nature

The face of Jesus has been very busy, appearing on chicken feathers, a tea towel and a drainpipe among many other places – and it's come to light that it's also turned up on the end of a wooden log. The log's owner, Mel Robertson, calls it the 'holy log' and says that she keeps it as a...

A photographer has got the bug for creepy-crawly close-ups – and the resulting pictures are definitely an eye-full. Thomas Shahan uses just a digital camera and zoom lens to capture macro images of spiders and insects, zooming in on the creatures’ eyes and producing images that show...

A tortoise the size of a grape is enjoying life in the slow lane after becoming the newest, and smallest, addition to a zoo. Tiny Tim, an Egyptian tortoise, tipped the scales at just 6g when he hatched a month ago. Today he is just 5cm long, but is expected to grow to 500g over the next...

An unusual springtime friendship between a deer and a nesting goose appears to have blossomed inside a Buffalo cemetery. For the past week or so, the deer has been standing near an urn where the goose has taken up residence, positioning itself between the urn and any passing car or foot traffic...

A man has been left all shook up after looking at a bug in the forests of Singapore and finding the face of Elvis staring back at him. Amateur photographer Winston Jansen was left stunned after seeing The King while on an expedition. Mr Jansen said he had come across hundreds of...

British businessman Duncan Goose has told of his surprise at finding a squirrel peering up at him from his toilet. Mr Goose, 42, was in Malawi to check on aid projects backed by his company's One projects when he rescued the forlorn animal. He was preparing for bed in his hotel room...

A cat that chased a rabbit into a pipe found himself in a tight spot, literally, when he became lodged inside and had to be freed by firefighters and vets - who got a surprise in the middle of their efforts. When the black-and-white tomcat was discovered struggling with the pipe inside a...

Looks like Yoda, it does. This curious little animal bears a startling resemblance to a certain Star Wars Jedi Master. The remarkable animal shares many similarities with the diminutive character from the legendary sci-fi film series. As he was trekking through the jungle in the...

A South-African man and his grandson spent two hours hiding from a hippo in a tree, only to find that all the animal wanted was an apple. The 52-year-old was canoeing with his seven-year-old grandson in the Vaal River to the north-west of Johannesburg when they discovered they were being...

An ostrich stolen from a farm in Romania showed homing pigeon skills after managing to escape from her captors to run all the way home at 40mph. The big flightless birds, native to Africa, are famous for their ability to run at high speeds but are not so well known for their homing...

A penguin has defied all odds by hopping aboard an aeroplane and joining paying passengers on a flight to San Diego - whoever claimed that penguins can’t fly clearly hasn't met this little chap. Pete has defied nature – and fasten seatbelt signs – by taking to the skies and waddling down the...

A jackdaw bird has become a real-life Kes after befriending schoolboy Emmanuel Adams while he walked to school - and has now moved into the boy's home. The jackdaw began landing on the head of Emmanuel Adams as he walked to school, and now comes with him into his home, perching on the...

A troop of monkeys at Longleat Safari Park was given a battered old Mercedes to play with and they quickly set about dismantling it… The meddling macaques haven’t had any cars to abuse for the past two years because their Monkey Jungle enclosure has been closed to the public while it was...

Maybe he’s really looking forward to life as a frog or perhaps he just likes posing for the camera – but this tadpole obviously has a reason to smile in a photo taken by photographer David Spears. The 1cm (0.4in) tadpole was captured with a ‘grin’ on his face after being placed under a...

Bart, the lamb rejected at birth by his parents, has become so devoted to his carer Peter Mortin that he joins him at work in Norfolk. Bart was rejected by his parents Marge and Homer after he was born too weak to stand up and feed. The lamb one of only 300 rare Hungarian screw-horned...

Photographer Bob Garas has revealed his favourite subject to work with are frogs and he can spend hours waiting for them to strike the perfect pose in his studio. Garas often spends hours working with his subjects – his frogs – waiting for them to stretch for the perfect pose. ‘Every...

Drunk Michal Kawolski was rescued by astonished coastguards after floating out to sea on a sheet of ice while still clasping a bottle of vodka. The 23-year-old was spotted by coastguards as he floated past them off the coast of Gdansk, Poland. Mr Kawolski had been drinking with friends...

It wasn't hoppy days for this tree frog when a hungry snake decided to hang out with it in the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin. The poor amphibian was happily hopping along when a hungry snake snatched it from above. And it was all downhill from the moment it left the ground as, following a...

A rare spider with a human face – known as a lichen crab spider – has been spotted at a nature reserve in Wareham, Dorset. Since 1890 only 41 one of them have ever been seen in Britain – and it’s not surprising, because they’re only the size of a 20p piece and blend into lichen on tree...

SYDNEY (Reuters) – A colony of 22,000 bats may be coming to a neighbourhood near you after an Australian court served the flying foxes with an eviction notice and allowed the government to chase them away with loud industrial noise. The court ruled that the grey-headed flying foxes, the...