Week in wildlife: a leopard cat, a vulture puppet and a hare playing hide and seek

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

Main image: An Iberian lynx in northern Spain. Photograph: César Manso/AFP/Getty Images

  • A leopard cat searches for prey along a stream in Gangneung, South Korea. The wild cat is about the same size as a domestic cat, but slimmer, with longer legs, webbed toes and a melancholic expression
    A leopard cat, an endangered species called ‘sak’ in Korean searches for prey along a stream in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, South Korea. In South Korea, the animal is listed as Class II endangered wildlife, feared to be threatened with imminent extinction

  • A bearded tit shows off its resplendent ‘whiskers’ as it perches in the reeds in the Lake Mogan, Turkey
    A bearded tit catches the photography full in its glare as it perches in the reeds in the Lake Mogan, Turkey. The area is an important wetland and recreation area, as well as being one of the country’s important natural habitats in terms of flora and fauna

  • A baby vulture at a New York zoo is fed by hand puppet at the Bronx zoo, New York, US. King vultures can neglect their chicks, so hand-feeding is necessary to ensure the baby survives, but staff disguise themselves to ensure the birds don’t bond with their human carers
    A baby vulture at a New York zoo is being fed not by another bird but by hand puppet — a decades-old technique used to ensure the chick doesn’t identify too closely with its human handlers. King vultures can neglect their chicks, so hand-feeding is necessary to ensure the baby survives, the Bronx Zoo said in a statement Tuesday. But to make sure it doesn’t imprint on humans, staff train the bird’s instincts onto a hand puppet that’s crafted to look like a real vulture

  • A newborn Pere David’s deer staggers to its feet at Knowsley safari park in Prescot, UK. The species is classified as extinct in the wild by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), but some survive in captivity thanks to international cooperation and breeding programmes like the one at Knowsley
    An ‘extinct’ Père David’s deer has arrived at Knowsley Safari Park in Prescot, UK. The species are officially classified as extinct in the wild by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The deer were native to the subtropical river valleys of China but were hunted to extinction by the early 20th century. They have been saved from extinction through international cooperation and captive breeding. Knowsley Safari Park is one of the leading UK institutions involved in the breeding and conservation of the deer

  • A scintillating green dung beetle on a leaf in the Amazon region, Ecuador
    A green dung beetle on a leaf in the Amazon Region, Ecuador

  • Double helping … a great egret feeds her chick at the St Augustine alligator farm zoological park, Florida, US
    A great egret feeds her chick two silvery fish at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park’s rookery in St. Augustine, Florida, US. This renowned rookery offers a sanctuary for wild wading birds and attracts wildlife photographers from around the world

  • Ready or not … a wild hare looks to be playing a game of hide and seek with a pheasant on a warm day in Kidderminster, UK
    A wild hare looks to be playing a game of hide and seek with a pheasant on a warm day in Kidderminster, UK

  • Two roseate spoonbills squabble at the St Augustine alligator farm zoological park’s bird rookery in Florida, US
    Two roseate spoonbills squabble at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park’s bird rookery in Florida, US

  • Black rhinos graze near an elevated railway in Nairobi national park, Kenya. The track was built to allow animals to move freely beneath it without risk of harm
    Black rhinos graze near the elevated Standard Gauge Railway , that allows movement of animals below the tracks at the Nairobi National Park, in Nairobi, Kenya

  • Black-winged stilts (related to avocets) fly over Lake Mogan in Turkey
    Black winged stilts fly over the Lake Mogan in Turkey

  • An Anatolia newt (or Strauch’s spotted newt), a type of salamander, lurks in a stream in eastern Turkey. It is a rare species, not found in any other countries; dedicated newt-fanciers make special trips to the area in hope of seeing it
    An Anatolia newt or Strauch’s spotted newt, a type of salamander, is seen in a stream at Bacavan Plateau in Turkey

  • White storks gather on their nest near a coal-fired power plant Obilić, Kosovo
    White storks gather on their nest near a coal-fired power plant, in the town of Obilic, Kosovo

  • Cleared for takeoff … a hare sits on the tarmac at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany
    A hare sits on the tarmac at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany

  • An Iberian lynx bounds free in Astudillo, northern Spain, after being released by a specialist conservation centre based in Silves, Portugal. It’s one of two female lynx being let out into the wild, named Vouga and Valeriana
    One of two female Iberian lynxes named Vouga and Valeriana, from the Silves breeding centre, managed by the Portuguese government, runs after the animals’ release in Astudillo, Palencia province, northern Spain

  • A roe deer in a dew-covered field at dawn in Dunsden Green, Oxfordshire, UK
    A roe deer in a dew covered field at dawn. Seasonal weather, Dunsden, Oxfordshire, UK

  • A red fox vixen sleeps curled up in the early morning sun in a garden in Clapham, south London, UK
    A red fox vixen sleeps curled up in the early morning sun in a garden in Clapham, south London, UK

  • With anchovies, please … a gull sits on top of a car outside a cafe near the Vatican City
    A gull sits on top of a car waiting for food outside a cafe near the Vatican City

  • Water buffalo swim in the waters of Iraq’s receding marshes of Hawizeh, which straddle the border with Iran, in the southeastern Maysan province
    Water buffaloes swim in the waters of Iraq’s receding marshes of Hawizeh, which straddle the border with Iran, in the southeastern Maysan province

  • Gannets and other seabirds crowd in breeding colonies on the cliffs at St Abb’s Head national nature reserve, near Eyemouth, Scotland. The RSPB and other conservation bodies have raised concerns over the threat to seabirds posed by the proposed Berwick Bank wind farm development in the Forth Estuary
    Gannets and other seabirds crowd in breeding colonies on the cliffs at St Abb’s Head National Nature Reserve, as the RSPB and other conservation bodies raise concerns over the threat to seabirds posed by the proposed Berwick Bank windfarm development in the Forth Estuary, in St Abb’s, Scotland, UK

  • A hummingbird and a bee sip nectar from violet flowers called Pride of Madeira, shaped like a Christmas tree, in Santa Barbara, California, US
    A hummingbird and a bee sip nectar from violet flowers called Pride of Madeira, shaped like a Christmas tree, on a Hope Ranch estate in Santa Barbara, US
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