Gerald Herbert is a staff photographer for the AP based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Before that he was a staff photographer for the Washington Times, the New York Daily News and a freelancer for the AP in New Orleans, Boston and New York. Photo: A worker grooms away tracks after an alligator crossed through a sand trap on the 14th hole during the first round of the PGA Tour Zurich Classic golf tournament at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, La., Thursday, April 25, 2013. (Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

This tiny hedgehog is in a prickly position as hes unable to grow spikes, leaving him needing round-the-clock care. The woodland critter was found with no spikes and has been taken in by a family hoping to nurse him back to health so he can be released into the wild. Named Mr Prickleless, the hedgehog was rescued by Dina Nixon and her daughter Jennifer, 25, after being taken into a rescue centre in December last year. It is not known what happened to his spikes, but Dina has vowed that if they ever do return he will be returned to the wild. But for now the hedgehog has taken shelter in a rabbit hutch in her garden. (Photo by Caters News Agency)

An aircraft drops water during a wildfire near Olympia town, western Greece, Thursday, August 5, 2021. Wildfires rekindled outside Athens and forced more evacuations around southern Greece Thursday as weather conditions worsened and firefighters in a round-the-clock battle stopped the flames just outside the birthplace of the ancient Olympics. (Photo by Giannis Spyrounis/ilialive.gr via AP Photo)

Valeria Gonzalez Maidana of Paraguay performs in the final round of the first Budapest Ballet Grand Prix in the National Dance Theatre in Budapest, Hungary on November 23, 2023. The international ballet competition was launched by the Hungarian Dance University, a leading training facility of Hungarian professional dancers, to promote ballet and dance art in Hungary. The competition offers young dancers an opportunity to compete and gain exposure in the international dance scene, and provides scholarships and career opportunities for the most outstanding dancers. The event runs from 21 to 24 November. (Photo by Tamas Vasvari/EPA)

A young migrant runs through the Peace Oasis of the Holy Spirit Amparito shelter where migrants sleep on the floor on mats in Villahermosa, Mexico, late Friday, June 7, 2024. After the head of Mexico's immigration agency ordered a halt to deportations in December, migrants have been left in limbo as authorities round up migrants across the country and dump them in the southern Mexican cities of Villahermosa and Tapachula. (Photo by Felix Marquez/AP Photo)

It would seem to be something you'd see only in a cartoon or at a Phish concert, but according to park rangers in New South Wales, Australia, dozens of giant, fluorescent pink slugs have been popping up on a mountaintop there. The eight-inch creatures have been spotted only on Mount Kaputar, a 5,000-foot peak in the Nandewar Range in northern New South Wales. Scientists believe the eye-catching organisms are survivors from an era when Australia was home to rainforests. A series of volcanoes, millions of years of erosion and other geological changes “have carved a dramatic landscape at Mount Kaputar”, the park service wrote on its Facebook page, and unique arid conditions spared the slugs from extinction. (Photo by Michael Murphy/AFP Photo/NSW Environment Office)

To most of us, hand-feeding crocodiles might sound like a one-way ticket to a watery grave. But for Jose Eduardo Chaves Salas, 32, coming within inches of the fearsome creatures’ razor-sharp teeth is all in a day’s work. He runs Jose's Crocodile River Tour on the Tarcoles River in Costa Rica, where tourists can watch him feed crocs up to 17 feet long. Photo: A tour guide shows a thumbs up as he sits on top of a crocodile on the Tarcoles river in Tarcoles, Costa Rica. (Photo and caption by Barcroft Media)

Handler Jorge Garcia-Bengochea holds Honor, a miniature therapy horse from Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses, as they visit with patients at the Kravis Children's Hospital at Mount Sinai in the Manhattan borough of New York City, March 16, 2016. Some of the most powerful medicine delivered to young patients at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York on Wednesday came in a package less than 32 inches tall and with a tail. Honor, a 10-month-old colt with Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses, trotted into the hearts of dozens of children and teens being treated at the Manhattan hospital. (Photo by Mike Segar/Reuters)