A mass dolphin stranding, endangered
monkeys, and a sea cucumber are among this week's images from the natural world
 |
| Two common dolphins are prepared to be released by
a team from the International Fund for Animal Welfare into Cape Cod Bay
in Herring Cove Beach. Animal welfare advocates are perplexed by dozens
of dolphins swimming on to land along the scenic Cape Cod shores south
of Boston beginning late last week, one of the largest cases of dolphins
stranding themselves in years |
 |
| A giraffe walks past an Acacia tree,
their principal source of food, at Crescent Island wildlife sanctuary on
Lake Naivasha, Kenya |
 |
| A goose lands as swans gather to fed on Swan Lake
at the WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Stroud, England. Slimbridge
Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Gloucestershire are expecting the recent
cold snap to bring a late influx of wintering birds on to its reserves
encouraged by the drop of temperatures to complete the last leg of their
migration over to the UK. The unseasonable weather has led to lower
numbers of swans, geese and ducks, arriving at the sanctuary because
they have managed to remain further north thanks to the mild weather
conditions throughout western Europe. It has also led to large flocks of
waders choosing to stay in bigger numbers than in the recent colder
winters |
 |
| Deer herds at Studley Royal near Ripon, keep close
together as white frost covers trees and grass following another night
of severe frost |
 |
| Zawadi the leopard with new cub. Zawadi,
(the name means 'the gift' in Maasai) a cat made famous by BBC's Big Cat
Diary, has given birth at a ripe old age of 16
|
 |
| Miller's grizzled langurs. The endangered
monkey has been discovered on the island of Borneo in an area it was
not previously known to inhabit, international researchers said. Little
is known about the monkey, known formally as Presbytis hosei canicrus,
but it is listed as endangered by the International Union for the
Conservation of Narture due to massive habitat loss from fires, hunting,
agriculture and mine development. It was believed to live only in the
jungle in the northeast part of Borneo, which neighbours Java Island,
Indonesia. But a recent expedition of scientists who set up cameras in
remote parts of a largely undisturbed rainforest further west on Borneo,
the Wehea Forest in East Kalimantan, captured images of what appears to
be the monkeys |
 |
| A girl holds her pet turtle after getting it
blessed outside San Anton Church in Madrid. Hundreds of pet owners bring
their animals to be blessed every year on the day of San Anton, Spain's
patron saint of animals |
 |
| An adelie penguin resting on an ice bank on Blue Lake near Mawson's Hut in Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica |
 |
| A new flowering plant
belonging to the Medinilla plant group has been discovered in the
highlands of Matasawalevu village, on the island of Kadavu in Fiji. The
plant was found during a biodiversity assessment of the Nakasaleka
district carried out as part of IUCN's Water and Nature Initiative |
 |
| The fin whale, which grows up to nearly 27-metres,
making it the second largest whale, is seen in the Pacific Ocean, six
miles off the coast of Long Beach in California. The endangered whale
has been spotted in large numbers this winter off the coast of Long
Beach, with 45 sightings of the animal in December 2011, an unusually
high number according to whale research co-ordinator from the Aquarium
of the Pacific, Kera Mathes. The fin whale was heavily hunted during the
20th century, like all other large whales, and the International
Whaling Commission has issued a moratorium on comercial hunting of this
whale |
 |
| A whale-headed stork, a large African wading bird, in its enclosure at the Prague zoo, Czech Republic |
 |
| Chinese consumers have been urged to be wary what they eat during
New Year festivities to minimise their consumption of threatened
wildlife species. A fisherman holds a sea cucumber at Sinabang district
in Simeulue Island, Indonesia's Aceh province. After the sea cucumbers
are processed, they are first sent to Medan, capital of North Sumatra
province, and then exported to Singapore and China. Sea cucumber is
popular in many Asian countries as a delicacy and for its medicinal
purposes |
 |
| A Spanish sparrow (left) sits in a hedge with other house sparrows, in Calshot Close in Calshot near Southampton, as hundreds of birdwatchers
from across the UK set up their equipment to observe the adult male
Spanish sparrow thought to be from Spain, Turkey or North Africa, which
has moved into the gardens and hedgerows at Calshot |
 |
| Otters take up residence at RSPB Minsmere
Nature Reserve, Suffolk. One of the country's most secretive creatures
has become a regular at one of the RSPB's most popular nature reserves.
Over the past two weeks, up to three otters have been seen frolicking at
the reserve's new Island Mere hide every morning. These charismatic
mammals returned to Minsmere in the 1980s, partly due to a
reintroduction programme, and now have a thriving population. Although
they have been showing most visibly during the morning, the otter family
have been spotted at all times of day |
 |
| Parrots in South Africa. Parrots, along with ravens, crows, jays and magpies, are some of the most intelligent birds |
