer: Vladimir Minkevich

"Petersburg Nobility", 1992.



Photographer: Maria Snigirevskaya

A Boston heavy draft horse foal at the state-owned Novoalexandrovsk stud farm. Ukrainian SSR, 1985.



Photographer: Alexander Lyskin

Summer Pioneer Camp named after Soviet pilot-cosmonaut Gherman Titov in the Moscow region. Moscow region, 1963.



Author: Yakov Berliner

Young naturalist Lena Popova with her pet guinea pigs.

J. Vobal, a resident of the Old Believer village of Audrini in the Rezekne region, cares for animals. Latvian SSR, 1984.



Photographer: Vsevolod Tarasevich

"Dovima with Elephants." Paris, 1955.



Photographer: Richard Avedon

Boy with a Chicken, 1954.



Photographer: Fred Reed

Lynx on the shore of a lake in Ontario, Canada, 1902.



Photographer: George Shiras

Moscow Zoo employee I.A. Kuzminykh with snow leopard cubs. Moscow, 1985.



Photographer: V.V. Akhlomov.

Twins with elephants, Sarasota, USA, 1947.



Photographer: Louise Dahl-Wolfe