We get it. The political situation seems hopeless, nobody's listening to the environment's clear apocalyptic signals, and everybody is (understandably) feeling pretty depressed about it all.

But there are some things that will always bring humanity together: a love of music, late-night junk food ... and cooing over baby animals. 

However weird-looking they may be, we love animal babies even when they cause huge health scares or straight-up mug us. So we are happy to share that, last week, writer and editor Erin Ruberry took to Twitter to deliver some very important information about how zookeepers weigh the baby animals under their care.

This giant baby came from the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk, where he was born in 2011. Most newborn giraffes weigh up to around 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and are over 1.8 meters (6 feet) tall when they stand up – which they do within the first few minutes of life.

Sadly, it seems this particular giraffe died within a few weeks from a sudden infection – but last year his parents took their keepers by surprise when they had another calf, who was named Iggy.

Penguins have been making a name for themselves lately with their parental shenanigans, but this little guy – a Gentoo penguin chick from the Tennessee Aquarium – was born all the way back in 2014, according to zoology news blog ZooBorns.

And have you ever wondered how you would weigh a baby red panda?

This little fuzzball, a native New Yorker, is called Zhin-Li. His birth at Binghamton Zoo in 2013 was a cause for celebration, as red pandas are endangered, with an ever-decreasing population.

Some of the newborns needed some emotional support during their ordeal.

That's actually not a joke – Lucky the joey, from Australia's Currumbin Wildlife Hospital Foundation, is holding the koala teddy to reduce stress from being separated from his mother.

Not all animals, however, are so worried about it. This panda, snapped by wildlife photojournalist Ami Vitale, seems highly relaxed about the whole thing.

This photo comes from Ami's personal website, which is worth a visit if only for the frankly haunting images of zookeepers dressed as nightmarish pandas.

The thread also treated us to this adorable baby orangutan, apparently from Cameron Park Zoo in Texas.

Despite being incredibly intelligent and hilariously relatable, orangutans are critically endangered thanks to poaching and habitat loss, so breeding programs are increasingly important. Only last month, two OB-GYNs were called out to a zoo in Kansas when an orangutan birth went sideways and needed surgical intervention.

Zookeepers weigh and measure animals for the same reason doctors weigh human babies - to keep an eye on their health and progress. Last month, ZSL London Zoo caught some footage of their eight-week-old tiger cubs' first health check.

Although Cincinnati Zoo had some trouble earlier this year when their baby aardvark was a little too feisty for the weighing scales.

Oh - and just in case you didn't believe that baby crocodiles could really be cute, here's one of the little guys squeaking while he enjoys a massage.

Now we just have to wait and see how adorable the babies of our future robot overlords end up being.