PLAYFUL MANATEE

A manatee makes the most of his underwater guests by rolling onto his back for a belly rub. The manatee appears apprehensive at first, but he soon cosies up to the divers. The photographs were taken by marine biologist Andrew Pearson in Crystal River, Florida at the Crystal River Wildlife Refuge. The 32 year old photographer, of Southampton, says: ‘We spent several days snorkelling with wild manatees.

Other great stories
SHARK SELFIES

NOT YOUR everyday selfie, this plucky diver poses with some of the scariest predators in the ocean .

LIFE ON THE LINE: SLUM LIES NEXT TO ACTIVE RAILWAY

Families in an Indian slum put their lives on the line by living on top of an ACTIVE railway track .

CHILD SHEPHERDS OF THE SIMIEN MOUNTAINS

CARRYING a fully grown goat on his back, this five-year-old boy is a child shepherd in the mountains of northern Ethiopia .

ADORABLE SQUIRREL TRIES HER HAND AT PHOTOGRAPHY

A curious red squirrel takes a break from collecting nuts and tries her hand at photography .

CCTV CAPTURES NEWSREADER WALKING INTO A CANAL WHILE TEXTING

THIS is the shocking moment a clumsy radio newsreader plunged into a freezing canal while texting her boyfriend instead of looking where she was going .

SURREAL WILDLIFE

AN EXERCISING turtle and an ice-skating chick are hardly everyday exploits in the animal community .

HOUNDTON TABBY

FROM MRS Patmore to Lady Sybil, these barking mad illustrations show the WOOF-er side of some of our most loved Downton characters .

PORTRAITS IN PAKISTAN

A photographer from the United Arab Emirates travelled to Pakistan where he captured the lives of local people in a series of expressive portraits .

A SMILEY GECKO SHEDS ITS SKIN AS HEATWAVE HITS BRITAIN

STRETCHING his little legs in the air, a smiley leaf-tailed gecko breaks free from his old, scaly skin .

PELT-MOBILE SPOTTED

A TAXIDERMY truck spotted in America’s Deep South could be the most gruesome wagon on the road .

KUNG-FU FROG IMITATES KARATE KID

Balanced on one leg, a frog assumes the crane kick martial arts stance made famous in the movie The Karate Kid .

SHOP BRANDED RACIST FOR ‘ZIP UP IMMIGRANT’ AD

A SHOCKING cartoon of a black man carrying bags saying‘’zippadydoohdah zip-up immigrant bags’ has appeared in a shop window and is being investigated by police .