The week in wildlife

Spotted seals swim in a partly frozen lake at Dongpaotai Park in Yantai, China
Photograph: China Daily/Reuters

Seagulls perched on poles at Bang Pu seaside resort in Samut Prakarn, Thailand
Photograph: Apichart Weerawong/AP

A mouse in the snow in Spain
Photograph: Rafa Rivas/AFP/Getty Images

Members of the Thanet Coast project walk among thousands of dead velvet swimming crabs washed up in St Mildred's Bay near Margate in Kent. The freezing temperatures is believed to be the cause of their deaths
Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

A newborn gorilla hangs on its mother N'Yaounda in Budapest zoo
Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images

Villagers try to control a bull during a bull-taming festival on the outskirts of Madurai, India
Photograph: Babu/Reuters

A red cardinal chases a sparrow away from a feeder near Maysville, Kentucky, US
Photograph: Terry Prather/AP

A new and previously unknown species of spider in a dune of the Sands of Samar in the southern Arava desert region of Israel. A member of the Cerbalus genus, the spider has been named Cerbalus aravensis. It has a leg-span that can reach up to 14cm which makes it the largest spider of its type in the Middle East
Photograph: Yael Olek/University of Haifa/Getty Images

A great white egret with a fish in its beak at the Mutterbach river in Puttelange-aux-Lac, eastern France
Photograph: Christophe Karaba/EPA

A squirrel is watched by a pigeon as it eats a peanut in a snow-covered St James's Park, London
Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

The spectacled flowerpecker, a new species, twists its head while perched beside mistletoe berries in a rainforest in Borneo. The small bird, grey with white stripes, was spotted in June 2009 on flowering mistletoe in the Malaysian part of Borneo by a group including biologist David Edwards of Leeds University in the UK
Photograph: Reuters