Maryland Zoo Joins In On International 'Cute Animal Tweet-Off'

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- It's a twitter war causing a lot of interaction internationally, but the responses are quite adorable.

This tweet-off involves zoos from around the world who all insist they have the cutest animals, and the Maryland Zoo, didn't hestitate to join.

It all started with a tweet from the National Zoo, showcasing this newly born seal pup.

"Another twitter user tweeted to their zoo, 'do you have anything this cute?' and that just immediately exploded into an official cute animal tweet-off that other zoos join in to immediately," says Maryland Zoo in Baltimore marketing and digital manager Sinclair Miller.

"We've got nine penguin chicks right now and that's an endangered species, so that seemed like a good place to start," says Miller.

"We also tweeted about the sifaka that we recently had. This baby is super adorable and was really popular with out twitter fans and twitter fans from all over the world really."

That was on Wednesday. The tweet and hashtag then took a life of it's on.

People and zoos from around the country and world joined in on the cute animal tweet-off.

"When I came back to work on Thursday morning, all the zoos that are international had been tweeting all night long, because it was day for them," says Miller

The tweet-off is something that many on Twitter say made them smile and served as some relief from the recent normal on social media.

"In a time when people are seeing all sorts of controversy on twitter, it was the exact break that everyone needed to just smile and remember there are a lot of great things in the world," says Miller.

Sinclair says this tweet-off, has been good for zoos because many of the animals being tweeted are endangered species and it's important for people to be aware of that and make this a fun learning experience.

If you would like to participate or see what zoos and aquariums have been tweeting, the hashtag is #Cuteanimaltweetoff.