Animals In News

The RSPCA is trying to trace the owner of a cat which was dyed pink and then thrown over a garden fence in Swindon. The young adult female cat, thought to be aged one-to-two-years-old, was collected by the RSPCA and taken to a local on-call vet where she was found to be in good health. She was given an initial wash at the vets, which removed some of the colour. But Pink, as RSPCA staff have called her, is still only marginally paler than when she was found Nine-year-old polar bear Hokuto is green with...algae! The bear, from Himeji City Zoo in Japan, has been playing in the pool in his enclosure and due to the warm weather the algae has stained his fur coat an unhealthy looking green colour Two gazelles stretch up on their hind legs to strip the last remaining leaves from a 20-feet tall tree in their enclosure at Portland Zoo, Oregon Zola the gorilla looks as if she's deep in thought in her enclosure at Leipzig zoo, Germany This tiny albino hedgehog is currently being cared for by the Kuziomski Igliwiak Foundation in Krakow, Poland. The hedgehog centre, which is run by animal lover Andrzej Kuziomski, is the only one of its kind in the country. Dedicated Andrzej mans a 24-hour helpline and ambulance service dedicated to helping injured hedgehogs A rare albino turtle swims in a tank at the Sea Turtle Reserve Centre in Kosgoda, Sri Lanka. The centre collects turtle eggs from the beaches for hatching before poachers remove them as they are considered a delicacy. Once hatched the small turtles are let free in the sea A nuthatch looks at its reflection in pool in Hanbury, Worcestershire. Photographer Mark Hancox waited for three weeks in a specially built hide just yards from the pool for the opportunity to get the perfect shot. He snapped the bird as it balanced upside down on a rusty scaffolding pole just millimetres above the pond at a private woodland in Hanbury, Worcestershire When Sergio Amiti took his wife on a romantic break to Capri last month, he did not expect to find a seagull stealing their breakfast from a table on the balcony overlooking the sea Sparrows perform petty theft in Berlin, Germany Enterprising squirrels have discovered a way of getting from their home to their favourite hazelnut bush 200 yards away in the village of Griggs Green, Hampshire. They use the telephone lines to perform a high wire act 40 feet up, dodging dangers such as dogs, cats and cars on the ground below. But, as this picture shows, even that does not come without its difficulties. On this occasion a grey squirrel was confronted by a large pigeon perched on the line as he returned from his quarter-mile round trip. Mouth stuffed with hazel nuts, it paused on top of a telegraph pole for a few seconds before fixing the pigeon with a beady glare and taking the plunge This picture of a Golden Eagle swooping in for the kill was taken by wildlife photographer Peter Carins at the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. In order to get the shot the specialist eagle photographer placed bait on the ground, which the captive eagle would swoop down to snatch. After a number of flights the eagle soon got used to Peter's presence and he was able to place a camera with a wide-angle lens very close to where it landed Climbing instructor Paula Manas teaches Elikai the baby Coatimundi how to climb. Elikai needed a little extra help learning what should come after his mother died just days after he was born. The 20-week-old orphan was so terrified of trees that he refused to go near one when he was adopted by wildlife rescuer Steve Rowlands two months ago. Owner Steve hopes to release Elikai into a tropical biosphere in Germany. This image of the black sheep of the family was captured by photographer Livio Bourbon while driving on a quiet country lane near Sardinia, Italy. Livio happened to have his camera with him and hopped out of his car to take the photo The twin panda cubs, that were born at Madrid's Zoo on September 7, are the first pandas to be born in Spain since 1982 Thalera the koala climbs a tree stump in his enclosure at the zoo in the German city of Duisburg A clash of the Titans in the animal kingdom - an adult leopard taking on and catching a huge one-metre monitor lizard. The encounter was caught on camera last month by wildlife photographer Vaclav Silha, who was tracking the leopard as it patrolled its territory through the Masai Mara Nature Reserve in Kenya Female hippopotamus Mali, or Jasmine, eats fruits presented for her 44th birthday celebration, at Dusit Zoo in Bangkok, Thailand A female Inshore Bottlenose dolphin, the newest member of the Sea World dolphin family in Brisbane. The calf's mother is Zippa, a 10 year old dolphin Eleven month old pug Gucci wears miniature traditional Bavarian Lederhosen during a visit with his owner to Munich's Oktoberfest A dog wipes out during the annual Surf City Surf Dog competition at Huntington Beach in California A motorists with a dog wearing sunglasses gestures as she passes by the red carpet arrival for the premiere of the family fantasy adventure movie Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood This is Bengal tiger Tanvir who has overcome his fear of heights to climb onto the top of his climbing frame at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm, in Wroxall, North Somerset. Tanvir, a four-year-old Bengal tiger, was more scaredy-cat than scary cat as he battled to overcome his acrophobia. Last year [left] the big male climbed to the top of his 15ft purpose-built climbing frame at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm, at Wroxall, North Somerset, and was too frightened to come down for 48 hours An ant tries to find its way to dry ground after the rain in this picture taken by Dutch photographer Leon Baas. Leon has developed his own style of brightly coloured macro photography over eight years. He has snapped ants, snails, water beetles, crickets and damselflies - all lit beautifully. We will have a gallery of his photos on the site later today