#CuteAnimalTweetOff Fights Depressing News With Pictures Of Adorable Creatures

Checking the news these days can be a pretty bleak exercise. The nation's zoos, aquariums and animal shelters know that and are trying to help.

The #CuteAnimalTweetOff is flooding people's social media timelines with photos of baby orangutans, cheetahs and otters, making for a nice ray of sunshine during an otherwise gloomy streak of news cycles.

The adorable animals are enough to make even the most cynical person pause and say, "awwwww."

A Virginia radio host quoted the tweet with a challenge: "Your move @VAAquarium ;-)"

Challenge accepted.

"We see @NationalZoo's seal pup, and raise an otter/osprey combo," the Virginia Aquarium responded.

@SarahJanetHill #challengeaccepted We see @NationalZoo 's seal pup, and raise an otter/osprey combo. pic.twitter.com/D9zDWXxuDb
— Virginia Aquarium (@VAAquarium) January 25, 2017

After a few tweets back and forth between the D.C. zoo and Virginia aquarium, Sarah Hill, the radio host who started the exchange, took it national.

She tagged a number of zoos across the country and posed a question in hashtag form: "#cuteanimaltweetoff?" she asked the zoos.

They were happy to oblige.

The Bronx Zoo in New York City got things started with a photo of what looks like two baby tigers. The Atlanta Zoo followed up with a picture of a baby panda. The Tennessee aquarium shared a shot of a lizard.

The hashtag was a hit.

"I was expecting maybe one or two zoos to chime in, but it went further than I ever imagined," Hill told Patch. "I have a background in journalism so being interviewed by the New York Times was possibly the coolest thing ever. I saw a story popped up in Time as well. Talk about a journalists' dream!"

The tweet-off wasn't limited to America's borders. The London Zoo shared an adorable video of newborn tigers with their mother.

And for the record, the hashtag was still going on Monday.