Best of the Year: Animal Tracks

From dogs and cats to birds and bears, take a look back at the most outstanding animal photos of 2013. Nothin' but hound dogs Tim Coulson, huntmaster at the Lauderdale Hunt in Lauder, Scotland, exercises hounds in the snow on Jan. 21.

Dogs walk next to a puddle during sunset in Dusseldorf, Germany, on Jan. 30.

Chispa, a dog wearing a bridal veil, poses for a picture during her symbolic wedding, as part of the upcoming celebrations of Valentine's Day organized by a local municipality in Lima, Peru, on Feb. 10.

Common cranes walk on a snow-covered field near Petersdorf, Germany on March 10.

Caitlin, 9, sleeps on her Irish wolfhound on March 7, the first day of Crufts dog show in Birmingham, England.

Sandhill cranes take off, flying to roost overnight along the Platte River near Gibbon, Nebraska, on March 27.

A hare sits on a field near Hanover, Germany, on April 22. Hares are very fast-moving animals; the European brown hare is able to run at speeds of up to 35 mph.

Martha Jaffa of Cleveland, Ohio, and her dog Fiore watch golfers on the fourth hole during the second round of the LPGA Kraft Nabisco Championship golf tournament in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on April 5.

A cat sits in the door of a house in Shanghai, China, on April 30.

A young Indian lion is cleaned by its mother at the Indian House of the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden on May 24.

A dragonfly pauses on a blade of grass at Pendleton King Park in Augusta, Georgia, on June 17.

A deer peeks out from a field on South Baltimore Road on June 24 in Spokane, Wash.

Gophers line city sidewalks after their homes were flooded in the East Village area of Calgary, Alberta, on June 22.

Dan McManus and his service dog, Shadow, hang-glide together outside Salt Lake City, Utah on July 22. The two have been flying together for about nine years with a specially made harness for Shadow.

Barbary apes challenge each other for food at the zoo in Erfurt, Germany, on July 26.

An Indian parrot hatchling is fed by hand in Dimapur, India, on July 24, after being caught in a forest by a local hunter and offered for sale in the Indian state of Nagaland.

Bo, left, and Sunny, the Obama family's new puppy, are pictured on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on August 19, 2013. The White House announced its furry new resident on Monday. Sunny, a one-year-old Portuguese water dog, moved into the stately Washington residence of President Barack Obama and his family, joining Bo, a male dog of the same breed, the White House announced on its website.

An eagle flies over the Olympic stadium in Rome before a football match on Aug. 25.

A Grévy's zebra looks on from its pen at a zoo in Mulhouse, France on Sept. 23.

Abi, a wild sparrow, looks at a tablet in the town of Minusinsk, Russia, on Aug. 22. Since June 2013, Vadim Veligurov has been caring for the lost baby bird who has not flown away.

A hummingbird flies on the field during the game between the Minnesota Twins and the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on Sept. 2 in Houston, Texas.

Pugs compete in a pug and bulldog race in Wernau, Germany, on Sept. 1.

A snowy owl sits in the zoological garden in Hof, Germany, on Nov. 5.

A pigeon lands on a boy's head in the flooded Saint Mark's Square in Venice, Italy on Nov. 4.

Hounds of The Cheshire Forest Hunt push their snouts through the bars of their kennels as they eagerly await their morning walk in preparation for the start of the new hunting season on Oct. 31 in Knutsford, England.

An 11-day-old giraffe calf stands beside his mother at Himeji Central Park in Japan on Oct. 16.

Grumpy Cat attends the "Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book" event at the Bookends Bookstore in Ridgewood, New Jersey, on Oct. 16.

A polar bear enjoys a sunny autumn day at the Warsaw Zoo in Poland on Oct. 1.

Fourteen panda cubs lie together at the China Research and Conservation Center in China on Sept. 29.

A turkey looks around its enclosure at Seven Acres Farm in North Reading, Mass. on Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving.

Donna Auchinvole with Duke and Lorraine Clark with Barron, Clydesdale horses, attend a topping out ceremony on Nov. 27 in Falkirk, Scotland.

A Monarch butterfly flies at the El Rosario butterfly sanctuary in the Mexican state of Michoacan on Nov. 27.

A baby loggerhead sea turtle crawls to the sea after being released by members of the Brazilian Sea Turtle National Conservation Program at the Costa do Sauipe resort in Sao Joao da Mata, Brazil, on Dec. 5. Founded in 1980, the Tamar project works on the protection, research and management of the sea turtles in Brazil. Over the past 33 years, the project has protected 15,000,000 sea turtle hatchlings, the organization said.

A dog stands in the snow at a park in Jerusalem on Dec. 12. Snow fell in Jerusalem and parts of the occupied West Bank where schools and offices were widely closed and public transport was paused.