Animals In News

A keeper holds baby gorilla Tano at Stuttgart Zoo, Germany. The young male gorilla born at Prague Zoo last week has been transported to Stuttgart after repeated attempts to reunite the newborn with its mother failed. The mother, named Bikira, showed no interest in the baby, which had to be kept in an incubator. The baby gorilla, named Tano, which means The Fifth in Swahili, will be raised among a group of gorillas in the German city.

A baby pileated gibbon (Hylobates pileatus) holds onto its mother at the zoo in Zurich, Switzerland

A baby orangutan named Awang cuddles up to his mother Farida at the zoo in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The baby's name is Malay and means "first son".

"I'm ready for my close-up." A monkey plays up for the camera by sticking its head in front of the lens. The picture was taken on Batam Island, Indonesia, by photographer Fu Werdy.

A leopard walks at the Dachigam National Park on the outskirts of Srinagar, India

Two young cheetahs use a tree stump as a lookout post on the plains of the Masai Mara. Wildlife photographer and Exodus Travels tour guide Paul Goldstein says: "I spotted this acacia stump and gambled on them heading this way. I guessed the cubs, with their young, sharp claws would not be able to pass the broken trunk without treating it like a leisure centre. I was right, the whole affair lasted about twenty seconds. A calculated, sensitive gamble does not always work, but when it does it can be close to the grail."

Two hippos appear to gossip over the fence. A hippo quickly turned into a noisy neighbour after being separated from his other half in the days leading up to her giving birth. The couple had been inseparable for months while living together at the Taman Safari park in Java, Indonesia. But they had to be separated while the female gives birth. So he started spending most of his time peering over the wall bellowing out calls to his partner living next door. The scene was captured by keen photographer Vladimir Odinchenko, 52, while visiting the park.

Just a day old, this nervous newborn hippo keeps very close to her protective mum. Like a human child hiding behind a mother's skirt, the shy youngster tucks herself out of sight. The heartwarming bond between the two was captured on camera by Marina Cano in the Cabarceno wildlife park, Cantabria, Spain...

...Miss Cano, from Santander, said: "The mum was really taking care of her baby, she didn't let her out of her sight. They live by a very large lake and I didn't expect to see a hippo and it's very rare to see a baby. You can imagine how excited I was by it. It was such a memorable day. People love the intimate moment and the great contrast between the size of the mother and the baby."

Tourists feed giraffes with leaves at Calauit Game Preserve and Wildlife Sanctuary in Calauit island, Busuanga province, western Philippines. The herd of giraffes on a remote Philippine island is one of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos's most intriguing legacies. The 20 giraffes, along with dozens of zebra and antelope, are descendants of a boatload of animals imported from Africa in the 1970s - supposedly in a Noah's Ark-style effort to save them from extinction.

A cheeky gecko does an impression of Liz-ard Minnelli, dancing its way across a mirror. The photograph was taken by Shikhei Goh in his studio in Indonesia.

Foreign Office Minister of State Jeremy Browne sits with a panda at the giant panda conservation centre, Ya'an, Sichuan province, China

Two sun bears look like professional wrestlers as they take it in turns to pin each other to the ground. The playful Malayan Sun Bears - named after a golden yellow patch on their chest - grappled under a tree before rolling around on the floor at Zoo Miami in Florida, United States. Photographer Adrian Tavano said: "The fight lasted for about five minutes. They were an even match but the one with the lighter fur won in my opinion." Did someone say 'bear knuckle fighting'?

An energetic polar bear shows off his acrobatic skills, in the water at a park in Scotland. The bear performed a series of back-flips and somersaults at Highland Wildlife Park, near Kingussie. Photographer Roy McPeak said: "I had seen this bear before but in a zoo. On that occasion it had seemed subdued, so it was a lovely surprise to see it so happy and lively."

A mahout sits on his elephant as it drinks water from the Ganges river during the the Sonepur Mela near Patna, India. The cattle fair, held in the Indian state of Bihar, has its origins during ancient times, when people traded elephants and horses across the Ganges. The mela used to attract traders from places as distant as Central Asia. It is one of Asia's largest cattle fairs and lasts for a fortnight.

A mahout looks on as seven-year-old elephant Laxmi rubs trunks with her daughter, 13-month-old Rani, during the Sonepur Mela near Patna, India

A 13-week-old brown roan Italian Spinone puppy named Riley chews his tail. Photographer Mark Taylor produces enchanting animal images - from tiny kittens and adorable dogs, to bouncing bunnies and gorgeous guinea pigs...

...A tabby kitten tackles Echo, a German Shepherd puppy. Mark says: "Cats tend to be more difficult then dogs because they are more wary. A cat that is frightened can only look frightened."

Matt Slater surfs with his two-year-old Labrador called Mango, in Cornwall

An Emperor Penguin chick looks at the camera while standing in snow on frozen sea ice on Snow Hill Island in Antarctica

Starlings in the dusk skies above Gretna Green morph into the distinctive shape of a dolphin which is being chased across the sky by a whale with its mouth open

A flock of hungry swans await feeding at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) centre in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, as a member of staff prepares to lay down some food. Monopolising both land and water, the greedy birds have managed to push out their smaller feathered competitors to ensure they get the first pick of the treats. The WWT is a leading conservation organisation dedicated to saving the UK's wetlands, and the wildlife and plant life that call them home. It has nine dedicated wetland visitor centres around the UK that are home to a diverse range of birds.

An abandoned dog sits on a concrete pipe at a flooded area in Bangkok

A dog looks out from a window as a woman comes out from the door of her house in the ancient city of Bhaktapur near Nepal's capital, Kathmandu

Grit, an Australian cattle dog, catches a frisbee at the Splash Dog National Championships in California

A blind dog has been reunited with its owners after being trapped down a manhole for the past two months in Qingdao, northern China's Shandong Province. According to owner Meng Xiaoting her puppy Dou Dou went missing at the beginning of September and she accepted that she would never see Dou Dou again. However, a newspaper published a story about how a stray dog with eye problems had been trapped for several months down a manhole and all attempts to rescue it had failed because it acted aggressively to anyone who approached. It had managed to stay alive as kind-hearted locals had been throwing food down to it. The manhole was more than 15km away from where Dou Dou had gone missing and Meng rushed to rescue him.