From the study of newly identified species to genetic modification, to racing, hunting, play, rescue and preservation. From a minuscule frog to an albino whale, fluorescent fish to a deep-sea Chimera, collected here are a handful of recent photographs of animals and our interactions with them, as companions, caretakers, observers, hunters and stewards. 

A dragonfish with teeth on both jaws and tongue is pictured in this image provided by the Census for Marine Life. even has teeth on its tongue. Though terrifying in appearance, the fish are only about the size of a banana.

A baby sloth is fed by Xinia Villegas at the Sloth Sanctuary in Cahuita de Limon August 25, 2010. The center shelters over 100 orphaned and injured sloths. The sloths receive rehabilitation before being returned to the forest, according to Judy Arroyo, a co-owner of the sanctuary.

A panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis) from Madagascar is presented during a photocall of the "Heimtiermesse" pet fair in Dresden, Germany on September 15, 2010.

Oregon firefighters from Clackamas Fire District #1 work to rescue a camel, Moses, who got stuck in a sinkhole 6 to 8 feet deep on Sept. 14th, 2010. Firefighters were called by the Oregon City owners of the camel, who have several camels and run a children's ministry. Firefighters shoveled mud for several hours to free him. A veterinarian said the animal looked unhurt.

Two same-age salmon, one a genetically modified salmon (rear), the other a non-genetically modified salmon (foreground) appear in this photo provided by AquaBounty Technologies. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recently been studying whether to approve marketing a genetically engineered animal as safe for people to eat.

A mink is seen on the side of a road in Hiliodendro, near the northern Greek city of Kastoria, on Monday, Aug. 30. 2010. More than 50,000 minks were set loose in the area days before, after raids by suspected animal rights activists on two fur farms.

A mink runs past other dead animals on a road in Hiliodendro, Greece on Monday, Aug. 30. 2010. More than 50,000 minks were set loose in the area days earlier, after raids by suspected animal rights activists. Greece's National Fur Breeders Association said most of the released animals were likely to die, adding that the cost to the farm owners could pass 1 million Euros ($1.27 million) despite an effort to recover the animals.

A gull is silhouetted against the rising moon in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010.

A Grevy's Zebra stands in its enclosure at the zoo in Frankfurt, Germany, on September 9, 2010.

Dogs ride the bus to Totally Dog Day Center in Miami, Florida on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010. Up to 25 dogs a day board the yellow school bus for their ride to the five-acre fully fenced doggy playground complete with a bone shaped swimming pool.

A worker Jerdon's jumping ant (Harpegnathos saltator), with sickle-shaped mandibles is pictured in this image provided by NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. US scientists said on August 27th that they have mapped the entire genome sequences of two different species of ants for the first time, (Harpegnathos saltator, and the Florida carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus), potentially providing insight into human aging and behavior.

Swallow (right), an 11-year-old cow from Yorkshire poses next to Freddie the bull in this photo provided by Guinness World Records. The minuscule cow has been named the world's smallest by the Guinness World Records book. The sheep-sized bovine measures roughly 33 inches (84 cm) from hind to foot.

This image provided by NOAA shows a close look one of the many interesting images collected by the Little Hercules ROV during the INDEX 2010 Exploration of the Sangihe Talaud Region off Indonesia in July, 2010. They predicted on Thursday Aug. 26, 2010 that as many as 40 new plant and animal species may have been discovered during their three-week expedition that ended Aug. 14.

A snail sits on a plant on August 24, 2010 in Dungeness, England. The Dungeness National Nature Reserve is a desolate landscape of wooden houses, a nuclear power station, lighthouses, and is one of the largest areas of vegetated shingle in the world.

A dog peeks out of a hole in his cage at the Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (BETA) charitable organization K9 shelter in the village of Monteverde, east of Beirut on September 15, 2010. BETA has the only K9 shelter in Lebanon and it is the only one which has a non-kill policy in the Middle-East. The dogs picked up from the streets, or abused by their owners wait at the shelter for adoption.

A rare albino Southern Right Whale calf surfaces off the coast of the Valdez Peninsula in Argentina's Patagonia region September 13, 2010.

A baby tiger cub is found packed among stuffed toy tigers in the suitcase of a woman flying from Bangkok to Iran, at Suvarnabhumi Airport, in Bangkok, Thailand on Aug. 22, 2010. After a suspicious-looking X-ray of the suitcase was seen, authorities at Bangkok's international airport discovered the drugged tiger cub hidden among stuffed toy tigers.

A tiny frog called Microhyla nepenthicola, Asia's smallest frog, sits on the edge of an American penny in Kuching, Sarawak state, Malaysia on April 4, 2010. The creature the size of a pea, has been discovered in a national park in Malaysia's Sarawak state on Borneo island, researchers said on August 26. The frog, originally discovered in 2004 but not described and announced until now, measures just 3 millimeters when it metamorphoses from a tadpole, and grows to about 9 to 11 millimeters as an adult. Photo released on August 26, 2010 by the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak's Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation

A moose walks in a field within the 30-km (19-mi) exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor near the abandoned village of Krasnopolie, some 370 km (230 miles) southeast of Minsk, Belarus on September 18, 2010. Still inhospitable to humans, the Chernobyl exclusion zone is now a nature reserve and teems with wild animals.

A man feeds a piece of bread to catfish in the Gadisar Lake at Jaisalmer in the desert Indian state of Rajasthan August 20, 2010. The man-made lake was built as a reservoir in the 14th century and is now home to catfish who are fed by tourists and devotees praying at nearby temples.

Ostriches look over a fence at an ostrich farm in the village of Yasnogorodka, some 50 km west from Kiev, Ukraine on September 4th, 2010. (

This image provided by NOAA shows an as-yet unidentified creature seen by the Little Hercules ROV during the INDEX 2010 Exploration of the Sangihe Talaud Region off Indonesia in July, 2010. (AP Photo/NOAA Okeanos

A young black bear falls from a tree safely into a net on Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010 after being darted with a tranquilizer near downtown Missoula, Montana. A crew from Northwestern Energy helped hold the net with officials from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The bear, a 70-pound yearling, had been roaming near downtown before being chased into the tree.

Horsemen ride during the "Toro de la Vega" festival, on September 14, 2010 in Tordesillas, Spain. The festival is one of the oldest in Spain with roots dating back to the fifteenth century. The bull has to be enticed across the river from the village to the plain "Vega" before it can be killed with spears and lances, to honor the "Virgen de la Pena".

A young female snow leopard and her mother Laura (left) eye a piece of meat on September 9, 2010 at the zoo in Leipzig, Germany. Three snow leopards were born at the zoo on May 6, 2010.

Genetically engineered angelfish (Pterophyllum) glow in a tank under a blacklight, at a fish farm in Pingtung, southern Taiwan on September 16, 2010. The fish are the world's first fluorescent angelfish which were created by a joint project between Taiwan's Academia Sinica and Jy Lin, a private biotechnology company. The breed is the largest fluorescent fish in the world which are able to mate and reproduce, said Yu-Ho Lin, Chairman of Jy Lin. The fish are expected to be sold at around $30 after certification.

A close-up image of a bull just before it is ridden by a cowboy during a rodeo in Diamantino, Brazil on August 26, 2010.

Rescue workers feed one of 60 Magellan penguins that appeared covered in petroleum on the Patagonian coast south of the Valdez Peninsula, in Puerto Madryn, Argentina on September 10, 2010. The penguins were found covered with petroleum that is believed to have come from a passing tanker, according to rescue workers.

British shorthair cat Berny vom Rosenpavillon sits under a yellow basket during a photocall for the "Heimtiermesse" pet fair in Dresden, Germany, on September 15, 2010.

A man stands in front of his fattened sacrificial pig as part of the Hakka Yimin Festival in Hsinchu, Taiwan on August 29, 2010. During the festival, believers worship ancestors who fought for the government against rebels during ancient times to protect their homeland. After their deaths, locals started sacrificing pigs as offerings during the annual Hungry Ghost festival to commemorate their bravery. The sacrifice begins with a competition for the fattest pig in town and the family that offers the fattest pig is believed to receive a great blessing.

A two-week-old Malay fish owl waits to be fed at the Jurong Bird Park on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2010, at the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore.

A newly hatched Yangtze alligator is seen at the Chinese Alligator Propagation Research Center in Xuancheng, Anhui province, China on September 14, 2010.

An elephant shrew is seen in this black and white handout picture released by The Zoological Society of London on September 21, 2010. Researchers may have discovered a previously unknown species of the giant elephant shrew - a small mammal with a nose like a trunk - in a remote Kenyan forest. They said on Tuesday they captured images of the rat-sized animal on camera-traps in the Boni-Dodori forest along Kenya's northeastern coast while they were researching biodiversity.

A helicopter is used by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to gather wild horses in the Conger Mountains near Border in Utah on September 7, 2010. The BLM plans to round-up approximately 480 wild horses for placement in the BLM's adoption program or long-term pastures.

Jasradj, an Indian lion relaxes with his head resting on a large rock in his enclosure on September 15, 2010 at the Zurich zoo.

USGS Wildlife Biologist Tony Fischbach lies on the beach observing a tagged walrus near Point Lay, Alaska on September 7th, 2010. Tens of thousands of walruses have come ashore in northwest Alaska because the sea ice they normally rest on has melted. Federal scientists say this massive move to shore by walruses is unusual in the United States.

Cattle feed in a meadow in front of the Wilder Kaiser mountain in Going, in the Austrian province of Tyrol, Monday, Sept. 20, 2010.

An overall view of a massive fish kill in the Bayou Chaland area of Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana is pictured in this handout photograph taken on September 10, 2010. The cause of the fish kill has not yet been determined, but the area they were discovered in was impacted by oil from the BP oil spill. Among the fish dead were pogie fish, redfish, shrimp, crabs and freshwater eels.

A Greyhound competes during the Greyhound World Championship in Rabapatona, Hungary on September 4, 2010

An unidentified octopus is seen by NOAA's Little Hercules ROV during the INDEX 2010 Exploration of the Sangihe Talaud Region off Indonesia in July, 2010.

A cat eyes a squirrel as it makes its way along a fence in Ormond Beach Florida on Wednesday morning, September 8, 2010. Cat and squirrel parted without incident.

A donkey transports ballot boxes to villages unreachable by vehicles in Panjshir province, north of Kabul, Afghanistan on September 17, 2010.

A newly born kiwi chick is seen at the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in Christchurch, New Zealand on September 12, 2010. The endangered New Zealand kiwi bird that survived a being buffeted in its egg during the Christchurch earthquake was hatched safely on September 12 in a boost to conservation efforts, officials said on September 13, 2010. The bird was named "Rickter" after the quake that measured 7.0 on the Richter scale hit the area on September 4.

A polar bear walks along the shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada on August 23, 2010.

Bubbles are seen in the eye of a beached gray whale south of Harborview Park in Everett, Washington on Friday morning, July 9, 2010.

Volunteers work to keep a stranded gray whale wet near Harborview Park in Everett, Washington Thursday morning July 8, 2010. The whale became stranded and freed itself multiple times and was seen being attacked by Orcas at one point.

A four week old Giant Red Kangaroo baby looks up from its mother's pouch at the Zoo in Berlin, August 10, 2010.

A kitten strays onto the pitch during the Super Cup soccer final between Birkirkara and Valletta at Ta' Qali National Stadium outside Valletta, Malta on August 21, 2010.

Abandoned puppies roam a village in Tanah Karo near the erupting Mount Sinabung, seen emitting volcanic ash in North Sumatra province on September 15, 2010. More than 20,000 people have fled their homes since the volcano first erupted late August and remain in emergency shelters. Volcanologists said Sinabung's long dormant period had made it highly unpredictable.

More than 120 pilot whales, slaughtered on July 23, 2010, are pictured on docks in the harbor of Torshavn, Faroe Islands, an autonomous province of Denmark. Every year, herds of pilot whales (Globicephala melaena) pass by the shores of the Faroe Islands. In the past fishermen used spears and harpoons, but today the whale hunting equipment is legally restricted to special knives, ropes, and assessing-poles for measurement.

A Faroese man shows his son how to remove teeth from a slaughtered whale's jaw in the harbour of Torshavn, Faroe Islands on July 23, 2010.

Silvery gibbon mother "Pam" holds her baby in the enclosure in the zoo Hellabrunn in Munich, Germany on August 20, 2010. The baby gibbon was born in the zoo on June 29, 2010.

A five-day-old Asian elephant calf helps his auntie to raise her foot for the keeper at the Melbourne Zoo, on September 15, 2010. The un-named, first-ever male calf to be born at Melbourne Zoo, weighed in at a hefty 142.2kg, much heavier than a normal calf.

One of 25 pilot whales that died on September 22, 2010 lies in the sand after the whales beached themselves at Spirits Bay, 320 km (200 mi) northwest of Auckland, New Zealand. In the second mass stranding in the area in two months, the Department of Conservation said a pod of 74 pilot whales were found but rescuers were trying to save almost 50 more stranded on the coast. Another 50 whales were offshore and were continuing to strand themselves, regional manager of the Department of Conservation (DOC) Jonathan Maxwell said.

At a dairy, a cow is silhouetted by the sun on August 25, 2010 near Immenstadt im Allgaeu, Germany. The alpine dairy is run by the Beck family in its fourth generation. Each year they produce about 6000 kg of cheese from May to September. The farm is only accessible with a jeep and the nearest street is a one hour walk away.

This image provided by NOAA shows a deep-sea Chimera in waters off Indonesia in July, 2010. Chimeras are most closely related to sharks, although their evolutionary lineage branched off from sharks nearly 400 million years ago, and they have remained an isolated group ever since. According to scientists the lateral lines running across this chimera are mechano-receptors that detect pressure waves (like ears). The dotted-looking lines on the frontal portion of the face (near the mouth) are ampullae de lorenzini and detect perturbations in electrical fields generated by living organisms.

A surf dog wipes out during the annual Surf City Surf Dog competition at Huntington Beach in California on September 19, 2010.