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Ants herd aphids to protect them from predators such as ladybirds, wasps and hoverfly larvae in the village of Povarovo in Russia.
Photograph: Valery Sharifulin/Tass
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A duck twists its neck as it cleans itself in the sun in a pond in Berlin.
Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images
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Egrets and their offspring on nesting platforms, started in 1895 by EA McIlhenny, a member of the McIlhenny family, creators of Tabasco brand pepper sauce, on Avery Island, Louisiana. McIlhenny created a wildlife refuge around his family estate – including the rookery, which helped save the snowy egret from extinction.
Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP
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A group of the wild golden jackals (canis aureus) come out of the flooded dens at night after rainfall to eat termites under a roadside lamp post in Tehatta, West Bengal, India. The golden jackal is the only species of jackal in the Indian subcontinent.
Photograph: Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
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A female loggerhead turtle, called Thunderbird, is rescued after becoming entangled in ghost fishing gear. Save the Med rescued the turtle in July 2020. She was later released with a tracker and then undertook a 3,700-mile journey from Spain to Senegal. In February 2021 the signal from its tracker became erratic and indicated the position was near a fishing ground used by trawlers, possibly indicating it was unintentionally caught by a fishing vessel. The fate of Thunderbird is still unknown.
Photograph: Save the Med/PA
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Aerial photograph shows a herd of wild Asian elephants sleeping in Shijie township in China. The herd have become famous after leaving a wildlife reserve in the southwest of Yunnan province more than a year ago and having trekked 310 miles to the outskirts of the provincial capital of Kunming. All the 15 elephants are safe and well, according to monitoring groups.
Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock
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A rare long-snouted seahorse (also known as spiny seahorse) has been found along the south-west coast of England. Due to environmental changes such as the destruction of seagrass habitat, there has been a sharp decline in the seahorse population. To protect local marine ecosystems, the Ocean Conservation Trust has been restoring seagrass meadows along the coast.
Photograph: Ocean Conservation Trust/PA
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The titan arum (amorphophallus titanum), a plant from Sumatra, blooms in the Botanical Garden of the University of Warsaw in Poland. The titan arum reaches up to two metres in height. It blooms every few years, attracting insects with its intense fragrance.
Photograph: Pawel Supernak/EPA
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A fisher holds an elver, a juvenile eel, caught on the River Parrett in Somerset. A centuries-old trade in eels has been thwarted by trafficking and now Brexit. An unusual rewilding mission is under way that hopes to aid a 4,000-mile migration of the eel back to British rivers and stop eels sliding into extinction.
Photograph: Alexander Turner/The Guardian
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A smooth-coated otter yawns while resting under a tree at the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. Wild otters are making a comeback to the urban city state, with the increasing numbers of the sea animals sparking concerns about overpopulation.
Photograph: Suhaimi Abdullah/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
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Agalychnis lemur, also known as the lemur leaf frog, in Panama. A disease that is causing mass death of frogs has reached Britain. Researchers found the disease-causing microbe in frog populations in Panama, where some of the most rapid population declines have occurred. The disease has now been been found in European tree frog tadpoles in an aquarium in Surrey.
Photograph: Thomas Richards
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The red and black spider on gossamers near wetlands in Longford, Victoria, Australia. Sheet-like spider webs have been found in Victoria following recent flooding.
Photograph: Jeff Hobbs/Reuters
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A striped beakfish swims in a water-filled box onboard a Japanese boat that washed ashore in Washington state, US. Biologists say five of the fish, plus other Japanese species of sea creatures, arrived alive, apparently hitching a ride across the Pacific Ocean on debris believed to have come from the March 2011 Japanese tsunami. Plastic rafting has become a route for invasive species, threatening native animals with extinction due to the overwhelming amount of ocean plastic.
Photograph: Allen Pleus/AP
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A swan is followed by two cygnets as it swims in a pond in Berlin. Cygnets typically stay with their parents for the first six months, after which they are chased off to fend for themselves.
Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images
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Berkshire council has extended its No Mow May policy to allow verges to grow wild, and encourage wild flowers and weeds to attract bees and other insects.
Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/REX/Shutterstock
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Gannets gathered at Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire, as more than 250,000 seabirds flock there to mate and raise their young. From April to August, the cliffs come alive with nest-building adults and young chicks. The nature reserve, run by the RSPB, is best known for its breeding seabirds, including northern gannet, Atlantic puffin, razorbill, common guillemot, black-legged kittiwake and fulmar.
Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA
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A full-grown caterpillar in the third stage of its life cycle stops and eats while cocooning with silk to become a pupa in Tehatta, India. The pupa of butterflies is also called a chrysalis. There are four stages in the metamorphosis of butterflies: egg, larva, pupa and adult.
Photograph: Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
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A close-up of a bee collecting pollens on a flower in Sariyar village in Turkey.
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
