A shark-eating shark, a fox chasing
cranes and sleeping otters are among this week's images from the natural world
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| Migratory egrets scour for food at the reclaimed
area in Manila Bay known as Freedon Island at the city of Paranaque,
Philippines. Environmentalists are gathering a million signatures to
save the only bird sanctuary in the capital after a proposal by the city
government to develop the area into a commercial complex |
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| A sea otter begins to wake while two other sea
otters sleep on the water Elkhorn Slough, Moss Landing, California. The
marine mammals rest by floating on their backs but they slowly drift
into shore, where they wake up and paddle back out to repeat the process
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| A hummingbird perches on a bird of paradise flower in Hollywood, California |
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| A northern red fox chases red-crowned cranes at
the bird sanctuary in the village of Tsurui in Japan's northern island
of Hokkaido. As many as 400 red-crowned cranes have been observed at the
village over the winter, having migrated from eastern Russia,
north-eastern China and eastern Mongolia |
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| A bear stands on its hind legs at a bear farm of
Guizhentang Pharmaceutical Co in Quanzhou, China. The company, which
makes medicine using bile extracted from live bears, opened one of its
bear farms to the media on Wednesday, to quell growing criticism |
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| Snow-covered trees in the Duckyu mountains, South Korea |
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| Dalmatian pelicans gather in the water area of the
Caspian Sea port in Makhachkala in Russia's Dagestan province. Hundreds
of Dalmatian pelicans migrated to Makhachkala, which could have been
down to abnormal frosts and frozen water at their normal habitat |
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| A tasselled wobbegong shark lying on the
substratum with the head of a brown-banded bamboo shark in its mouth in
this photo taken during an underwater visual census of fishes on the
fringing reef of Great Keppel Island on the Great Barrier Reef,
Australia. Generally, tasselled wobbegong sharks are known to prey upon
invertebrates and small fish, but this unusual field observation
highlights its versatility as an ambush predator, according to findings
published in the journal Coral Reefs |
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| A baboon checks a cooking pot for food as children
look on at the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia in Chirundu,
Zimbabwe. Troops of bag-snatching, truck looting baboons are causing
chaos at the border post in daily raids for food. They are also known to
bite or slap people in their faces when they try to defend their
property and often make off with handbags and destroy cars in their
search for food. Authorities say that because of their large numbers it
is very hard to control them as they behave like human beings and are
very good tricksters |
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| US researchers have confirmed what has long been
suspected about a valuable tree in Alaska's Panhandle: a warming climate
is killing off yellow cedar. The mighty trees can live more than 1,000
years, resisting bugs and rot and even defending themselves against
injury, but their shallow roots are vulnerable to freezing if soil is
not insulated by snow |
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| A newly discovered legless amphibian in
north-eastern India that have ancient links with Africa. The discovery
of the tailless burrowing caecilians was made by a team of international
scientists led by Prof SD Biju from Delhi University. Scientists
performed DNA analysis of the specimens and confirmed that it is an
entirely new family, Biju said. The new family has been named Chikilidae
and the new species, chikila, derived from Garo, a tribal language
spoken in the region |
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| Birds stand on a pile of waste in Jabaliya refugee camp, Gaza Strip |
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| Two Miami blue butterflies at Bahia Honda state
park in the Florida Keys. No confirmed Miami blues have been seen on
Bahia Honda since July 2010. The US Fish and Wildlife Service last
August issued an emergency listing of the Miami blue as an endangered
species |
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| Wild horses are gathered in the West Desert of
Utah, US. Over the course of 12 days, the Bureau of Land Management will
employ contractors to gather approximately 470 wild horses in the West
Desert in an effort to control their numbers. The horses will be
captured, the females will receive contraceptive treatment and most will
be released back into the wilderness. Some will also be put up for
adoption |
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| An employee displays a green water dragon at the
Frankfurt animal lounge at the airport in Frankfurt. As many as 300
reptiles were received from Vietnam today at the lounge which is run by
Lufthansa Cargo. The animals, which undergo quarantine in their country
of origin, are checked for health and correct documentation before being
moved on after a few hours. About 630,000 reptiles from around the
globe passed through the lounge and into Germany in 2010, according to
Lufthansa Cargo information |
