Animals In News

This turtle shows no fear as it hitches a ride on an alligator. Photographer Connie Lemperle captured the chums at play while at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden A flamingo chick is cared for by its mother at Marwell Wildlife in Hampshire. Flamingos incubate their eggs for 30 days and the parents take it in turns to look after the youngster. Young flamingos are grey and white and do not turn pink for two years. For the first three to four weeks, the chick is fed entirely by the parents who secrete a creamy pink liquid called 'crop milk'. An osprey catches a goldfish from Blair Pond Park in British Columbia, Canada. Photographer Ron Racine heard about birds lifting goldfish out of the pond. He says: "I saw an osprey which circled around the pond, dove into the water, and snatched a goldfish right out." A cheeky robin plays peek-a-boo with a photographer trying to take its picture. Edwin Kats says he was sure the canny bird was playing games with him. Whenever Edwin tried to capture her on camera she hopped on to his lens, preventing him from getting the shot. Frustrated with his hide-and-seek bird, Edwin set up a remote camera so he could photograph her while perched on his lens. Hugo the 65-year-old Galapagos Island Tortoise is fed at Wynyard park in Sydney, Australia. The event was part of National Threatened Species Day where zoos and aquariums across Australia unite to raise awareness about endangered animals. Two Aldabra giant tortoises fight for a carrot during feeding time at the Singapore Zoo Panda cubs Po and De De discover their birthday cake during celebrations for their first birthday at Madrid's Zoo Walker the polar bear plays with a helmet after being given new toys at Highland Wildlife Park, Kincraig, Scotland Zoo keepers in China are celebrating after a baby hippo turned one month old. The baby hippo, Jian Jian (Healthy and Strong), was born on August 1, 2011 at Shangsha Zoo in Hunan Province. His parents are 11-year-old male hippo Fei Zai (Flying Folk) and 14-year-old Jiao Jiao (Shy Girl). Two young male elephants play, encircled by older elephants at the zoo in Wuppertal, Germany Owen, a one-and-a-half-month-old giraffe, is nursed by his mother Akaia at Jerusalem Biblical Zoo A seemingly drunk moose was discovered entangled in an apple tree by a Swede in Goteborg, Sweden. Per Johansson, 45, says he heard a roar from his vacationing neighbour's garden and went to have a look. There, he found a female moose kicking about in the tree. The animal was likely drunk from eating fermented apples. Two wild stallions play with a mare at dusk at the base of Mount Snowdon. Photographer Marian Ubrankovic was driving in north Wales when she spotted the striking display and quickly pulled over to grab her camera. Rally driver Mikko Hirvonen of Finland gives a seal a piggyback in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, on the eve of Round 10 of the World Rally Championship This frisky otter ended up with a slap in the face after making a flirtatious advance towards a female. He must have fancied his chances when he approached his love interest, who had been swimming with her baby balanced on her chest. But he didn't reckon for the female's fighting spirit - she dealt a short, sharp slap to her admirer's face. A woman about to tuck into her lunch very nearly ended up with a frog in her throat when she discovered one of the amphibians lurking in a bag of Tesco salad. Sara Eason put her hand into the bag of Tesco brand Mixed Seasonal Baby Leaf Salad and felt something slimy. She said: At first I thought some of the leaves had gone slimy, so I put the bag down and had a look inside. I saw a little frog looking out at me. It then croaked; I jumped about a foot in the air. A European tree frog rests on the branch of a tree in a garden in the eastern German town of Schoenebeck Beware of the Veociraptor. Now you can turn your pet dog into a dinosaur. The £20 Animal Planet outfits are available from online firm Party City and also include a zebra, bat, tortoise and walrus. A hypoallergenic cat is pictured in Delaware. Allergic cat lovers can rejoice - because they may be able to own a pet cat after all. Lifestyle Pets has developed a hypoallergenic kitten, which according to their website, has a 95% success rate amongst their allergic clients. The company has sold over 500 hypoallergenic pets - costing £4,500 each. Zookeepers carry a tranquillised four-year-old male leopard named BamBam at Aalborg Zoo in North Jutland. BamBam is being transferred to a zoo in California where it will be part of an international breeding programme aimed at maintaining the population of rare Persian leopards. A white Bengal tiger licks its mouth after being fed at the Singapore Zoo African lion Katya licks zoo owner and artist Aleksandr Pylyshenko in a cage at his private zoo in his backyard in the city of Vasilyevka, southeastern Ukraine. Pylyshenko broadcasted on the internet his experience of living in the cage with Katya and her cubs for 36 days, before leaving it on Wednesday. Pylyshenko wanted to raise funds to improve the lions' living conditions and also raise awareness of the plight of wild animals in private Ukrainian zoos. A lizard eats a pastry during the 68th Venice Film Festival Nemo flashes a smile. Snapped in the Philippines, this clownfish living amid the stinging tentacles of a huge sea anemone was photographed by Steve De Neef. The fish pictured here is the dominant female, and shares the anemone with her family. A caged orphaned baby cuckoo has acquired a number of new parents in Chongqing, China. Security guard Deng Qin discovered the young bird and took it to his office with him - placing it in a cage hanging outside the building. However, for the next two days the baby cuckoo refused every kind of food. "On the first day, I bought it bird feed, but it won't even look at it," said Deng Qin. Thinking the cuckoo may want to eat live insects Deng caught some but the cuckoo still refused to eat. The next day he was stunned to spot a sparrow feeding the caged cuckoo a locust. And the little sparrow is not be the only bird to help in feeding the young cuckoo. A friend of Deng's said: "Each day there are different birds flying here to feed it. Those mother birds are even smaller than the baby cuckoo, but they insist on catching insects to feed it".