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Subscribe to RSSSabine Conrad plays with her French sheepdog El Lobo in front of the snow-covered rooftops of Erfurt, central Germany, on Jan. 17.
Slideshow: Winter's frozen splendor
Jens Meyer / AP
Second whale shark in a week to die on Indonesian beach
Dwi Oblo / Reuters
A rescue team member tries to tie a rope around a whale shark that died after being stranded on Parangkusumo beach, near Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Aug. 4. It is the second whale shark to die after being stranded near Yogyakarta this week. The first was found dead 5 miles west three days ago. PhotoBlog featured a post on the incident: Whale shark dies after becoming stranded on Indonesia beach
Wimbledon's stolen hawk, Rufus, found safe and well
Dan Kitwood / Getty Images
Imogen Davis poses with Rufus the Hawk on day seven of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships on Monday.
Rufus, the Wimbledon hawk stolen by thieves during the first week of the tennis tournament, has been found safe and well, police in London said late Sunday.
The American Harris hawk, who deters pigeons from the All England Club, was stolen along with his box overnight between Thursday and Friday.
He was handed in to an office of the national animal charity RSPCA in Putney, south west London, and is back in his owners' hands, police said.
Ian Walton / Getty Images, file
Rufus the resident Harris Hawk keeps the courts pigeon free on Day Seven of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in this 2009 file photo.
Hopes were raised of finding him safe after the box was spotted abandoned just north of the tennis venue on Sunday afternoon.
The news was confirmed on Rufus’ personal Twitter feed, which has been silent since his disappearance except for appeals for information.
He was taken from a car parked on a private drive in a nearby residential street, with the rear window open for ventilation.
Owner Imogen Davis said that she "could not believe" that the Hawk had been found and thanked everyone for returning him safely.
Hawking was first introduced to the All England Club in 1999 as an environmentally-friendly method of pest control.
Pigeons are not the Harris Hawk's natural prey, and they are trained not to attack but to circle and fly around the courts to scare the birds.
Rufus is flown each morning and evening of the championships before and after play, but not during, to avoid any distraction.
ITV News is the UK partner of NBC News.
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Crocodile with taste for pet dogs captured after terrorizing Australian town
Northern Territory Parks And Wildlife via AFP - Getty Images
A 14.5 foot male estuarine (saltwater) crocodile retrieved from a crocodile trap at Daly River Community some 139 miles south of Darwin, Australia.
A 14.5-foot-long crocodile that may have eaten up to nine pet dogs has been hauled out of a river in Australia.
Community police officer Mark Casey told Australia's Northern Territory News that there had been nine reports of dogs being taken in the month before the crocodile was trapped.
"Crocs are an ever-present danger but you don't see them," he said.
"They can sit for days on end on the other side of the river and watch you go fishing off the same log or rock - that's how they hunt."
"Next thing you know, bang, the dog's gone."
Previously on PhotoBlog: Just who is the biggest crocodile of them all?
Elephant heads to shopping mall after escaping circus
Residents in Cork, Ireland, were surprised to find an escaped circus elephant running around a parking lot.
Shoppers in Ireland got a large surprise when a 5,500 pound elephant ran away from her circus and wandered around a parking lot.
Drivers called police on Tuesday after seeing the 40-year-old animal - called ‘Baby’ - wandering between cars parked outside stores in a suburb of Cork, according to a report in the Irish Examiner.
Handlers attempted to lead Baby back to the circus but the reluctant pachyderm made another dash for freedom, heading towards a nearby mall.
One driver claimed the Indian elephant had damaged his parked car while evading circus employees, the newspaper reported.
It said the animal was eventually stopped and escorted back to the circus, located a short distance away.
Irish broadcaster RTE reported the circus as saying Baby broke loose and ran away because she did not want to take a shower.
Leopard scalps man during deadly attack in India
Manas Paran / The Sunday Indian via AP
A wild full grown leopard scalps the head of a man as it attacks after wandering into a residential neighborhood in Gauhati, India, Jan. 7. The leopard ventured into a crowded area, killing one and injuring four others before it was captured and caged.
Manas Paran / AP
A man looks to a bystander after he was attacked by a wild leopard in a residential neighborhood in Gauhati, in the northern state of Assam, India, on Saturday, Jan. 7.
A wild leopard attacked five people on a three-hour rampage in the eastern Indian city of Guwahati, killing one man before being tranquilized by authorities.
Residents told AP the leopard attacked a 50-year-old lawyer as he talked on his cellphone. He was rushed to a hospital where he died Sunday.
Witnesses told the Calcutta Telegraph that unruly crowds cornered and threatened the leopard, which may have provoked it.
Manas Paran, a local newspaper photographer, recounted the attack. After mauling a cook (who had part of his scalp torn off, seen in these pictures), the leopard jumped walls and wandered to other homes in the crowded neighborhood. At one point Paran saw a man chasing the leopard with a metal rod. Despite his warnings, the man continued and then the leopard attacked.
“I was worried that it would turn on me. My heart was thumping and hands were shaking; I was terrified,” Paran told the Telegraph.
Wildlife officials eventually tranquilized the leopard and planned to release it at a wildlife park 120 miles west of the city home to around 1 million.
More from The Telegraph India: Leopard panic in Guwahati
Previously on PhotoBlog: Leopard mauls six in village in India
Scott Heppell / AP
The world greets a new year, a tea party supporter exits the Iowa caucuses, presidential candidate Mitt Romney gets advice and support from a past nominee, a man and his birds are saved from a Los Angeles arson and more.