LightBox presents a selection of recent news images that reveal the endless wonder of the animal kingdom.
Whether cute and cuddly, wild or exotic, animals hold a fascination in all humans. BBC wildlife documentaries and National Geographic stories come to mind when recalling great animal imagery, but animal magic is not only confined to natural habitat—it extends to a life of domesticity or captivity, a life where constant surprises and intriguing photography of our furry and feathered friends can be found on a daily basis.
A zebra in its enclosure in Berlin's Zoo.Johannes Eisele—AFP/Getty ImagesA snake is seen at a snake farm in Zisiqiao village, Zhejiang Province, China. Residents of Zisiqiao Village, also known as the snake town, raise over 3 millions snake a year for food and medicinal proposes. Aly Song—ReutersA black rhino sleeps in the sunshine at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Hythe, England. Port Lympne has welcomed a host of new arrivals this year with wildebeest, colobus monkeys, gorillas and rhinos all added to the current stock. Port Lympne and Howletts Wild Animal parks were set up by the late John Aspinall to protect and breed rare and endangered species and, where possible, return them to safe areas in the wild.Dan Kitwood—Getty ImagesFlamingos at the Hellabrunn Zoo in Munich, Germany. In the wild, the social birds live in colonies in Africa and South America. Christof Stache—Getty ImagesHorses are seen as a cloud of ash billows from the Puyehue volcano near Osorno, 870 km south of Santiago.Martin Bernetti—AFP/Getty ImagesDeer interact with each other while smoke covers the town of Los Alamos from the Las Conchas fires near Los Alamos, New Mexico. The fires torched torched 60,000 acres, or about 93 square miles, in less than two days. Larry W. Smith—EPAA southern right whale, known in Spanish as 'ballena franca austral,' jumps out of the water in the Atlantic Sea near Argentina's Patagonian village of Puerto Piramides. The whales regularly come to breed and calve in this marine reserve from June to December. Maxi Jonas—ReutersA grey seal comes for a closer look at a group of divers at the Farne Islands, England. The Farne Islands, which are run by the National Trust, are situated two to three miles off the Northumberland coastline. The archipelago of 16-28 separate islands (depending on the tide) make the summer home to approximately 100,000 pairs of breeding seabirds including around 36,000 Puffins, 32,000 Guillemots and 2,000 pairs of Arctic Terns.Dan Kitwood—Getty ImagesMoon jellyfish swim in their aquarium at Sea Life in Timmendorfer Strand, Germany. Even though many people find them unpleasant, moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) are harmless, but they can cause problems for fishermen by clogging up their nets, ripping them when the nets are pulled in. Moon jellyfish can reach a diameter of 30 centimeters. Christian Charisius—Newscom Long-tailed mayfly (Palingenia longicauda) mate on the surface of the Tisza river near Tiszakurt, 135km (84 miles) southeast of Budapest. Millions of these short-lived mayflies engage in a frantic rush to mate and reproduce before they perish in just a few hours during the blooming season.Laszlo Balogh—ReutersA newly born baby hippo plays at the Prague Zoo. David W Cerny—ReutersA red forehead parrot in its cage in the Animal Rescue Center at the National Zoo, some 16 km south of Managua. The Nicaraguan National Zoo opened the first shelter rehabilitation for wild animals rescued from illegal trafficking of endangered species, with support from the government, businessmen and the United States. Elmer Martinez—AFP/Getty ImagesA tailor bird (Orthotomus) approaches its nest in a tree in the forest of Khokana, on the outskirt of the capital Kathmandu, Nepal.Narenda Shrestha—EPADoves sit on the branches of a tree in the Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya. Dadaab, a complex of three settlements, is the world's largest refugee camp. Built to house 90,000 people and home to more than four times that number, it was already well over its maximum capacity before an influx of 30,000 refugees in the month of June.Roberto Schmidt—AFP/Getty ImagesWild horses are rounded up in the hills on the eve the Rapa das Bestas festival in Sabucedo, Spain. Wild horses are brought down from the mountains in the festival to be tamed in Sabucedo and re-relased to the wilderness with a new micro chip attached. Denis Doyle—Getty ImagesA horse with a local Pakistani mobile number painted on it is left for rent on a roadside on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan.Muhammed Muheisen—APDog physiotherapist Petra Rudolph plays with the dogs in their dog kindergarten in Leipzig, Germany. Mrs. Rudolph provides a full-time care for dogs usually left bored in their apartments. Jan Woitas—EPAA woman feeds a seagull with breadcrumbs in Zinnowitz on the Baltic island of Usedom, northeastern Germany. Spring brought unsettled weather to the region with temperatures around 20 degrees Celsius. Stefan Sauer—AFP/Getty ImagesA brown bear (Ursus arctos) cub, Medo, plays with the Logar family dog in Podvrh village, central Slovenia. The Slovenian Logar family has adopted the three-and-half-month-old bear cub after it strolled into their yard. Although the family would like to prepare a fenced enclosure for it, veterinary authorities would prefer to move it into a shelter for wild animals. Srdjan Zivulovic—ReutersTwo camels sit on top of each other in their enclosure at the zoo in Braunschweig, Germany. It is not clear if the camels regular places in the enclosure have been taken over by other residents of the zoo. Guenter Wingerning—NewscomPakistanis look at a trained monkey standing on a goat, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday. Muhammed Muheisen—APA hen is seen "kissing" an ox in a village in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province of China. The hen was pecking food from the ox's mouth. ChinaFotoPress/NewscomAn Asian elephant dries off with sand in his enclosure at the zoo in Karlsruhe, Germany. Alex Domanski—ReutersTwo lion cubs and their mother Tembesi explore their enclosure at Animal Park Hagenbeck in Hamburg, Germany.Angelika warmuth—DPA/LandovHeidi the cross-eyed opossum is pictured in her new enclosure at the zoo in Leipzig, eastern Germany. Cross-eyed Heidi made the headlines in December 2010 and became an internet hit, winning more than 65,000 "friends" on Facebook.Johanes Eisele—AFP/Getty ImagesA new species of aeolid nudibranch, or sea slug, was discovered during the California Academy of Sciences 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition. These brightly colored mollusks do not need shells for protection—instead, they produce powerful toxins to keep potential predators at bay. The California Academy of Sciences said it discovered more than 300 previously unknown animals and plants during a recent 42-day marine and land survey of the vast but ecologically threatened Southeast Asian archipelago. Terry Gosliner—AFP/Getty ImagesA Newborn Anteater baby relaxes on its mother Stella's back at Bergzoo Halle, Germany. Action Press/Zuma PressAva, a 20-month old Mastino Napoletano, rests after winning the dog contest in her category, during the World Dog Show in Villepeinte, north of Paris.Remy de la Mauviniere—AP
