Europe's animals in
the 'big freeze', artistic hermit crabs and prize-winning nature
photographs are among the pick of this week's images from the natural
world
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| A goose in the snow at Skopje, Macedonia, as Europe's 'big freeze' continues |
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| An ice-covered tree on the banks of Lake Geneva,
Switzerland. The freezing weather gripping much of Europe could last
until the end of the month, according to meteorologists |
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| An Alpine chough at the 1,838m-high Wendelstein
mountain near the Bavarian village of Bayrischzell, southern Germany.
Europe's two week-long cold snap has now claimed more than 300 lives |
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| Snow and ice-covered trees on the Uetliberg mountain in Zurich, Switzerland |
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| Pink flamingoes at the partially frozen marshland
of the Camargue region, southern France. France's Bird Protection
League says the cold snap has caused the deaths of several birds |
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| Deer in Richmond Park in south-west London. Heavy
snow fell in some areas of Britain on this week, causing road closures
and flight cancellations |
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| A seagull and swans search for food at the Sund promenade in Stralsund, Germany |
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| A grivet monkey nestles against a radiator at a
zoo in Qingdao, China. A strong cold snap has also swept China, with
regions north of the Yangze River experiencing drastic drops in
temperature |
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| An vendor in Equatorial Guinea sells live
crocodiles at a market in Bata. In the absence of proper controls,
endangered animals are often captured and sold to be eaten |
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| Bats rest on a tree trunk in Pantanal, Mato Grosso
state, western Brazil. The Pantanal area, a sanctuary of biodiversity,
is presently at risk because of the intensive culture of soybean and
resulting deforestation, scientists say |
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| Dozens of small crabs were captured making
spectacular patterns across Nexus Karambunai beach in Sabah, Malaysia
Borneo. The patterns were created by hermit crabs tunnelling into the
sand and pushing two or three sandballs at a time to the surface |
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| A Philippine tarsier on Bohol island, in the
Philippines Central Visayas region. The tarsier is one of the smallest
primates in the world and communicates using ultra-sound frequencies
inaudible to humans and many species of predators, a new study has found |
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| Brent Stirton of South Africa, a Getty Images
photographer working for National Geographic magazine, has won first
prize in the Nature Stories category at the World Press Photo awards for
his 'Rhino Wars' series. The picture shows a female rhino in Tugela
private game reserve, Colenso, Natal, South Africa, that four months
earlier survived a brutal de-horning by poachers who used a chainsaw to
remove her horns and a large section of bone in that area of her skull.
The surviving rhino has now joined up with a male |
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| A captured Sri Lankan crocodile is tied up and
waits for wildlife authorities at Ragama in the suburbs of Colombo, Sri
Lanka. According to villagers, this near 6m-long crocodile is
responsible for two deaths. Though reptiles of this size frequenting the
marshes around Colombo are rare, the streams that run through them to
the sea attracts stragglers that feed on domestic and farm animals |
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| Storks in a rice field in Bang Lane district of
Nakhon Pathom province in the central rice areas of Thailand. Thailand's
government promised farmers a huge increase in the price of rice when
it came to power last August but it has been accused of failing on all
fronts: export prices have not held up, the state faces huge losses and
many farmers have not benefited |
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| A volunteer holds a dead swan at the Fuhe wetlands
in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. Many traps and poisons were illegally
set around the lakes in these wetlands to catch wild birds, many of
which are protected species, local media reported |
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| A 7m-long humpback whale that was found dead on a
beach in Meuvaines, western France. Scientists will identify whether the
cause of death was grounding, collision or disease. Research this week
showed the first evidence that shipping causes 'chronic stress' to whales |
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| Jenny E Ross of the US has won the first prize in
the Nature Singles category of the World Press photo contest 2011 with
this picture. It shows a male polar bear climbing precariously on the
face of a cliff above the ocean at Ostrova Oranskie in northern Novaya
Zemlya, Russia, attempting to feed on seabird eggs. This bear was
marooned on land and unable to feed on seals - its normal prey - because
sea ice had melted throughout the region and receded far to the north
as a result of climate change |
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| A gharial at at a breeding centre at Chitwan
national park, south-central Nepal. This endangered species is bred in
captivity and released into the wild. Gharials once thrived in all the
major river systems of the Indian subcontinent, but figures show a
population decline of 96-98% over a three-generation period since 1946.
The once widespread population of an estimated 5,000 to 10,000
individuals has been reduced to less than 235 individuals in 2006.
Conservationists attribute this decline to over-hunting for skins and
trophies, egg collection for consumption, killing for indigenous
medicine, and killing by fishermen |
