Year in wildlife – in pictures

2 days ago 13

Wildlife pics of the year

We look back over the year’s wildlife photographs, and hand out some much-deserved gongs to brilliant and beautiful creatures around the world

Composite: Guardian Picture Desk

Fri 26 Dec 2025 09.00 CET

One of 18 wildcats that have been released in the Scottish Highlands, UK. This is the third year that wildcats have been released into the Cairngorms national park after being declared functionally extinct in Britain in 2019. Experts have said there is “real hope for the future” of wildcats in Scotland

Say hello to the bumpy snailfish – a newly discovered species of deep-sea creature, photographed by a remotely operated vehicle more than 3km underwater off the coast of California. With its big blue eyes and winning smile, the little snailfish was an instant online hit. Asked to comment, the lead researcher told the New York Times that the newcomer was “pretty adorable”

Back home … Dorcha and Louis, two ospreys, on their nest at Loch Arkaig pine forest in Lochaber, Scotland. Louis, who became an online star during the first Covid lockdown, has returned from west Africa for the summer, despite fears he might not make it back after illness. He and Dorcha have been an item since 2021

A young grey seal scratches against a post in the dunes at Horsey in Norfolk, as the pupping season draws to a close at one the UK’s most important sites for the mammals. Wardens from the Friends of Horsey Seals have done their final count and announced that 3,246 pups have been born this season

A clumsy fox had a very bad day when it managed to get its leg stuck in a letterbox. It was released by a member of the public and then became stuck between a fence and a wall while trying to escape in Hadleigh, Essex. It was later freed by South Essex Wildlife hospital

Two squirrels frolic in St James’s Park during a heatwave in London

A new stick insect species has been discovered in Queensland. It is 40cm (16in) long and thought to be the heaviest insect in Australia

A vole looks surprised as it is carried away in the talons of a white-tailed kite in Mountain View, California, US

A baby vulture at a New York zoo is fed by hand puppet at the Bronx zoo, New York, US. King vultures can neglect their chicks, so hand-feeding is necessary to ensure the baby survives, but staff disguise themselves to ensure the birds don’t bond with their human carers

Flying burrito brothers … rescued baby flying foxes rest, wrapped up, after being injured by giant hailstones (some as large as a cricket ball) in Queensland storms, Australia. Almost 120 fruit bats (as they are also known) were injured, some critically, before being rescued by volunteers and admitted to the RSPCA wildlife hospital

No photos, please! A polar bear trespassing on Kolyuchin Island, Russia.

Ketchup with that? A pelican at the cafe in St James’s Park, London, UK.

An osprey lifts a trout from the water after catching it during a hunt at a lake near Stamford, England

Locked out … a scared and wet baby raccoon was found on a doorstep in Belchertown, Massachusetts, US. The raccoon was warmed up and taken to Leyden wildlife rehabilitation centre

A nutria – a herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent – surfaces at a lake in the Bois de Boulogne, western Paris, France

Bulk order … a male elephant named Plai Biang Lek gets stuck in to the sweet rice crackers at a shop in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand

Roe by roe … two deer in the Bourne Valley of Wiltshire, UK.

An extreme closeup of a spider in Cerro de la Muerte, Costa Rica

A vet checks over a baby orangutan seized from traffickers in Bangkok, Thailand

A mother mute swan attends to her cygnets at Abbotsbury Swannery, Dorset, UK. The arrival of mute swan cygnets is traditionally seen as the start of summer, and it’s said the Benedictine monks who owned the swannery between about 1000 and the 1540s believed the first cygnet signalled the season’s first day

Capybaras is covered in bright green slime due to cyanobacteria in the waters of the Salto Grande lake, an artificial body of water made by the hydroelectric dam on the Uruguay River, near Concordia, Entre Rios, Argentina

High and dry … Ed the runaway zebra is airlifted by helicopter back to his owner following his capture after a week on the loose, in a rural area south-east of Nashville, Tennessee, US. The escaped zebra became an internet sensation, with memes showing him visiting tourist attractions and dining at a Waffle House

A stork mother guards her chicks from passing traffic on the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany

A koala on a recently cleared blue gum plantation next to Budj Bim national park in Victoria, Australia. Thousands of koalas are being displaced each year as blue gum plantations are cut down in Victoria, worsening overcrowding in nearby forests and exacerbating the risk of injury and death during bushfires

Two roseate spoonbills squabble at the St Augustine alligator farm zoological park’s bird rookery in Florida, US

Fluff at first sight … great egret chicks snuggle up in their nest at Wakodahatchee wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida, US

Up in arms … two Père David’s deer squabble at a nature reserve in Yancheng, eastern China

A sizeable tortoise explores a market in Bangkok, Thailand

Common frogs in a pond in the Dublin Mountains, Ireland. Depending on weather conditions, the frogs emerge from hibernation in February or March and head for their freshwater breeding grounds to begin spawning

A green sea turtle hatchling attempts to find its way to the ocean on Heron Island, Australia. Each year between November and March, green sea turtles emerge from the ocean to lay hundreds of eggs each on the coastline of Heron Island, before returning to the ocean. The hatchlings emerge about six weeks later and then have to survive a series of predators ranging from seagulls to reef sharks, with an estimated survival rate of one in 1,000

A snow monkey takes an open-air hot spring bath at the Jigokudani monkey park in the town of Yamanouchi, Nagano prefecture, Japan

Adult Masai giraffes are transported through an urban centre on the back of a truck by Kenya Wildlife Services rangers. The giraffes are being moved out of their natural habitat in the Rift Valley, which is deteriorating after having been sold

Rangers at the Margalla Wildlife Rescue Center in Islamabad prepare to feed Neelo and Sultan, leopard cubs whose mother was killed. Leopard killings are soaring in Pakistan. Researchers from the World Wildlife Fund are warning of a drastic population decline. While leopards are sometimes killed for their valuable pelts, they say, most cases are acts of retaliation – triggered by attacks on people or, more frequently, their farm animals

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