Which baby animals look like their mums and dads?

Have you ever stroked a soft little puppy? Think of its warm fur under your hand and its tiny wet nose.

That puppy will grow into a big dog one day. Every baby animal grows up. So which baby animals look like their mums and dads?

Let's start in a sunny field. A mother horse stands beside her foal, which means her baby horse. The foal already has long legs, a swishy tail and a soft mane, just like her.

Each day the foal drinks milk and grows. Its body keeps the same shape the whole time. It only gets bigger, until it looks like a grown horse.

Puppies, kittens and lambs grow the same way as the foal. They are born with their parents' shape, only smaller. That is why a kitten already looks like a small cat.

Some babies hatch from eggs and still look like their parents. A baby turtle climbs out of its egg with a shell and four short legs. It has a grown turtle's shape, only much smaller.

Now let's visit a quiet pond. A mother frog lays soft, jelly eggs in the water. Out of each egg wriggles a tadpole, which means a baby frog with a tail and no legs.

A tadpole has a round body and a long, wiggly tail. It swims like a fish and looks nothing like its mother. What do you think will grow on the tadpole next?

Strong back legs grow first, for kicking and hopping. Then small front legs pop out too, to hold the little frog up when it sits.

Bit by bit, the tadpole's tail shrinks away, because the young frog will hop on land instead of swimming. Now it looks like its mum and hops out onto a log.

A baby butterfly changes too. It hatches as a caterpillar, with no wings at all. Later it rests inside a snug case, and its whole body changes in there. Out comes a butterfly with wings, like its parents.

Foal, tadpole. Babies like foals are born with their parents' shape, so they look like them. A tadpole has to change its body first, and then it looks like a frog.

Sleep well, and dream of foals in the field and frogs on a log.