The week in wildlife – in pictures
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A Somali sengi (or elephant shrew) – a tiny, proboscis-nosed mammal – which for half a century many believed to be lost, has been living quietly in rocky areas of the Horn of Africa
Photograph: Steven Heritage/Global Wildlife Conservation/AFP/Getty
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As dusk falls, a cautious red-sided garter snake slithers to its lair under a rock after an evening of hunting in the shallows of the Umpqua River near Elkton, rural western Oregon
Photograph: Robin Loznak/PA
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Golden lion tamarins, also known as golden marmoset, nibble on fruits in Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. To help this threatened exotic animal reproduce, a viaduct has been built between forests
Photograph: Antonio Lacerda/EPA
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Turkey. An ecosystem where caracal and Eurasian lynx live together has been discovered in western Anatolia
Photograph: Yasin Ilemin/Anadolu Agency/Getty
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A chamois stands on a slope at Krasnaya Polyana in Sochi, Russia.
Photograph: Dmitry Feoktistov/Tass/Getty
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The birds in the environment category winner for the 2020 bird photographer of the year. Swifts over Iguazu Falls, which border Argentina and Brazil, by Francesco Filippo Pellegrini, Italy
Photograph: Francesco Filippo Pellegrini/BPOTY/Cover Images
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A young lion looks towards the skyline in Kenya’s Nairobi national park. the park faces threats of habitat loss, a decline in wildlife species and government infrastructure developments. According to National Geographic, 200,000 lions roamed across Africa a century ago. Today, there are less than 30,000
Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty
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Iridescence lies on the water in Petit Bel Air, south-east Mauritius, after hundreds of tonnes of oil leaked from the Japanese carrier MV Wakashio, causing an environmental disaster
Photograph: Fabien Dubessay/AFP/Getty Images
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Hyacinth macaws feed near a cow on a ranch in the Brazilian Pantanal. The Pantanal, a vast tropical wetland straddling Brazil’s border with Bolivia and Paraguay, is suffering its worst fires in more than two decades
Photograph: Luciano Candisani/Instituto Arara Azul
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A mating pair of large blue butterflies on Rodborough Common, Gloucestershire. The globally endangered large blue butterfly has been reintroduced to this Cotswolds’ site to halt its decline
Photograph: Sarah Meredith/National Trust
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Ospreys LM12 and NC0 have successfully raised a chick in their first season as a breeding pair near the Loch of the Lowes in Perthshire
Photograph: Scottish Wildlife Trust/PA
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A hornet hoverfly (Volucella zonaria) on bramble flowers. This large species (15-20mm long) colonised Britain in the 1940s and has now spread throughout the south, apparently as a result of climate change
Photograph: Rupert Higgins
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A wild boar and its two newborns in Teufelssee in Grunewald, Berlin, where it recently chased a naked man. The state forestry office has announced it will keep a close eye on the animals because of possible risks to humans
Photograph: Ingolf Konig-Jablonski/dpa
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A sea otter colony feed on kelp near Elkhorn Slough, an estuary in Monterey Bay, California. Studies show that sea otters have a positive impact on Elkhorn Slough’s seagrass
Photograph: Isabelle Groc
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Rescued pangolins, bought from a wildlife seller, rest at the Green Fingers wildlife conservation park in Lagos, Nigeria
Photograph: Seun Sanni/Reuters
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Confiscated sea turtle scutes – the scales that make up the top of a turtle shell – in Doral, Florida. The shipment of 1,400 scutes, on its way to Asia from the Caribbean, had been painted blue and labeled as plastic recyclables in an attempt to pass undetected
Photograph: Wilfredo Lee/AP
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Gabonese authorities uncover a box of ray fins during a routine inspection of a local trawler as part of a collaboration between the government of Gabon and Sea Shepherd to stop illegal and unregulated fishing
Photograph: Youenn Kerdavid/Sea Shepherd
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Mountain skink (Liopholis montana) in 2006 in Dargo High Plains in the Victorian alps, Australia. The hand-sized lizard lives in in the hilly regions that were badly burned during last summer’s bushfires
Photograph: Nick Clemann
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Lightning wildfire continues to spread in Fairfield, California
Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty
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An orangutan in Ketapang, west Kalimantan province, Borneo, Indonesia. The orangutan, named Boncel, was released into the forest after being found on a palm plantation
Photograph: International Animal Rescue/EPA
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Loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) are released into the sea after being treated in Mugla, Turkey
Photograph: Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty
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One of two lynx kittens recently born at the Wild Place Project, Bristol
Photograph: Katie Horrocks/Bristol Zoological Society
