The week in wildlife – in pictures

The pick of the best flora and fauna photos from around the world, including a giant tortoise and a painted stork

Gentoo penguins at the Yankee Harbour in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica.

Photograph: Johan Ordóñez/AFP via Getty

A fox in the Sarıkamış district of Kars province, Turkey.

Photograph: Huseyin Demirci/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

A young male lion yawns as he wakes up in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park.

Photograph: Jérôme Delay/AP

An Asian giant tortoise is pictured at the Turtle Conservation Centre at a forest reserve in Rajendrapur, Bangladesh.

Photograph: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP via Getty Images

A painted stork flies past as others scout for fish at Pulicat Lake in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

Photograph: Arun Sankar/AFP via Getty Images

A lizard emerges after a wildfire, nicknamed the Cave Fire, erupted in the hills of Santa Barbara, California.

Photograph: David McNew/Reuters

A Malagasy tree boa perches in a tree. The image is the overall winner of 2019 British Ecological Society photography competition. The photo is called Red Night, by Roberto García Roa (University of Valencia), and it was taken in Madagascar.

Photograph: Roberto García Roa/2019 British Ecological Society photography competition

Vets prepare to examine a dead deer at Khun Sathan National Park in Nan province, Thailand. The animal was found dead after swallowing 7kg of plastic bags and other rubbish.

Photograph: Office of Protected Area Region/AFP via Getty

A pair of bottlenose dolphins surface off the coast off Savannah in Carolina, US.

Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/AP

Fish swim in a kelp forest in False Bay, Cape Town. Huge Kelp forests can extend to almost 2 miles offshore in South Africa’s waters. Their presence calms waves, allowing the plant to be warmed by the sun. This creates a unique marine environment in which thousands of species thrive beneath these giant tree-like structures.

Photograph: Nic Bothma/EPA

A rescued male tiger named Atan Bintang, awaits its release to its original habitat. The animal has been residing at the Sumatran Tiger Rehabilitation Center in Dharmasraya, west Sumatra, Indonesia.

Photograph: Jefri Tarigan/Jefta Images/Barcroft Media

A student in a koala suit stands between placards during a rally calling for action on climate change in front of the Liberal Party headquarters in Sydney.

Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images

Dead short-tailed shearwaters near Nome in Alaska. Migratory short-tailed shearwaters are Australia’s most numerous seabird, but washed-up carcasses, late arrivals and low numbers have conservationists worried.

Photograph: Sara Germain/Alaska Department of Fish & Game

Two mature Chrysaora fuscescens medusae. Known as the Pacific sea nettle, it lives off the west coast of the US and Canada, reaching as far north as Alaska and as far south as Baja California in Mexico. Adults have 24 long, red tentacles that deliver a mild sting if touched.

Photograph: T. Murai/World Atlas of Jellyfish

A hedgehog at the Secret World Wildlife Rescue in Somerset, which receives about 600 hedgehogs for rehabilitation every year. In autumn, hedgehogs often struggle to find enough food to put on weight for winter hibernation.

Photograph: Sam Hobson/WWF

A star duck on a tree in Yichun City, Heilongjiang province, China.

Photograph: CostFoto/Barcroft Media

A Scottish bog might appear drab from a distance but, close up, the sphagnum moss underpinning the ecosystem is striking. like here at Forsinard in Scotland, where a sundew pops up over a blanket of sphagnum moss.

Photograph: Peter Cairns

Hooded vultures wait for scraps of meat at Bissau’s main slaughterhouse. Tens of thousands of hooded vultures flock to the city of Bissau to in search of food left behind in rubbish heaps or around markets.

Photograph: John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images

A doll’s head lies among a pile of dead fish collected from the dried municipal dam in drought-stricken Graaff-Reinet, South Africa.

Photograph: Mike Hutchings/Reuters