A Blue-eared pheasant (Crossoptilon auritum) is pictured at the aviary El Nido in Ixtapaluca, near Mexico City, Mexico
Residents look at a 6.4 meter (21-foot) saltwater crocodile, which is suspected of having attacked several people, after it was caught in Nueva Era in Bunawan town, Agusan del Sur, Philippines
Some of the 20 million resident bats emerge from Bracken Cave in Bracken, Texas, US
Female Amur tiger Iris licks its 7-week-old cub during one of their first walks in an open-air cage at the Royev Ruchey zoo in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk
Indian army personnel use a bulldozer during a rescue mission to save a wild elephant trapped in a water reservoir tank at Bengdubi army cantonment area some 25 km from Siliguri, West Bengal, India
A blind new species, distantly related to the squat lobster family, which was found in 2005 in hydrothermal vents where the East Pacific Rise meets Antarctica. A new study estimates that Earth has almost 8.8 million species, but the vast majority of those species are types of animals yet to be discovered. And they could be in our own backyard, scientist say.
Fire ants and other insects swarm on top of each other in water on the shoulder of Louisiana Highway 23 near Myrtle Grove, Louisiana, US after fleeing flood waters from rain and storm surge from Tropical Storm Lee
Slain Navy SEAL Jon Tumilson's dog Hawkeye lays next to his casket during funeral services in Rockford, Iowa, US. Tumilson, age 35, was one of 30 American soldiers killed in Afghanistan on August 6 when their helicopter was shot down during a mission to help fellow troops who had come under fire.
Christine Janks, president of Carson Springs Wildlife Foundation and Sanctuary, visits her three-and-a-half-year-old giraffe, Grace, as a sheep in her yard stands by in Gainesville, Florida, US
The eye of an elephant, seen during the the 10th annual King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament in Hua Hin, nearly 160 km (99 miles) south of Bangkok, Thailand
A four-day old African spurred tortoise, Geochelone sulcata, one of eight babies, sunbathes on the head of its mother in their enclosure in Nyiregyhaza Animal Park in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary
