Behold our latest round of perhaps the most life-affirming animal photos you are ever likely to see.

These snaps show harp seal pups and baby penguins in remarkable detail in their natural environments of north-east Canada and Antarctica.

Photographer Keren Su went to extraordinary lengths to capture the shots, crawling across ice on his stomach to approach the harp seals and spend time with them on Canada's remote Iles de la Madeleine.

"I was only allowed a limited time with the seals and in order to get the pictures I wanted I had to crawl on the ice so the pups wouldn't be afraid of a huge stranger," the self-taught Chinese photographer told the Daily Mail.

"After they had gotten used to my smell I could get closer and closer until my camera was right in front of them. When they became relaxed they would behave in the cutest ways imaginable."

He was working with a limited window of time, since harp seal pups only retain their cute fluffy whiteness for a period of around 10 days.

Stars of the frozen universe