Penguin with a heart-shaped breast

While most of us might wear our hearts on our sleeve, this little chap shows it off in just the right place.

He is an Emperor penguin chick whose change of plumage into adulthood was brrrrrilliantly blessed by Mother Nature.

The white heart-shaped patch on his chest is a natural formation due to the moulting of his feathers.

The baby penguin is blissfully aware that not only is he the focus of a heart-warming image, but that he is also literally one in a million too.

Award-winning photographer and wildlife film-maker Sue Flood said that in the 20 years she has been taking pictures in the Arctic and Antarctic, and on more than 30 trips to the frozen plains, she had never picked up such a penguin phenomenon.

She said: 'It's the only one I have ever come across with a bib of this shape.

'I took the picture at a time when Emperor penguin chicks are gaining their adult plumage and are a mix of grey baby down and "penguin suit" colours.

'This one is one in a million and in all my time as a photographer he's the only one I have seen with a bib of this shape - when I saw it, I just couldn't believe it'.

The Emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species.

Its diet consists primarily of fish but can also include crustaceans, such as krill, and squid.

While hunting, it can remain submerged for up to 18 minutes, diving to a depth of 535m and is able to reduce its metabolism and shut down non-essential organ functions in order to do this.

The Emperor penguin is perhaps best known for the sequence of journeys adults make each year in order to mate and to feed their offspring.

The only penguin species that breeds during the Antarctic winter, it treks as many as 120 km over the ice to breeding colonies which may include thousands of individuals.

The female lays a single egg, which is incubated by the male while the female returns to the sea to feed.

Mrs Flood, who has worked on some of the BBC's most successful natural history programmes including Blue Planet and Natural World, has won a clutch of awards for her photography.

Some of her amazing pictures have now been drawn together for her first book, Cold Places, which is published later this month.

It coincides with an exhibition - Cold Places: From Pole To Pole - of 50 of her photographs at London's prestigious Getty Images Gallery.

She said: 'There are times when I question why I'm so drawn to the Poles - for instance, when camping in -40 degree temperatures, enduring the hardships of macho ice-breaker life or when my eyes won't open because my eyelashes have frozen together.

'But there is something magical about the light, the isolation and the stillness, and something inspirational about how resolute animals and people have to be to survive there.

'Yes, the Poles are cold places but they also warm the heart, as I hope my book and images show.'

Wonky waterbuck stands out from the crowd with his lop-sided horns

An unusual twist in this waterbuck's horn made him look like he had been fitted with an extraordinary head set.

Unlike his pals, who had two straight horns, this chap had one which had grown in a bizarre curl.

The animal's lop-sided appearance made him stick out like a sore thumb.

Amateur photographer Ingrid Bunse snapped this photograph while on safari in the Ongava Wilderness Reserve, Namibia.

The 49-year-old, from Cologne, Germany, has been visiting Africa for several years but admitted she had never seen a sight like it before.

She said: 'When I spotted this animal I knew I had to get a picture because it was so unusual - I've never seen anything like it.

'I don't know what caused the horn to curl like this but it didn't seem to be too bothered by it.'

Waterbuck are a large species of antelope found across the savannah of sub-Saharan Africa.

The solitary males can grow up to 54in at the shoulder and a weight of 660lb. In their prime, they can command a territory of around 300 acres.

The long spiral structured horns, found only in males, usually sweep back and up.

Despite their name, they do not spend much time in the water, except to take refuge from predators.

Mrs Bunse, who works in a publishing house, added: 'I think it is something special and rare.

'Everybody can do the perfect lion shot if the animal is close and posing but this waterbuck is special, something I will probably only see once in a lifetime.'

Puppy survived despite being put down, declared dead and thrown in a dumpster

Meet Wall-e, the three-month-old puppy who miraculously survived being put to sleep and now has a new leash on life.

He was one of a litter of pups found abandoned outside the animal shelter in Sulphur, Oklahoma.  A veterinary surgeon decided they were too sick to survive and put them down.

But although Wall-e was declared dead by the vet, the puppy had other ideas and the following morning Animal Control Officer Scott Prall heard whimpering coming from the dumpster where his body had been placed.

When he looked inside, he found the puppy wandering around.

'He was just as healthy as could be,' Prall told News9.com. explaining that Wall-e was named after the earth's only survivor, a waste-collecting robot, in the 2008 animated film of the same name.

Local vet Amanda Kloski, from the Arbuckle Veterinary Clinic, took him in, and when his great escape story found its way onto Facebook, the clinic was inundated with calls from people wanting to adopt him.

'He needs a really special home because he's really special,' said Kloski who was today deciding on which home would best suit Wall-e.

Campaigners claim there would have been no need to put to sleep any of the the puppies if Murray County had a better animal shelter, and are trying to raise enough money to build a bigger facility.

Cheeky heron is chased by irate alligator mother after it swipes young from her nest

This hungry heron clearly got more than it bargained for after snatching a baby alligator from its nest.

The vulnerable reptile was grabbed by the large wading bird which then ran off with its lunch held in its beak.

But the brave bird was spotted by the alligator's irate mother, which reared up on its hind legs as it gave chase baring her fearsome teeth.

The protective beast hurtled after the frightened Great Blue Heron until it finally dropped its precious cargo on the grass.

The six-inch long baby then managed to scuttle back its nest at a wildlife reserve in Polk County, Florida, under the watchful eye of its mother.

Photographer Claudia Kuenkel, 46, captured the incredible moment.

She said: 'It was a pretty awesome sight. Luckily I was about 90ft away from the action so I wasn't worried about my own safety.

'The first thing I saw was the bird just standing there. It wasn't a big deal so I turned away, but the next thing I saw was this huge alligator running.

'Normally they just lie around in the sun and don't really move - I've never seen one like that.'

The heron does not appear to have had time to take off as it ran along the grass bank.

But it remained near the nest after dropping its lunch on the off-chance of another morsel.

Ms Kuenkel, from Florida, added: 'It actually wasn't until afterwards when I looked at my photos that I saw the baby alligator in the heron's beak and realised what had happened.

'I've never seen a heron eating an alligator baby like this, but I do know they're vulnerable to all kinds of predators when they're so small.

'The mothers are very protective and can be ferocious if anyone tries to harm their babies. Luckily this one had its mum looking out for it.'

Human face on back of rare spider found!

A rare spider that has the markings of a human face on its back has been discovered at an English nature reserve.

The hairy arachnid is a lichen crab spider and is so scarce that only 41 of them have been spotted in Britain since 1890.

Despite its hairy appearance and grumpy-looking 'face' on its abdomen, the eight-legged creature is harmless to humans.

The spider - Philodromus margaritatus in Latin - gets its name because it is usually found on lichen covered tree trunks and its body is camouflaged to resemble its surroundings.

They grow to about the size of a 20 pence piece and consume small insects such as ants that they chase after at relatively high speeds.

Mark Singleton, who works at the RSPB nature reserve at Arne, near Wareham, Dorset, said: 'This is the first one that has been found in Dorset in 35 years.

'It is something of a rarity. If this were a bird, the queues would be stretching round the car park. But it's not, it's a spider with a slightly amusing abdomen.

'We found it in the electricity box a few feet from our work centre and got quite excited when we realised what it was.'

Rather oddly, the spiders are not widespread in the UK and have only been spotted in southern England and northern Scotland before.

They are, however, widespread in central and western Europe.

Children swim inches from monster Polar bears!!! Very brave!

It's a heart-in-the-mouth moment that would have most parents running for help.

The massive carnivores loom menacingly over their bite-size pool companions in these remarkable pictures.

But there's more to the scenario than meets the eye, in fact the children are separated from certain death by 10-inch thick plexiglas.

Both children and bears are actually very safely taking part in an amazing initiative by the owners of Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat, in Ontario, Canada, in a attempt to promote awareness about the amazing animals.

The sanctuary takes in only bears rescued from the wild and through letting visitors get so close they hope to foster understanding and reduce hunting in the wild.

Former director at the centre and keen photographer Gerry Robichaud took the amazing photographs of the moment bear meets man in the safety of the tank.

He said: 'You do get some very surprised reactions from visitors when they first see the bears and the children in the pool.

'When you're in the water and up by the glass next to these animals it barely seems like there is anything protecting you, when in fact there's a 10-inch think barrier.

'We get various reactions from the children, some of them can't wait to get in the pool and others really don't want to. It's the adults you have to watch out for, some of them jump in still with all their clothes on.

'The two bears in the pictures are actually females, Aurora and Nikita, both who we took in as rescue animals.

'They came to us a cubs after a tribe told us about them because their mother had been shot by a hunter near Winisk, near the Hudson Bay in the far north.'

Gerry, 59, said the aim was to give the bears as much stimulation as possible in their 100m by 200m enclosure.

He said: 'I have been in the water myself when the public have not been here and actually realised one of the bears was stalking me, she was hiding and keeping very low in the water. It was quite an odd feeling.

'I have lived in the far north with the people up there myself and documented their lives, it's a different world up there.'

Sea captain who nodded off on Antarctic beach gets a wild wake-up call

Resting on a deserted beach the last thing sea captain Jerome Poncet expected was a huge blubbery local to join him for a spot of sunbathing.

But that's exactly what happened when a four-ton male elephant seal caught him cat napping near his territory in South Georgia.

The Frenchman had piloted his boat Golden Fleece to Britain's most remote colony, near Antarctica, with an expedition team of six wildlife photographers on board, and found the local inhabitants more than happy to pose for pictures.

Mr Poncet, 55, even attracted a flock of King Penguins as he caught forty winks. Pictures show how at one point he had a massive wild elephant seal on one side and a large group of curious penguins on the other.

The group had travelled thousands of miles to capture the explosive rutting season of the colossal elephant seal males.

After they arrived the team set out to picture the dramatic fights between the bulls.

Free from his duties, the captain, who has lived for most of his life in the Falkland Islands, decided to rest on St. Andrew's Bay. But as he snoozed near the water one inquisitive elephant seal hauled itself towards him - ending up just a few feet away.

Czech wildlife photographer Vaclav Silha, 60, from Prague, led the expedition and turned to see the amazing showdown before him.

'Jerome is such a deep sleeper he didn't seem to notice the huge male come over to inspect him,' he said. 'The seal must have wondered what this strange creature was.

'I didn't wake him because from it's body language it was clearly just interested and wanted to investigate.

'Also, the animals only become aggressive when provoked. Jerome has been sailing to Antarctica for over 30 years, so he understands many of the species very well. I knew he was safe from having a heart attack if he woke up and saw this beast in front of him.'

Mr Silha added: 'It got better as a group of King Penguins joined in, and even some sea birds.

'I'm glad he fell asleep because it gave me a great view of some amazing wildlife.

'And it was a great moment for a picture that he can hang on his wall forever.'

During their rutting season South Georgia is home to up to 400,000 elephant seals and an astonishing 450 000 King pinguins.

The pod being watched by the team contained 3000 individuals alone.  It attracts wildlife photographers around the world because of the diversity of species in huge numbers.

'You have to be careful not to approach the animals on the island so that you don't disturb them,' mr Silha explained.

'But they are not afraid of humans and many will approach human visitors just to have a look. Humans look very different to any other creature there, so we must really stand out.'

Successful full-sized elephant seal males can lead harems of hundreds of females.