The week in wildlife – in pictures
Compiled by Eric Hilaire
A stalking tiger, playful long-eared owl chicks and a rare dormouse are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world.
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Pallas’s gulls fly over the Aral Sea outside the village of Karateren, Kazakhstan. The small village used to be dominated by fishermen until the water receded due to the rivers that feed it being diverted to irrigate the desert– but now a dam project has successfully returned some water, and fishing, to the village.
Photograph: Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters
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A bumble bee and ladybird on a cornflower on a sunny day in Belper, UK.
Photograph: Katie Johnson/Alamy
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A tigress stalks a deer in Tadoba Andhari tiger reserve in Maharashtra, India.
Photograph: Aishwarya Sridhar/Barcroft Images
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A monkey sits on the cliff in Tongjing scenic spot, a macaque habitat in Chongqing, southwest China.
Photograph: Liu Chan/Xinhua/Barcroft Images
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Migrating flamingoes fly past buildings under construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Development is encroaching ever-closer to the Ras Al Khor wildlife sanctuary where the flamingoes reside.
Photograph: Kamran Jebreili/AP
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Swiftlets in Bokpyin township, Tanintharyi region in southeastern Myanmar. Trade in the bird’s edible nests is rising due to demand from China’s growing middle class and dozens of buildings dedicated to the tiny birds have sprung up around Bokpyin in recent years.
Photograph: Ye Aung Thu/AFP/Getty Images
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An outstanding orb-weaver ( Araneus Praesignis) – also known as an alien butt spider.
Photograph: CSIRO
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One of Amsterdam’s urban heron population. Over the years a large population of grey herons have made an unlikely home in the city.
Photograph: Julie Hrudova Photography
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A rare hazel dormouse at the National Trust’s Cotehele Estate in Cornwall, UK.
Photograph: James Robbins/National Trust Images
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Two long-eared owl chicks play in the grass at a wildlife sanctuary near the village of Vygonoshchi, Belarus.
Photograph: Sergei Gapon/AFP/Getty Images
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A young eastern cottontail rabbit in a backyard in Ames, Iowa, US.
Photograph: Ivan Kuzmin/Alamy
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A wild Asiatic elephant eats water hyacinth in a wetlands area on the outskirts of Guwahati, in India’s Assam state.
Photograph: Biju Boro/AFP/Getty Images
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Week-old Burmese pythons in an enclosure at the Alipore Zoological garden in Kolkata, India. This is the first time reticulated and Burmese pythons have been successfully artificially bred at the zoo.
Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images
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A common redshank in the Yorkshire Dales, UK.
Photograph: Wayne Hutchinson/Alamy
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Marine biologist Sylvia Earle speaks at a special event in the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York to commemorate World Oceans Day on 8 June.
Photograph: Kim Haughton/UN Photo
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A new arrival for Ronald the shag who nests right next to the main jetty on Staple Island, one of the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast, England, UK. He was christened Ronald by school children visiting the island.
Photograph: Sarah Lawrence/National Trust
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A female American black bear with cubs in Yellowstone national park, Wyoming, US.
Photograph: Ian Rutherford/Alamy
Source: theguardian.com
