There’s a lot I like about this picture. The warm colors come from the last rays of light at day’s end, contrasting the cold imparted by the frost during a cold snap.

There’s the cuteness factor, both from the inherent cuteness of the baby nutria, plus the comedic positioning where the side-by-side youngsters show the front of one and the rear of the other, looking almost like a single elongated nutria.

There’s also natural history here. First, nutria are herbivores and eat plants like the little one on the left, his two front paws feeding the stalk into his mouth much like a muskrat would do. Second, you can see why nutria have become so dominant in the milder climates. An adult pair has given birth recently in the middle of winter here in the Northwest, and the little ones are surviving quite well even during the coldest weather we see here in the valley.