Time once more for a look at the animal kingdom and our interactions with the countless species that share our planet. Today's photos include Iranian dog owners under pressure, a bloom of mayflies, Kim Jong-un visiting Breeding Station No. 621, animals fleeing recent fires and floods, and a dachshund receiving acupuncture therapy. These images and many others are part of this roundup of animals in the news from recent weeks, seen from the perspectives of their human observers, companions, captors, and caretakers, part of an ongoing series on animals in the news.
James Hyslop, a Scientific Specialist at Christie's auction house holds a complete sub-fossilised elephant bird egg on March 27, 2013 in London, England. The massive egg, from the now-extinct elephant bird sold for $101,813 at Christie's "Travel, Science and Natural History" sale, on April 24, 2013 in London. Elephant birds were wiped out several hundred years ago. The egg, laid on the island of Madagascar, is believed to date back before the 17th century. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)
Chocolate, a miniature dachshund receives acupuncture therapy to help with lumbar disk herniation, at the Marina Street Okada animal hospital in Tokyo Japan, on April 12, 2013. The number of pet dogs in Japan has been increasing steadily to 11.5 million animals. One-tenth of Japanese families have at least one dog, according to a survey by Japan Pet Food Association. (Adam Pretty/Getty Images)
Relatives embrace each other as they race on horses through a cheering crowd during the traditional Fiesta of San Joan (Saint John) in downtown Ciutadella, on the Spanish Balearic Island of Menorca, on June 24, 2013. The riders of the horses are the representatives of ancient Ciutadella society - nobility, clergy, craftsmen and farmers. (Reuters/Enrique Calvo)
A close-up view of a sedated elephant's eye, as it is secured on the back of a truck by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) wardens during a relocation exercise, aimed at relocating 10 elephants that were encroaching on community land to a national park, on the margins of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya, on June 19, 2013. (Reuters/Siegfried Modola)
A European lobster (Hommarus gammarus), in a breeding station at the Alfred-Wegener institute on the German island of Heligoland, about 46 kilometers away from the German coastline, on April 30, 2013. Biologists at the Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research are breeding 3,000 lobsters to be released next year into the Borkum Riffgat offshore wind farm near the island 70 km off the German-Dutch coast. (Reuters/Fabian Bimmer)
Gophers line the city sidewalks after their homes were flooded in the East Village area of Calgary, Alberta, on June 22, 2013. The flooding Bow River shut down all of the center of Calgary earlier this week. The flood forced tens of thousands of residents to leave their soggy homes. (Reuters/Todd Korol)
Freshly shorn alpacas are pictured on a meadow in the village of Winklarn near Regensburg, Germany, on April 22, 2013. The alpacas are always shorn in spring, to make the animals more comfortable for the summer months and to collect the valuable wool.(Reuters/Michaela Rehle)
Snakes cover a wooden statue of Saint Domenico during a procession in Cocullo, central Italy, on May 1, 2013. Every year in May, snakes are placed onto the statue of St. Domenico and the statue is then carried in a procession around the town. St. Domenico is believed to be the patron saint for people who have been bitten by snakes. (Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi)
Long-tailed mayflies (Palingenia longicauda) mate on the surface of the Tisza river near Tiszainoka, 135km (84 mi) southeast of Budapest, on June 23, 2013. Millions of these short-lived mayflies engage in a frantic rush to mate and reproduce before they perish in just a few hours during "Tiszaviragzas" or Tisza blooming season from late spring to early summer every year. (Reuters/Laszlo Balogh)
A shopper checks a cat on sale for meat in a market in Yulin in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on June 23, 2013. Humane Society International works in Asia to bring about an end to the trade in dogs and cats for meat consumption, where possible, and will co-host later this month the 4th Annual China Companion Animal Protection Symposium to encourage Chinese society to confront the cruelty of the trade in dogs and cats for meat consumption. (AP Images for Humane Society International)
A horsewoman leads thousands of sheep through the Old Port during a simulation of a transhumance, the seasonal migration when herds are moved to grazing grounds, as part of festivities to mark Marseille-Provence being named the 2013 European Capital of Culture in Marseille, France, on June 9, 2013. (Reuters/Jean-Paul Pelissier)
Iranian mechanical engineer Azar poses for a picture with her Terrier dog Pony in her bedroom in Tehran, Iran, on May 28, 2013. For decades, pet dogs were rare and thus tolerated in Iran, where the Islamic beliefs cherished by the vast majority of traditional Iranians consider dogs as "najis," or unclean. But in recent years the soaring number of pet dogs -- owned by the middle class scattered across Iran with a keen interest on imitating Western culture -- has alarmed the authorities who have now criminalized walking dogs in public, or driving them around the city. The police warning seems to have effectively scared dog lovers, forcing some to walk their dogs in secluded areas and ask for home calls by vets. (Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images)
his March 22, 2013 photo provided by the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife, a striped beakfish swims in a water-filled well or bait box aboard a 20-foot-long Japanese boat that washed ashore recently at Long Beach, Washington. Biologists say five of the fish, plus other Japanese species of sea creatures, arrived alive, apparently hitching a ride across the Pacific Ocean on debris believed to have come from the March 2011 Japanese tsunami. (AP Photo/Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife, Allen Pleus)
A deer runs from flames as a raging wildfire pushes towards the coast in Camarillo, California, on May 2, 2013. The wind-driven brush fire raging along the California coast north of Los Angeles prompted the evacuation of hundreds of homes and a university campus on Thursday as flames engulfed several farm buildings and recreational vehicles near threatened neighborhoods. (Reuters/Gene Blevins)
Tourists take pictures with an injured, stranded dolphin at a beach in Sanya, Hainan province, June 16, 2013. Before animal rescuers arrived the dolphin was raised in and out of the water for tourists to have pictures taken with it, the animal died soon after, reported local media. Local wildlife experts blasted the tourists for "hampering the efforts of people trying to save the mammal." (Reuters/Stringer)
A jury member examines sphynx cat "Amharas Mira" during an international cat and dog exhibition in Erfurt, Germany, on June 15, 2013.(Martin Schutt/AFP/Getty Images)
Smuggled bear paws, arranged on the ground at the China-Russia border in Manzhouli, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on June 15, 2013. Two Russians were arrested for smuggling 213 bear paws into China at a China-Russia land border, according to the Chinese customs police's recent announcement. Bear paws reportedly are believed by some people in China to have high nutritional value.(Reuters/Stringer)
