Monday, May. 30, 2011

Tsk, tsk. Look at all those clean spots you missed: This 4-week-old baby elephant at the Munich Zoo has a lot to learn about mud bathing.

I challenge you to a duel! Shall we say pillows while suspended upside down at noon? (French aerialists perform for a carnival marking the anniversary of Saint Petersburg.)

Eat my dust: A cowgirl trots off with her flag during practice for the Professional Cowboy Association Rodeo in Troy, Ala.

A mannequin's arm sticks out from the rubble in a neighborhood devastated by the earthquake and tsunami in Kesennuma, Japan.

He-who-must-be-fed-fish: Even though his name in German sounds like a familiar Harry Potter villain, Waldemar the orphaned seal is a sweetheart. He's being raised at the seal upbringing station in Friedrichskoog, Germany, and when he's strong enough, he'll be returned to the wild in the North Sea.

Enjoy your canary, Leo? On the other hand, it's clear that Leo the smug sea lion is up to no good. (Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium and amusement park in Yokohama, Japan.)

Somebody please adopt this mama mutso and her pups at Rowan County Canine Shelter near Morehead, Ky. They're running low on bandanas!

Forest in flames: An elapsed-time photo captures the movement of stars while a wildfire burns a wooded hillside near the town of Arteaga, Mexico.

You really are hungry, aren't you? A great white egret chick bites the beak that feeds it along the Brahmaputra River in Guwahati, India.

Choo choo Chihuahua: Wartime England enthusiasts ride a passenger coach during the East Lancashire Railway's 1940s re-enactment weekend in Bury, England. Nostalgic celebrations included tea dances, make-do-and-mend demonstrations and battle re-enactments.

Give me Cheddar! The official Cheese Rolling competition in Gloucestershire, England, was canceled for safety reasons for a second straight year, but that did not stop those Brits for whom chasing cheese is a calling. Here the rogue rollers tumble head over heels down Coopers Hill for the chance to score a wheel of Double Gloucester. There were no serious injuries.

Bird of pray: A raptor lands on a gravestone in the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies on the day before Memorial Day. (Bridgeville, Pa.)

Pride and prejudice: Russian police arrest a gay rights activist during an attempt to hold a gay pride parade in Moscow. Russia has long been criticized for discrimination against gays. Ex-Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov referred to homosexuals as "satanic."

It's a boy girl undisclosed: Jazz hugs his baby sibling Storm, a child whose gender is being kept a secret by his parents, Kathy Witterick and David Stocker of Toronto. The idea that "the whole world must know what is between the baby's legs is unhealthy, unsafe and voyeuristic," says Witterick. Some members of the whole world wholeheartedly disagree, saying that the child will be subjected to ridicule.

Bullfighter on a horse: Spanish rejoneador Sergio Galan performs during his bullfight at Las Ventas bullring in Madrid.