bears

Get ready for some of the most paw-dorable pictures you've ever seen. Brian Matthews captured these amazing, rare and beautiful pictures near Churchill, northern Canada of polar bear cubs leaving their den with their momma for the very first time to play around in the snow. The pictures clearly capture the nerves the cubs feel of leaving their den for the first time, gazing adoringly at their mom and staying close to her while exploring this beautiful new world. 

As The Irish Sun reports, Matthews said: "It was very humbling to be able to see something that very, very few people get to see. The cubs were really interested in the world in general, they were investigating and playing in the snow, smelling trees, looking around and generally getting their bearings."

He continued: "They seemed quite confident running about and playing in the snow, as long as they weren't too far from their mother. You can see in the photos of them all lying together how big these tiny cubs are going to grow up to be. It was just absolutely amazing to see the cubs playing in front of us, only about 50 metres away, and not at all fazed or spooked that we were there. It's heartening to see the positive side of polar bear conservation work."

Only after they calmed down a bit did the mother bear go and have a big ol' nap, her kiddos continuing to play around in the snow next to her. We hope we will get to see many, many more pictures of animals loving their natural habitats, and that this was the pawfect, smile-inducing start to your morning that you were hoping for. 

February is coming to an end, and it's time to celebrate one of our favorite days ever - international polar bear day. Why do we love it so much? Well, because we love polar bears, of course. They are so cute, so fluffy, they are a vulnerable animal species whose population is decreasing, and polar bear day is the best day to bring some awareness to the struggles facing this animal. As well as look at super adorable pics of them. 

If any of you love polar bears as much as we do and want to help with the conservation effort of these huge teddy bears, consider going to Polar Bears International and learning about them as well as donating to help keep them safe and happy. Have a beary happy polar bear day, everyone! 

Well, well, another day on twitter, another adorable animal goes viral, and you would never expect it to be this one. A bear in a river. That's right. You hear that ad may not think anything of it, but my gosh, that bear is the cutest bear that we've ever seen (and that's despite the fact that all bears are totally adorable), and we are not even slightly surprised that the internet went crazy over it. 

It's so cute, it inspired endless artists to create adorable versions of the bear themselves, and we felt the need to give them all (and the bear) some love. So, enjoy this adorable fluffball in all of its versions, and have a pawtasitc weekend!

Incoming! The most dangerous animals in the world is about to attack you with its cuteness. Shield your eyes. The cuteness can be too much, and it is truly not for the faint hearted. Do not go on this adventure of cuteness if you are unprepared. And for those of you who are ready... we wish good luck. 

These fluffy marshmallows of cuteness will take over your heart in a second, and you will want nothing more than to hug them. So, prepare for this incoming attack by clutching your favorite teddy bear to your chest and taking a deep breath, and enjoy this fluffball wintery delight in the form of the cutest pictures of polar bears.

Us humans take months, sometimes over a year to take our first steps, while many animals only ever take a couple minutes. But some animal babies are capable of even more than that, like these tiny totally safe-to-cuddle bear cubs who have already perfected the art of climbing trees at their tini-tiny age. 

It's an experience every tiny bear cub will go through at some point in their lives, and not only is it insanely impressive, it is also incredibly cute. So, take a look at these pawdoable bear cubs taking their first steps (up a tree) with their mommies there to help and protect them and enjoy your heart melting of cute. 

There's a reason that people love bears as much as they do. The myth of the cuddly bear runs strong in our society. I mean, look at them. How can these huge bear-hugging animals be in any way dangerous? They were obviously designed for hugs. Cleary. How can you even argue with that? 

They're the cutest, the sweetest, and they're infinitely polite. Look at them waving! Just look at them, we dare your heart not to melt. It's impossible. It's a total dream to have a bear wave at us (and also give us a hug, but we'll settle for a wave for now). The cuteness is simply overwhelming. 

While all these photoshopped animals do look beautiful either way and some not even odd-looking, we're definitely grateful to live in a world where tigers and zebras have stripes. These animals have color and uniquely beautiful, if you photoshop out those iconic markings, it doesn't dilute their cuteness, but we've obviously come to love and admire these animals individual uniqueness. 

The team at Brightside.me has asked the question, "What would animals look like without their markings?" And then created it for us to help us imagine a world in which animals only come in one shade of color. Safe to say, we all love the animals just as they naturally are! 

It's National Hug A Bear Day! And we here at Cheezburger are celebrating! Now, it's important to remember that you should actually go out and hug a bear. That is a bit dangerous at the end of the day, no matter how cute and cuddly bears may appear. 

No, National Hug A Bear Day is actually a day that refers to teddy bears and is meant to celebrate hugging! Yeah, you heard right. On this day, you aren't supposed to go out and hug actual bears. The way to celebrate National Hug A Bear day is by hugging your teddy bear, or by hugging your friend's teddy bear, or giving a big ol' 'bear hug' to one of your friends or family members. 

That doesn't mean that actual bears shouldn't be celebrated, of course, since bears are unbearably awesome. So, since we can't come give y'all bear hugs right now, as a compromise, we've decided to give you an adorable collection of some of the most teddy bear-like looking bear cubs instead.

To bring a little extra laughs to an un-bear-ably difficult week, we decided that pawing through twitter and finding you some funny bear tweets is the best way to do it. There's something about scary and dangerous animals doing funny and cute things that makes them extra hilarious. You just don't expect to see pictures of a bear in a hot tub. 

These funny bear tweets are basically guaranteed to put a big ol' smile on your face and make your day more bearable. If they're not enough, you can always take a look at these un-bear-ably funny bear memes. And for an ultimately good time, we hope you get the best bear hug from the person you most want it from this week.

Oh lawd, they comin'

Katmai National Park's annual competition of voting for your favorite chubby bear is back and voting has already begun! Which chubby cubby will win the title this year? 

Every Fall, the 'Fat Bear Week' competition takes place and it's a celebration in which the online community compares photos of bears in Spring and those same bears all chubbed up and getting ready for hibernation! The difference between the photos is often very obvious. And while it's a fun competition to take part in, it's truly all about these amazing bears, their survival, and how we're learning from them. 

For those who might consider this to be body shaming, it's actually all about body positivity. A bear needs to bulk up before winter, or else it won't survive. As the U.S. Department of the Interior says, "A fat bear is a healthy bear!" Bears can lose up to a third of their entire body fat as they hibernate. 

You can vote for your favorite chubby cubby here! And follow Katmai National Park on Twitter for all the updates!