Your morning adorable: Reticulated giraffe calf sticks close to his mother at Frankfurt Zoo

At Germany's Frankfurt Zoo, a male reticulated giraffe calf named Tebogo made his public debut last week. His name translates to "thankful" in the Tswana language.

Tebogo, who was born to mother Monique without human help and discovered by keepers on the morning of Dec. 9, is the 16th reticulated giraffe to be born at the zoo. Monique is the mother of nearly half of those calves -- prior to Tebogo, she had given birth to four sons and two daughters.

Tebogo was considered an especially large giraffe calf, according to zoo staff -- at birth, he already weighed more than 180 pounds. He won't be considered fully grown until he's about 3 years old.

See more photos of Tebogo and his mother after the jump!

Your morning adorable: Pembroke Welsh corgi puppy cavorts after a bath

We always enjoy watching our dogs' post-bath revelries; seeing them run as fast as their legs will carry them or roll frantically on the carpet out of sheer joy almost makes up for the fact that they get us all wet when they attempt to shake water off themselves. Almost.

But seeing a freshly bathed puppy run, jump and play on video is even better than seeing it in person, because we're spared the post-bath shaking and wet-dog smell.

Little Chewie, the enthusiastic jumper above, is a 3-month-old Pembroke Welsh corgi, a breed so inclined toward cuteness that it's inspired several themed Tumblr blogs devoted solely to documenting it. (We can only provide you the link to one such blog, on account of this being a family website -- several other corgi-themed blogs' titles contain a certain four-letter word popular among the Tumblr set.)

You can also see more of Chewie's antics on a YouTube channel devoted to her.

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-- Lindsay Barnett

Your morning adorable: Vienna zoo's giant panda cub gets a name

The giant panda born at Vienna's Schoenbrunn Zoo in August reached a milestone -- his 100th day -- and received his name in a ceremony held at the zoo on Monday.

His name, chosen by the panda-loving public in an online poll, is Fu Hu, which means "Happy Tiger" in Mandarin. Fu Hu's older brother, who was sent to a panda breeding center in China's Sichuan Province last year, is named Fu Long -- "Happy Dragon."

Fu Hu's parents, mother Yang Yang and father Long Hui, arrived in Vienna in 2003 through a loan program with China. They're scheduled to return to their home country in a few years when that loan expires. Fu Hu will also move to China one day, since the conditions of his parents' loan require any offspring they produce in a foreign zoo to be sent to China when they're old enough.

See more photos of Fu Hu after the jump!

Your morning adorable: Zoo Atlanta's giant panda cub has a checkup

The giant panda cub born last month at Zoo Atlanta continues to grow at a healthy rate, weighing 2.2 pounds and measuring almost 14 inches from nose tip to tail tip during a veterinary examination last week. The cub, a male, is the third offspring for mother Lun Lun and father Yang Yang and the only giant panda born in an American zoo this year. He hasn't yet been given a name.

The cub recently began to crawl, moving around "like a little worm," Joseph T. Svoke, a carnivore keeper at Zoo Atlanta, noted earlier this week. (Keepers post short updates about the cub's progress on the zoo's website just about every day, and panda fans can also tune in to the zoo's online panda cam on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time.)

Mostly, of course, the little guy spends his time eating and sleeping, as all babies should. "His abdomen's really round and full and that's what we really like in a baby," Dr. Hayley Murphy, director of veterinary services at the zoo, told the Associated Press last week. "That just tells us he's eating well and his abdomen's full of milk."

Zoo staffers expect the cub to begin opening his eyes soon. He won't be on display to the public until he's walking on his own, a milestone giant pandas typically reach when they're about 4 months old.

After the jump, see more photos of the cub during his exam last week!

Your morning adorable: Cat takes a nap while holding a teddy bear

We could happily watch YouTube user kittycatbliss' video of Meesha, a cat with a penchant for napping and a tendency to hold a tiny stuffed animal while he does, on a loop all day long.

Meesha "loves stuffed animals! He will carry them around or attack them around the house," kittycatbliss explains. "In this video he's hugging his little teddy bear. He's got his little blanket and his pillow and he's about to go to sleep."

It's enough to make your heart hurt a little bit, isn't it?

Meesha is a rescue cat who was abandoned as a kitten and found swimming in a lake, according to the bio on his website. (Yes, he has a website -- what self-respecting cat doesn't nowadays?) He was rescued from the lake by a kind woman who brought him to an animal shelter; before long, kittycatbliss came in to adopt a kitten. The rest is history!

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-- Lindsay Barnett

Video: kittycatbliss via YouTube

Your morning adorable: Siamese kitten and Slovakian rough-haired pointer take a nap together

It does the heart good to see an inter-species animal friendship as strong as the one between Mischka, a Slovakian rough-haired pointer, and her Siamese kitten pal, Mia -- doesn't it? The differences between the two, though obvious to the observer, seem to be lost on this sweet dog-and-cat pair.

YouTube user eskababe's channel is full of Mischka-and-Mia videos, including one in which Mischka decides it's a good idea to use little Mia as a pillow. We're not sure how comfortable the result is for Mia, but she puts up with it like a champ. (Mischka, for her part, looks extremely comfortable.) You can also view a slideshow of photos documenting the pair's relationship. 

Looks like we'll have to add these two to our ever-expanding list of favorite animal odd couples, which also includes Polly the Boston terrier and Hermione the cat, Theen the deer and Buddy the dog and Ava the cat and Nibbles the rabbit.

RELATED EXAMPLES OF ANIMAL FRIENDSHIP:

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-- Lindsay Barnett

Video: eskababe via YouTube

Your morning adorable: Cheetah cub makes his debut at the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park

At the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park (known until quite recently as the Wild Animal Park), quite possibly the cutest thing going -- and that's saying a lot -- is a tiny cheetah cub named Kiburi.

More than 130 cheetahs have been born to date at the Safari Park, which is a participant in a conservation breeding program for the endangered species. Kiburi is the first cub to be born there to two hand-raised parents, mother Makena and father Quint. He's being hand-raised himself -- receiving a bottle of special formula every 2 1/2 hours around the clock -- after Makena failed to properly care for him.

Kiburi opened his eyes for the first time last week -- he's pictured shortly after that momentous event on Nov. 24 -- and since then has primarily occupied his time with eating and sleeping. See him doing just that in an alarmingly precious video after the jump!

Your morning adorable: Baby mangabey monkey drinks from a bottle at Rome's Bioparco Zoo

A baby white-naped mangabey monkey born in early November at Rome's Bioparco Zoo is a big deal for his species, which is among the world's most endangered primates.

The baby's mother, Ashante, failed to properly care for the baby (keepers instead found him clinging to Ashante's mother Jasmine, who lives in the same enclosure), so keepers have taken to caring for him themselves. They feed the little guy every four hours around the clock and report that he is gaining weight. When he's old enough, he'll be reintroduced to his family unit.

You wouldn't know it to look at him now, but when this baby is fully grown he'll have a tuft of fur growing out of each cheek and a white mane of sorts around his neck.

All species of mangabey, including the white-naped variety, are native to African rainforests, and all are endangered.

See additional photos and video of the Bioparco Zoo's new baby after the jump!

Your morning adorable: Kitten rides tortoise

We can't help but wonder if this kitten is a regular YouTube viewer.

Is it possible she saw another video that went viral a while back in which Hope, perhaps the world's laziest dog, rides a large tortoise named Carl? Did that inspire her actions in the video above? Or could she have come to her tiny-tortoise-riding conclusion all on her own?

It'll have to remain a mystery, we suppose. And whatever this cute kitty's motivations may be -- to say nothing of the motivations of the patient tortoise that puts up with this whole silly business -- we get a deep enjoyment out of watching the resulting video.

And, of course, a little Henry Mancini never hurt anything.

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-- Lindsay Barnett

Your morning adorable: Pygmy hippopotamus born at Zoo Miami

At Florida's Zoo Miami, the recent birth of a pygmy hippopotamus is cause for big excitement.

The baby, a female, is the first of her species to be born at the zoo in more than two decades and the first offspring for 18-year-old mother Kelsey. "It is testimony that the zoo is doing all of the right things in order to make this normally shy animal comfortable enough to reproduce successfully and to be a great mother," Ron Magill, the zoo's communications director, said in a statement.

Pygmy hippos, like the more familiar Nile hippos, are native to parts of Africa, but pygmy hippos' range is much smaller than that of their larger cousins. Their habitat includes parts of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast, and it's believed that fewer than 3,000 of them remain in the wild.

Zoo Miami is asking members of the public to help name the new baby by voting for their favorite name in an online poll. Name choices are Nzuri (Swahili for "beautiful"), Nyumbani ("home"), Leona (a play on Sierra Leone) and Asali ("honey," a tribute to another Zoo Miami hippo who died last year).

See another photo of mother and baby after the jump!