The week in wildlife

A flock of migrating cranes fly in front of the moon in Linum near Berlin, Germany. This month almost 60,000 people from 34 European countries took part in EuroBirdwatch 2010 and observed birds flying south for the winter
Photograph: Pawel Kopczynski/REUTERS

Deer seen at the Studley Royal Park near Ripon, UK during their rutting season, when male deer can be heard roaring and locking antlers in a bid to attract female attention. The Studley Royal Park is home to 500 wild deer Photograph: Nigel Roddis/Reuters

Two-year-old Genevieve the giraffe gets cozy with Gerald, a long-standing bachelor male giraffe at Noah's Ark zoo farm, Somerset, UK. Genevieve has travelled 1,000 miles from a zoo in Eastern Europe to pair up with Gerald, whose closest companion for the last four years has been Eddie the goat Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

Bleached sponges found at the Isla Colon, Bocas del Toro, Republic of Panama. According to a report from the UN's environment programme, marine ecosystems such as corals and the sponges pictured here will be affected by abnormal sea temperatures
Photograph: Arcadio Castillo

Golden autumn leaves at a park in Warsaw, Poland Photograph: Tomasz Gzell/EPA

An ocelot wildcat (Leopardus pardalis), which is twice as big as a housecat and has a spectacularly dappled coat. Researchers have found that wild cats' spots have evolved to suit their surroundings and hunting habits Photograph: Frans Lanting/Corbis

Biologists have found that particular species of the monarch butterfly use milkweed to cure themselves and their offspring of disease Photograph: Jaap de Roode

Eastern marsh elleborine (Epipactis veratrifolia), an orchid species, successfully lures a hoverfly for pollination by mimicking alarm pheromones usually emitted by aphids Photograph: Johannes Stškl./MPI Chemical Ecology

Aerial shot of rainforest canopy over Sungai Sembilang national park, Indonesia. According to Greenpeace, massive concessions of paper and pulpwood companies are operating in the island's last remaining peatland forest and the habitat of the endangered Sumatran tiger Photograph: Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images

An osprey swoops on its prey at a trout farm in the Cairngorms, as a duck makes way. Last year, more than 1,200 species of bird were classified as threatened with extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature
Photograph: catersnews.clipservers.com

A blue damselfly is pictured straddling the gap between two dry grass reeds by amateur bug photographer John Hallmén Photograph: John Hallmén/Barcroft Media

Underwater image of the Rhinopias frondosa, commonly known as a weedy scorpionfish, wins the Timor-Leste dive photo competition 2010
Photograph: Kay Burn Lim/AFP/Getty Images

Invasive Argentine ants stop insects from pollinating the flowers of a Californian cactus (Ferocactus viridescens) which is now endangered. Research has found that rapid environmental degradation may damage mutualism, or supportive relationships between different species, in the natural world
Photograph: John Ludka

Fallen autumn leaves seen in Berlin's Tiergarten park, Germany Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images

An adult female fen raft spider carries an egg sac with her first baby spider. Thousands of hand-reared baby spiders are being released into the wild this week in a bid to boost numbers of one of the UK's most endangered species Photograph: Natural England

Daybreak light and fog hangs over the Veliki Prstvaci waterfalls in Croatia. This stunning image won the 'wild places' category in the 2010 Veolia Environnement wildlife photographer of the year competition Photograph: Maurizio Biancarelli 2008/Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of The Year