It doesn’t make for the most flattering photoshoot, but there is a reason these zebras at Lewa wildlife conservancy in Kenya in the second decade of August 2025 are stood head to tail: they use their tails to swat flies from each others’ faces. (Photo by Andrew Campbell/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Germany's Darja Varfolomeev competes with a ribbon during the individual apparatus final at the 41st FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships at Carioca Arena, in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, August 24, 2025. (Photo by Bruna Prado/AP Photo)

In more “raccoons are getting more like us” news, a drunk raccoon was found in a liquor store in Virginia, US in the first decade of December 2025. The animal had got into the shop via some loose ceiling tiles, knocked bottles of spirits off the shelves, lapped up the contents and passed out in the toilets. Once it had sobered up, it was released back into the wild – no doubt with a crashing hangover. (Photo by AP Photo)

Alfred the frog looks almost as scary as the pumpkin he is perched on at London Zoo 26 October 2011. Keepers at the zoo have joined in the Halloween tradition by supplying pumpkin lunches to some of their animals, including the giant waxy monkey frog. However Alfred is not quite the giant figure his species name suggests – he actually measures up at around 4 inches (10 centimeters). (Photo by EPA/Zoological Society of London)

Grumpy Cat attends the “Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book” Book Event at Bookends Bookstore on October 16, 2013 in Ridgewood, New Jersey. (Photo by Michael N. Todaro/WireImage)

Three very colouful alpacas enjoy the hot weather at Toft Farm, Rugby, on July 19, 2013. (Photo by Caters News)

Indian policemen carry the body of one of their colleagues killed in a rebel attack in the town of Dinanagar, in the northern state of Punjab, India, Monday, July 27, 2015. Indian forces fought an extended gunbattle Monday with militants who attacked a moving bus and stormed into a police station in a northern town bordering Pakistan. (Photo by Channi Anand/AP Photo)

Two woman lie in a puddle of squashed tomatoes during the annual “Tomatina” tomato fight fiesta, in the village of Bunol, 50 kilometers outside Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, August 26, 2015. The streets of an eastern Spanish town are awash with red pulp as thousands of people pelt each other with tomatoes in the annual "Tomatina" battle that has become a major tourist attraction. At the annual fiesta in Bunol on Wednesday, trucks dumped 150 tons of ripe tomatoes for some 22,000 participants, many from abroad to throw during the hour-long morning festivities. (Photo by Alberto Saiz/AP Photo)