Curious hares, combative bears and creative bowerbirds feature among the winning images of this year’s BBC Wildlife camera-trap competition. This picture, taken in China by Zhou Zhefeng, was the animal portraits and overall winner. Sensitive, affordable digital camera-traps have become one of the most important tools for field researchers, multiplying the eyes of scientists and conservation workers.
Before we get fully into election mode. Take a look at some of these stunning shots from the
Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
Belstone, Dartmoor Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA
So beautiful! A new species of monkey (Cercopithecus lomamiensis), known locally as the lesula. Photograph: Hart JA, Detwiler KM, Gilbert CC/PA
Photograph: Steven Kazlowski/NPL/Rex Features
From our week in wildlife gallery:
This polar bear was spotted strutting his stuff on the edge of the Bernard Spit in Alaska. Photographer Steven Kazlowski snapped away as the outgoing animal demonstrated his very best dance moves
Photographs, clockwise from top left: Alejandra Parra/Getty; Theo Allofs/Corbis; Pete Oxford/NPL/Rex Features
An alliance including national governments, regional councils and film stars has agreed to pay Ecuador not to exploit oil in its rainforest - but is the project working?
Photograph: Chris Brunskill/Rex Features
A shot from this week’s week in wildlife gallery:
An old tiger (left) is confronted by a younger, stronger tiger over a sambar deer kill. The tiger population of India is facing ‘total disaster’ due to tourism ban
Photograph: Ken Geiger/National Geographic Magazine/Reuters
Another stunning gallery from our week in wildlife series - starting with this very Olympic-themed photo:
Sarah, an 11-year-old cheetah, breaks her own world record by running 100m in 5.95 seconds in this National Geographic magazine picture taken at Cincinnati Zoo in Clermont County, Ohio. Sarah was clocked at 61mph (101kph) and broke her previous record of 6.13 seconds which she set in 2009
A selection of stories, photos, quotes, video and audio from guardian.co.uk, curated by James Walsh, Hannah Waldram, Carmen Fishwick and the Guardian's editorial team. We are also editors of the news tag.
