Cute animals: Best pictures to cheer you up through Melbourne lockdown

Lockdown Life, a digital subscriber special, will give you a five minute brain break each day from coronavirus and arm you with some handy tips as well on keeping the family busy with movies to watch and bike rides to enjoy, and the adults well stocked with wine and recipes ideas — just to name a few.

So keep an eye out each lunchtime online.

To get started, here’s some of our favourite animals pictures to put a smile on your dial.

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Noah Kosovich, 7, and his assistance dog Claudia, 2. Noah has autism and since getting Claudia nine months ago, his anxiety has improved dramatically. Picture Jay Town

A Bengal Kitten bred by Shaloma Bengals breeder Sharonita Skuhr. Picture: Mark Brake

Baby salt water crocodiles hatch from their shells from parents Bella and Crunch at Ballarat Wildlife Park. Picture: David Caird

WIRES volunteer Cate Ryan holds a flying fox that revived the extreme heat on Sunday at St Helens Park. Picture: AAP Image / Angelo Velardo.

You wouldn't mess with a Bengal Tiger, but Breeanna 5, is quite happy for Bengal kitten Takache to pounce on her for the Cat Lovers Show. Picture: David Caird

British shorthair kittens aged six-and-a half weeks old at the Cat Lovers Show. Picture: David Caird

Rainforestation koala Willow with her joey. Picture: Supplied.

Giant panda bear cub on tree inChengdu, Sichuan, China Picture: Istock

Spring ducklings and chicks pictured at Calmsey Farm in far western Sydney. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Five-week-old dingo pups at the Dingo Discovery Sanctuary in Toolern Vale. Picture: Jay Town

Lonely Peruvian penguins from the Kansas City Zoo enjoy an outing to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to lift their spirits during the coronavirus lockdown. Picture: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Four-year-old Charli Peters reads to one of the resident kittens at the Sutherland Shire Council Animal Shelter. Picture: Richard Dobson

Some alpacas at the Fibre Naturally Aplaca Woolen Mill and Glen Avon Alpaca stud. Photo: Dannika Bonser

A kitten that needs a foster carer. Picture: Mark Wilson.

The few months-old polar bear twins Anna and Elsa play with their mother Valeska as they explore the enclosure in the zoo Bremerhaven in Bremerhaven, northern Germany. Picture: Patrik Stollarz / AFP.

Sydney Zoo has welcomed the birth of three baby baboons during the lockdown, pictured here is mum Zuri with her baby Nyota. Picture: Toby Zerna.

Chimpanzees during the official opening of the African Savannah Precinct at Taronga Zoo. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett.

Wild Life Sydney Zoo welcomes the arrival of two koala joeys this season, with male joey Jasper, nine-months, weighed to check his progress. Picture: Toby Zerna

Meerkat mum Eanie. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

A White Cheeked Gibon at Adelaide Zoo, which has reopened to the public after shutting its doors due to the outbreak of COVID-19 around the world. Picture: AAP Image/David Mariuz.

Taronga Zoo’s African Savannah precinct features roaming lions, fennec foxes, meerkats, giraffe and zebra, and it’s the first time lions have been on display since 2015. Picture: Jenny Evans/Getty Images.