Animal In News

A small bird tries to escape a drenching as a giraffe sprays a shower of water in the air at a waterhole. As the giraffe stood up and shook off the water it drenched the yellow-billed oxpecker that had been removing ticks from its back. Photographer Neal Cooper captured the scene at Kruger National Park, South Africa

A runaway deer caused chaos in Qingdao, northern China's Shandong Province, after escaping from its zoo enclosure and running rampage at a nearby power station. The deer led a merry dance around the complex, agilely jumping over walls for hours until the light faded. It wasn't until the next morning that workers were able to corner the animal and subdue it using a tranquilliser dart. It was then transported back to its enclosure at the zoo

A male orangutan named Tuan gets his teeth into a pumpkin at the Hagenbeck zoo in Hamburg

A leucistic hedgehog is pictured in a pumpkin at the South Essex Wildlife Hospital in Orsett. This time of year is perilous for hedgehogs because of end-of-summer hedgerow strimming and bonfires

Squirrel monkeys investigate a pumpkin as a Halloween treat at Bristol Zoo Gardens

Bull the brown bear investigates a pumpkin at Blair Drummond Safari Park in Scotland

Pi, a three-month-old cub who weighs just 12kg, swats Sita a 12-year-old 160kg female golden tabby Bengal tiger at Dreamworld Zoo on the Gold Coast in Australia. Sita responded by letting out such a fearsome roar that it sent the tiny cub rolling head over tail

Sumatran tiger cubs Daseep (bottom) and Tschuna scuffling at the zoo in Wuppertal, Germany

A golden snub-nosed monkey is pictured at the Shennongjia Nature Reserve, Hubei province, China

A new type of snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus strykeri) is seen in this artist rendering. The monkey has been found in a remote forested region of northern Myanmar which is under threat from logging and a Chinese dam project. Hunters in Myanmar's Kachin state said the long-tailed black monkey, with white-tufted ears and a white beard, could often be tracked in the rain because its upturned nostrils made it prone to sneezing when water dripped in

Four-year-old emperor tamarin Fritz carries its newborn twins in its enclosure in the zoo of Hanover

Mjukuu, a female western lowland gorilla, rests with her newborn baby at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) London Zoo. First-time mother Mjukuu gave birth on the afternoon of October 26, to the healthy male

A close up of the eye of a northern white rhino. There is new hope for the future of the species with four animals being re-introduced to the wild in Congo, Africa, in a last ditch attempt to save them from extinction

Two baby otters are being taught how to swim in a paddling pool - by the keeper they think is their mum. The infants are being reared by surrogate Beverley Allen at Longleat Safari Park who is bottle-feeding the creatures as their otter mum is too old to produce enough milk for them. The devoted keeper is now teaching the pair, named Sumalee and Kasem, to swim in a small inflatable pool complete with floating rubber ducks to show them how its done

A plucky wolf flees after attempting to join a giant grizzly bear for breakfast in the Yellowstone national park in Wyoming, USA

Knut the polar bear shakes water out of his fur at the zoo in Berlin

Giant pandas eat carrots at the Bifeng Gorge Breeding Base of Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre in Ya'an, Sichuan province. Six giant pandas left their home in southwest China's Sichuan Province for Guangzhou to add cheer to next month's Asian Games

A pigeon flies from a coop in Lahore, Pakistan

A keeper handles an eagle, during a visit by Norwegian King Harald V and his wife Sonjia to a museum located in a chateau in Svaty Anton near the city of Banska Stiavnica in Slovakia

An owl swoops towards a nest with a rat in its beak in this picture captured by keen British wildlife photographer Stephen Dalton with his home-made set-up using equipment almost half a century old

Elliot, a pug owned by Allison Snider, wears a frog costume at a Halloween party for pug owners among teachers, staff and friends at Riverside Elementary School in Brainerd, Minnesota, US

Cheryl Clark finishes adjusting a vampire costume on her chihuahua Beaner before competing in the Fantasy Fest Pet Masquerade in Key West, Florida

Eli the chihuahua and his owner Karen Biehl impersonate Cleopatra and Tutankhamun as they participate in the Tompkins Square Park 20th Annual Halloween Dog Parade in New York City

An polka dot ray (Potamotrygon leopoldi) poses for the camera in its tank at the Taiwan International Aqua Expo in Taipei