Patient Isabelle Stadella hugs Joca, a trained therapy dog, during a session at Hospital Infantil Sabara in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on October 18, 2013. A therapy dog is trained to provide affection and comfort to patients in hospitals. #

A jockey and his horse fall as they compete in a purebred Arabian horse race on the sidelines of the Mazayin Dhafra Camel Festival in the desert, 150 kilometers west of the United Arab Emirates' capital Abu Dhabi, on December 20, 2013. #

Janick Fetard, zoo keeper, gives a cricket to a Tamarin monkey at the family-owned Palmyre Zoo in the 44 acre pine forest of Les Mathes, in the Charente Maritime region, France, on November 20, 2013. The private zoo which opened in 1966 greets up to 800,000 visitors a year and is home to around 1,700 animals of 170 different species. #

Bao Bao, the four and a half month old giant panda cub, in her indoor habitat at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, District of Columbia, on January 7, 2014. Bao Bao was born to the zoo's female giant panda Mei Xiang and male giant panda Tian Tian. #

Revelers set a bull's horns on fire during the "Toro de Jubilo" Fire Bull Festival in Medinaceli, Spain, on November 9, 2013. The festival is an ancient tradition, where a bull is tied to a pylon and flammable balls are attached to the bull's horns, then set on fire before the animal released. Revelers dodge the bull when it comes close until the flammable material is consumed. The bull is covered with a thick layer of mud on the back and face to protect it from burns. #

A harbor seal wearing a satellite linked transmitter on its head, after its release into the waters of Howe Sound in Porteau Cove, British Columbia, on November 20, 2013. The seal is one of two which had received months of care at the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Center after being rescued from the wild. #

David Nugent of Leiester City chases a squirrel off the pitch after play was delayed during the Sky Bet Championship match between Queens Park Rangers and Leicester City at Loftus Road in London, on December 21, 2013. #

Emirati Mohammed Rakan Bin Harwon Al-Qubassiy hands his falcon to a boy in the Liwa desert, 220 km west of Abu Dhabi, on the sidelines of the Mazayin Dhafra Camel Festival, on December 21, 2013. #

Ethnic Miao people carry a large pig at a traditional social party called "Datongnian" in Rongshui county, Liuzhou, Guangxi ethnic Zhuang autonomous region, China, on October 26, 2013. #

Giraffe cub Katja leans on its mother at the Opelzoo in Kronberg, Germany, on January 7, 2014. The animal belongs to the endangered subspecies Rothschild's giraffe and was born on January 2. #

Employee David Thomas poses with a rare iridescent ammonite at Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst, England, on November 25, 2013. The rare fossil discovered in Alberta, Canada was expected to sell for $129,000 USD when it was auctioned as part of the "Evolution" sale at the auction house on November 27, 2013. #

Keeper Ben Baker looks at a Bell's Anglehead Lizard as it sits on the end of his pencil during a photocall for the annual stocktake at Chester Zoo in Chester, England, on January 2, 2014. #

A Siberian tiger tries to catch a chicken released by a gamekeeper to entertain visitors at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, China's Heilongjiang province, on January 6, 2014. #

An injured bat screams as a volunteer cuts "manja" (a strong string coated with powdered glass or other abrasives used to fly kites) from its wing on Makar Sankranti in Mumbai, on January 14, 2013. The Makar Sankranti festival, which celebrates the beginning of the harvest season is also a day when Indians all over the country engage in duels of kite flying. Generally the "manja" is used in fighter kites where fliers attempt to cut the string off their opponent's kite injures birds and other winged animals who get entangled in the string at times fatally. #

A firefighter drags a donkey from a well in a field in Chengde, Hebei province, China, on October 21, 2013. The donkey was rescued after its owner reported that it fell into the well while they were on their way to harvest rice, according to local media. #

An ostrich runs through empty streets and past destroyed buildings, after government forces on Friday retook from rebel forces the provincial capital of Bentiu, in Unity State, South Sudan, on January 12, 2014. #

A young deer stands with a hunter's arrow through its head, in New Jersey. On Saturday, November 9, 2013, New Jersey wildlife officials successfully removed the arrow from the 5-month-old male deer's head while the animal was tranquilized at a wooded private property in Morris County. The deer was later released into the wild. The biologists who did the procedure say the arrow had not damaged any major arteries or organs and the deer's prognosis for survival was excellent. #

A cow, which escaped from a truck, attacks a farmer trying to catch it in Liangdun village of Nangang township, China, on December 15, 2013. The 700 kilogram (1,543 lb) cow attacked several farmers before being shot dead by policemen, local media reported. #

A dead Siberian tiger wrapped in a plastic bag lying in a SUV car in Wenzhou, east China's Zhejiang province. Police in China detained a former chef over the death of the rare Siberian tiger, a report said on January 9, 2014. #

A stray dog tries to break free as city administration officers restrain it with nets, at a residential compound in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China, on December 5, 2013. A team of nearly a hundred people caught the dog in the compound on Thursday and took it to the animal shelter after many complaints were filed from the residents saying the dog had attacked people. #

Six-year-old Lina Ismer, daughter of the Tierpark Stroehen animal park director, holds baby kangaroo "Karl Friedelich" in a woolen cap in Stroehen, Germany, on January 2, 2014. After the little kangaroo's mother died, Karl Friedelich is now raised by hand by the animal park director's family. #

Villager Diomesio Coelho Antunes, from Rumao Island, clubs an arapaima or pirarucu, the largest freshwater fish species in South America and one of the largest in the world, while fishing in a branch of the Solimoes river, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon, in the Mamiraua nature reserve near Fonte Boa, Brazil, on November 24, 2013. Catching the arapaima, a fish that is sought after for its meat and is considered by biologists to be a living fossil, is only allowed once a year by Brazil's environmental protection agency. The minimum size allowed for a fisherman to keep an arapaima is 1.5 meters (4.9 feet). #

Wings of Rescue co-founder Cindy Smith loads 50 dogs from the Front Street Animal Shelter in Sacramento, California, to be flown to a no-kill shelter in Idaho, on December 9, 2013. #

A man places a coin on the offered 2.6-meter-long bluefin tuna at Nishinomiya Shrine, the head shrine of Ebisu sect, a deity of business, on January 8, 2014 in Nishinomiya, Japan. People wish for growth of their business and country's economy by placing coins on to the body of tuna that are offered to shrine. #

A dead cow washed ashore in Ystad, Sweden, on January 10, 2014. The carcasses of almost a dozen cows washed ashore in Denmark and Sweden, puzzling police in the Scandinavian countries. Since December 29, eight dead cows have been found by people strolling on beaches in southern Sweden and three in Denmark. All the animals had parts of their ears cut off. Investigators suspect this was done to remove the identification tags used to trace the cows. #

A marksman in a helicopter hits a wild elephant with a pink-tipped tranquilizer-loaded dart during an elephant-collaring operation near Kajiado, in southern Kenya, on December 3, 2013. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) fitted elephants with GPS-tracking collars enabling the monitoring of migration routes and to help prevent poaching. #