BEAR CUBS AND DOTING MUM

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.

Other great stories
EYE-CATCHING TRIBAL HAIRSTYLES

BRAIDED, sculpted and beaded, these are the eye-catching hairstyles worn by the tribal women of Angola .

MONKEY BUSINESS

GETTING behind the camera, this monkey practices his photography skills on his friends .

FIRST FEMALE JACKASS

FROM KISSING an alligator on the nose to walking over broken glass, this fearless daredevil is a real life female JACKASS .

LONDON HELICOPTER CRASH

A helicopter has crashed landed in Central London .

FIGHT CUB

JUMPING and bouncing off one another, these young cheetahs enjoy some harmless fun .

Korean Mass Games

These are the amazing close up pictures of North Korea's mass games - after photographers were previously banned from taking shots so close to the dazzling formation dances .

DAREDEVIL DINING: THE 160FT HIGH RESTAURANT

Suspended FIFTY metres in the air, this is the last place that you would expect to find a fine dining experience .

SEAL GETS READY FOR HIS CLOSE UP

WIDE EYED and staring straight down the lens of the camera, this intrigued seal is ready for his close up .

OUT-STANDING FIREFIGHTER BREAKS ENDURANCE WORLD RECORD

A US firefighter has battled osteoarthritis and four hip replacements to break the world paddleboarding record .

GIRAFFES DUCK FOR COVER

DIPPING and diving their way through this bumpy journey, these giraffe's duck for cover as they dodge multiple cables and wires .

EASTER ISLAND REPLICA STATUES DESTROYED IN SEA FALL

A project to create an underwater tribute to the stone Moai statues of Easter Island ended in disaster when 15 replica structures were destroyed after toppling from a boat and into the sea .

SPECTACULAR SCENERY AT CHILEAN OBSERVATORIES

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 .