1. A red-billed ox pecker investigates an African buffalo's ear at the Olare Orok Conservancy in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve.

2. Two cats in their carrier wait for the uncertain journey ahead of them as people arrive at the Union Passenger Terminal to evacuate on buses and trains to escape Hurricane Gustav in New Orleans.

3. A family of vicunas cross a road in the Bolivian highlands.

4. An African elephant uses an ant hill for leverage as it reaches a tree near the Olare Orok Conservancy in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve.

5. A couple rides a bicycle with a dog after rains in Havana.

6. A month-old hippopotamus calf swims with its mother, in a pond at the Nandankanan Zoological Park in the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, India.

7. Uga VII watches the Georgia Bulldogs play the Georgia Southern Eagles in his first game as official mascot for the University of Georgia.

8. A kitten plays in a street in Tskhinvali, capital of Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia.

9. A flamingo stands at Laguna Colorada at Eduardo Avaroa Natural Reserve in southern Bolivia.

10. A spider sits in the center of its web on a bridge near Freiburg, Germany.

11. Oso, a 6-month-old Pomeranian, sports his Pet Shades during the 20th annual Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-off in Sparks, Nev.

12. Bentheim Black Pied pigs crowd their enclosure at the Buening natural farm in Laer, Germany.

13. Two brown bears laze around in their enclosure at the zoo in Augsburg, Germany.

14. A day-old dolphin calf plays with its mother Dolly in the Dolphinarium in Varna, Bulgaria.

15. Flower petals are thrown on a pair of dogs who were married, along with six other pairs of dogs, in a mass wedding ceremony in New Delhi, India.

16. Callie, a classic poodle, poses for photos at the American Kennel Club in New York. The AKC's national poll has elected the poodle as the breed of choice for the Obamas after the family said they'd get a dog after the election.

17. A dozen sea lions pile aboard a sailboat in Newport Harbor in California.

18. A diver watches a shark in the sea near Roatan Island, Honduras
A diver watches a shark in the sea near Roatan Island, Honduras. Every year hundreds of certified divers arrive to the island and experience diving with this Caribbean reef shark in the Roatan waters.

19. A hunter and his dog take a sunset pause in Fuerstenwalde, Germany.