Week in wildlife: a tiny tiger-cat, backyard bears and a frilly pink sea cucumber
Week in wildlife: a tiny tiger-cat, backyard bears and a frilly pink sea cucumber | Environment | The Guardian Skip to main content Skip to navigation Close dialogue 1 / 17 Next image Previous image Toggle caption Print subscriptions Newsletters Sign in US US edition UK edition Australia edition Europe edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home The Guardian News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle Show more Hide expanded menu News View all News US news US politics Midterms 2026 World news Climate crisis Middle East Ukraine US immigration Soccer Business Environment Tech Science Newsletters The Filter Wellness Opinion View all Opinion The Guardian view Columnists Letters Opinion videos Cartoons Sport View all Sport Soccer NFL Tennis MLB MLS NBA WNBA NHL F1 Golf Culture View all Culture Film Books Music Art & design TV & radio Stage Classical Games Design a better world Lifestyle View all Lifestyle The Filter Wellness Fashion Food Recipes Love & sex Home & garden Health & fitness Family Travel Money Search input google-search Search Support us Print subscriptions Newsletters Download the app Search jobs Digital Archive Guardian Licensing Live events About Us The Guardian app Video Podcasts Pictures Inside the Guardian Guardian Weekly Crosswords Wordiply Corrections Tips Search input google-search Search Search jobs Digital Archive Guardian Licensing Live events About Us View image in fullscreen The week in wildlife Week in wildlife: a tiny tiger-cat, backyard bears and a frilly pink sea cucumber This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world A leopardus tilcayo cat, the first new wild feline species to be identified in more than 100 years. Photograph: Fernando Faciole/National Geographic/Reuters Joanna Ruck Fri 25 Sep 2026 03.00 EDT Share View image in fullscreen A family of black bears take a dip in a backyard pool in Los Angeles, California, US. Video footage showed them playing in the water and doing a passable dog-paddle. In California, bears and humans are coming into closer contact as communities expand and the climate crisis affects the bears’ food sources Photograph: Poolbearlife via Instagram Share View image in fullscreen This brilliant shot of a short-eared owl giving the camera a Kate Moss stare won gold in the Birds in Flight category of the Bird photographer of the year 2026 award. Ivan Sjögren caught the owl hunting over the salt marshes of the Fraser River delta in British Columbia, Canada. “This was a magical evening, with five owls feeding around me as dusk fell,” he said Photograph: Ivan Sjögren Share View image in fullscreen Say hello to Barbie Pig, a new type of sea cucumber discovered on the deep-sea floor by a team from the Natural History Museum in London. The frilly-footed fuchsia beauty was filmed by a robot on the Pacific seabed, 5km deep, in an area called the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. A documentary opening next month, How Deep Is Your Love , gives a scientist’s-eye view of the astonishingly biodiverse region Share View image in fullscreen A wild male Bornean elephant gives himself a shower near the Kinabatangan River in eastern Borneo Photograph: Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images Share View image in fullscreen A wild boar piglet runs in a meadow in a forested area near Frankfurt, Germany Photograph: Michael Probst/AP Share View image in fullscreen An anhinga takes flight at Green Cay wetlands in Boynton Beach, Florida, US. Nicknamed snakebirds because they swim with only their long necks visible above the water, anhingas do not have waterproof feathers. This trait helps them easily sink to hunt underwater for up to two minutes, but forces them to dry off by stretching out their wings for 15-20 minutes after each dive Photograph: Ronen Tivony/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Share View image in fullscreen A red deer roars near Mount Uludağ, north-western Turkey, as the mating season begins Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images Share View image in fullscreen It’s time to meet the bears of Fat Bear Week 2026. The annual Fat Bear Week competition is run by Katmai national park in Alaska, US and is returning for its 13th year. People can vote for the brown bear that they feel has put on the most weight ahead of their winter hibernation, by comparing photos from early and late summer Photograph: Guy Runco/Katmai Conservancy/AP Share View image in fullscreen A kingfisher watches for prey along the waterways of the Kocaçay delta in north-western Turkey Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images Share View image in fullscreen A leopard hunts in Kenya’s Masai Mara reserve Photograph: Pierre Stevenin/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock Share View image in fullscreen A glossy ibis forages in the shallow waters of the Kocacay delta in Bursa, Turkey Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images Share View image in fullscreen A grey fox in its den at a wildlife rehabilitation facility in El Santuario, Colombia. The species is about the same size as a red fox but with shorter legs, and shares the same