Aug. 25, 2013. A man runs up the "gostra", a pole covered in grease, during the religious feast of St Julian, patron of the town of St Julian's, outside Valletta, Malta.Darrin Zammit Lupi—Reuters
While the culture of social media did its best to ensure that 2013 had its fair share of entertaining, surprising and, above all, shareable photo moments, ultimately the past twelve months included as many genuinely shocking as surprising pictures. The year left us in varying states of outrage, bewilderment, bemusement and astonishment.
But there were some wonderfully unexpected and unusual images—a shark inside a shark and selfies with the Pope to a bear on a tightrope and a bundle of baby pandas—that delighted, enthralled and distracted us. Here, LightBox looks back over the past twelve months and presents a selection of underreported, improbable and astounding images that caught the attention of TIME’s photo editors—and which, we trust, maintain their ability to utterly, thoroughly surprise.
Phil Bicker is a senior photo editor at TIME.
Jan. 3, 2013. A giant Rubber Duck installation in Darling Harbour, Australia, the latest incarnation of artist Florentijn Hofman's famous oversized toy which measures 15m high and 18m wide.Damian Shaw—EPAJan. 4, 2013. Tammy Holmes, second from left, and her grandchildren, two-year-old Charlotte Walker, left, four-year-old Esther Walker, third from left, nine-year-old Liam Walker, eleven-year-old Matilda, second from right, and six-year-old Caleb Walker, right, photographed by their grandfather as they take refuge under a jetty as a wildfire rages nearby in the Tasmanian town of Dunalley, east of the state capital of Hobart, Australia. Tim Holmes—APJan. 6, 2013. Lions in their enclosure react as tourists throw snowballs at them in the Hangzhou Zoo in Hangzhou, China.ChinaFotoPress—Zuma PressJan. 4, 2013. Vladimr Franz, Czech artist and composer and candidate for the Czech presidency, attends a public pre-election debate in Prague.Filip Singer—EPAJan. 10, 2013. Sao Doan watches her mom Tiffany Ringer snap a photo of Spider-Man (aka Merrill Hunt of Clearwater) as he washes her window at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida.Cherie Diez—Tampa Bay Times/Zuma PressJan. 11, 2013. An employee wearing a panda costume slides down from an ice sculpture during the Harbin International Ice and Snow World Festival in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China.Sheng Li—ReutersJan. 15, 2013. The claw of a demolition vehicle brings down Doreen Lagno's house, which was irreparably damaged by flood waters during Hurricane Sandy, in the Ocean Breeze neighborhood of Staten Island, New York.Justin Lane—EPAJan. 17, 2013. The entrance of a 100-foot tunnel dug by thieves to access the safe deposit room of a bank in Berlin. Robbers dug from a nearby underground parking garage into a branch of Berliner Volksbank and stole the contents of several hundred safe-deposit boxes.Fabrizio Bensch—ReutersJan. 20, 2013. People throw turnips at the Jarramplas as he makes his way through the streets beating his drum during the Jarramplas Festival in Piornal, Spain.Pablo Blazquez Dominguez—Getty ImagesJan. 22, 2013. A man holds two burned birds after a fire went off in a compound for homeless Libyan families in Benghazi.Esam Al-Fetori—ReutersJan. 23, 2013. An Orthodox priest blesses rifles during a ceremony where new recruits receive their weapons at a military base of the Belarussian Interior Ministry in Minsk. The traditional ceremony was attended by 325 Belarussian recruits, and is held a month after the recruits take their military oath.Vasily Fedosenko—ReutersJan. 23, 2013. "The Joker" toy is displayed at the London Toy Fair in Olympia, central London.Carl Court—AFP/Getty ImagesJan. 24, 2013. Authorities carry out the court-ordered amputation of the fingers of a convicted thief in a public square in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, Iran. The 29-year-old man was convicted for being part of a 10-member gang that carried out burglaries in the city. He was sentenced to the amputation of three fingers, the confiscation of his property and three years in prison.Mohsen Tavarro—APJan. 24, 2013. A Ukrainian National Circus artist performs with dogs during a presentation of the new program in Kiev, Ukraine.Sergei Supinsky—AFP/Getty ImagesJan. 24, 2013. Parking meters stand out from sand dunes at an amusement park and boardwalk in Seaside Heights, N.J., which was devastated last fall by Superstorm Sandy.Marko Georgiev—The Record of Bergen County/APJan. 24, 2013. A fly lands between the eyes of U.S. President Barack Obama while he speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington.Larry Downing—ReutersJan. 24, 2013. The outfit worn by the two-year-old Princess Anne at Britain's Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation on June 2, 1953, is seen during a photo opportunity at the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace in central London.Lefteris Pitarakis—APJan. 28, 2013. US surfer Garrett McNamara rides a wave off Praia do Norte beach in Nazare, Portugal.To Mane—Barcroft Media/LandovJan. 29, 2013. A cut-out figure of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands is placed in front of OranjeMuseum in 's-Gravendeel, Netherlands.Michael Kooren—ReutersJan. 29. 2013. A man uses a spa cover to move a TV set through floodwaters at Cornubia, Queensland, Australia.ReutersJan. 29, 2013. Blood stains are seen on snow at the site of a plane crash outside Almaty, Kazakhstan. The passenger plane crashed in thick fog near Kazakhstan's commercial capital Almaty and broke into pieces when it hit the ground, killing all 21 people on board.ReutersJan. 31, 2013. A woman sits in prayer while her head is shaved to mourn the late Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk ahead of his funeral in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.Wong Maye-E—APFeb. 1, 2013. Masha, an 11-year-old bear from a traveling circus troupe based in Moscow, practices a tightrope walking act during rehearsals at the Circus on Fontanka in St. Petersburg.Alexander Demianchuk—ReutersFeb. 3, 2013. Zoo owner Emmanuel Tangco reads a book to his snakes in his bedroom in Malabon, Metro Manila.Erik de Castro—ReutersFeb. 4, 2013. The skull of the skeleton found at the Grey Friars excavation in Leicester, now confirmed to be that of King Richard III.UPPA/Zuma PressFeb. 5, 2013. A picture shows "Rex", the world's first "bionic man", during a photo call at the Science Museum in London. The 1 million dollar humanoid has a distinctly human shape and boasts prosthetic limbs, a functional artificial blood circulatory system complete with artificial blood, as well as an artificial pancreas, kidney, spleen and trachea.Andrew Cowie—AFP/Getty ImagesFeb. 5, 2013. A mummified body is seen leaning on niches after it was exhumed at the municipal cemetery in Guatemala City. Municipal employees exhume bodies from niches because of unpaid cemetery fees. The bodies, tagged with identification, are then placed at a mass grave should relatives come back to claim them.Jorge Dan Lopez—ReutersFeb. 5, 2013. Children pour cold water on themselves under the instruction of fitness coach Margarita Filimonova at local kindergarten number 317 in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.Ilya Naymushin—ReutersFeb. 8, 2013. Horses are hoisted in the air by a crane as they're transferred from a cargo ship onto a truck upon arrival at a port in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia.Trisnadi—APFeb. 9, 2013. Bratislav Stojanovic, a homeless man, holds candles as he sits in a tomb he lives in near the southern town of Nis, Serbian.Marko Djurica—ReutersFeb. 11, 2013. Revellers use fire extinguishers during a flour fight at the "O Entroido" festival in Spain's northwestern village of Laza.Miguel Vidal—ReutersFeb. 14, 2013. Karrie Webb of Australia waits for the kangaroos to clear the fairway during the first day of the ISPS Handa Australian Open at Royal Canberra Golf Club in Canberra, Australia.Stefan Postles—Getty ImagesFeb. 14, 2013. A model poses nude while a girl draws her during a drawing workshop on Valentine's Day in Mexico City.Edgard Garrido—ReutersFeb. 15, 2013. A meteorite contrail is seen over Chelyabinsk, Russia. The meteor caused explosions and reportedly injured around 100 people, including many hurt by broken glass.Yekaterina Pustynnikova—APFeb. 17, 2013. Team Germany I plays Austria II during a match at the Underwater Ice Hockey Championships in Lake Weissensee in Austria. Underwater ice hockey is played upside-down underneath the ice of frozen lakes with a floating puck.Michael Dalder—ReutersFeb. 24, 2013. A Sumatran tiger plays with a pig before killing it at the Sumatra Tiger Rescue Centre compound, inside the Tambling Wildlife Nature Conservation (TWNC) near Bandar Lampung, the southern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia.Beawiharta—ReutersFeb. 26, 2013. A cut down tree is transported away by helicopter in Hannoversch Muenden, central Germany.Uwe Zucchi—AFP/Getty ImagesFeb. 26, 2013. "White", a six-year-old herding dog, walks with a specially-made wheeled walking aid outside the Humane Center for Animal Welfare near Amman, Jordan. He was hospitalized and treated after a bullet pierced his spine and paralyzed him two years ago.Ali Jarekji—ReutersFeb. 28, 2013. A gorilla hand with painted finger nails in a display of confiscated illegal items at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Law Enforcement in Baltimore, MD.Jonathan Newton—The Washington Post/Getty ImagesNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and former NBA star Dennis Rodman speak at a basketball game in Pyongyang on Feb. 28, 2013. KCNA—AFP/Getty ImagesMarch 5, 2013. A mouse climbs onto the back of a snake as it bites another mouse during the snake's feeding time at a zoo in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. The mouse failed to stop the snake and was swallowed by another snake soon after, local media reported.ReutersMarch 8, 2013. A supporter of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez holds a doll of him as she stands outside the military academy where the funeral ceremony for Chavez was held in Caracas, Venezula.Jorge Dan Lopez—ReutersMarch 10, 2013. A female giant panda, Ke Lin, watches a panda mating video at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan province, China. According to the staff of the research base, they showed Ke Lin this video to teach her how to mate, as she kept rejecting her partner. After watching this video, Ke Lin and Yong Yong successfully mated.Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding/ReutersMar. 10, 2013. People sunbathe by the wall of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg.Alexander Demianchuk—ReutersMarch 12, 2013. Palestinian workers ride a four-wheel vehicle inside a tunnel for smuggling cars and spare parts beneath the border between Egypt and southern Gaza in Rafah.Wissam Nassar—Xinhua/LandovMarch 23, 2013. Pope Francis meets Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at Castel Gandolfo in Italy.Alessandra Benedetti—L'Osservatore Romano/CorbisMarch 26, 2013. Farmer Donald O'Reilly searches for sheep and lambs trapped in a snow drift near weakened animals that had just been rescued, in the Aughafatten area of County Antrim, Northern Ireland.Cathal McNaughton—ReutersMarch 27, 2013. Ahmed,7 the son of an FSA fighter, stands in front of a barricade in the neighborhood of Salahadeen, Aleppo, Syria.Sebastiano Tomada—SIPA USAMarch 28, 2013. A boy poses for a picture with people wearing costumes of famous sci-fi movies during the Canaan fair which is part of the Holy Week celebrations in Ayacucho, Peru.Rodrigo Abd—APApril 6, 2013. South Africa's Matt Silver-Vallance floats above the sea using helium filled balloons during a 7 km flight to raise funds and awareness for the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital. He floated from the airfield in Robben Island across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Town. Mark Wessels—ReutersApril 8, 2013. Ice hangs on flowers in a garden in Hami, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.AFP—Getty ImagesApril 9, 2013. A birch tree gnawed by beavers near Lengenwang, southern Germany.Karl-Josef Hildenbrand—AFP/Getty ImagesApril 11, 2013. Pelicans are to be released into their outdoor enclosure at the birds park in Marlow, eastern Germany.Bernd Wuestneck—AFP/Getty ImagesApril 12, 2013. An employee holding a knife stands next to chickens on a processing production line at a slaughter house in Shanghai.ReutersApril 13, 2013. A reveller who had climbed onto a ledge outside the National Gallery leaps into the crowd during an outdoor party celebrating the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, at Trafalgar Square in central London.Chris Helgren—ReutersApril 15, 2013. A keeper tries to feed Melani, a 15-year-old female Sumatran tiger that has been suffering from an undiagnosed digestive disorder for the past five years at the Surabaya Zoo in Surabaya, Indonesia.APApril 16, 2013. A tree is seen among tires piled in a ten-hectare installation for recycling in Lachapelle-Auzac, France.Eric Cabanis—AFP/Getty ImagesApril 16, 2013. With a bathtub ring marking the high water line, a recreational boat approaches Hoover Dam as it makes its way along Black Canyon on Lake Mead near Boulder City, Nevada.Julie Jacobson—APApril 17, 2013. A young Hindu girl from Pakistan cries after being flung on the ground by her mother during a protest against alleged human rights violations in Pakistan outside the United Nations office in New Delhi.Altaf Qadri—APApril 17, 2013. Fifteen-month-old Roona Begum is tended to by doctors and family at a local hospital in Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi. She had a rare disorder that caused her head to swell to nearly double its size.Roberto Schmidt—AFP/Getty ImagesApril 22, 2013. A dog looks on amid trash as polluted waters flow down a canal on the outskirts of Ahmedabad during World Earth Day.Sam Panthaky—AFP/Getty ImagesApril 25, 2013. U.S. Army 1st Lt. Melissa Stockwell (Ret.) (R), who was the first female American soldier to lose a limb in the war in Iraq, recites the Pledge of Allegiance as (L-R) former U.S. First Lady Barbara Bush, former President George H.W. Bush, former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush look on during the opening ceremony of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas.Alex Wong—Getty ImagesApril 25, 2013. Two victims amid the rubble of a garment factory building collapse in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh.Taslima AkhterApril 25, 2013. A worker grooms away tracks after an alligator crossed through a sand trap on the 14th hole during the first round of the PGA Tour Zurich Classic golf tournament at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, La.Gerald Herbert—APApril 27, 2013. A swarm of red locusts 20km north of the town of Sakaraha, Madagascar.Bilal Tarabey—AFP/Getty ImagesApril 30, 2013. A leopard with needles in its face to keep the skin tight, lies in Radomir Franz's taxidermy shop in Sakvice, Czech Republic.Petr David Josek—APMay 1, 2013. Officials remove a plane part that was discovered wedged between an apartment building and a mosque in New York. Authorities believe the plane part is from one of the two hijacked airliners that brought down the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.Seth Wenig—APMay 9, 2013. An ostrich catches a ring with its neck during a show with ostriches and hawks, held to mark International Day of Migratory Birds at the Parque de las Leyendas zoo in Lima, Peru.Mariana Bazo—ReutersMay 14, 2013. Two Bonobos, pygmy chimpanzees, play with a ball in the new primate house at the Wilhelma Zoological Botanical Gardens in Stuttgart, Germany.Marijan Murat—EPAMay 16, 2013. National Trust Rangers Will Scott, David Kinchin Smith, Samantha Morgan and Laura Shearer put their hands into Puffin nests during a census on the Farne Islands in Farne, England.Jeff J Mitchell—Getty ImagesMay 19, 2013. Masked boys walk to the "Cavalhadas" festival in Pirenopolis, Brazil. The popular festival is a tradition that was introduced in the 1800's by a Portuguese priest to mark the the ascension of Christ. The 3-day festival reenacts the Christian knights' medieval defeat of the Moors.Eraldo Peres—APMay 25, 2013. Firefighters and doctors tend to an abandoned newborn baby boy at a hospital in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, China after rescuing the baby by cutting away a sewage pipe piece by piece.ReutersMay 26, 2013. A person in a Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur costume runs on the field as young boys play an exhibition soccer match during halftime of the MLS soccer game between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Seattle Sounders FC in Carson, California. The dinosaur was on the field to promote the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.Danny Moloshok—ReutersJune 2, 2013. Hombres de Musgo or 'Moss Men' take part in the Corpus Christi procession in Bejar, Salamanca province, Spain. The tradition, which dates back to 1397, originates from a legend involving Christians reconquering the town by entering under cover of darkness covered in moss to camouflage themselves from the Muslim guards. This tradition merged with the Corpus Christi procession in the 14th Century.Pablo Blazquez Dominguez—Getty ImagesJune 3, 2013. A penguin looks on as the Prague Zoo floods with waters from the swollen Vltava River in Prague.Katerina Sulova—CTK/Zuma PressJune 6, 2013. Performers squeeze their bodies into selected spots of architectural structures as part of the 'Bodies in Urban Spaces' project in Porto, Portugal.Jose Coelho—EPAJune 6, 2013. An aerial view shows helpers pumping water at a dam beside the flooded River Danube near the Bavarian village Deggendorf, southern Germany.Christof Stache—AFP/Getty ImagesJune 10, 2013. A garden with a swimming pool is inundated by the waters of the Elbe river during floods near Magdeburg in the federal state of Saxony Anhalt, Germany.Thomas Peter—ReutersJune 11, 2013. Youth kick a gay rights activist during a protest against a proposed new law termed by the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, as "against advocating the rejection of traditional family values" in central Moscow. Activists say the bill, backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin's allies in parliament, would prohibit all gay-rights rallies and fear it fuels violence against gays. Russian authorities say two recent murders were motivated by homophobia.Maxim Shemetov—ReutersJune 12, 2013. Palestinian boys run from explosions in the field. Children as young as ten are drilled with AK47s and run an obstacle course, crawling under barbed wire and leaping through hoops of fire while their instructors fire live bullets overhead. Thousands of youngsters between the ages of six and 16, can participate in a summer camp where they receive military as well as religious training. Islamic Jihad runs the paramilitary summer camps for 10,000 children.Abed Rahim Khatib—Demotix/CorbisJune 12, 2013. A scene from the third major protest against the raise in bus fares in Sao Paulo, Brazil.Gustavo Basso—NurPhoto/Sipa USAJune 15, 2013. Mayoral candidate Morris the Cat is seen at his home in Xalapa, capital of the state of Veracruz. Morris ran for mayor with the slogan, "Tired of voting for rats?" Morris' candidacy was created by a group of citizens who were displeased with their local politicians. Oscar Martinez—ReutersJune 17, 2013. Pope Francis attends the opening of the Pastoral Convention of the Diocese of Rome at the Vatican.Stefano Rellandini—ReutersJune 25, 2013. A motorist hauling buckets of paint is covered in paint after losing control of his SUV and going off the road in Belfair, Washington.Russ Winger—Washington State Patrol/ReutersJuly 2, 2013. Supporters of the Contrada of Wolf attend a horse-blessing ceremony in the church of Saint Rocco prior to the Palio horse race in Siena, Italy. The Palio medieval race is held twice a year in Siena with jockeys riding bareback around a makeshift race course set up in the city's central square.Fabio Muzzi—AFP/Getty ImagesJuly 2, 2013. A piglet stands on a dead sow floating in floodwaters in Chongqing, China.ChinaFotoPress—Getty ImagesJuly 3, 2013. Race leader Orica Greenedge (L) and team rider Simon Gerrans (R) of Australia cycle past Sisters of the Consolation congregation during the 228.5 km fifth stage of the centenary Tour de France cycling race from Cagnes-Sur-Mer to Marseille.Jacky Naegelen—ReutersJuly 3, 2013. Tourists play at a beach covered by a thick layer of green algae in Qingdao, China. A large quantity of non-poisonous green seaweed, enteromorpha prolifera, hit the Qingdao coast in recent days. More than 20,000 tons of such seaweed has been removed from the city's beaches.Whitehotpix/Zuma PressJuly 10, 2013. An excavator moves villagers away from a flooded area during heavy rainfall in Yingxiu, Wenchuan County, Sichuan province. More than 300 hundred people were evacuated in Yingxiu after roads connecting the township to the outside were cut off by floods and landslides.ReutersJuly 14, 2013. A fighting bull's broken horn is seen during a bullfight at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain.Daniel Ochoa de Olza—APJuly 16, 2013. A monkey plays in a pond surrounded by carps at a wildlife park in Hefei, Anhui Province, China.ReutersJuly 19, 2013. This luckless shark thought he had snapped up a tasty bite only for another shark twice its size to make a meal of it. Students at the University of Delaware's Ocean Exploration, Remote Sensing, Biography (ORB) Lab made the amazing find as they tried to recapture sharks tagged for scientific research. They reeled in the large female sand tiger shark and discovered a 3ft long dogfish inside its mouth.Haulsee/Univ. of Delaware/SplashJuly 22, 2013. A nurse sprays water to cool off an old woman during a summer headwave at the geriatric hospital of Argenteuil, France.Fred Dufour—AFP/Getty ImagesJuly 23, 2013. Laborers nap on a road as cars drive past in Chongqing Municipality, China.Shi Tou—ReutersJuly 25, 2013. Workers tend to grass on a lawn at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun mausoleum in Pyongyang, North Korea.Ed Jones—AFP/Getty ImagesJuly 26, 2013. A man plays the role of Jesus Christ during a Way of the Cross celebrated by Pope Francis (not seen) at Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Antonio Lacerda—EPAAug. 1, 2013. Fatima, a baby whom Pakistani television talk show host Aamir Liaquat Hussain gave to a childless couple on his show, is held by her adoptive parents at the Chhipa Welfare Association office in Karachi. In a ruthless quest for ratings, Pakistani television is screening what many describe as its most controversial content yet: a talk-show host who gives away babies as prizes. Hussain gave away two abandoned infant girls to childless families last month and plans to give away a baby boy this week.Athar Hussain—ReutersAug. 6, 2013. An Indian youth dangles from a power line before diving into the floodwaters of an overflowing Ganges river in Allahabad, India.Sanjay Kanojia—AFP/Getty ImagesAug. 7, 2013. A general view of the 108-meter-tall 1:3-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower built by a real estate developer in the residential block named Tianducheng on in Hangzhou, China.Barcroft Media/LandovAug. 24, 2013. Pigeons lie on the ground after dying from what activists say is the use of chemical weapons by forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad in the Damascus suburbs of Arbeen, Syria.ReutersAug. 24, 2013. A boy takes a nap on suitcases as he waits to cross into Egypt at Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.Ali Ali—EPAAug. 25, 2013. A man runs up the "gostra", a pole covered in grease, during the religious feast of St Julian, patron of the town of St Julian's, outside Valletta, Malta.Darrin Zammit Lupi—ReutersAug. 27, 2013. Colombia's dancers Juan David Bedoya Marin and Karla Rotavinsky Cadavid dance tango during the Stage Tango competition of the Tango World Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina.Daniel Garcia—AFP/Getty ImagesAug. 28, 2013. Pope Francis posing with youths during a meeting with the Piacenza diocese in the Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.Osservatore Romano—EPASept. 4, 2013. Crowds gather as a television crew tries to fry an egg as the sun glares down from a new office building in the financial district in London. The concave side wall of the 37-storey skyscraper at 20 Fenchurch Street, known locally as the 'Walkie Talkie' building, has been blamed for reflecting intense sunlight onto nearby streets.Peter Macdiarmid—Getty ImagesSept. 6, 2013. A frog is captured during a lift off of NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.Chris Perry—NASA/ReutersSept. 9, 2013. Protesters demonstrating against corruption simulate the burial of city councilor Chiquinho Brazao, in front of the city hall in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Yasuyoshi Chiba—AFP/Getty ImagesSept. 10, 2013. A rabbit hops to avoid a five-month-old leopard cub during a test of the cubs' natural instincts at a wildlife park in Qingdao, Shandong province, China.ReutersSept. 14, 2013. Mandira Budhathoki, 7, poses for a photograph in Kharay, Dolkha District, 118 miles northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal. Devi Budhathoki and three of her children, Manjura, Mandira, and Niraj all suffer from Congenital Hypertrichosis Lanuginosa, a very rare disease that causes excessive body hair growth, and which is sometimes referred to as "werewolf syndrome".Navesh Chitrakar—ReutersSept. 15, 2013. Tents are seen during the 2013 International I Camping Festival in Mount Wugongshan of Pingxiang, Jiangxi province. The event attracted more than 15,000 campers all over the world.ReutersSept. 18, 2013. A Kurdish Free Syrian Army fighter holds out a doll while his fellow fighter takes shooting position in Ashrafieh, Aleppo, Syria.Muzaffar Salman—ReutersSept. 21, 2013. Daisy, an 18-month-old Persian cat, after being shaved by the vet to rid her of her tangled hair.Ben Torode—HotSpot/LandovSept. 23, 2013. Breeders take care of giant panda cubs inside a crib at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, Sichuan province.China Daily/ReutersSept. 26, 2013. A boy plays in a Chinese traditional pavilion next to an inflated Rubber Duck by Dutch conceptual artist Florentijn Hofman at the Summer Palace in Beijing.Jason Lee—ReutersSept. 27, 2013. A bird flies near the carcass of an elephant killed after drinking from a poisoned water hole, in Hwange National Park, about 522 miles east of Harare, Zimbabwe.Philimon Bulawayo—ReutersOct. 1, 2013. Tom the Tiger, the pet of Aryas Borges, is pictured with the family chihuahua in Maringa, Brazil.Laurentiu Garofeanu—Barcroft Media/LandovOct. 3, 2013. A python lies on an orangutan on the eve of World Animal Day at the Malabon Zoo in Malabon City, Philippines.Rouelle Umali—Xinhua/CorbisOct. 7, 2013. A man shaves his monkey with a razor before it performs tricks for money in Lahore, Pakistan.Mohsin Raza—ReutersOct. 10, 2013. U.S. House Speaker John Boehner tickles John Griffin III, son of U.S. Representative Tim Griffin after a house vote on border safety and security in Washington.Jason Reed—ReutersOct. 11, 2013. A devotee of the Chinese Jui Tui Shrine, with two guns pierced through his cheeks, takes part in a street procession during the annual vegetarian festival in Phuket, Thailand.Athit Perawongmetha—ReutersOct. 14, 2013. Ecology professor Ricardo Freitas, wearing camouflage barefoot sport shoes, sits on top of a broad-snouted caiman he captured to examine and then release back into the water channel in the affluent Recreio dos Bandeirantes suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Felipe Dana—APOct. 18, 2013. Veterinarians operate on a Galapagos green turtle to extract a fishhook from its esophagus in San Salvador, El Salvador.Jose Cabezas—AFP/Getty ImagesOct. 30, 2013. Sun mirrors set up on the hillside above Rjukan to reflect sunlight down on the town square, are seen during the official opening in Rjukan. Sun-starved residents of a remote Norwegian village unveiled an ingenious mirror system to bring natural light to their mountain valley home, enveloped in darkness for half of the year.Krister Soerboe—AFP/Getty ImagesNov. 6, 2013. A fake dead horse is seen on set for a television show being filmed in New York City.Andrew Burton—Getty ImagesNov. 6, 2013. A deer is seen stuck on the roof of a garage in Verneuil-sur-Indre, France.Xavier Roche-Bayard—Maxppp/LandovNov. 6, 2013. An Indonesian therapist wearing a gorilla suit performs a massage during a 'Gorilla Massage' session at the Bali Heritage Reflexology and Spa in Jakarta, Indonesia.Adi Weda—EPANov. 14, 2013. People walk past the hanging carcass of an elephant on a railway bridge in Khunia range in Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal, India. At least seven elephants were killed after a passenger train hit a herd while they were crossing a railway track near the bridge.ReutersNov. 16, 2013. A demonstrator kisses a riot police officer in Susa, Italy during a protest against the high-speed train between Lyon and Turin. The link, expected to come into service in 2025, will reduce the number of trucks on the highway by one million per year and
reduce train times between Paris and Milan from seven hours to just over four.Marco Bertorello—AFP/Getty Images
