Animals In News

Sanya, the Bactrian camel, leads her calf on a walk at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, Minn. The male camel, who doesn't yet have a name, was born on March 7 and weighed 125 lbs at birth Sumatran tigers, Jalur and Cinta, at the Symbio Wildlife Park in Helensburgh, Wollongong, New South Wales. Originally from New Zealand's Auckland Zoo, where they were the first tigers born at the zoo, the two tigers were shipped to Australia as part of an international breeding program Staff at St Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital in Buckinghamshire have made a little jumper to keep a spineless hedgehog warm. The animal was found by a member of the public in a garden in Bedford and has been named Spudlina by staff as her skin resembles that of a potato. The two year old is undergoing various tests to determine the cause of the loss of her spines and she is currently enjoying regular skin massages with a Vitamin E moisturiser A flamingo loses its balance and falls over whilst trying to stand on one leg in its pool at Moscow Zoo The polar bear cub Vicks walks under mother Olinka's legs in their enclosure at the Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam A baby squirrel curls up into a tiny ball while his mother gently carries him in her mouth to the safety of the nest A lion cub is carried in its mother's mouth in the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya. The mother had taken her newborn out into the open for the first time and had just finished feeding it when the excited youngster misbehaved. The clumsy cub went back for more food and roughly nuzzled at the mother's belly, causing her to let out a painful roar. The angry lioness then picked the baby lion up by the scruff of the neck with her mouth and carried the hapless youngster back to their den. Two-month-old North China leopard cub Nekama sits in a basket in her enclosure at the Berlin zoo Two new-born female white tiger cubs are pictured at Night Safari Zoo in Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand A six-day-old female chimpanzee clings to her mother Uschi at Bratislava Zoo in Slovakia A newborn White-Handed Gibbon baby is seen with its mother Bettina, aged 32, as she climbs a rope at the Ramat Gan Safari near Tel Aviv. The birth of the gibbon surprised staff, as it had been 11 years since Bettina last gave birth. Baby lemurs hang onto their mother at a zoo in Hefei, China Three baby meerkats are cared for by their family at Bristol Zoo Gardens An eight-day old capybara relaxes with its mother in their enclosure at the San Diego Zoo, California Seven ginger guinea pigs rescued by The Blue Cross animal charity have been named after famous red-heads - Fergie, Annie, Bonnie (Langford), Nicola (Roberts), Geri (Halliwell), Bianca (Butcher) and Lily (Cole). The copper-coloured critters were brought into The Blue Cross adoption centre in Burford, Oxfordshire, earlier this month along with five other guinea pigs because their owner could no longer care for them. Anyone wanting to give a guinea pig or any other animal a home should contact the centre on 01993 822483. For more information about The Blue Cross or to make a donation, visit www.bluecross.org.uk. This abandoned black-and-white cat with a heart-shaped marking on her side has been named Bette Davis by staff at Gables Farm Dogs' and Cats' Home in Plymouth, Devon. She was handed in to the animal shelter last month looking dishevelled and emaciated after she was dumped by her previous owners. Bette is one of dozens of cats currently waiting to be re-homed at the centre. A cat balances on a row of high fence posts. Owner Loree McComb photographed her cat Johnny balancing on the fence in her back garden in New Mexico, United States Eleven month old red Tibetan mastiff dog, Hong Dong (Big Splash) was handed over to its new owner, a man, who was only idendified surnamed as Yang, at a private breeding base in Qingdao city, in east China's Shandong province, on 12 March 2011. Media sources reported that the dog was bought by a multi-millionaire coal baron for 10 million yuan (£945,000) making it probably the most expensive dog in the world Say hello to the seal who has learned to wave his flipper in exchange for fish. Charlie the seal has discovered that by pleasing the crowd with his friendly antics he can get more fish... ...Visitors to Howth near Dublin, Ireland flock to the local harbour to purchase fish by the bucket load to chuck to the hungry seals. Photographer Paul Hughes says: "He seems to have learned how to do this by imitating people." A great grey owl stares into the camera at the Bird Zoo in Marlow, eastern Germany A white-tailed eagle grabs a pollock from a lake in Lauvsnes in Norway. The impressive picture was snapped by Harry Eggens from Groningen, in the Netherlands. He said: "It is a great sight to see when these majestic birds grab the fish right out of the water. Most of the time they catch them on their first attempt. This eagle flew straight back to the nest when he'd caught the pollock and he probably had to give the lot of it to the wife and kids." Thousands of starlings flock into the shape of a bird. Amateur photographer Kenneth Barker snapped the picture at Gretna Green in Scotland. A robin feeds from a man's hand in Donabate, Dublin, Ireland Volunteer wildlife rescue worker Erin Healey releases a rehabilitated grey-headed flying fox at a bat colony in western Sydney, Australia. A food shortage caused by rains, flooding and cyclones has forced flying foxes which normally feed on pollen and nectar into suburban gardens. A large number of grey headed flying foxes, an endangered species, have needed to be rescued from city regions after being entangled in fruit tree netting used by residents in a bid to stop the starving bats from feeding in them. A giraffe tries to lick visitors through a glass window in the zoological garden in Kiev, Ukraine A tadpole appears to smile for the camera - captured in minute detail using a high-powered electron microscope. British science photographer David Spears placed the 14-day-old tadpole under a lens in his home lab in Kirland, Somerset.