Puffins on the Farne Islands, Northumberland, UK in 2025. This year’s National Trust bird count on the islands has revealed a ‘mixed picture’ for the colonies of 200,000 birds. Two years ago several species were severely affected by an outbreak of avian flu. Numbers of breeding puffin pairs have dropped 23% on 2024’s figures – falling by 50,103 to 38,500 breeding pairs. (Photo by Rachel Bigsby/National Trust Images)





Young gorillas play in the treetops in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in the last decade of November 2025, which is home to nearly half of the world’s endangered mountain gorillas. (Photo by Pedro Ifa/Caters News Agency)





A female kingfisher puts on a colourful morning display, spreading its wings as it prepares to dive for small fish at West Auckland, Co Durham, UK on November 16, 2025. (Photo by Tony Raine/South West News Service)





A bat flies at Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in Sunsari District, Nepal, 01 December 2025. The reserve is a protected wetland in the eastern Terai and one of Nepal’s most visited bird-watching destinations. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA)





A capybara mother and her three hungry youngsters by a riverbank in the Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil in the last decade of November 2025. (Photo by Tomas Thibaud/TwoPointO Media)





Migratory birds spend winter time at Poyang Lake on December 6, 2025 in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province of China. (Photo by Rao Yi/VCG via Getty Images)





A cheetah cub licks its mother, who is on the lookout for threats from lions and leopards, after eating a klipspringer in Samburu, Kenya in the last decade of November 2025. (Photo by Sara Jenner/Solent News & Photo Agency)





An endangered eastern black rhino calf stands next to his Mother 'Dakima' at Folly Farm Adventure Park and Zoo on December 4, 2025 in Narberth, Wales. Folly Farm's female rhino 'Dakima' gave birth to her second calf, a boy, early on Thursday morning (27 November). There have been an estimated 39 eastern black rhinos born in the UK in the past 25 years. Eastern black rhinos are classed as critically endangered due to poaching and loss of habitat in their natural habitat. There's thought to be only an estimated 1471 Eastern black rhino left in the wild and around 109 in zoos across Europe. (Photo by Rebecca Naden/Getty Images)





A nearly two-week-old male pygmy hippopotamus named 'Panya' at the Zoo in Duisburg, Germany, 08 December 2025. (Photo by Friedemann Vogel/EPA)





More snoring than roaring: a tiger takes a snooze in Satpura national park, India in November 2025. (Photo by Andy Rouse/South West News Service)





This undated file photo taken by an infrared camera shows a snow leopard at the Wenchuan area of the Giant Panda National Park in southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)





A majestic Bengal tiger relaxes on an old step well in Ranthambhore, near Jaipur, India in the first decade of December 2025. (Photo by Andy Rouse/South West News Service)





A juvenile European starling hops from deer to deer eating insects. The white-tailed deer did not seem at all bothered by the bird - who can be seen cleaning it of ticks and bugs. The starling was one of a flock near the herd of deer in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, USA in the last decade of November 2025. (Photo by Erik Kessler/Solent News & Photo Agency)





A red squirrel hunts for buried nuts in the still-deep snow in Northumberland, UK in the last decade of November 2025. (Photo by Simon Woodley/South West News Service)





It may look like this jaguar is roaring on the banks of the St Lawrence River in Pantanal, south Brazil early December 2025. In fact it is yawning. (Photo by Tomas Thibaud/TwoPointO Media)





A kingfisher bird, with outstretched wings, emerges from the water holding a small fish in its beak, surrounded by splashing water droplets in Kirkcudbright, UK in the last decade of November 2025. (Photo by Alan Benson/Caters News Agency)





Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys are pictured at the Yuhe area of the Giant Panda National Park in northwest China's Gansu Province, October 14, 2025. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)





Polar bear cubs clamber over their mother after it starts raining. The mum patiently laid down as the siblings played. Norbert Rosing took these cute pictures in Wapusk National Park in Canada early December 2025. (Photo by Norbert Rosing/Solent News & Photo Agency)