Spring has come to Hokkaido ✨🐿️

Photo courtesy of @hirokirin_photo

The photo shows an Ezo red squirrel peeking out from a soft spring landscape carpeted with blue and purple flowers. Standing there with its small body, its gaze fixed on the camera, it looks just like a character from a picture book.

This post has garnered over 20,000 likes, with a flood of comments such as, "So cute and healing," "It's like a picture book," and "I never knew a world like this existed."

"Like a Character from a Fairy Tale"

The innocent expression of the Ezo red squirrel is so adorable.

This photograph was taken in Hokkaido by hirokirin_photography. They said it was the perfect moment, with the flowers in full bloom and a soft light filtering through. "The little squirrel standing there looked just like a character straight out of a fairy tale. It was such a beautiful and lovely sight that I found myself captivated through the viewfinder," they recall.

Encountering a Mother Squirrel Moving Her Baby on the Same Day

On the same day, they encountered another memorable scene: a mother squirrel carrying her newborn baby, moving to a new nest.

"In contrast to the adorable squirrel among the flowers, the mother squirrel, paying no mind to the blooms, was single-mindedly and desperately carrying her child. Her figure deeply moved me, making me feel the preciousness of life and the bond between parent and child," hirokirin_photography shared.

Cuteness, beauty, and the strength of life. Spring in Hokkaido, when the snow-covered ground slowly regains its color, is a brief but precious season. It is precisely during this time that one can encounter such special scenes.