Week in wildlife – in pictures: an escaped tortoise, friendly harvest mice and a giraffe on the move

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

Main image: A pair of harvest mice greet each other on wheat stems in Dorset, UK. Photograph: Paul Browning/Solent News & Photo Agency/Solent News

  • An escaped pet tortoise is carried away by rail staff after it trespassed on the railway line near Ascot, UK. Passengers spotted Solomon, who had crept out of his owner’s garden, as he made his way along beside the tracks. (Inevitably, some took to social media to comment that he would likely reach the station before their train did.) Network Rail arranged for him to be scooped up and taken to a vet in Ascot, where his owner picked him up safely
    An escaped tortoise is carried away by rail staff after it trespassed on railway tracks near Ascot, UK. Solomon the tortoise is carried away by rail staff after passengers spotted it moving at a pace along t he line after after escaping from his owner’s nearby home. Solomon then got to travel on the train into Ascot Station, where arrangements had been made for him to be taken to a vet nearby

  • Kenya Wildlife Service escort a giraffe that has been tranquillised and blindfolded into a trailer during a translocation exercise for wild giraffes. The animals are being relocated to the Ruko nature conservancy to foster peace between two historically clashing communities. It is hoped the giraffes’ arrival will bring tourists and income, creating jobs and regional stability. Before the giraffes’ arrival, an intercommunal welcoming ceremony was held for them, an inconceivable scene in the mid-2000s
    Kenya Wildlife Service put a giraffe that has been tranquillised and blindfolded into a trailer during a translocation exercise for wild giraffes in a farm near Eldoret. Wild giraffes are being relocated to the Ruko Conservancy to keep fostering peace between the historically clashing Pokot and Ilchamus communities. Since the first giraffes’ arrival to the reserve in 2011, poaching has ceased, and community relations have improved, creating jobs and regional stability. Before the giraffes arrival, an intercommunal welcoming ceremony is held for them, an inconceivable scene in the mid-2000s

  • A colony of walruses pop up from the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean in Svalbard, Norway
    A colony of walrus pop up from the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean in in Svalbard, Norway

  • Young elephants take a mud bath in Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa. Although it is winter in the southern hemisphere, the temperature hit 29C in the region last week
    baby elephants play in mud

  • Two spoonbills engage in a mating ritual in the UK. Spoonbills are having a good year nationwide; wardens at RSPB Fairburn Ings in Yorkshire report that nine chicks, or “teaspoons” as they have been nicknamed, have already fledged, a record number
    Two spoonbills do a mating ritual, UK. Spoonbills, rare wetland birds, named after the distinctive spoon-like shape of its bill, which were once driven to extinction in the UK. The species experienced another successful year of breeding as they continue to stage their return, experts said, with spoonbills breeding at multiple RSPB reserves across the UK

  • A humpback whale breaches near Iguana Island, Panama
    A humpback whale breaches near Iguana Island, Panama

  • A loggerhead turtle hatchling, no more than 5cm long, heads to the sea near Manavgat on Turkey’s south coast
    A baby loggerhead heads to the sea in Manavgat, Turkey. The 10km coastline, located east of the tourism capital of Antalya, is a major breeding area for the globally endangered loggerheads also known as caretta carettas

  • Young storks in their nests at the “valley of storks” in the Beyşehir district of Konya, Turkey
    Young storks in their nests at valley of storks in Beysehir district of Konya, Turkey. Baby storks begin practicing for flying alongside their parents in preparation for migration

  • A monarch butterfly rests on a flower in Toronto, Canada
    A monarch butterfly rests on a plant in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

  • A humpback whale swims past an iceberg in Disko Bay near Ilulissat, Greenland. Earlier this year scientists released a study in which they concluded that the country’s glaciers, which all descend from the Greenland Ice Sheet, have retreated about 20% more than previously estimated. Of the 200 glaciers included in the study, only one has grown since 1985. Overall, the amount of glacial ice melting globally has increased markedly over the past 30 years
    A humpback whale swims past an iceberg in Disko Bay near Ilulissat, Greenland. Earlier this year scientists released a study in which they concluded that Greenland’s glaciers, which all descend from the Greenland Ice Sheet, have retreated about 20% more than previously estimated. Of the 200 glaciers included in the study, only one has grown since 1985. Overall, the amount of glacial ice melting globally has increased markedly over the past 30 years as global warming continues to intensify

  • A bee collects pollen from lavender flowers in the Bohemian Paradise, a nature reserve in the Czech Republic
    A bee collects pollen from lavender flowers on a sunny day in the Bohemian Paradise in the Czech Republic. To collect pollen, female bees visit the ends of the stamens that contain lots of yellow pollen

  • Seals swim and sunbathe off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts, US. Sharks come to Cape Cod every summer to feed on the abundant seal population that lives there
    Seals swim and sunbathe off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts, US. Sharks come to Cape Cod every summer to feed on the abundant seal population that lives there, especially in Chatham where there is a large seal population

  • A swan is cut off from swimming up a stream that runs into the Thames near Henley, UK, choked by rubbish and vegetation
    A swan is cut off from swimming up a stream that runs off of The River Thames by rubbish and plants Daily life, polluted rivers and streams, Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire, UK

  • Not in the pink ... a flamingo explores its rehab centre after being rescued from a dried-up lagoon in Aïn M’lila, Algeria. About 300 pink flamingo chicks were saved by volunteers after the salt lake where they hatched, Lake Tinsilt, dried up following years of high temperatures and drought
    A rescued flamingo walks past volunteers treating dehydrated birds rescued from an area near a dried-up lagoon in Ain Mlila, Algeria. Around 300 pink flamingo chicks were rescued by volunteers after the salt lake where they hatched, Lake Tinsilt, dried up following years of high temperatures and drought

  • An Asian golden cat, which was found injured in a trap last month, recuperates at the Indonesian Nature Conservation Agency in Banda Aceh
    An Asian golden cat, which was found injured in a trap the previous month, is seen as it recuperates in an enclosure at the Indonesian Nature Conservation Agency in Banda Aceh, Indonesia

  • A pair of harvest mice greet each other on wheat stems in Dorset, UK. Our smallest rodent, the harvest mouse proudly bears the Latin name Micromys minutus
    A pair of mice balancing on the stems of some wheat in Dorset, UK. The Harvest mice appear at dusk and dawn and when they will start to come up the stems and play and fetch seeds from the plants

  • An Andean condor, the largest bird of prey in the world, flies over the outskirts of Santiago, Chile. The massive bird, with a wingspan of more than 10ft, is endangered and has nearly disappeared in Venezuela and Colombia
    An endangered Andean condor flies before noon over Chile’s capital main landfill area, close to Montenegro, in the outskirts of Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile. The massive bird with a wing span of more than 10 feet has gone extinct in Venezuela and is bordering on extinction in Colombia

  • A Himalayan goral, rarely seen, in Tibet
    A female Himalayan goral is pictured in Lhozhag County, Shannan City, southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region A growing number of Himalayan monals and Himalayan gorals have been found foraging in the county. Thanks to steady efforts of the authorities, locals are also building a keener awareness for ecological protection

  • Sparrows take a bath in a puddle during a hot day at Segmenler Park in Ankara, Turkey
    Sparrows take a bath in a puddle during a sunny and hot day at Segmenler Park in Ankara, Turkey
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