Circle of life (and death)

For every beginning, there is an ending, and animal lovers learned that lesson again last week.

First, on Friday, the Prospect Park Zoo welcomed its newest arrival, a kangaroo joey named Riley.

But the next day, tragedy struck at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, where a 43-year-old sand tiger shark Bertha sucked in her last gill-aided breath.

That circle of life, folks; it giveth and it taketh away.

Julie Larsen Maher / Wildlife Conservation Society