Cathal McNaughton / Reuters
Charlie Cole tends to one of his Cabrito goats on Broughgammon Farm near the town of Ballycastle in northern Ireland on Tuesday. Cole takes the kid goats, which are byproducts of the dairy industry, and farms them for their meat, which has become more popular after the recent horse meat scandals.
Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters
A woman feeds a cat at her house as water from the Stviga river overflows its banks during in the village of Ozerany, Belarus, on April 16, 2013.
Viktor Drachev / AFP - Getty Images
A man paddles on a boat in his yard during a spring flood in the Belarus village of Snyadin, on April 16.
Viktor Drachev / AFP - Getty Images
A woman feeds a pig in her yard during a spring flood in the Belarus village of Snyadin, on April 16.
Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters
A woman sits in front of her house on a flooded street as water from the Prypyat river overflows its banks during spring flooding in the village of Pererov, about 168 miles south of Minsk, Belarus, on April 16.
Cathal Mcnaughton / Reuters
Farmer Donald O'Reilly searches for sheep or lambs trapped in a snow drift in the Aughafatten area of County Antrim, Northern Ireland on March 26. At least 140,000 homes and businesses in Northern Ireland were left without power over the weekend following heavy snowfall, causing snowdrifts of up to 5 metres (18 feet).
Peter Muhly / AFP - Getty Images
Lambs are pictured on snow covered fields in the hills of Domore, Northern Ireland, on March 26. A Royal Air Force (RAF) helicopter was deployed in Northern Ireland in a bid to reach remote farms where estimates suggest up to 10,000 animals have been buried beneath snowdrifts 20 feet (six metres) high. Thousands of cattle and sheep are already feared to have died in the cold at the height of the lambing season. The bad weather has claimed at least two lives on the British mainland.
Cathal Mcnaughton / Reuters
Donald O'Reilly rescues a sheep trapped in a snow drift in the Aughafatten area of County Antrim, Northern Ireland on March 26. At least 140,000 homes and businesses in Northern Ireland were left without power over the weekend following heavy snowfall, causing snowdrifts of up to 5 metres (18 feet).
Reuters photographer Cathal McNaughton describes the devastating impact of the recent weather on the farming community in Northern Ireland in a blog post: No happy endings in nature.
Some farmers in Northern Ireland had to rescue their flock of sheep from a sudden storm that buried them in more than 2 feet of snow, and were amazed to find them alive. They are still looking for others.
This story was originally published on Tue Mar 26, 2013 1:23 PM EDT
Ian MacNicol / Getty Images
The first day of the Co. Limerick Coursing Club J.P. McManus Irish Cup, an annual meeting where greyhounds course hares with a €80 first prize at stake on Limerick Racecourse at Greenmount, Patrickswell, on Feb. 22, in Limerick, Ireland.
While I am certainly happy that these athletic greyhounds are muzzled up, it does strike me as somewhat vicious to make a poor hare run for its life while its pursuers are taunted with a feast that they will never get. The hare ends up terrified and the greyhounds hungry. That said, the animals don’t get hurt and it looks like they are having a good time getting the exercise.
Ian MacNicol / Getty Images
Ian MacNicol / Getty Images
Ian MacNicol / Getty Images
John MacDougall / AFP - Getty Images
The sculpture of polar bear Knut is exhibited at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin on on Feb. 15.
Markus Schreiber / AP
Late polar bear Knut is on display at the Natural History Museum in Berlin, on Feb. 15. Knut was hand-raised after his mother rejected him. He rose to stardom in 2007 as a cuddly cub, appearing on magazine covers, in a film and on mountains of merchandise. He died in 2011 after suffering from encephalitis.
Reuters -- Knut, the hand-reared polar bear who captured Germans' hearts before his early death in 2011, returned to his adoring Berlin public on Friday as a life-sized model bearing the animal's real fur.
Knut will stand for a month in the entrance foyer of the city's natural history museum, which has modified its entrance for the anticipated rush of visitors, a museum spokeswoman said.
The museum is keen to stress that Knut has not been stuffed. Rather, a replica of the bear was made, based on Knut's skeleton, in one of his favorite poses, and this was covered with the creature's pelt, in a procedure known as dermoplasty.
Arnd Wiegmann / Reuters
Knut plays with a blanket during the bear's first presentation in Berlin zoo on March 23, 2007.
Stefan Postles / Getty Images
s invaded a golf course in Australia, causing a stir at the Australian Women's Open in Canberra. TODAY.com's Dara Brown reports.
Karrie Webb of Australia waits for a mob of kangaroos to clear the fairway during day one of the Women's Australian Open at Royal Canberra Golf Club on Thursday, Feb. 14 in Canberra, Australia.
Kangaroos are not the only creatures troubling golfers in Canberra this week. According to The Associated Press, Swedish golfer Daniela Holmqvist used a tee to extract potentially fatal venom from her ankle after she was bitten by a spider during her qualifying round for the LPGA Tour's season-opening tournament.
All kinds of fur was on display in New York at the Westminster Kennel Club Show. Here are some of the furriest, four-legged competitors showing off their fluffy features.
Mike Segar / Reuters
Swagger, an Old English Sheepdog, poses for photographers after winning the Herding Group during competition at the 137th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Feb. 11.
John Moore / Getty Images
Handler Stacy Dohmeier carries Tucker, an A.S.C.O.B Cocker Spaniel, Feb. 12, at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
John Moore / Getty Images
A terrier prepares to compete at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Feb.12.
Mike Segar / Reuters
A Pomeranian is carried by its handler to be judged during competition in the Toy Group at the 137th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Feb. 11.
Mike Segar / Reuters
A Standard Poodle is judged during competition in the Non-Sporting Group at the 137th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Feb.11.
Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images
Paisley, a Wheaten Terrier, sits on a grooming table at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Feb. 12.
Mike Segar / Reuters
A Bearded Collie runs during competition in the Herding Group at the 137th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Feb.11.
Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images
Barry, a Komondorok, at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Feb. 12.
Related:
As officials at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show kept a keen eye out for any cosmetically enhanced dogs, Banana Joe became the first affenpinscher to win Best in Show. NBC's Katy Tur reports and Banana Joe's handler, Ernesto Lara, introduces him to the TODAY anchors.
Petros Karadjias / AP
A bird is entangled in a net used by poachers to trap migrating songbirds in the Larnaca district of Cyprus. Small birds, called ambelopoulia in Greek, are considered a delicacy in Cyprus, and poachers supply a lucrative market.
Petros Karadjias / AP
A man tries to free a bird caught on a branch covered with a sticky substance that poachers in Cyprus use to trap songbirds in his orchard in the Larnaca district.
Petros Karadjias / AP
Served whole, either boiled or pickled, the fatty birds are such an ugly sight on a plate that outsiders find it hard to fathom how there could be any profit to be made from them. For many Cypriots, however, the tangy-sweet taste of the birds is pure bliss.
By Menelaos Hadjicostis, The Associated Press — It's just before first light and the bird-catcher strings nets among the orange, pomegranate, fig and carob trees in his orchard. The sound of chirping emanates from inside a massive carob — a trick sent from speakers to attract tiny songbirds. By mid-morning, the man disentangles about a half-dozen blackcaps, snaps their necks with his teeth and drops them in a bucket.
For centuries, the migratory songbirds have been a prized delicacy among Cypriots. They are also an illegal one, as entry into the European Union forced Cyprus to ban the tradition of catching the creatures, some endangered, in nets or on sticks slathered with a glue-like substance.
Now economic crisis is luring many out-of-work Cypriots back into the centuries-old trade. They risk stiff fines and even jail time by supplying an underground market for the tiny songbirds illicitly served up in the country's tavernas — but they say it's their only way to make ends meet. Read the full story.
Editor's note: Images taken on Nov. 3, 2012 and made available to NBC News today.
Petros Karadjias / AP
A man, who didn't want to be identified because he is breaking the law by poaching, releases a bird that was trapped in a net in his orchard in the Larnaca district.
Related:
Killer outdoor cats slay billions of birds, small mammals yearly
Jim Cole / AP
Sled dogs Poncho, left, and his blind brother Gonzo are hooked up for a run at the Muddy Paw Sled Dog Kennel in Jefferson, N.H., on Jan. 17, 2013. Poncho has taken to helping his blind brother on regular runs.
The Associated Press reports — When Gonzo started tripping over his food dish three years ago, no one could explain or stop the Alaskan husky's quickly advancing blindness. But a veterinarian offered some simple advice: "Run this dog."
Jim Cole / AP
Ben Morehouse guides a team of sled dogs, including Gonzo and Poncho, through a field below the Presidential Range in the White Mountains in Jefferson, N.H.
Gonzo, one of 120 dogs at Muddy Paw Sled Dog Kennel, was happy to comply. With help from his brother, Poncho, he soon resumed his place pulling a sled all over New Hampshire's North Country to the delight of tourists and his caretakers, who quickly realized that if Gonzo didn't treat his blindness like an obstacle, neither would they.
Kennel owner Neil Beaulieu describes a spring day when he took the pair for a ride on a trail known for its deep snow, and Gonzo strayed to the edge of the trail and stumbled. With the team still moving forward, Poncho reached over, dug his head in the snow and pulled his brother out, grabbing his harness with his teeth.
"He essentially picked him out of the powder ... threw him back on the trail and never skipped a beat," Beaulieu said. "I've run dogs in a lot of places, all over the country, and it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen sled dogs do." Read the full story.
Video: Huskies train for famous sled dog rally in Scotland
Jim Cole / AP
Sled dogs at the Muddy Paw Sled dog Kennel in Jefferson, N.H. The kennel takes in rescues and "second-chance" dogs.
Australian Reptile Park via EPA
Zookeepers at the Australian Reptile Park stand on scales as they weigh a 21-foot-long python named Atomic Betty, on Jan 9. Reports state that the 14-year-old python weighed in at over 304 pounds.
Anupam Nath / AP
Tourists watch a one-horned rhinoceros inside the Kaziranga National Park, a wildlife reserve that provides refuge to more than 2,200 endangered Indian one-horned rhinoceros, in the northeastern Indian state of Assam.
Anupam Nath / AP
A one-horned rhinoceros stands inside the Kaziranga National Park.
Anupam Nath / AP
Forest guards patrol inside the Kaziranga National Park.
The Associated Press reports from Kaziranga, India — Out of the early morning mists and tall grass of northeast India emerges a massive creature with a dinosaur-like face, having survived millions of years despite a curse — literally on its head. As elephant-borne riders approach, the formidable hulk sniffs the air for danger, then resumes its breakfast.
This is Kaziranga, refuge to more than 2,200 endangered Indian rhinoceros and one of the world's best-protected wildlife reserves. But even here, where rangers follow shoot-to-kill orders, poachers are laying siege to "Fortress Kaziranga," attempting to sheer off the animals' horns to supply a surge in demand for purported medicine in China that's pricier than gold. At least 18 rhino fell to poachers in and around the park in 2012, compared to 10 in all of India in 2011. Read the full story.
Anupam Nath / AP
A two-and-half-month old male orphan one-horned rhinoceros calf rescued during recent floods walks at a rehabilitation center inside the Kaziranga National Park.
Anupam Nath / AP
A one-horned rhinoceros wades in water as a forest guard stands nearby inside the Kaziranga National Park.
Related content:
Penitentiary System Of Alagoas / AFP - Getty Images
A penitentiary agent holds a cat with a package of tools and a mobile phone taped to its body at Luiz de Oliveira Souza prison in Arapiraca, Alagoas, Brazil. Brazilian authorities captured the cat, which was entering the prison with a saw, bits for hand drills, a mobile phone, batteries and a charger. The cat belonged to the prisoners and was frequently taken by relatives to their homes, returning to the prison on its own.
Alagoas state prisons spokeswoman Cinthya Moreno says that the cat was caught New Year's Eve at the medium-security prison in the city of Arapiraca.
-- Reported by the Associated Press
AP
Items retrieved from the cat are displayed by authorities.
A cat slipped into a prison in Brazil but was intercepted by prison officials, who found drill bits, a saw and other items taped to its body. TODAY's Jenna Wolfe reports.
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