This week's best wildlife photographs from around the world feature a leopard cat released into the wild in southern China, a well-upholstered western grey squirrel in Oregon, and a vanishingly rare eastern black crested gibbon.
Urban and wild encounters
Among the highlights is an image from Loren Elliott, one of the winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, offering a window into the lives of coyotes living in the environs of San Francisco. About 100 of these urban-adapted wild canines live alongside more than 800,000 human inhabitants, and attitudes towards them are mixed. Coyotes sometimes prey on domestic animals, but they also bring benefits such as controlling disease-carrying rodents.
An adorable leopard cat, named Xiaosonguo, or Little Pinecone, was released into the wild in Dongguan, southern China, earlier this week. The wild cat was found alone as a newborn and rehabilitated at the Qingyuan Chimelong wildlife rescue centre.
Rare species and conservation efforts
A vanishingly rare eastern black crested gibbon, also called the cao-vit gibbon after the sound of its calls, was photographed. The few that remain – approximately 77–89 individuals – live in a small forest on the borders of Vietnam and China.
Wild elephants break through electric fences to enter villages near Ambanpola, Sri Lanka. The country's forest cover has plummeted from roughly 70% in the 1920s to about 34% today, and most of Sri Lanka's 7,500 wild elephants live outside protected areas.
Rescues and releases
Marine police officers released a green sea turtle at a beach in Serangan, Bali, Indonesia – one of 20 seized from illegal poachers. An orangutan rescued from wildfires was released into a protected forest in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Thirteen freshwater turtles are being returned to their home, the Gingham water hole in New South Wales, Australia, which dried up after the water company cut flows to the area. After a public outcry, the utility reversed its decision, and 24 more turtles will soon follow the first group of 13 back to their restored habitat.
Seasonal sights and natural moments
A red deer stag bellows at sunrise during the annual rut in Richmond Park, London, UK. A hummingbird hawkmoth, previously a summer visitor to the UK from southern Europe and north Africa, can now be seen in most months of the year, and with warmer summers, it can be considered a UK breeding species.
A mountain gazelle trots along the border between Syria and Turkey, near the Mediterranean coastline, where the population of the endangered species is increasing thanks to conservation projects. Other images include swans on the beach at Travemünde, northern Germany, cranes feeding on a harvested field near Balmazújváros, Hungary, and a crab blowing bubbles on the beach at Isle of Palms, South Carolina, US – when out of water, crabs push air across their gills, forming bubbles that help keep the gills moist.
