Scratch, crackle, pop - pictures of baby animals breaking out of their eggs

Ranger Rick, May, 1994 by Lyle Prescott

What a wild event it is when a baby creature pops open its egg and tumbles out into the big world!

An egg may look as lifeless as a rock. But inside, something close to magic is happening. A gooey blob is changing as it slowly swirls around. And when the time is right, it's amazing to see what comes out.

The egg begins to shake. Maybe a scratching sound can be heard from within. Then a speck of shell cracks open. An eye may peek out. More shaking and cracking. And finally - a new baby creature pops out into the world!

Eggs can be small and soft, humongous and hard, or anything in between. They can be found scattered on the ocean floor or nestled in the tops of trees.

Who hatches from these balls of life? Over half of the world's species (kinds) of animals do! Read on to see how some of them do it.

A saltwater crocodile buries her eggs in a mound of leaves on the ground. Yap, yap, call the babies when they're ready to hatch. Hearing the tiny yaps, Mom waddles over and digs up the eggs. This half-hatched baby salt-water crocodile (see photo below) is resting. Hey, it's a big job to burst out of an egg!

This land snail (left) was the firs to hatch from that cluster of pearly eggs. Land snail eggs are usually filled with plenty of rich food. So by the time a snail hatches, it's already well formed. This hatchling looks like a little adult. Soon it will begin inching along the ground to look for food.

There are millions of species of insects in the world - and almost all of them hatch from eggs. A few days ago, an owl butterfly laid this tiny striped egg (above) on a leaf. Now the big-headed larva has hatched. It's already busy chowing down its first meal - the eggshell!

These newly hatched stink bug babies (left) huddle around their egg cases. Can you see little flaps on top of the egg cases? That's where the babies crawled out. When they surround their egg cases like this, the bugs look something like a caterpillar. The stink bugs' legs and antennae look like the caterpillars stinging hairs. Predators that don't like stinging caterpillars may stay away from the stink bugs as well.

In autumn, a praying mantis mom lays about 200 eggs inside a big foamy egg case. The thick case protects the eggs during the cold, windy winter. Next spring, out tumble the babies (left). They are a tangled mass of bodies, legs, and antennae. Soon they'll scramble off in all directions.

The birds of the world - 8500 species or more - may be the most famous of all egg-layers. The baby blackbird shown here hatched in a treetop nest. Like many newly hatched baby birds, it's still bald and blind. It'll need extra special care from its parents during the first few weeks of its life.

Birds that live on the ground often aren't so helpless when they hatch. They're already covered with feathers, and they can see well right from the start. This alert baby (right) is a newly hatched moorhen. It'll be ready to make a fast escape if a predator comes near.

Egg-laying animals live everywhere - in the air, on land, and even under water. Inside a rocky ocean den, an octopus mom twists her eggs together and hangs them up - like a bunch of grapes! She's a busy mom, squirting the eggs with water to give them oxygen and keep pests away. Six weeks later, the babies hatch. You can see the first little octopus baby creeping out (left).

These rainbow trout eggs on the bottom of a stream (right) take about eight weeks to hatch. Here comes the first baby now! It's less than one inch (2.5 cm) long. The baby trout is still attached to a big orange ball called a yolk sac. The yolk sac is full of rich food that helps the baby fish grow.

The baby swell shark below is swimming out of its egg case. (The case is about the size of a candy bar.) Inside, the baby was attached to a yolk sac. The growing baby fed on the yolk. Finally, when it was ready, the baby shark hatched. From inside each kind of egg, baby creatures hammer, scratch, wiggle, squeeze, or push their way out. Welcome to the big world, little ones!