The week in wildlife – in pictures

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including hungry seagulls, a puffin census and a shy stingray

Main image: A mother Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) with her baby at the Mount Leuser national park in Sumatra, Indonesia. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

  • An elephant crosses the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway at night in Hwange, Zimbabwe. Hwange national park is overflowing with elephants, which now routinely wander outside the boundaries to feed, sometimes running into deadly conflicts with people living in the surrounds. Zimbabwe and its neighbours in southern Africa have seen their elephant herds thrive in recent years and are now home to about 70% of the continent’s elephants
    An elephant crosses the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway during the night in Hwange, Zimbabwe. Hwange National Park is overflowing with elephants, which now routinely wander outside the boundaries to feed, sometimes running into deadly conflicts with people living in the surrounds. Zimbabwe and its neighbours in southern Africa have seen their elephant herds thrive in recent years and are now home to about 70 percent of the continent’s elephants

  • A lion is seen at the gate of a clinic in a residential compound in the Hwange national park, Zimbabwe
    A lion is seen at the gate of a clinic in residential compound of the Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

  • A terrapin rests on a rock in a pond at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore
    A terrapin rests on a rock in a pond at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore

  • National Trust rangers conduct their annual puffin count on Farne Island, UK. The annual survey is important for understanding the health of the Atlantic puffin’s breeding colonies. The coronavirus pandemic meant full surveys were impossible in 2020 and 2021 so this year’s count is important
    National Trust rangers conduct their annual puffin count on Farne Islan, UK. The annual survey is important for understanding health of the Atlantic puffin’s breeding colonies. The coronavirus pandemic meant full surveys were impossible in 2020 and 2021 so this year’s count is important

  • A young lioness has porcupine quills removed from her face in Niokolo Koba national park, Senegal.This week, Panthera and Senegal’s Department of National Parks (DPN) announced that the lion population in Senegal’s Niokolo Koba national park has doubled in a decade from 10-15 individuals to approximately 40, thanks to concerted anti-poaching and monitoring efforts. In a first for Senegal, scientists also announced they have successfully GPS-collared six lions, which will provide critical data for the protection of the species. Approximately 250 West African lions are left in the wild.
    A lone young lioness has porcupine quills removed from her face in Niokolo Koba national park, Senegal.This week, Panthera and Senegal’s Department of National Parks (DPN) announced that the lion population in Senegal’s Niokolo Koba national park has doubled in a decade from 10-15 individuals to approximately 40, thanks to concerted anti-poaching and monitoring efforts. In a first for Senegal, scientists also announced they have successfully GPS-collared six lions, which will provide critical data for the protection of the species. Approximately 250 West African lions are left in the wild, classified as Critically Endangered.

  • A peregrine falcon calls out as it perches on a branch above the Palisades Cliffs in Alpine, New Jersey, US
    A peregrine falcon calls out as it perches on a branch above the Palisades Cliffs in Alpine, New Jersey, US

  • A mother Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) with her baby at the Mount Leuser national park in Sumatra, Indonesia. The existence of Sumatran orangutans, one of the 11 rarest mammals and protected by the Indonesian wildlife laws since 1931, is threatened by human-caused environmental problems such as deforestation
    A mother Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) with her baby at the Mount Leuser national park in Sumatra, Indonesia. The Sumatran orangutans, one of the 11 rarest mammals and protected by the Indonesian wildlife laws since 1931, encounter human-caused environmental problems such as deforestation, threatening their existence

  • A brown bear strolls through wasteland in front of the hospital in the Arctic city of Norilsk, Russia
    A brown bear strolls through wasteland in front of the hospital in the Arctic city of Norilsk, Russia

  • Nigel Jones, a British Trust for Ornithology ringer, and Phil Sheldrake, Salisbury Cathedral’s nature conservation adviser, weigh, measure and ring one of four peregrine falcon chicks, at Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire, UK
    Nigel Jones, a British Trust for Ornithology ringer, and Phil Sheldrake, Salisbury Cathedral’s nature conservation advisor, weigh, measure and ring one of four peregrine falcon chicks, at Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire, UK

  • Bees collect pollen from the cotoneaster flowers in the afternoon sunshine in Emmer Green, UK
    Bees collect pollen from the cotoneaster flowers in the afternoons sunshine in Emmer Green, UK

  • Seagulls hunt pearl mullets as they migrate to the fresh waters to breed in Van, Turkey
    Seagulls hunt pearl mullets in Van, Turkey as they migrate to the fresh waters to breed

  • A peacock is seen inside the Yamuna Biodiversity park in New Delhi, India
    A peacock is seen inside the Yamuna Biodiversity park in New Delhi, India

  • A stingray of the genus Dasyatis (native to the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea) hides in the sand about seven metres underwater off the shore of Lebanon’s northern coastal city of Batroun
    A stingray of the genus Dasyatis (native to the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea) hides in the sand about seven metres underwater off the shore of Lebanon’s northern coastal city of Batroun

  • An Asiatic black bear cub being cared for by the charity Four Paws in Tam Duong district in northwest Vietnam. Two bear cubs are starting a new life in a sanctuary in Vietnam after being rescued from the illegal wildlife trade
    An Asiatic black bear cub being cared for by the charity Four Paws in Tam Duong district in northwest Vietnam. -Two bear cubs are starting a new life in a sanctuary in Vietnam after being rescued from the illegal wildlife trade

  • Buckfast honey bees fly near a beehive in Illinois, US
    Buckfast honey bees fly near a beehive in Illinois, US

  • Resident pelicans at St. James’s Park lock beaks as they try to grab a fish. Six great white pelicans (Pelecanus onocrotalus), free to come and go as they please, call the park in central London their home and are fed fish daily by the park staff
    Resident pelicans at St. James’s Park lock beaks as they try to grab a fish. Six great white pelicans (Pelecanus onocrotalus), free to come and go as they please, call the park in central London their home and are fed fish daily by the park staff

  • A wild female chimpanzee shouts in the Tai national park in Ivory Coast
    A wild female chimpanzee shouts in the Tai National Park in Ivory Coast

  • Flamingos fly over the Chaxa lagoon in the Atacama Salar salt flats, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
    Flamingos fly over the Chaxa lagoon, in the Atacama Salar salt flats, in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

  • A monarch butterfly (Danaus Plexippus) rests on a plant in El Rosario butterfly sanctuary, in Michoacan State, Mexico. Mexican experts have said that 35% more monarch butterflies arrived this year to spend the winter in mountaintop forests, compared with the previous season
    A Monarch butterfly (Danaus Plexippus) rests on a plant in El Rosario Butterfly Sanctuary, in Michoacan State, Mexico. Mexican experts have said that 35% more monarch butterflies arrived this year to spend the winter in mountaintop forests, compared with the previous season.

  • A stray cat looks for food in a trench in Yasnogorodka village, Ukraine
    A stray cat looks for food at a trench in Yasnogorodka village, Ukraine

  • A sea turtle finds its way to the sea after being released in the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax. Three turtles were released into the Mediterranean sea after being rescued, one of them equipped with a electronic tag to follow its course
    A sea turtle finds its way to the sea after being released in the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax. Three turtles were released into the Mediterranean sea after being rescued, and one of them equipped with a electronic tag to follow its course
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