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Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) swimming near a man practising standup paddleboarding in Nuevo Gulf, off the coast of Puerto Madryn, Argentina
Photograph: Maxi Jonas/TELAM/AFP/Getty Images
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Forest guards keep vigil as wild buffalos take shelter in a highland surrounded by floodwaters in Pobitora wildlife sanctuary in Guwahati, India. The monsoon rains have caused flooding in this wildlife sanctuary, known for its Indian one-horned rhino population.
Photograph: Anupam Nath/AP
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Puffins: Wing Stretch by Kevin Morgans, UK, the portfolio award winner of the 2021 bird photographer of the year.
Photograph: Kevin Morgans/2021 Bird Photographer of the Year
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A burning tree emits embers as flames from the Caldor fire continue to burn in Twin Bridges, California, US.
Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images
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Goldfinches fight over food in a garden in Strensham, UK.
Photograph: David Davies/PA
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Two weeks after a fire ravaged 7,000 hectares (17,290 acres) in the Var Nature Reserve, France, scientists and volunteers try to save Hermann’s tortoise, a rare and protected species. In a burned landscape, they discovered some of the tortoises had been burned. But about 30 others were found safe after taking refuge under rocks.
Photograph: LOUAI-BARAKAT/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock
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The great swim by Buddhilini de Soyza, showing a Tano Bora coalition of male cheetahs after they leapt into the raging Talek River in Kenya’s Maasai Mara, which was highly commended in Wildlife Photographer of the Year behaviour: mammals award.
Photograph: Buddhilini de Soyza/Wildlife Photographer of the Year/PA
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A capybara crosses a street while others eat grass in a gated community in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Several families of capybaras stroll through Nordelta, one of the most exclusive private neighbourhoods in Argentina. They slowly cross the main street and feed in the gardens of the mansions. They have become an attraction and the focus of controversy over conservation policies.
Photograph: Magali Cervantes/AFP/Getty Images
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Thousands of live wild animals including reptiles, parrots and primates are being legally exported from Africa for use as exotic pets globally, including the UK, posing biosecurity and disease risks as well as threats to animal welfare and conservation, according to a report by World Animal Protection. Bushbabies are just one of at least six species of primates that are frequently available for sale and export. Because bushbabies live in rich environments in the wild, it is highly unlikely that these primates would be able to engage in natural behaviour in captivity.
Photograph: World Animal Protection
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A squid swims late at night near the surface of the Mediterranean sea off the coast of the northern city of Batroun, Lebanon.
Photograph: Ibrahim Chalhoub/AFP/Getty Images
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Wild cockatoos have been observed using three types of tools as ‘cutlery’ to extract seeds from tropical fruit. Researchers made the discovery while studying Goffin’s cockatoos on the Tanimbar Islands, a remote archipelago in Indonesia.
Photograph: Mark O’Hara
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A baby gorilla is held by its mother in the Kibumba area of Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo. During a visit as part of the regular monitoring of gorilla families in the Kibumba area, a team of eco-guards observed a new baby in the Baraka gorilla family. Gorillas in this family are not yet identified but the family is currently numbers about 18 primates.
Photograph: Virunga National Park/AFP/Getty Images
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A cow is transported by a helicopter after its summer sojourn in the high Swiss Alpine meadows near the Klausen pass, Switzerland.
Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
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A beach strewn with jellyfish near the village of Mysovoye on Crimea’s Sea of Azov coast, Ukraine. According to some reports, the surge in the number of jellyfish washing up is due to the rising salinity of the sea.
Photograph: Sergei Malgavko/TASS
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A North Pacific king crab (Paralithodes brevipes) in the Sea of Okhotsk off the Shantar Islands, Russia. The islands are famous for their unique wildlife: they are inhabited by rare species of birds and bears which are on Russia’s list of seriously endangered species. The shoreline of the Shantar Islands is home to seals, Bowhead whales while North Pacific right whales have been spotted in the coastal waters north of the islands.
Photograph: Yuri Smityuk/TASS
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Dance at dawn by Michael Eastwell, taken at Cape Hillsborough in Queensland. One of the winners of the Australian Geographic nature photographer of the year 2021. ‘I visited the area for three consecutive sunrises, but it was on my final morning that I captured this beautiful spectacle, two wallabies playing on the beach as the sun burst through the surrounding clouds,’ Eastwell said.
Photograph: Michael Eastwell
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Surangi, a 25-year-old elephant, with her twin calves born nearly five hours apart. This is the first such birth at the facility since it was set up in 1975 to care for destitute elephants, in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka.
Photograph: Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage/AFP/Getty Images
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A grey heron flies at sunrise at Lake Kerkini national park in Greece. The artificial lake is a unique wetland with thousands of birds including rare and protected species.
Photograph: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
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Weaver bird nests are seen on barbed wire in Ganjam district, India. Weaver Baya birds usually built their nest on palm trees.
Photograph: NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
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A Leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx) yawns while resting on Sumner beach in Christchurch, New Zealand. Leopard seals are usually found on Antarctic pack ice but young seals often visit New Zealand in winter. The third largest seal in the world, Leopard seals are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act 1978.
Photograph: Sanka Vidanagama/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
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A one-legged stork rescued by an animal sanctuary gets a new 3D-printed leg near Frantiskovy Lazne, Czech Republic.
Photograph: David W Cerny/Reuters
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An Altinote ozoneme butterfly is pictured in Jardin, Antioquia department, Colombia.
Photograph: Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP/Getty Images
