Time again for a look at the animal kingdom and our interactions with the countless species that share our planet. Today’s photos include a donkey-therapy program in Spain, animals affected by wildfires in the U.S., a rescued anteater in Brazil, COVID-sniffing dog training in Germany, rhinos near Nairobi, beach rescue-dog training in Italy, stranded pilot whales in Tasmania, migrating storks in Turkey, and much more. These images and many others are part of a roundup of animals in the news from recent months, seen from the perspectives of their human observers, companions, captors, and caretakers, as part of an ongoing series on animals in the news.
Animals in the News
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Dr. Lucia Ledesma, a clinical neuropsychologist, eyes her pet Harley, a therapy dog who provides emotional support for health-care workers who are treating patients infected with the new coronavirus, while he rests on his bed in Mexico City on September 12, 2020. #
Marco Ugarte / AP -
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Cows decorated with bells and flowers rest and drink some water before the annual ceremonial Almabtrieb ("cattle drive"), on September 18, 2020, at Gramai-Alm in Tyrol's Karwendel Alpine Park near Pertisau, Austria. Farmers herd the cattle down from alpine summer pastures to Achensee valley barns for the winter. #
Joe Klamar / AFP / Getty -
An eastern grey kangaroo hops near a brumby in the Yarrangobilly area of Australia's Kosciuszko National Park on August 24, 2020. Free-roaming feral horses, known as brumbies, are found across Australia. Believed to be descended from animals imported by early British colonialists, the brumby population is estimated to be in the thousands, with the highest concentration of horses roaming Australia's alpine region, which straddles the state border of Victoria and New South Wales. With large numbers of brumbies trampling through protected national parks, their fate has long been a subject of heated debate. On one side are those that want the total eradication of the animals—those who consider them a feral, invasive, and destructive species. At the other end are those who advocate for the protection of what are viewed as heritage animals, so named for their role in the mythology of the high country, immortalized in poems such as Banjo Paterson's "The Man from Snowy River." #
Brook Mitchell / Getty -
Susan Smith talks to her guide dog, Samson, inside the medical center at the evacuation center at the Jackson County Fairgrounds on September 16, 2020, in Central Point, Oregon, as devastating wildfires burned through the region. #
Paula Bronstein / AFP / Getty -
Hundreds of pilot whales are seen stranded on a sand bar in Strahan, Australia, on September 21, 2020. More than 200 pilot whales were stranded on a sandbank in Macquarie Harbour on the west coast of Tasmania, with rescuers desperately trying to save the whales as more than 90 were feared dead. #
The Advocate via Getty -
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A macaw flies down to land on an antenna, seeking food in Caracas, Venezuela, on September 5, 2020. Caracas's signature bird, the blue-and-yellow macaw, is one of four such species that inhabit the valley. Legend has it that it was introduced in the 1970s by the Italian immigrant, Vittorio Poggi, who says he nurtured a lost macaw and trained it to fly with his motorcycle as he cruised around his neighborhood. #
Matias Delacroix / AP -
Saeed al-Err, a volunteer at the Sulala Society for Animal Care, fits the amputee dog, Billy, with a new prosthetic limb made in cooperation with Gaza Municipality's artificial limbs center, during rehabilitation at the association's shelter in Gaza City on September 9, 2020. #
Mohammed Abed / AFP / Getty -
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A group of canine rescuers from the Italian School of Rescue Dogs attend a training session with their dogs before patrolling the beach to ensure swimmers can enjoy their time at the beach in safety, in Riva dei Tarquini, near Rome, Italy, on August 25, 2020. #
Guglielmo Mangiapane / Reuters -
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Robert Zacharz and his 3-year-old dog, Erec Junior, rest in the grass with Giulia Gausemann and 5-year-old Vine, at a training site for sniffing dogs of the German Army in Daun, Germany, on July 24, 2020. The dogs wear protection goggles against the sun and dust and are trained to detect signs of coronavirus. #
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A young female fox, wrapped in a blanket, is seen at the Animal Protective Association of Ronda after being found walking along a street in the village of El Gastor, in the province of Cadiz, near Ronda, Spain, on May 7, 2020. #
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Biologists of the regional environmental entity CVC release two Central American agoutis in a rural area of Buenaventura, Colombia, on September 11, 2020, during National Biodiversity Day. Environmental authorities in Colombia released about 1,800 animals of different species that had been recovered from illegal wildlife trafficking in different areas of the country. #
Luis Robayo / AFP / Getty -
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Carmen Borges, a reiki therapist, smiles at a baby squirrel perched on her shoulder in her apartment in Caracas, Venezuela, on September 11, 2020. Borges converted her small apartment, where she lives with her husband and two of her three daughters, into a shelter for a group of baby squirrels who were rescued from the middle of a street by a neighbor. #
Ariana Cubillos / AP -
An anteater rests in a bathroom sink while receiving treatment in a house belonging to Marcelo Andreani, a veterinarian with the state environmental police, near Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil, on August 19, 2020. The anteater arrived with a broken left paw after a clash with a fierce porcupine. It had been found hiding in a garage and the vets think it might have been fleeing fires as anteaters are rarely seen in the city. The fracture required surgery, and afterward one of the vets took the animal home to keep a closer eye on her recovery, where she once climbed into the bathroom sink to rest. Within five days, she was strong enough to return to the wild. #
Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters -
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Sheep walk over hills in Prevencheres, southern France, on August 27, 2020, as shepherds and sheep breeders of the pastoral group of Finiels brought one of the largest herds of the Massif Central down to Prevencheres after two months of summer pasture on Mont Lozere. #
Pascal Guyot / AFP / Getty -
Barbara Barrett, a Port Macquarie Koala Hospital volunteer for 20 years, cares for an 8-month-old koala named Livvy, orphaned following a car accident on September 15, 2020, in Port Macquarie, Australia. Established in 1973, the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital has 150 volunteers, a specialized treatment room, an intensive care unit, and rehabilitation yards. The team was instrumental in treating bushfire-affected koalas during what has become known as Australia's Black Summer. #
Lisa Maree Williams / Getty -
Cristina Marino, a health worker at the Juan Ramon Jimenez Hospital in Huelva, and coordinator of the El Burrito Feliz (The Happy Donkey) association, hugs a donkey named Magallanes in Hinojos, Spain, on September 8, 2020, as part of a donkey-therapy program. Created by Luis Manuel Bejarano, the emotional therapy is being used to treat the stress of health-care workers who have been dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. #
Cristina Quicler / AFP / Getty -
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