A little brown bear cub shows his doting mum that she is always on parent duty as he uses her as a scratching post. These adorable photographs of two playful bear cubs and their watchful mum were captured by American nature photographer D. Robert Franz, 56, on a visit to Lake Clark National Park, Alaska. 'What we see in these photographs is the interaction between the mother brown bear and her two cubs,' says D. Robert, of Cody, Wyoming.
AN ARRAY of colours, from pinks to blues and oranges, fill the night sky to create an amazing collection of interstellar patterns .
An Italian photographer travelled to Chile where he visited several star-gazing sites, home to some of the world's most advanced telescopes, located in the spectacular setting of the Atacama desert .
A young otter wades through a lake with his eyes set on an older rival’s fish .
This cheeky macaque gets up close and personal as he examines the dental hygiene of his fellow primate .
STARING intently into the camera, a polar bear appears to be lost in thought while relaxing in the snow .
SWIMMING next to 40 tonne whales, dare-devil divers take the plunge with these gentle giants of the sea .
LEAPING through the air this determined little mouse is on a mission for food .
SNUGGLED up in the hay away from the elements, this adorable hoglet has sought solace with a familiar friend .
HOPPING onto the scales, these adorable baby Humboldt penguins are ready for their first weigh-in .
THIS RING of fire in the sky is the annular solar eclipse that wowed our cousins down-under .
WELCOME to the drawing room that is home to the £100K world’s greatest collection of Margaret Thatcher autographed objects .
A cheeky gorilla sticks her tongue out and plays up for the camera at Bronx Zoo .