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.
STRETCHING his little legs in the air, a smiley leaf-tailed gecko breaks free from his old, scaly skin .
These are the faces of orphans suffering from the horrifying effects of chemical warfare .
A grand 56-bedroom hotel, once heaving with injured soldiers during the First World War, now lies completely abandoned .
ROLLING across a 65-metre-high viaduct in the Alps, the red carriages of the Bernina Express add a splash of colour to the spectacular snow-covered Swiss surroundings .
THIS is the EXPLOSIVE moment when a 50 metre high pylon came crashing down to earth in a rural field .
An osprey soars through the air at 30 miles per hour before swooping down to catch its prey from a lake .
FULL OF STUNNING colours and swirling shapes, the furrows on these fields create a mix of mesmerising patterns .
WRAPPED up in classy headscarves, these adorable pooches are the picture of sophistication .
MESMERIZING night sky photographs offer a spellbinding look at the stars .
WELCOME to the Temple of Zoom where you can “experience” sliding down a Mayan temple into shark infested waters .
Balanced on one leg, a frog assumes the crane kick martial arts stance made famous in the movie The Karate Kid .