Week in wildlife in pictures: bears caught in the act, a glamorous seal and a fugitive emu

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

Main image: Brown bears look for food in Sarıkamış, Turkey. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

  • Pelican crossing … A girl shares a bench with a pelican in the beautiful late September sunshine in St James’s Park, London, UK. The water birds have lived in and around the park since 1664
    Little girl shares a bench with a pelican in the beautiful late September sunshine in St James’s Park, London, UK.

  • “Where are you going to, little brown mouse? Come and have lunch in my underground house”. A red fox hopes there’s no Gruffalo about as it eyes a mouse at Lakefront Promenade Park in Toronto, Canada
    “Where are you going to, little brown mouse? Come and have lunch in my underground house”. A red fox hopes there’s no Gruffalo about as it catches a mouse at Lakefront Promenade Park in Toronto, Canada

  • Rescuers and volunteers try to save killer whales stranded at the mouth of the Bol’shaya Vorovskaya River on the Sea of Okhotsk, on the Kamchatka peninsula, eastern Russia. All four whales were safely escorted out to deeper waters
    Rescuers and volunteers try to save killer whales stranded at the mouth of the Bolshaya Vorovskaya River at the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia

  • “Draw me like one of your French girls” … a seal on the banks of the River Stour near Ramsgate in Kent, UK. The Zoological Society of London is conducting its annual seal census to build a comprehensive picture of the population of adult seals and pups born during the breeding season in the Thames estuary
    A seal on the banks of the River Stour near Ramsgate in Kent, UK, as the Zoological Society of London conducts its annual seal census to build a comprehensive picture of the population of adult seals and pups born during the breeding season in the Thames Estuary

  • A pine marten takes its first step into the wild at a secret location in Devon, UK. Eight adult females and seven males have been relocated to Dartmoor in a project led by the Devon Wildlife Trust, which was six years in the planning. “We haven’t had pine martens here for 150 years, and to see them moving out into this landscape to explore it and find their way is really exciting,” said a trust conservation manager
    Pine marten takes first step into wild at a secret location in Devon, UK. Pine martens have returned to Dartmoor after 150-year absence

  • Brown bears forage for food in rubbish bins in Sarıkamış district of Kars, Turkey. The area is home to the world’s only migratory brown bears: they hibernate there in the winter, then walk to a more food-rich forest 250km away in the spring. But some, like these, are increasingly relying on human rubbish tips for food
    Brown bears forage for food in rubbish bins in Sarikamis district of Kars, Turkey. The Scots pine forests of the Sarikamis district are at an altitude of 2,150m and are home to the world’s only migratory brown bears live, the bears come down to the district from time to time to look for food

  • A deer crosses a lake near Grabownica in southwest Poland
    A deer crossing a lake near the village of Ruda Milicka, near Grabownica, Lower Silesian region, Poland

  • A rat looks out nervously during a two-day campaign by the Jaipur development authority to get rid of rodents at Albert Hall Museum and the nearby Ramniwas Bagh park, in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. “The number of rats is estimated in thousands,” said the gardens’ superintendent. After finding large mounds of earth nearby, officials were worried that the rodents might chew their way up into the museum from underground, putting priceless artefacts at risk
    A rat is seen during a two-day campaign by the Jaipur Development Authority to get rid of rodents at Albert Hall Museum and Ramniwas Bagh, in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India,

  • A white rhinoceros drinks water at Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya
    A White rhinoceros drinks water at Lake Nakuru National Park, which is the natural habitat of many animal species, in Nakuru, Kenya. The 188 square kilometer national park, covers Lake Nakuru and its surroundings, welcomes visitors with its unique nature and unique wildlife

  • Have You Seen This Bird? Irwin the emu went missing from his home in the Malmesbury Animal Sanctuary on Monday. The Wiltshire refuge has since shared pictures of emu poo and feathers in the hope that members of the public might spot something. As of Thursday he had not yet turned up, but his keepers have not given up hope: “He could survive for a long time simply foraging and ambling along in the hedgerows so please do carry on keeping a look out,” they said
    Irwin the emu, who was announced to be missing by the Malmesbury Animal Sanctuary on Monday. The Wiltshire animal sanctuary has since shared pictures of emu poo and feathers in the hope that members of the public might spot something, as the search continues for the missing emu

  • Longhorn crazy ants carry eggs and pupae, along with queens, as they seek out a new home. This movement was prompted by water seeping into their nest through a crack in the wall in Tehatta, West Bengal, India, on a rainy day
    Longhorn crazy ants carry eggs and pupae, along with queens, as they seek out a new home. This movement was prompted by water seeping into their nest through a damp wall crack in Tehatta, West Bengal, India, on a rainy day

  • A heron lands with a flourish off a beach in Kuwait City, Kuwait
    A heron lands in the water off a beach in Kuwait City, Kuwait

  • Say hello to the Mount Po Ma Lung toothed toad, formerly unknown to science, which has just been discovered in Vietnam. Scientists were trekking through what is known as the country’s “froggy hotspot” in search of its relative, Sterling’s toothed toad, but were surprised to find this new species instead. True to its name, it does have small teeth on the roof of its mouth, which it uses to hold prey
    A new toothed toad has been discovered in Vietnam. The amphibian has been named the Mount Po Ma Lung toothed toad after the mountain on which it was found – in Vietnam’s Hoang Lien mountain range, a known global hotspot for threatened species

  • These baby parrots were rescued by firefighters from a wildfire in Concepcion, Boliva. The country has registered so far this year a total of 3,872,498 hectares of forests and grasslands destroyed by fires, more than in all of 2023
    Baby parrots rescued by the firefighters are seen during a wildfire in Concepcion, Santa Cruz Department, Boliva. Bolivia has registered so far this year a total of 3,872,498 hectares of forests and grasslands destroyed by fires, more than in all of 2023

  • Young stags clash in a field near the town of Lipjan, Kosovo
    Young stags clash antlers in a field near the town of Lipjan, Kosovo

  • Glide’n’seek … a camera has been installed inside a tree hollow in New South Wales, Australia, delivering a livestream of the resident greater gliders. Viewers can see the pair of endangered possums groom each other, cuddle and squabble – with their tiny baby even making an appearance
    A camera has been installed inside a tree hollow in a New South Wales, Australia forest to raise awareness of the plight of the endangered possum. A shot from inside the tree show a world-first exclusive into the secret life of greater gliders

  • Two storks stand in their nest in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany
    Two storks stand in their nest in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany

  • Coffee break … a monkey sits near visitors at Lake Nakuru National Park in Nakuru, Kenya
    A monkey sits near visitors at Lake Nakuru National Park in Nakuru, Kenya

  • Sentinel, one of the winners called of the Siena photo awards, by Liron Gertsman. The British Columbia-based photographer had to trek tens of kilometres through powdery snow (in showshoes) before he spotted this elusive northern hawk owl
    Animals in their environment winner called Sentinel in winter by Liron Gertsman. One of the winners of the Siena Photo Awards. Litron embarked on a hike in search of the elusive northern hawk owl. Battling through deep, powdery snow, each step sinking him deeper, he trudged on, covering countless kilometres in his snowshoes. Finally, his perseverance paid off with encounters with a pair of these majestic birds

  • Biologists from Fluminense Federal University take care of sea turtles, carrying out tests and cleaning them before returning them to the sea in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Pollution in Guanabara Bay is taking its toll on the wildlife there
    Biologists take care of sea turtles, carrying out tests and then returning them to the sea after be cleaned, in Marina da Gloria, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Researchers from the Fluminense Federal University are helping sea turtles damaged by pollution of Guanabara Bay which threats wildlife

  • A white pelican comes in for landing at a bird sanctuary in Turkey
    A white pelican comes in for landing at Bird Sanctuary National Park in Turkey
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