Hairless baby Aardvark makes first public appearance after being born at zoo

Despite being completely bald, this adorable aardvark nevertheless faced a rather hairy situation when it was rejected by his mother moments after being born.

Staff at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida, were forced to step in and care for the clumsy creature just hours after its birth on April 10.

But despite a rocky start the new arrival is now thriving and has made his first public appearance at the USA park.

A spokesman for the park said: 'Obviously we like to let nature take its course but we had to step in when we discovered his mother wasn't being attentive.

'We were scared she might accidentally step on him or even bury her cub as aardvarks have a primary instinct to dig for food and burrow for shelter.'

In the wild, female aardvarks typically give birth to one newborn each year.

The baby, which is yet to be named, is one of just 35 in zoos in North America.

The animals have a huge appetite for insects and have been known to suck up 50,000 of them in just one hour.

Taking photos with Polar bear at paw's length

Don’t be put off by the icy stare and fearsome claws.

This 40st polar bear actually gets along swimmingly with visitors who join her in the water at the Polar Bear Plunge.

Of course, eight-year-old Tatqiq’s friendly disposition is helped in no small part by a glass wall which lets her keep guests at a paw’s length.

Although the flexible screen gives slightly when pressed, it’s strong enough to withstand the force of a typical male polar bear – such as Tatqiq’s brother Kalluk, who weighs more than 70st.

The pair are part of an exhibit at San Diego Zoo which allows guests to see the bears up close while learning about how melting ice caps are affecting their species.

Two wild elephants invade Indian city and gore security guard to death in three-hour rampage

At least one man was killed amid widespread panic when two wild elephants went on a three-hour rampage across a city in southern Indian.

The raging elephants left a trail of destruction across a suburb of the city of Mysore, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, after they wandered in from a nearby forest.

One man, a 55-year-old security guard from the Bamboo Bazaar district, was trampled to death after he came out of his house to see what was going on.

Footage shown on New Delhi Television news shows the body of the man at the feet of one of the animals being repeatedly gored, butted and trampled into a doorway.

The footage also shows an elephant angrily butting a cow.

An eyewitness said: 'The two elephants entered our city and started stomping over everything that came in their way.

'One of them even entered a market place and crushed a man to death within minutes.'

Karnataka state higher education minister S.A. Ramdas told the AFP news agency the elephants entered the city from a nearby forest early in the morning.

One elephant barged into a women's college compound and stalked the grounds, while the other wreaked havoc in a residential area.

Schools and colleges were closed for the day, said Mr Ramdas, and extra police were deployed as forest rangers while staff from Mysore zoo tried desperately to contain the animals.

Officials ordered residents to stay indoors and urged them not to throw stones at the raging elephants for fear of provoking them further.

The two young elephants came with two others from a forest about 22 miles from Mysore. The other pair remain at large on the outskirts of the city, which is 87 miles from Bangalore.

Every year hundreds of people across India die when wild animals wander into cities as their natural habitats become ever smaller and they have to range farther and farther for food.

India's national parks suffer massive encroachment from people who live and forage for food in the forests or graze their cattle inside.

'Unregulated expansion of farm lands and increasing movement of people and transport vehicles through the elephant corridor are making the wild jumbos enter into villages and towns in search of food and shelter,' one official told AFP.

After a three-hour hunt, the two elephants who went into the city were eventually brought down with tranquilliser darts and captured. They are set to be released back into the wild.