LightBox presents a selection of recent news images that reveal the endless wonders 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.
Also on LightBox: The first and second installments of Animal Magic.
A bee full of pollen sits in a blossom in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, July 18, 2011.Martin Meissner—APA pink flamingo is pictured at the zoo in Cali, Valle del Cauca department, Colombia, July 13, 2011.Luis Robayo—AFP/Getty ImagesA polar bear eats an ice fruit cake inside its enclosure at Prague Zoo, July 26, 2011.David W Cerny—ReutersA camel suckles at its mother's udder at a water point in the Kenya-Somalia border town of Liboi, July 29, 2011. The whole of drought- and conflict-wracked southern Somalia is heading into famine as the the Horn of Africa food crisis deepens.Thomas Mukoya—ReutersA female Siberian tiger licks a baby Bengali white tiger in the Heilongjiang Siberian Tiger Garden in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, July 4, 2011. Five baby Bengali white tigers were born on July 1 in the Heilongjiang Siberian Tiger Garden, the world's biggest Siberian tiger garden, which is the first time in the history of the garden. The Siberian tiger is now suckling the five baby tigers for the mother Bengali white tiger is lack of latex.Wang Jianwei—Xinhua/LandovA young swan snuggles to its mother in Stralsund, Germany, July 2, 2011.Stefan Sauer—EPAA group of swans are kept in a animal shelter in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, July 15, 2011. The Animal Rescue Service pulled the swans out of the water at the western port area of Amsterdam where 200 liters of oil got into the water. Valerie Kuypers—EPASpotted deers lock horns inside a deer park in the premises of Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, July 12, 2011. Spotted deer are also known as Chital deer or Axix deer commonly inhabit on wooded regions of Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan. Navesh Chitrakar—ReutersPurple Glossy-Starling are seen in the Zoo in Zurich, Switzerland, July 2, 2011. The cubs were born in May 2011. Steffen Schmidt—EPAThe 3-year-old two-headed royal albino python displayed at Skazka Zoo in Yalta city, July 11, 2011. It has been borrowed from Germany for a tourist season.Pavlishak Alexi—ITAR-TASS/LandovA man displays a crane that he caught from a pond in Noida, located in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, July 13, 2011.Parivartan Sharma—ReutersA man prepares a fighting cock before a cockfight at the Petion Ville neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 10, 2011. Since the Mapeus, the biggest cockfighting arena in Port-au-Prince, was destroyed during the Jan. 2010 earthquake, people gather three to four times a week in small places around the capital to bet for their favorite animals. Cockfighting is legal in Haiti.Eduardo Verdugo—APCamels wait for their turn to drink water from a tank near Harfo, 70 km from Galkayo northwest of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, July 20, 2011. The United Nations on Wednesday declared famine in two regions of southern Somalia, and warned that this could spread further within two months in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa country unless donors step in. Thomas Mukoya—ReutersDolphins surf down the famed Supertubes break at the start of round two of the Billabong Pro at Jeffreys Bay, South Africa, July 21, 2011. The worlds top 34 surfers are competing at Jeffreys Bay as part of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour, ending December in Hawaii. Nic Bothma—EPACanada geese swim along a stretch of the Regent's Canal in Camden amidst green algae, on August 2, 2011 in London, England. Reports suggest that the toxic algae has thrived following a sudden spell of hot weather. Jim Dyson—Getty ImagesDucks swim in a polluted river, covered by green algae in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province of China, July 11, 2011.ChinaFotoPress/NewscomMalaysian jellyfish swim in a tank at the Sunshine Aquarium in Tokyo, August 1, 2011. The aquarium loacted on the top of a building reopened on August 4 following a one year renovation. Yoshikazu TSUNO—AFP/Getty ImagesA Box Jellyfish swims at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, South Africa, August 1, 2011. Box Jellyfish occur off the West coast of South Africa and are often encountered in swarms by scuba divers. These Jellyfish have strong tentacles armed with thousands of stinging cells called Nematocysts. The cells are used to stun and kill prey which is then pulled into the mouth by the tentacles. Nic Bothma—EPATiger, an American Pit Bull Terrier cools off in an open fire hydrant with another dog on 134th street in the Washington Heights section of upper Manhattan in New York City, July 21, 2011. Temperatures were expected to reach near record levels Thursday as a heat wave spread east from the nation's midsection.Mike Segar—ReutersA crow splashes in a water pond during rains near the Indian president house in New Delhi, India, July 9, 2011.Anindito Mukherjee—EPAA vet holds Bena, a 11-year old male Proboscis monkey, during a routine health inspection at the Singapore Zoo in Singapore, July 5, 2011. Three Proboscis monkeys are undergoing checkups in preparation to be sent to Apenheul Primate Park in the Netherlands as part of an animal exchange to kick start a captive breeding programme. The zoo in Singapore is the first wildlife reserve to successfully breed Proboscis monkeys in a captive environment, according to an official.Joel Boh—ReutersA paralyzed lion named Ariel lies on a mattress in a veterinarian's home in Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 13, 2011. An Internet and Facebook campaign has been launched in Brazil to obtain funds needed to treat the lion that has been paralyzed for the past year. The campaign was launched by Raquel Borges, the owner of Ariel, a three-year-old, 310 pound (140 kilogram) lion that has been unable to use his four legs due to a degenerative disease affecting his medulla. Borges runs a a shelter that cares for sick or abandoned animals. Andre Penner—APTwo-year-old chimpanzee "Do Do" feeds milk to "Aorn", a 60-day-old tiger cub, at Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo in Samut Prakan province on the outskirts of Bangkok, July 30, 2011. The crocodile farm, used as a tourist attraction, houses some 80,000 crocodiles and is the largest in Thailand. Sukree Sukplang—ReutersA dog guards her companions' bodies at an orchard in Zhuhai, Guangzhou Provinceo of China, July 28, 2011. Eleven dogs were poisoned. Li Jianshu—ChinaFotoPress/NewscomA lion, who was rescued from a circus, in his enclosure at the Animal Rescue Centre of Van Vihar National Park in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, July 30, 2011. Around 16 lions rescued from different parts of India reside at the Animal Rescue Centre. Most of the lions were rescued from the circus. Van Vihar was declared a national park in 1983, covers an area around 445.21 hectares. Although having the status of a national park, Van Vihar is developed and managed as a modern Zoological Park. The animals are kept in their near natural habitat. Most of the animals are either orphaned brought from various parts of the state or are exchanged from other zoos. Harish Tyagi—EPAView of Iguanas for sale at the Oriental market in Managua, July 30, 2011. Despite the ban to sell wild animals, illegal trade has become a daily activity. Mayerling Garcia—AFP/Getty ImagesA monkey who survived the Ivorian post-electoral crisis at the Abidjan Zoo, July 29, 2011. One year after the death of five dromedaries offered by Moamer Kadhafi to the zoo, three lions were the collateral victims of the Ivorian political crisis. The lions named Lea, Simba and Loulou coming from Ethiopia, "died of hunger". About forty animals perished due to lack of food at the Abidjan Zoo during the Ivorian crisis. The Abidjan Zoo, the only zoo in Ivory Coast and one of the largest in western Africa, was created in 1930. Issouf Sanogo—AFP/Getty ImagesA white-headed capuchin (Cebus capucinus) monkey stands inside a cage at the Animal Rescue Centre of the National Zoo in Managua, July 30, 2011. The centre receives an average of 1,000 animals per year from the illegal trafficking, which are then returned to their natural habitat. Mayerling Garcia—AFP/Getty ImagesEndangered African grey parrots are kept safe in a cage before being released into Kibale National Park forest by the Uganda Wildlife Authority, 310 km (193 miles) west of Uganda's capital Kampala, July 28, 2011.Edward Echwalu—ReutersRadiated tortoises seized in Malaysia, July 28, 2011. Police in Madagascar arrested two men attempting to smuggle out nearly 200 threatened tortoises, including two dozen of the rarest species on Earth. The 26 specimens of Ploughshare tortoise (Astrochelys yniphora) seized comprise about five percent of the estimated surviving wild population of the critically endangered animal, native to northern Madagascar. Border police also found 169 Radiated tortoises (Asstrochelys radiata) and one Spider tortoise (Pyxis arachnoides), prized by collectors internationally.
Chris R Shepherd—AFP/Getty ImagesZebra foal Lubaya in Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg, July 19, 2011.Action Press/Zuma PressA still nameless tiger baby plays in its compound at the zoo in Frankfurt, Germany, July 5, 2011. The young tiger and its nameless sibling, children of tiger Malea, are the latest attraction in the zoo and draw a large audience.Boris Roessler—DPA/LandovTigers play in the water in the Huangshan Mountain of east China's Anhui Province, July 22, 2011. As the temperatures in Hunagshan rise, tigers in Huangshan choose to play in the water to relieve the summer heat. Shi Guangde—Xinhua/LandovGolden monkeys plays on a tree in Shennongjia Nature Reserve of central China's Hubei Province, July 3, 2011. A golden monkey research center in Longtan of Shennongjia embraced eight baby monkeys in this year.Du Huaju—Xinhua/LandovThree Ural owl chicks roost in a tree in the Kushiro area of Hokkaido, northern Japan, July 6, 2011.Kyodo/LandovAn imprint of an owl is seen on the window of a house, July 12, 2011. The homeowners returned from holiday to find the imprint on the window of their house in Kendal, north west England. Experts at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said that the marks on the window would have been left by 'powder down', a substance that helps many birds protect new, growing feathers. Sally and Duane Arnold—RSPB/ReutersA stork approaches its nest in the foggy morning, near the village of Chereshlya, 150 kilometers (93 miles) west of Minsk, Belarus, July 17, 2011.Sergey Grits—APA cat climbs on a fence as the sun sets on a farm near Roseburg, July 21, 2011.Robin Loznak—Zuma Press
