A head to lean on;

• Bulldozer, a 9-day-old, 6-foot tall reticulated giraffe, puts his head on a veterinary technician at the Zoo Hospital at San Francisco Zoo.

• Bulldozer was born at the zoo to a first-time, 3-year-old mother named Bititi. Bulldozer's mother didn't take care of him so he is being give round-the-clock care by zoo staff.

Lending a nose;

Tiger, a 27-month-old pooch who was competing in the world's tallest dog category, plays with 1-year-

old Nanci, who was competing in the world's smallest dog category, during a dog show in

Hyderabad, India.

'You lookin' at me?';

Nude Dude, a sphinx cat, poses during the South Central regional cat show in Waco, Texas.

Call of the panda;

Giant panda Long Hui eats bamboo in his enclosure at Schoenbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria. Long Hui

was transferred from China in 2003 and is on loan for 10 years.

Floating on an icon;

A duck enjoys the water at the World War II Memorial at the

National Mall Memorial Parks in Washington, D.C. In the background is the Lincoln Memorial.

Smoke signal;

An elephant named Mara raises its trunk at Buenos Aires Zoo during the zoo's first ever nightly guided

tour.

Testing the air;

A boa constrictor sniffs the air at the ZoologicalGardens in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Kicking back;A spider monkey rests at the Zoological Garden in San Jose, Costa Rica. Costa Rica has lost up to half of its

monkeys over the last 12 years as developers expanding into the jungle habitat isolate monkeys in small

communities.

Making a splash;

A polar bear named Cezar enjoys fresh water being sprayed into his pool at the Belgrade Zoo in Serbia.

Getting a clean start;A stray cat gets a bath in Beijing, China. According

to Capital Animal Welfare Association, there are more than 200,000 stray cats in Beijing, with about

150,000 living in residential communities.

Snapping at extinction;Gharial crocodiles rest beside a pond in their

enclosure at a crocodile center in Lucknow, India. The crocodiles

are listed as a critically endangered species.

A helping paw;

A dog named Max inspects a street, looking for bodies after the earthquake in Pisco, Peru.