August 14 Photo Brief with a 17-foot snake, a 4-inch elephant fetus, a 60-foot beached whale and a giant panda’s 9th birthday
A 17-foot-7-inch Burmese python weighing 164 pounds and carrying 87 eggs is caught, killed and studied in Florida, a 60-foot female fin whale perishes on the English shore, the first artificially inseminated elephant continues to thrive in utero and more in today’s daily brief.
- A female fin whale lies stranded on the beach at Carlyon Bay on August 13, 2012 in St Austell, England. The stranded whale was spotted by holidaymakers just after 5pm and initially rescuers had hoped to refloat it. However the 60 ft. (20 meter) fin whale, a globally endangered species and the second largest animal on the planet, sadly died on the beach. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
- Filipinos head out on a bus from a flooded region as more rain falls in the coastal region in Bulacan, Philippines. A major topical storm has hit the Northern Luzon bringing days of wet weather to a region still recovering from massive flooding. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
- A man covers his head with a bucket as more rain falls in the flooded coastal region in Bulacan, Philippines. According to the Office of Civil Defense, the floods have left at least 96 people dead with the flooding effecting up to 2.68 million people, including more than 440,000 fleeing to evacuation centers, in Manila and surrounding provinces. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
- An Afghan young man carries balloons during a welcoming ceremony for the country’s athletes at Kabul stadium following the completion of the 2012 London Olympic Games. The six-strong Afghanistan Olympic team returned to Kabul, bringing home a bronze medal in Taekwondo. (Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images)
- An oncology nurse prepares a birthday cake in honor of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro at Havana’s Fajardo Hospital August 13, 2012. Revolutionary icon Fidel Castro turned 86 on Monday, out of sight, but not out of mind as Cubans wonder about his future and theirs at a time of change in one of world’s last communist countries. The bearded leader, who was a constant presence and transfixed Cubans for decades with his fiery rhetoric, still holds a special place in the hearts and minds of the Caribbean island’s 11 million residents, even as age and infirmity force him farther into the background. (Desmond Boylan/Reuters)
- An aerial view taken using an Octocopter, a remote controlled helicopter, shows the ceremony honoring the Dutch Olympic team in Den Bosch, the Netherlands on August 13 2012. The Netherlands won 20 medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games, including six gold medals. (Paul Raats/AFP/Getty Images)
- A Bahraini Shiite Muslim old man walks along a street during clashes between protestors and riot police following a demonstration in solidarity with jailed Bahraini human rights and political activists in the village of Sitra, south of Manama. Several activists have been sent to jail since the start of Shiite-led pro-democracy protests in the Gulf kingdom February 2011. (Mohammed Al-Shaikh/AFP/Getty Images)
- People lay flower arrangements during preparations for the inauguration of the Flower Carpet 2012 on the Grand Market Square in Brussels. (BELGA PHOTO/Nicolas Maeterlinck/AFP/Getty Images)
- Schoenbrunn zoo director Dagmar Schratter displays an ultrasonic image of an elephant foetus during a news conference in Vienna. The image shows an elephant fetus sized 10.6 cm (4.2 inches) on day 141 of the pregnancy of its mother Tonga, in Schoenbrunn zoo in Vienna taken April 18, 2012. This is the first worldwide successful insemination of an African elephant using frozen sperm taken from a wild elephant bull in South Africa, the zoo said on Tuesday. (Heinz-Peter Bader/Reuters)
- A boy runs in the water near a pier at sunset in Tripoli August 13, 2012. (Esam Al-Fetori/Reuters)
- Researchers prepare to examine the internal anatomy of the largest Burmese python found to date in Florida at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, Florida in this picture taken on August 10, 2012 and released on August 14, 2012. The 17-foot-7-inch snake, captured in Everglades National Park in April 2012, weighed 164 pounds and carried 87 eggs in its oviducts, according to researchers. Pictured are L-R: Claudia Grant, Leroy Nunez and Nicholas Coutu. (Kristen Grace/Florida Museum of Natural History at University of Florida/Handout/Reuters)
- Researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the University of Florida campus examine the internal anatomy of the largest Burmese python found in Florida to date in this August 10, 2012 photo. The 17-foot-7-inch snake weighed 164 pounds and carried 87 eggs in its oviducts, a state record. Following scientific investigation, the snake will be mounted for exhibition at the museum for about five years, and then returned for exhibition at Everglades National Park. Pictured are Rebecca Reichart (from left), Leroy Nunez, Nicholas Coutu, Claudia Grant and Kenneth Krysko. The giant snakes — native to Southeast Asia and first found in the Everglades in 1979 — prey on native birds, deer, bobcats, alligators and other large animals. (University of Florida/Kristen Grace/Florida Museum of Natural History/AFP/Getty Images)
- Kenneth Krysko displays some of the eggs found in the largest Burmese python from Florida to date in this August 10, 2012 photo. “This thing is monstrous, it’s about a foot wide,” Kenneth Krysko, the herpetology collection manager at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said of the 17 feet and 7 inch (5.35 meters) creature. Scientists at the University of Florida based museum examined the 164.5 Lbs (74.5 kilograms) snake on Friday as part of a government research project into managing the pervasive effect of Burmese pythons in Florida. (University of Florida/Kristen Grace/Florida Museum of Natural History/AFP/Getty Images)
- Indigenous people participate in a festival inaugurating the Amazon River as one of the seven natural wonders of the world in Iquitos, Peru on August 13, 2012. The Amazon River made it to the list of winners in a global contest conducted by the New Seven Wonders Foundation, according to local media. (Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters)
- Yang Guang (Sunshine), a giant male panda, looks on during his ninth birthday, his first on Scottish soil at the Edinburgh Zoo. Yang Guang is one of the two giant pandas which arrived at the zoo on December 4, 2011 and will spend 10 years on loan in the Scottish capital, a deal agreed after years of high-level political and diplomatic negotiations with China. (Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images)
- A zookeeper holds a special cake in a shape of a panda for the ninth birthday of Yang Guang (Sunshine), a giant male panda at the Edinburgh Zoo. (Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images)
- A boy covered in an Israeli flag lifts a curtain during a welcoming ceremony for Jewish immigrants from North America upon their arrival to Israel, at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the 350 immigrants at an official ceremony in the airport on Tuesday. Out of the 350 immigrants, 127 of them plan to join the Israeli Defense Force. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)
- A dog shakes water out of its fur at Edersee reservoir near Rehbach, Germany. (Uwe Zucchi/AFP/Getty Images)
- A man, with his face painted depicting the colours of the Pakistan national flag, attends a ceremony to mark the country’s Independence Day at the Wagah border crossing with India on the outskirts of Lahore. Pakistan gained independence from British rule in 1947. (Mohsin Raza/Reuters)
- A member of Russian female punk group Pussy Riot, who is still at large, takes a break after an interview with Reuters journalists in Moscow August 13, 2012. A court will deliver a verdict on Friday in the case of three members of the band who are accused of hooliganism after a performance in Moscow’s main cathedral. (William Webster/Reuters)