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Essen, Germany. A house sparrow flies to the ripe ears of a barley field. As well as insects and their larvae, the sociable birds also eat grain, which is available here in abundance
Photograph: Roland Weihrauch/Dpa
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A kangaroo jumps through the snow at Wadbilliga national park, near Nimmitabel, Australia
Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA
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Ghaziabad, India: A male frog calls for mating inside a puddle of water
Photograph: Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images
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Wyoming, US: A herd of buffalo grazes near the town of Wright. In the UK, wild European bison are due to return for the first time in 6,000 years, with the release of a small herd in Kent next year
Photograph: Tannen Maury/EPA
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A Japanese spiky sea cucumber on a rock in Peter the Great Gulf, Sea of Japan.
Photograph: Yuri Smityuk/Tass/Getty Images
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Kuwait: A white-throated kingfisher flies over waters in Kuwait City
Photograph: Ghazy Qaffaf/Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock
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Tatsuno, Japan. Fireflies in trees at Tatsuno Hotarudoyo Park. The annual firefly festival was cancelled this year due to the Covid-19 outbreak
Photograph: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images
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Castelluccio, Italy: Fields of flowers during the annual blossom
Photograph: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters
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Xingtai, China: A moorhen chick swims in a pond
Photograph: Mu Yu/Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock
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Bath, UK: A Maybug climbs up a grass stem at the Royal Crescent complex. The use of pesticides must be at least halved to reverse steep losses in insect abundance, according to a report from the Wildlife Trusts
Photograph: Nick Upton/2020 Vision/PA
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A procession of whale sharks pass by the rocky outcrop of lava and ash known as Darwin Arch, off Darwin Island to the north of the Galapagos Archipelago
Photograph: Jonathan R Green/Jonathan R. Green
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Scotland: A project to protect the corncrake, one of Scotland’s rarest and most secretive birds, was recently announced
Photograph: Andy Hay/RSPB Images/PA
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Ariege, France: A teddy bear is hanged as protestors gather on the first day of a demo against bears around Lers pond
Photograph: Georges Gobet/AFP/Getty Images
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Trentino, Italy. Biagio di Maio, researcher at CNR (National Research Council), takes samples of pink snow on the Presena glacier near Pellizzano
Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images
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Loch Arkaig pine forest, Scottish highlands: One of the two male and one female osprey chicks that hatched five weeks ago
Photograph: Lewis Pate/WTML/PA
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Hardangervidda plateau, Norway: In August 2016, a park ranger stumbled upon 323 dead wild tundra reindeer, which had been killed in a freak lightning event. Instead of removing the carcasses, the park decided to leave them where they were, allowing scientists to study them
Photograph: Olav Strand
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Maracas valley, Trinidad: Hummingbirds photographed by Dr Theodore Ferguson, who with the help of his wife Gloria, have created a public garden designed to attract hummingbirds
Photograph: Dr Theodore Ferguson
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Mbe mountains, Nigeria:Rare images of a group belonging to one of the most endangered gorilla subspecies in the world suggest their numbers could be recovering after decades of persecution
Photograph: WCS Nigeria
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A European hamster looks out of a hole. The species has vanished from most of its original range and will be extinct within 30 years if current trends continue
Photograph: Mathilde Tissier/IUCN/AP
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Elsewhere in Africa, an estimated 53% of primate species are under threat of extinction. This includes the Temminck’s red colobus species seen here
Photograph: Mic Mayhew/IUCN/PA
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Madagascar: A ring-tailed lemur. Thirty-three lemur species are critically endangered, with 103 of the 107 surviving species threatened with extinction
Photograph: Janine Haidar/AFP/Getty Images
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Maggie the giraffe stands next to a sign showing support for the NHS at ZSL London Zoo. Sir David Attenborough has appealed for donations to save ZSL, a conservation charity
Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA
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Miami, Florida, US. A pair of mitred parakeets snuggle in a palm tree along Miami beach
Photograph: Wilfredo Lee/AP
