The week in wildlife – in pictures

A robin feeds its young fledgling as a lamb wanders past in Dartmoor, UK. The nearby lambs were drawn to the sight and sounds of these small birds as they were being fed by the adults and moving across the grass. The photographer, Robin Morrison, said: ‘The fledgling robins tended to hop rather than fly. The adults seemed to be more aware of the lambs but all fledglings made it safely to the hedge and disappeared’

The tail of a humpback whale swimming in the water by Montreal, Canada. The whale, no doubt lost, has been staying in Montreal since Saturday, a rare sight since the Quebec metropolis is located in fresh water and several hundred kilometres from the marine mammal’s natural habitat

A common sand lizard spotted on the Jurassic coastline in Dorset, UK. Since the start of the coronavirus lockdown, people have been noticing more nature including butterflies, insects and mammals, as well as louder birdsong

A native Sabina Canaria (Juniperus turbinata) tree in the town of La Frontera on El Hierro island, Canary Islands, Spain

The Seahorse Trust, a marine conservation charity, has discovered during a survey dive that the endangered spiny seahorse has recolonised its former stronghold of Studland Bay in Dorset, UK. During one dive they found 16 seahorses, including pregnant males and a juvenile born this year. The increase is attributed to a reduction in people, boat traffic and associated noise and anchors

A macaque monkey stands in the heights of Gibraltar. The macaques of the Rock of Gibraltar are a popular tourist attraction, so much so that the government has reinforced their protection with a legal change that will make touching them a crime

A Sumatran rhino, one of the most endangered mammals on Earth. The
sixth mass extinction of wildlife on Earth is accelerating, according to an analysis by scientists, who warn it may be a tipping point for the collapse of civilisation. More than 500 species of land animals were found to be on the brink of extinction and likely to be lost within 20 years

A shy Kirk’s dik-dik, which was born during lockdown at Twycross Zoo, UK, has been dubbed George after George Eliot hospital in Nuneaton, to show gratitude to NHS workers tackling the Covid-19 outbreak

A man walking next to a 13m-long dead humpback whale beached on El Tulate beach, Guatemala.

Amy and Aretha, two sloths in rehab at the Sloth Institute, Costa Rica, before they were reintroduced into the wild.
Sloths are among the most ‘selfied’ animals on the planet, according to the wildlife charity World Animal Protection. An analysis of Instagram images by the organisation found that 70% of selfies with sloths involved hugging, holding or using them as props

A cheetah using a tree trunk as a vantage point, disturbing a lilac-breasted roller from its perch in the Maasai Mara, Kenya. Remembering Wildlife, the groundbreaking charity picture book series, has announced the
10 winners of its photography competition to appear in its forthcoming book, Remembering Cheetahs

Narwhals feeding off Baffin Island in Canada’s high Arctic

Caged animals in Indonesia. World Animal Protection has launched a campaign calling on Boris Johnson to support
a global trade ban on wildlife at the G20 meeting of world leaders in November, to protect fauna and help prevent future zoonotic pandemics

Scientists and conservationists are calling for changes to Australia’s national environment law to urgently address failures in how it is protecting native wildlife, including bird species like the
Carnaby’s black cockatoo, pictured here

A three-striped ground squirrel (Lariscus insignis) sniffs a flower in Kathmandu, Nepal. Among the 279 known species of squirrels and marmots living across the globe, 12 had been found in Nepal as of 2014, according to a 2015 report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Marine life beneath a kelp forest in False Bay, Cape Town, South Africa. Kelp forests harbour a greater variety and diversity of plants and animals than almost any other ocean community. The kelp forests calm the waves, slowing the water and allowing it to be warmed by the sun. This creates a unique marine environment in which thousands of species thrive

A scarlet minivet (Pericrocotus speciosus) bird in a tree in Kathmandu, Nepal

Four young swallows nest in the eaves of a house in Nicosia, Cyprus. Swallows are migratory birds, coming to the island early in spring to breed and leaving in late autumn for warmer African countries

An owa, or white-handed gibbon, in a cage at the Aceh natural resources conservation agency, following its rescue, in Banda Aceh, Indonesia

An anti-poaching patrol from Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation in Salakpra wildlife sanctuary, a recovery site important for Indochinese tigers and other species. Teams put their lives at risk every day as the first line of defence against the poaching of tigers and other threatened wildlife

A new piece of street art by the Rebel Bear has appeared on a wall in Leith, Edinburgh, as Scotland moves into phase one of the Scottish government’s plan for lifting lockdown