The week in wildlife – in pictures

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a bellowing stag, climbing crabs and a ball of bees

Main image: A red deer stag bellows at sunrise in Bushy Park, England. Photograph: Javier García/Rex/Shutterstock

  • Crabs climb mangroves at the site of a reforestation project in the Hamata area south of Marsa Alam along Egypt’s southern Red Sea. Fish swim among thousands of newly planted mangroves, part of a programme to boost biodiversity, protect coastlines and fight climate change and its impacts. After decades of destruction when the mangroves were cleared, all that remained were fragmented patches totalling about 500 hectares (1,200 acres), the size of only a few hundred football pitches
    Crabs climb mangroves at the site of a mangrove reforestation project in the Hamata area south of Marsa Alam along Egypt’s southern Red Sea

  • A nutria, also known as a coypu or swamp rat, swims near Karasu Reed Field in Igdir, Turkey. Nutrias, originally native to subtropical and temperate South America, live at the foot of Mount Ararat
    A nutria, also known as a coypu or swamp rat, swims near Karasu Reed Field in Igdir, Turkey

  • A reindeer stands in a forest near Vikajärvi, Finland
    A reindeer stands in a forest near Vikajärvi, Finland

  • A red squirrel looks for food in the park surrounding the Soviet military cemetery in Warsaw, Poland
    A red squirrel looks for food in the park surrounding the Soviet military cemetery in Warsaw, Poland

  • A baby elephant seal on the sand at Isla Escondida beach near Rawson, Chubut province, Argentina
    A baby elephant seal on the sand at Isla Escondida beach near Rawson, Chubut province, Argentina

  • An Anatolian leopard caught on a camera trap in Turkey. The leopard is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list and in Turkey was assumed to be extinct due to large-scale poaching in 1974 in Ankara’s Beypazarı district. However, a campaign was launched to protect and save the leopards in the country
    An Anatolian leopard caught on a camera trap in Turkey. The leopard is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list and in Turkey was assumed to be extinct due to large-scale poaching in 1974 in Ankara’s Beypazarı district. However, a campaign was launched to protect and save the leopards in the country

  • A spotted orbweaver, or barn spider, photographed at midnight in a Neem tree (Azadirachta indica) at Tehatta, West Bengal, India. The spiders are nocturnal and have the peculiar habit of eating and rebuilding their webs each day. Huge orbs are built with sticky silk at dusk and used for snaring prey during the night. At dawn, the spider reingests the strands (along with moisture that has collected on it as dew) and recycles the nutrients for the next web
    A spotted orbweaver, or barn spider, photographed at midnight in a Neem tree (Azadirachta indica) at Tehatta, West Bengal, India. The spiders are nocturnal and have the peculiar habit of eating and rebuilding their webs each day. Huge orbs are built with sticky silk at dusk and used for snaring prey during the night. At dawn, the spider reingests the strands (along with moisture that has collected on it as dew) and recycles the nutrients for the next web

  • Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) are seen at Punta Tombo national reserve, Chubut province, Argentina
    Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) are seen at Punta Tombo national reserve, Chubut province, Argentina

  • A heron in a lake near Sigiriya in Dambulla, Sri Lanka
    A heron in a lake near Sigiriya in Dambulla, Sri Lanka

  • A deer looks towards a one-horned rhinoceros at Kaziranga national park, in the north-east Indian state the park have been increasing in numbers, thanks to stronger police efforts against poaching and artificial mud platforms that keep the animals safe from floods
    A deer looks towards a one-horned rhinoceros at Kaziranga national park, in the north-east Indian state the park have been increasing in numbers, thanks to stronger police efforts against poaching and artificial mud platforms that keep the animals safe from floods

  • The big buzz by Karine Aigner, the winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022. Aigner captured the flurry of activity as a buzzing ball of cactus bees spun over the hot sand in south Texas, US. After a few minutes, the pair at its centre – a male clinging to the only female in the scrum – flew away to mate. The world’s bees are under threat from habitat loss, pesticides and climate change. With 70% of bee species nesting underground, it is increasingly important that areas of natural soil are left undisturbed
    The big buzz by Karine Aigner, the winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022. Aigner captured the flurry of activity as a buzzing ball of cactus bees spun over the hot sand in south Texas, US. After a few minutes, the pair at its centre – a male clinging to the only female in the scrum – flew away to mate. The world’s bees are under threat from habitat loss, pesticides and climate change. With 70% of bee species nesting underground, it is increasingly important that areas of natural soil are left undisturbed

  • A red deer stag bellows at sunrise in Bushy Park, England
    A red deer stag bellows at sunrise in Bushy Park, England

  • Australian scientists have observed a rapid decline in Adélie penguin numbers off the Antarctic coast. Ecologists believe population decline near Mawson research station is related to environmental changes that made foraging difficult
    Adélie penguins. Australian scientists have observed a rapid decline in numbers off the Antarctic coast.

  • A bee collects pollen on a cosmos flower in the National Trust gardens at Cliveden, England
    A bee collects pollen on a cosmos flower in the National Trust gardens at Cliveden, England

  • An elephant seal defends her calf from a striated caracara in the Falkland Islands. One of the winners of the Nature Conservancy photo awards 2022.
    An elephant seal defends her calf from a striated caracara in the Falkland Islands. One of the winners of the Nature Conservancy photo awards 2022.

  • A red fox captured on a camera trap. The department of biosciences at Durham University is looking for citizen scientists to help identify the animals in the videos and images uploaded in the MammalWeb database that were taken by camera traps across the country. The insight will help provide a more comprehensive record of UK mammal activity and support future research and conservation efforts
    A red fox captured on a camera trap

  • A mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) in Virunga national park, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Global wildlife populations have fallen nearly 70% in less than 50 years, conservationists have warned. WWF’s latest Living Planet report covers almost 32,000 populations of 5,230 species of animals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish around the world. It reveals population sizes declined by 69% between 1970 and 2018, due to the destruction of natural habitat for agriculture, while climate change threatens wildlife
    A mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) in Virunga national park, Democratic Republic of the Congo

  • Beavers by the Vltava River in Prague, Czech Republic
    Beavers by the Vltava River in Prague, Czech Republic

  • A cormorant has a lucky escape as it’s nearly swallowed whole by a pelican in a fight over fish. The bigger bird swooped down and closed its beak around the cormorant, forcing it to drop the trout at Sandy Woods Lake in Milpitas, California, UK
    A cormorant has a lucky escape as it’s nearly swallowed whole by a pelican in a fight over fish. The bigger bird swooped down and closed its beak around the cormorant, forcing it to drop the trout at Sandy Woods Lake in Milpitas, California, UK

  • Pangolins are released into the wild once after they were seized from illegal trade in Mangkol Hill, Central Bangka, Indonesia. Pangolin are the most trafficked mammals in the world
    Pangolins are released into the wild once after they were seized from illegal trade in Mangkol Hill, Central Bangka, Indonesia. Pangolin are the most trafficked mammals in the world

  • A hedgehog runs through the Paulus Gate at the Domhof at Hildesheim Cathedral, in Hildesheim, Germany
    A hedgehog runs through the Paulus Gate at the Domhof at Hildesheim Cathedral, in Hildesheim, Germany
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