Animals in action and inaction..........

3

 

A zebroid - the offspring of a zebra and a donkey - stands beside its zebra mother in a wildlife park in Xiamen, China. This zebroid was born on Sunday morning to the only zebra in the park. A zoo keeper said she witnessed the natural mating between the zebra and a donkey last summer, but was astonished when she discovered the zebra was pregnant in February. A zebra-donkey hybrid is also known as zonkey, zebonkey, zebrinny, zebrula, zebrass and zedonk.

 

  

A Geoffroy's spider monkey investigates the new South American area of Xiangjiang Safari Park in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

 

  

Arusha the Rothschild giraffe calf is nuzzled by its parents at the Schonbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria. Arusha - born 5ft 7ins tall after mum's 15 month pregnancy - already has a head for heights after the six foot drop to the ground when Rita gave birth standing up. "The calf was a bit wobbly but within a few minutes mum had it up on its feet and feeding," said one keeper.

 

 

A grey heron is reflected in the shallow water of a pond in Petersdorf, Germany.

 

  

Hundreds of moon jellyfish babies have been born at the Weymouth Sealife centre in Dorset. Aquarists say they have never seen so many jelly babies of all shapes, sizes and colours from many different species at one time - but even though they may look cute many of them are highly poisonous as well.

 

 

 Boonda the six-month-old baby koala makes his public debut with his mother, Elle, in their enclosure at Sydney Wildlife World.

 

 

A green turtle approaches Adam Broadbent, a professional per from East Sussex, and appears to laugh into his camera off the Malpes.

 

Two ligers play-fight in the water at Hongshan Forest Zoo in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.

 

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John Reinke sits with Bonedigger the lion and Tony the tiger at the GW Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma.

Double amputee John Reinke discovered an amazing bond with big cats, after a bungee jump accident caused him to lose both legs. Dad-of-two John, 43, has a special bond with Bonedigger, a seven-foot male lion, who also suffers from a disability due to brittle bones. John, who works at the GW Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, bottle-fed Bonedigger, now 18 months old, from birth, and the pair are the closest of pals. Bonedigger was hand-reared with a tiger named Tony, and the pair of big cats now have a joint enclosure next to the house shared by John, the owner and other keepers. The victim of a massive bungee jumping accident in April 1994, ex-turbine engineer John fell through a faulty trap door from 55 feet up, crushing both of his legs...

 

 A squirrel jumps from one branch to another with a horse chestnut gripped firmly in its mouth. Professional wildlife photographer, Brian Bevan, captured squirrels' acrobatic antics near his house in Bedfordshire last autumn..

 

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.A grey squirrel flies through the air directly above Brian's camera. Brian said he was inspired to do the shoot as a way of showing grey squirrels, which are often considered to be nuisance, in a different light. He said: "I was trying to capture a moment frozen in time, which people don't normally get to see and hopefully I've managed that. It takes patience but it wasn't really difficult getting the pictures because squirrels are much more co-operative when they have something to do. Autumn is the ideal time to do this sort of thing because they are busying collecting and burying nuts so they are very active which potentially makes for great photographs."

 

 

 Siberian tiger mother Niva carries one of her cubs at the Budapest Zoo and Botanic Garden in the Hungarian capital. Three eight-week-old Siberian tigers, Virgil, Thrax and Manu, were presented to the press for the first time

  

New Jersey State Wildlife officials catch a tranquillised male bear in East Brunswick. Zig-zagging across half of New Jersey in what appears to be an increasingly forlorn search for a mate, the lonely black bear has been captured by wildlife officials in no less than six towns in little over a year, each time being released into a state wildlife area.

 

This photograph by Kim Taylor proves cats really always land on their feet. Using special homemade equipment, he is able to capture his subjects in motion, using a rapidly flashing light or strobe to produce multiple images of a moving subject on a single photographic frame.

 

 

Four 36-day-old tigon cubs play near their mother in a wildlife park in Haikou, South China. The cubs are the product of father tiger Guo Guo and mother lion Sha Sha.

A bearded tit proves quite the acrobat on an awkward perch. Lea Roberts photographed the agile bird doing the splits between two reeds in East Tilbury, Essex.