Animals In News

A giant panda cub shows off its gymnastics skills by hanging upside down from a tree, while also sticking out its tongue. Photographer Mitsuaki Iwago captured the scene at the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan, China.

Two tigers are caught dancing on ice. These two Siberian tigers look perfectly co-ordinated as they play in the snow at Vienna's Tiergarten Schoenbrunn zoo. Photographer Jutta Kirchner said: "I love taking pictures of animals so I try to go to the zoo as often as possible. When I arrived at the tiger enclosure they were just playing around, so I got out my camera and decided to take some pictures. But at the moment I took the photos it looked like they were dancing. One of them rose up on his hind legs and the other one did the same. Their paws met and it looked like they were dancing ballroom style."

A little penguin looking like Pingu bows its head and seems to smile at the camera. Photographer JenFu Cheng snapped the Adelie penguin while exploring the vast landscape of Paulet Island, Antarctica. JenFu, 40, said: "He bears a resemblance to Pingu. This penguin was curious because I was sitting on a rock about 15 feet away and he came over to investigate me. He came over, looked into my camera and walked away when he became bored of me."

This curious owl looked bemused when it was confronted with a camera lens outside its burrow. The youngster, only a year old, turned its head upside down in a bid to get a better look at the curious object. Photographer Henrik Nilsson captured the amusing sight on camera near Moses Lake in Washington State, America.

This pair of strikingly coloured crowned cranes appear to having a staring contest as they stand beak to beak. Photographer Vikran Kokeatsiri took this picture in Thailand.

A newborn calf makes its first serious attempt to stand up in Rift Valley Province, Kenya. Rare images show a herd of elephants protecting an adult female as she gives birth in the wild. The intimate scenes, captured in the early morning at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya this month, show the protective herd huddle around the tiny calf. In one touching scene the calf can be seen clutching the tusk of one of the adults as they help it to its feet.

A jumbo-sized cloud of tiny birds called red-billed queleas surrounds an elephant at the Satao Camp water hole in East Tsavo, Kenya. Photographer Antero Topp said: "There are big trees close to waterhole where the birds landed and at that time we suddenly heard a strong crack. A huge branch had been broken by the weight of these tiny birds despite them only weighing about 10 grams each. All the birds took off and you could hear an unbelievable whoosh...

"..I was surprised to see the elephants actually back away maybe 50 metres, and some even ran. I think the elephants were afraid of the size and shape of the flocks and the almost supernatural whooshing noise made as they all took to the air."

A male lion is photographed up close in Masai Mara, Kenya, using a homemade remote controlled camera. The remote controlled device, nicknamed BeetleCam, is the brainchild of brothers William and Matthew Burrard-Lucas from London...

...Controlling BeetleCam from the back of an open-top jeep, the brothers were able to infiltrate a group of seven lion cubs and a male lion eating a freshly killed wildebeest at sunrise.

An ant appears to be trying to roll a perfectly spherical droplet of water back to its nest. Photographer Rakesh Rocky from Warangal, India, came across the plucky insects with a ball. But although the ball may have looked like a water drop, it was actually a water-absorbing polymer - or water gel - a biodegradable, non-toxic absorbent crystal alternative soil for potting plants. It can absorb approximately 400 times its weight in water.

It was a race against the tide that pulled at the heartstrings. For three hours, show horse Astro was stuck neck deep in thick mud at Avalon Beach in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, as the tide inched closer...

...Rescue crews first tried to pull the 18-year-old, 500kg horse free with fire hoses, and then a winch before a vet turned up to sedate Astro and pull him clear with a tractor. The crews knew by 5pm the tide would have come all the way in. But within minutes of the waters rising around him, Astro was being dragged up on to solid ground slowly but surely, the team filthy but ecstatic...

...Owner Nicole Graham said she and daughter Paris, 7, set off at noon when without warning she sunk up to her waist in thick, smelly muck. Above: Nicole Graham leads Astro away from the beach after members of the Country Fire Authority and the State Emergency Services successfully freed the horse from the mud.

Standing at 19.3 hands (6ft 6in) tall this giant Clydesdale is Britain's real life War Horse. Britain's tallest horse, Digger, is being put through his paces with the royal regiment. Stationed with the Household Cavalry in Hyde Park Barracks, it is hoped the 145-stone horse will take part in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations as a Drum Horse in June. With his head up strapping eight-year-old Digger measures close to 9ft and his hooves measure 15in across. He eats up to four stone of food per day and guzzles 25 gallons of water. Digger is pictured above at the Hyde Park Barracks with trooper Robert Tonkin.

A German dog breeder has suddenly found herself with a wealth of puppies - after 27 were born within the space of three days. To begin with Beatrice Oswald's two-year-old dog Elfi of Tara gave birth to 11 puppies. Then just a few days later another dog called Anny Bonny produced a litter of 16.

Austin, an odd-eyed Czechoslovakian Wolfdog cross, is pictured after running in the Wyedean Quest sled dog race at Mallards Pike in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire

Men ride white elephants near Uppatasanti Pagoda in Myanmar's new capital city Naypyitaw

An injured red squirrel is wrapped in a blanket as it is nursed back to health at a RSPCA wildlife centre. The protected mammal was found rolling around on his back in the middle of a busy road in Workington, Cumbria on New Year's Day after being hit by a car. His shoulder was fractured which meant it was unable to walk or move so he was taken to Stapeley Grange wildlife centre in Cheshire to recuperate, and released back to the wild last Thursday (February 23). David Graham, 25, was on his way back from a festive party with his girlfriend when they spotted the animal in peril and decided to rescue it. He said: "Cars were swerving all round - he wouldn't have had a chance if left where he was. So we turned back and waited for a break in the traffic to run and get him, and wrap him in one of our coats."

A staff member holds a tigon cub in Yancheng Wildlife park in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. African lion Mary gave birth to two tigons and a lion on December 26, 2011. One tigon died soon after the birth. The two-month-old tigon who survived, met with the visitors together with its lion brother. A tigon is the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion and is much rarer than the liger, a hybrid of a male lion and a tigress.

Zoo personnel tend to a 30-year-old ailing giraffe at the Surabaya zoo in Indonesia

A joey pokes its head out of its mother's pouch at Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, Massachusetts

A young Situtunga antelope named Changa holds a twig in its mouth as it stands next to its mother in their enclosure at the zoo in the western German city of Cologne
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