Dr Dolittle Scientist Wes Larson hugs polar black bears for a living

It's a hard life hugging cute animals, but somebodies got to do it.

Officially Wes Larson is a bear scientist, unofficially he is an Instagram star with 81,000 followers who can't get enough of his uploads.

The Montana native quit optometry school seven years ago to study biology so that he could work towards protecting endangered species.

Professional Doctor Dolittle Wes Larson is an Instagram superstar with 81,000 followers constantly liking pictures of him with cute endangered creatures

Montana-native Wes Larson quit optometry school so he could travel the world protecting endangered animals

He said: 'When I graduated college, I got sucked into the idea that I needed to make a lot of money. But I eventually decided to do what I was passionate about.'

When he's not hugging bears and hanging in the wild he's posing out with his adopted orphaned raccoon called Pants

When he's not cosying up to bears, whales, chickens, parrots, lizards and giraffes he's hanging out with Pants, an orphaned racoon he's found himself raising.

In a recent interview with IG World Club he said: 'My whole life, I've been interest in wildlife'.

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He continued: 'When I graduated college, I got sucked into the idea that I needed to make a lot of money. But I eventually decided to do what I was passionate about.'

Since following his passions he has worked with the Southern Beaufort Sea population of polar bears in Alaska for three years.

His work hasn't always been easy, he revealed that while working in the Arctic studying polar bears the weather became almost unbearable, dropping to -57degrees Celsius. It was so cold his eyeball actually froze.

He shows his caring side as he takes a selfie with two cubs, which are part of a family of bears he's been studying

It's not always cute, cuddly baby bears: While working in the Arctic the weather became almost unbearable, dropping to -57degrees Celsius. It was so cold his eyeball actually froze

While this sort of hardship would put most people off he's determined to do as much as he can to help endangered animals.

He said his goal is: 'to get as much information as possible' so that no human activity — from oil drilling to park picnicking — harms animals.

Though he has a worthy goal, he's also managed to travel to some amazing destinations and get up close with some incredible creatures.

His adventures as a real life Dr Doolittle have garnered a legion of Instagram followers keen to be updated on his regular animal interactions.

And his pet raccoon is fast becoming more popular than him.

He captioned this Instagram photograph, which garnered 4,487 Likes: '"Why don't you post more pictures with cute girls?" -text from my mom this morning. This might be a girl?'

Pose, pose pose: Here an adorable sled pup trying to steal the spotlight from scientist Wes Larson