By Wonderwall.com Editors
6:43pm PDT, Mar 19, 2025
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What's cuter than our favorite royals playing with animals all over the world? Not much! We're taking a look back at some of the best encounters between members of Britain's royal family and members of the animal kingdom, starting with this snapshot… Kate Middleton greeted the Irish Guards' official mascot — an Irish Wolfhound — at the unit's Saint Patrick's Day Parade at Wellington Barracks in London on March 17, 2025.
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Queen Camilla bottle fed an orphaned elephant calf during a visit to Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi National Park in Kenya, where she learned about the trust's work in the conservation and preservation of wildlife and protected areas across the country, on Nov. 1, 2023 — day two of her
state visit to Kenya with King Charles III.
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Kate Middleton, who's patron of The Forward Trust, visited HMP High Down — a prison — in Sutton, England, on Sept. 12, 2023, to learn about how the charity supports those in the criminal justice system as they manage and recover from addictions.
She's seen here being sniffed by a drug detection dog inside the facility.
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Queen Camilla met with members of the community as well as some Welsh livestock — including this alpaca — at Theatr Brycheiniog in Brecon, Wales, on July 20, 2023.
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King Charles III and Queen Camilla met with members of the community as well as some Welsh livestock — including this alpaca — at Theatr Brycheiniog in Brecon, Wales, on July 20, 2023.
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Kate Middleton and Prince William smiled while petting a search and rescue dog during a visit to the Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team headquarters in Wales on April 27, 2023.
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Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh scratched 11-month Sunny's belly during a puppy class at the Guide Dogs Training Centre in Reading, England, while participating in the Big Help Out on May 8, 2023.
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Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh met a pup training to become a guide dog during a puppy class at the Guide Dogs Training Centre in Reading, England, while participating in the Big Help Out on May 8, 2023.
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Queen Camilla met Blixen the reindeer at Clarence House in London on Dec. 7, 2022. King Charles III's wife invited children supported by Helen & Douglas House and Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity to the royal residence to decorate a Christmas tree and receive a few festive surprises.
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Kate Middleton leaned down to give her dog, Orla, a good pet at the Out-Sourcing Inc. Royal Charity Polo Cup at Guards Polo Club in Windsor, England, on July 6, 2022.
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Prince William and Kate Middleton helped introduce Prince George to a little bilby at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney on April 20, 2014.
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Kate Middleton greeted Bob the cat and his owner, James Bowen, at the "A Street Cat Named Bob" film premiere in London on Nov. 3, 2016.
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Prince Harry worked with African Parks in Malawi as part of the 500 Elephants initiative in the summer of 2016. (He spray painted a sedated young male to ensure that the animal would be kept with his family during a massive relocation project.)
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Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited the elephant center at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in Whipsnade, Dunstable, England, on April 11, 2017. Only the queen could look so regal giving a banana to a pachyderm!
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Kate Middleton and
Prince William really got into the holiday spirit on Dec. 8, 2021: The royals got to pet a reindeer ahead of their Christmas carol service in London.
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What a wooly beauty! Kate Middleton stroked a lamb as farmer's daughter Clover Chapman looked on during a visit to Manor Farm in Little Stainton, Durham, England, on April 27, 2021.
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King Charles III pet Monty the dog as wife Queen Camilla looked on during a visit to the Cabinet Office in London on Feb. 13, 2020.
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Prince William watched as Kate Middleton handled a tarantula named Charlotte, from Kidz Farm, during a tour of the Ulster University Magee Campus in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on Sept. 29, 2021.
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While Kate Middleton held a spider,
Prince William handled a snake during a tour of the Ulster University Magee Campus in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on Sept. 29, 2021.
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Kate Middleton handled Gus the Guinea Pig during a HugglePets visit with a group of school children from Loxdale Primary School in Wolverhampton, England, to mark Mental Health Awareness Week on May 13, 2021.
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During a visit to the Kerikeri Primary School in Waitangi,
New Zealand, on Nov. 20, 2019, Queen Camilla met the school's therapy dog, Meg, as student Liam Curtis read to the cute canine.
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King Charles III met two llamas during a Future is Bright event at Kaikoura Memorial Hall in Kaikoura during his
royal visit to New Zealand on Nov. 23, 2019.
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Kate Middleton and
Prince William meet a therapy puppy named Alfie — an apricot cockapoo funded through hospital charity ELHT&me using a grant from NHS Charities Together — during a visit to meet NHS staff and patients at Clitheroe Community Hospital in Clitheroe, England, on Jan. 20, 2022.
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Prince William met 5-month-old Irish red setter Tara, a PTSD training dog, in Belfast on Sept. 9, 2020.
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Prince William and Kate Middleton got tangled up as they played with golden Labrador puppies Salto and Sky during a visit to the Army Canine Centre near Islamabad, Pakistan, where the U.K. provides support to a program that trains dogs to identify explosive devices, during day five of their
royal tour of Pakistan on Oct. 18, 2019.
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Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, and daughter Lady Louise Windsor fed giraffes at the Wild Place Project in Bristol, England, on July 23, 2019.
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Prince Harry met Bella the Cockapoo during Dr. Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots Global Leadership Meeting at St. George's House at Windsor Castle in Windsor, England, on July 23, 2019.
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Kate Middleton looked beyond ecstatic to feed a baby elephant during her visit to the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation in India's Kaziranga National Park on April 13, 2016. Can you blame her for being so giddy?
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Queen Camilla posed with a donkey during a visit to the Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary in Devon, England, on July 17, 2019.
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King Charles III posed with two workhorses while visiting the Tyn-y-Coed Forest in Wales on July 1, 2019.
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King Charles III met the Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue Team — including their search and rescue dog, Rowan — during a visit to Upper Lake in Glendalough on the second day of his
royal visit to Ireland on May 21, 2019.
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King Charles III got up close and personal with an iguana at the National Trust for the Cayman Islands' Blue Iguana Recovery Centre on March 28, 2019, during his
12-day royal tour of the Caribbean with wife Queen Camilla.
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle met Ruby — a mother koala who gave birth to a joey named Meghan in the former actress's honor — during a visit to Taronga Zoo in Sydney on Oct. 16, 2018. How cute are they?!
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Queen Camilla greeted a horse at the National Equestrian Center in Havana, Cuba, during her
12-day royal tour of the Caribbean with her husband, King Charles III, on March 27, 2019.
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Kate Middleton got up close and personal with Domhnall, the Irish Wolfhound mascot of the First Battalion Irish Guardsmen, at the Saint Patrick's Day Parade in London on March 17, 2019.
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Queen Camilla pet a beautiful dog during a visit to the Avoca Mill in County Wicklow during her
royal visit to Ireland with King Charles III on May 21, 2019.
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Princess Anne was snapped with one of her Bull Terrier dogs on Day 1 of The Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe Park in Stroud, England, on Aug. 3, 2018.
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Queen Camilla pet some local dogs while on a royal visit to Devon on July 17, 2019.
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King Charles III couldn't help himself while meeting an explosives search dog at Heathrow airport in London on March 13, 2018.
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Prince Harry played polo during the Sentebale ISPS Handa Polo Cup at the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club in Windsor, England, on July 26, 2018.
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Queen Camilla loved on a little dog during a Celebration of Community event in Lisnaskea, Northern Ireland, during an official
royal visit to the Emerald Isle on May 21, 2019.
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Meghan Markle cuddled a Jack Russell named Minnie in London on Jan. 16, 2019.
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Queen Elizabeth II visited the Large Animals Clinical Skills Building at the University of Surrey on Oct. 15, 2015.
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Kate Middleton looked downright thrilled to be feeding a lamb from a bottle at a farm in Arlingham in Gloucestershire, England, on May 3, 2017.
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Prince William looked a little wary while participating in a falconry display at The Anglesey Show in Wales on Aug. 14, 2013.
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle appeared with farmer Scott Woodley during a visit to his drought-affected farm of Mountain View in Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia, on Oct. 17, 2018, during their
official royal tour Down Under.
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Prince William helped feed an elephant a carrot at a sanctuary in Xishuangbanna's Nature Reserve in China on March 4, 2015.
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Prince Harry got in on the action while watching a display of jumping dogs with Meghan Markle at a community barbecue in Victoria Park in Dubbo, Australia, on day two of their
royal tour Down Under on Oct. 17, 2018.
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King Charles III checked out a monkfish, an example of some of the catch that is sold at the market, by fisherman Jimmy Buchan as he visited Peterhead Fish Market in Peterhead, Scotland, on Sept. 29, 2018.
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Meghan Markle met an echidna during a visit to Taronga Zoo in Sydney on Oct. 16, 2018.
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Prince Harry couldn't help but melt when he met a medical alert dog in Orlando, Florida, in May 2016.
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Prince Harry, Patron of the Invictus Games Foundation, posed with Jester the dog as he attended the U.K. team trials for the Invictus Games Toronto 2017 held at the University of Bath on April 7, 2017.
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Prince William and Kate Middleton were all smiles while meeting a koala at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney on April 20, 2014.
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Prince Harry planted a smooch on a horse's snout at the Nature Fun Ranch in St. Andrew, Barbados, on Dec. 2, 2016.
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Prince William picked up his dog, Lupo, and showered him with love at the Beaufort Polo Club in Gloucestershire, England, on June 17, 2012.
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Prince William and Kate Middleton held a pair of police dog puppies in Wellington, New Zealand, on April 16, 2014.
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King Charles III looked shocked and surprised while holding a Tuatara lizard during his visit to Orokonui Ecosanctuary in Dunedin, New Zealand, to mark Conservation Week on Nov. 5, 2015.
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Kate Middleton presented the Regimental Irish Wolfhound Domhnall with his own sprig of shamrock at the Saint Patrick's Day Parade in Aldershot, England, on March 17, 2014.
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Prince William looked relaxed atop a white horse at the Audi Polo Challenge at Coworth Park in Berkshire, England, on May 28, 2016.
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King Charles III looked straight into the eyes of a bald eagle named Zephyr at the Sandringham Flower Show in Norfolk, England, on July 31, 2013.
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Prince Harry released turtles on Lovers Beach in Nevis in the Caribbean on Nov. 23, 2016.
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Prince Harry met Shenkin the Goat, the Regimental Mascot of the Royal Welsh, during the "Zulu" 50th anniversary film screening in London on June 10, 2014.
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Prince Harry stopped to say hello to a little dog on a walkabout at Cashel Street Mall in Christchurch, New Zealand, on May 12, 2015.
