Unusual animals for sale at teeming Kirkuk market

It's Friday on a bustling market street in Kirkuk.

Its visitors are being watched - not just by other people, but monkeys, foxes, ostriches, large lizards, baboons, cats....

Kirkuk's animal market, where breeders and traders display their living goods, attracts visitors from all social strata.

"You have government employees, policemen, military men, and even doctors," bird shop owner Ahmed Ridha says. 

Bird-loving visitors are particularly spoilt for choice. Most are Iraqi species, though, as foreign birds do not fare well here.

Reporting by Associated Press