Week in wildlife – in pictures: warthog drama, a fox at the museum and our rarest whale

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

Main image: A green sea turtle swims in its rehab tank in Massachusetts, US Photograph: Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images

  • A mother warthog springs into action to save her young piglet from a leopard attack in Lusaka, Zambia. The encounter began when the female leopard ambushed the family, catching the piglet. The adult warthog then struck the leopard’s abdomen with her tusks, tossing her and the piglet into the air. The leopard dropped the piglet from her jaws and scampered into a nearby thicket for safety. The baby warthog survived
    A courageous mother warthog springs into action to save her young piglet from a leopard attack

  • Azure thing ... a rare blue magnificent tree frog (“magnificent” is part of its official name, and, as if that weren’t enough, it’s also known as the splendid tree frog).Scientists at the Australian Wildlife Conservancy say this is the first recorded instance of the genetic mutation that gave this frog, found in Kimberley in the west of the country, its blue tinge
    The spectacular, blue-skinned tree frog

  • ... not to be outdone, this is a magnificent tree frog showing the species’ normal colouration
    Magnificent Tree Frog

  • Researchers with a sawfish, one of the largest fish on the planet – it can grow longer than six metres. Populations are in serious decline, but this Australian team are using genetic testing to create “family trees” that shed light on the sawfish’s habits of reproduction
    Dr Jack Ingelbrecht (centre) and Murdoch University researchers with an endangered green sawfish in Western Australia’s Ashburton River.

  • The three amigos ... cheetah brothers on the lookout at Kruger National Park, South Africa
    Three Cheetahs on a tree branch looking in oppsite directions

  • An urban fox explores the Natural History Museum’s grounds in London, unfazed by the huge diplodocus skeleton that towers over the gardens, newly reopened after a £25m revamp
    Urban fox in grassland

  • The carcass of a spade-toothed whale is carried away after it was discovered washed ashore on a beach in southern New Zealand. The species is so rare that we know almost nothing about it; it has never been seen alive. “From a scientific and conservation point of view, this is huge,” said a local conservation manager
    The carcass of a rare spade-toothed whale is carried away

  • A pigeon takes a quick shower in a fountain during hot weather at Kugulu Park in Ankara, Turkey
    A pigeon cools itself off near a fountain

  • David Barber, the king’s swan marker, holds a cygnet as swans are captured during Swan Upping, the annual census of the swan population on stretches of the River Thames. The practice dates from the 12th century
    The King’s swan marker, holds a cygnet as swans are captured during Swan Upping

  • A male polar bear crosses a river coloured red by sandstone pigmentation, in Spitsbergen, Norway
    Male polar bear crosses river coloured red by sandstone pigmentation

  • A gull gives its familiar cry on the roof of a beach bar on the Baltic coast
    A seagull with open mouth

  • A North American beaver transports a branch along the Umpqua River in rural southwestern Oregon
    A North American beaver feeding in a river

  • Shadow boxing ... red foxes play in Santa Clara, California, US
    A skulk red of foxes The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) play in Santa Clara, California.

  • A rescued male orangutan sits on a sanctuary island surrounded by a river. Orangutans who can’t be released into the wild are rehomed there in a protected environment, managed by the Samboja Lestari Rehabilitation Centre in East Kalimantan, Indonesia
    A male Orangutan sat in dense vegetation.

  • A long-eared owl, its face looking oddly upside-down, perches on a tree in Kars, Turkey
    The long-eared owl (Asio otus) perched on a tree in Kars, Turkey.

  • Two adult male hippos scrap in Chobe National Park, Botswana. Hippos become more territorial at this time of year as river water levels drop, fighting with other hippos to claim or reclaim territory. These battles can lead to death, but they usually end with one hippo submitting and retreating
    Two adult male hippos fighting in a river

  • A common house gecko fights with a younger one in Tehatta, West Bengal, India
    A Common House Gecko fights with a younger one at Tehatta, West Bengal, India.

  • A zunzuncito hummingbird stops for a rest in Palpite village, Cuba. It’s our smallest bird, weighing 2.6g – about the same as a ping-pong ball
    A zunzuncito hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) perches on the branch in Palpite village, Cuba.

  • Bees in their hive on the roof of a house in Havana, Cuba
    Beekeeping is the new stage for a Cuban dancer in HavanaBusy Bees in a hive on the roof of the house in Havana, Cuba.

  • A two-metre-long black snake climbs a tree in Diyarbakır, Turkey. Due to climate change and warmer temperatures, snakes have flourished in the country’s eastern and southern cities
    A two-meter-long black snake seen climbing a tree

  • A rescued opossum is cared for at Houston SPCA’s Wildlife Center of Texas. The centre has rescued 1,093 native animals from the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl
    A woman holding an Opossum

  • Slow down and smell the flowers ... a Tibetan macaque and her cub forage by the side of a motorway in Tibet
    Slow down and smell the flowers: A group of Tibetan macaques with their cubs forage on the roadside of a national highway in Tibet.

  • A green sea turtle swims in its holding tank at the Sea Turtle Hospital in the New England Aquarium’s Animal Care Center in Quincy, Massachusetts, US. The aquarium treated 394 sea turtles, washed ashore in Cape Cod Bay after becoming trapped in the cold water and becoming cold-stunned
    A Green sea turtle swims in its holding tank

  • Water drops coat a dragonfly as it hangs from tall grass in a pasture along the Umpqua River, Oregon, US
    Water drops coat a dragonfly as it hangs from tall grass in a pasture along the Umpqua River near Elkton in Oregon.
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