A five-day-old Asian elephant calf helps his auntie to raise her foot for the keeper at the Melbourne Zoo, on September 15, 2010. The un-named, first-ever male calf to be born at Melbourne Zoo, weighed in at a hefty 142.2kg, much heavier than a normal calf.
One of 25 pilot whales that died on September 22, 2010 lies in the sand after the whales beached themselves at Spirits Bay, 320 km (200 mi) northwest of Auckland, New Zealand. In the second mass stranding in the area in two months, the Department of Conservation said a pod of 74 pilot whales were found but rescuers were trying to save almost 50 more stranded on the coast. Another 50 whales were offshore and were continuing to strand themselves, regional manager of the Department of Conservation (DOC) Jonathan Maxwell said.
This image provided by NOAA shows a deep-sea Chimera in waters off Indonesia in July, 2010. Chimeras are most closely related to sharks, although their evolutionary lineage branched off from sharks nearly 400 million years ago, and they have remained an isolated group ever since. According to scientists the lateral lines running across this chimera are mechano-receptors that detect pressure waves (like ears). The dotted-looking lines on the frontal portion of the face (near the mouth) are ampullae de lorenzini and detect perturbations in electrical fields generated by living organisms.
Jasradj, an Indian lion relaxes with his head resting on a large rock in his enclosure on September 15, 2010 at the Zurich zoo.
USGS Wildlife Biologist Tony Fischbach lies on the beach observing a tagged walrus near Point Lay, Alaska on September 7th, 2010. Tens of thousands of walruses have come ashore in northwest Alaska because the sea ice they normally rest on has melted. Federal scientists say this massive move to shore by walruses is unusual in the United States.
Cattle feed in a meadow in front of the Wilder Kaiser mountain in Going, in the Austrian province of Tyrol, Monday, Sept. 20, 2010.
