A young visitor interacts with a baby hippopotamus swimming in its enclosure at the Berlin Zoo on January 1, 2018. Tourists and locals flocked to the zoo in the German capital on the unseasonably warm first day of the year. (Photo by Odd Andersen/AFP Photo)

Solo, a rare baby tapir, makes his debut at Chester zoo, UK on July 18, 2016. The Malayan tapir is an endangered species and Solo is the first ever calf born at the zoo. (Photo by Chester Zoo/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A baby baboon appears to ride its mother like a horse at the Chobe River, in The Chobe National Park, Botswana, Southern Africa in January 2023. Young monkeys often ride on their parent's backs, like this Chacma baboon, for protection. (Photo by William Steel/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A baby elephant struggles to climb out of a dam before being rescued by rangers at Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa in the last decade of March 2025, having been pushed into the water by another elephant. (Photo by Anne Laing/Caters News Agency)

The moment baby elephant gets a helping hand to escape the slippery waterhole was caught on camera in the Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape of South Africa in the last decade of August 2025. (Photo by Anne Laing/Caters News Agency)

Mark Taylor may not have any training as a photographer, but that doesn’t stop him from taking amazing animal photos. From his studio in Southeast England, Taylor has made a big business out of photographing man’s best friends, following in the footsteps of his late mother, Jane Burton. Most of the animals he works with are babies, who are more comfortable in front of the camera than older animals.

Photo: Taylor often uses animals that belonged to friends of his late mother, including this Italian Spinone puppy chewing his tail. Baby animals make ideal subjects, as the older dogs and cats get, the warier they are of spending time in a studio. And his trick for getting this small subject to pose? Dog treats, of course. (Photo by Mark Taylor/Rex Features)

Vernon Yates, founder of Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, lays his hands on Ty, a 400-pound tiger, as staff prepare to surgically extract a 4-pound hairball from the big cat, in Clearwater, Florida, on May 22, 2013. Ty is cared for by Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation in Seminole. The non-profit animal rescue group mainly serves by assisting Florida law enforcement with animals that have been seized. (Photo by James Judge/Courtesy BluePearl Veterinary Partners)

An Indonesian devotee cleans and purifies a holy statue of the Gods with tea, roses and cendana water at Suka Loka Tri Dharma Temple on January 26, 2022 in Surabaya, Indonesia. Countries around Southeast Asia are set to welcome a lively Chinese New Year, despite implementing strict health protocols as Chinese populations curtail celebrations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first day of the Lunar New Year, on February 1, will usher in the Year of the Tiger. (Photo by Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images)