It has been scientifically proven that humans are drawn to creatures with big soulful eyes, delicate facial features and plush furry softness. Experts say that they speak to our nurturing instincts, and the very sight of them on social media compels us to ‘like’.  

In our opinion, these are the world's cutest critters. Click through the gallery to see how we've ranked Earth's adorable animals...

Unlikely as it may seem when you first come across a dainty and adorable Pomeranian, this fluffy dog breed is almost certainly descended from the sledge-pulling dogs of the Arctic. No more than 12 inches (30cm) high, these friendly pooches with their fox-like appearance might not be able to drag intrepid souls through a snowstorm anytime soon but they are able to warm even the coldest of hearts. Queen Victoria famously displayed a larger version of today's breed at Crufts in 1891 and, perhaps unsurprisingly, won.

These Andean natives are famous for their deep plush fur, a natural adaptation that helped them survive cold mountain temperatures. Their fur is so soft that humans seem genetically compelled to just reach out and stroke it. While that makes chinchillas popular pets, it also attracts the interest of the fur trade, legal and otherwise, and the creation of cruel farms where they are bred especially for their luxuriant coats.

The northern tamandua is a species of anteater that feasts on termites in southern Mexico and parts of Central America. It is distinguishable from its South American cousin, the southern tamandua, by its distinct black vest. When it stands on its hind legs, as it often does claw at tree trunks in search of food, it looks like it is wearing a pair of dungarees. You can’t get cuter than that.

Playful and inquisitive, sea lions are known as the ‘dogs of the sea’. While that canine-like sociability is not immediately apparent on land, when these marine mammals hit the water their personalities change immediately. They zoom about playing games of chase, and should they spot a human, seem happy to pose for underwater portraits that just ooze charisma and cuteness.

It’s super easy to lose yourself in the large doleful eyes of these delightful little nocturnal primates from South and South East Asia. But pleading peepers mask a dark secret. The slow loris excretes a deadly poison that it mixes with its saliva to create a venom that is strong enough to kill small arthropods and mammals and put humans into anaphylactic shock.

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Shyly peeking out from behind the dancing tentacles of poisonous anemones, the brightly coloured clownfish is just as cute in real life as it is in the super popular Disney movie Finding Nemo. The two creatures share a strangely symbiotic relationship. The clown fish preens its host and removes parasites in exchange for food scraps and protection from predators. A layer of mucus on the clownfish's skin in turn protects it from the anemone’s otherwise deadly sting.

Cheeky and mischievous, meerkats are highly sociable and live in large groups called mobs in the dry savannahs of southern Africa. Their twinkly eyes are surrounded by large dark patches that not only accentuate their cuteness but also protect their eyes from glare when they pop up from their burrows, stand tall and have a good look around.

These adorable polka-dotted marsupials from Tasmania and southern Australia have the face of a mouse and the body of a cat. In fact, early settlers first called them ‘native cats’ before settling on quoll, the name used by the local Guugu Yimithirr people. These nocturnal creatures are notoriously difficult to spot in the wild, emerging only at night to hunt insects, birds and small mammals.

Infinitesimally smaller than the giant pachyderms after which they take their name, elephant shrews earned their moniker from their long protruding snouts and over-sized ears. The incongruous features on a creature so small are undeniably cute, but they also help the elephant shrew giving them heightened senses of smell and hearing. Their long nose is also useful for turning over leaf litter in search of insects.

We’re the first to admit that koalas have a few things going against them in the cuteness stakes. Get too close and they smell of urine. Plus, they have a habit of giving each other chlamydia. But catch them snoozing in the crook of a eucalyptus tree and they’re adorable. Some would argue that that is actually their natural state. Thanks to their low energy diet, most koalas spend 20 hours a day sleeping.

Half the size and weighing less than a quarter of its larger cousin, the pygmy hippopotamus is proof that cuteness often comes in small packages. They are endearingly shy too, hiding in swamps and wallows and even the hollows of riverbanks in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast. Sadly, these adorable creatures are listed as endangered, largely due to habitat loss through logging and mining.

Snowshoe hares are common across the coniferous and boreal forests of North America and are recognizable from their huge, oversized hind legs. Like the winter footwear that they are named after, this adaptation makes it easier for these sweet-looking hares to walk across snow. Coupled with their fur, which turns pristine white as the temperatures drop, and their acute hearing, this ability makes them particularly adept at avoiding and escaping from predators.

I think we can all agree that cats are cute. But the downward markings on either side of a sand cat’s eyes make it doubly so. This short, stocky feline can be found prowling the deserts of North Africa, Arabia and Central Asia and those markings help provide camouflage. But they also make sand cats look like they are permanently cross, which is even more adorable.

With its long droopy whiskers and sleep countenance, the viscacha looks for all the world like a wise Andean Fu Manchu. Closely related to the chinchilla, the viscacha’s fur is equally thick and plush, its forelimbs just as short and its tail as long and bushy. But unlike the chinchilla, viscacha have been left to leave their life in peace, meditating in the sun on rocky ledges across South America.

Brightly coloured and covered in spots, the leopard gecko is certainly eye-catching. But it is the little reptile’s oversized grin that makes it truly adorable. And unlike other geckos, the leopard gecko has movable eyelids, an evolution designed to protect it from sand in the dry, dusty corners of India, Pakistan and Iran that it prefers. If you’re lucky it might even give you a cheeky little wink.

Watching these short-legged, squat marsupials waddle about is guaranteed to warm even the coldest heart. They amble about, grazing on native grasses across the mountains, forests and grasslands of Australia, but when threatened can reach speeds of up to 25 miles per hour (40km/h), albeit for only 90 seconds. Fun fact: wombats are the only animals whose poop is cube-shaped.

What makes these tiny natives of the grasslands of eastern and southern Africa so adorable? Their large dark eyes for one thing. And their little upturned nose for another. But the real reason, we suggest, is that with a Dik-Dik you get all the loveliness of an antelope in a sweet little package only 12 inches (30cm) to 16 inches (40.5cm) tall.

See the world's most beautiful birds, ranked

With eyes so blue you can swim in them; no ranking of the world's cutest animals would be complete without the inclusion of the Ragdoll cat breed. Renowned for their incredibly chilled attitude towards life, the Ragdoll is a luxuriantly coated cat breed that continues being cute well beyond its kitten phase (pictured). Because of its docile and sweet nature, as well as its striking good looks, it's great for first-time cat owners and a popular pet option for families.

Australians are so enamoured by these gorgeous little marsupials that every Easter they prefer to give each other a chocolate bilby rather than a traditional chocolate rabbit. Ironically, it was the introduction of rabbits that drove bilbies to the point of extinction as both species battled over the same food sources. The chocolate bilbies have since raised awareness of their plight and today they have been reclassified from ‘endangered’ to ‘vulnerable', with close to 10,000 believed to be thriving in the wild.

A study on cuteness by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford back in 2016 found that humans were drawn to animals with traits similar to human babies. Please step forward the appropriately named African bush baby. These fuzzy little primates have big pleading eyes and are so small they can fit in the palm of your hand. Alarmingly, they also produce loud, shrill cries that sound exactly like human babies.

Everyone loves a giant panda. These sweet, cuddly bamboo munchers from the mountains of south central China are simply adorable. What’s more, their cuteness is quantifiable. Within twelve months of loaning two giant pandas from China in 2011, Edinburgh Zoo saw a 50% increase in ticket sales. And a huge spike in the sales of soft toy pandas in the gift shop.

It says a lot about the inherent cuteness of hedgehogs that most people are willing to forgive the 3,000 to 5,000 quills that cover your average hedgehog and the nasty spike they’d give you if you tried to pick one up. But they have cute little faces and the way they curl up into a ball, their front paws pulled up to their chin, is simply adorable. Spiky on the outside, soft in the middle. We can all relate to that.

With a face only a mother could love, it is fair to say that the source of the sloth’s undeniable cuteness lay elsewhere. Some say their dopey-looking faces suggest mischievousness. Others feel their long loping arms make them irresistibly huggable. Or perhaps it’s their laid-back approach to life. Nothing is ever done in a hurry. And that’s hugely attractive.

Thanks to their striking black and white suits and waddling way of walking, every penguin on the planet can lay claim to being cute. But with their black caps and line of black feathers under their chin, chinstrap penguins are the cutest of them all. They form colonies on rocky Antarctic and subantarctic islands and are the most abundant type of penguin in the region, with an estimated population of nearly eight million pairs.

These super-cute egg-shaped balls of fluff can be found scampering around rocky escarpments of North America, China and Central Asia. They have small round ears and short, evenly sized limbs, belying the fact they are more closely related to rabbits and hares than rodents. They sound cute too, with their squeak sounding like a dog’s chew toy.

Sugar gliders are nature’s cutest little daredevils, using folds of skin between their limbs to ‘glide’ from tree to tree looking for the sweet, sweet nectar they thrive on in the forests of Australia, Papau New Guinea and Indonesia. With their huge dark eyes, soft pink nose and delicate paws, it would seem they are almost too cute for their own good, with the illegal wildlife trade in the region decimating their numbers.

This cheeky little sea creature is the largest member of the weasel family but one of the smallest marine mammals. While they have dense fur, they have very little body fat and can often be seen cuddling each other to stay warm. They also need to eat 25% of their body weight in food each day. So be warned. Behind those clasped paws and pleading eyes is an aggressive predator who’ll do anything to secure his next meal.

With their dainty little faces and large oversized ears, fennec foxes are simply irresistible. Barely 14 inches (35.6cm) to 16 inches (40.6 cm) long, they are the smallest of all foxes, with soft pale coats providing perfect camouflage in the deserts of North Africa that they call home. Indeed, their distinctive long ears help dispel the harsh desert heat and also help the fennec fox locate the insects, lizards and small rodents they love to feast on hiding under the sand.

In 1825 the famous French zoologist Frederic Cuvier was the first westerner to see a red panda and described it as the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. Should you be lucky enough to spot one in the high-altitude temperate forests of Nepal and Northern India, their adorable kitten-like face peeking out between the lush foliage, you’ll be equally enamoured too. Especially if they make their unique huff-quack sound, not unlike that of a duck.

With their adorable smiles and cheeky disposition, Australia’s super cute quokkas are known as the ‘happiest animal in the world’.  Early Dutch explorers mistook these sweet little marsupials for cat-sized rats and named the island they live on Rottnest (Rat’s Nest) Island. Now people travel from every corner of the planet to get a selfie with these cute little hoppers, with Tourism Western Australia offering tips on how to get your snap in a safe and ethical way.

Now take a look at our ranking of the world's cutest baby animals