The week in wildlife

A Japanese white-eye perches on a branch of a cherry blossom tree at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden in Tokyo February 21, 2009 Photograph: Yuriko Nakao/guardian.co.uk

A Moroccan magot or Berber monkey (Macaca sylvana) waits in the middle of the road for tourists to give him food on in the central Moroccan town of Azrou in the Atlas mountains. The Moroccan magot, a protected species, is endangered because of droughts and poaching Photograph: Abdelhak Senna/AFP/Getty Images

A man shows a scorpion he had caught in a desert near Abu Simbel, southern Egypt Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

A pelican is pursued by another bird near the London Eye Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Steve Woollard climbs one of the UK's tallest trees, the grand fir tree in Blair castle in Perthshire. This tree was beaten this week to the title of Britain's tallest tree by the Stronardon douglas fir near Dunans castle in Argyllshire. It was planted in 1848 but was only measured accurately on 19 February 2009 by Mark Tansley and Steve Woollard, two Hampshire arboriculturalists Photograph: David Cheskin/PA

Two-month-old Bornean orang utan baby, Ah Meng Junior, hangs on to her mother, Anita at the Singapore Zoo on 20 February. The population of the Bornean orang utan is endangered due to habitat destruction, forest fires and poaching for the illegal pet trade Photograph: How Hwee Young/EPA

Almond blossom flowers are covered with raindrops at a park in Amman, Jordan Photograph: Ali Jarekji/Reuters

In this undated photo released by David Hall of seaphotos.com, recently discovered fish named "psychedelica" is shown in the waters off Ambon island, Indonesia Photograph: David Hall/guardian.co.uk

An American bittern hides in the marsh during the final round of the ACE golf Group Classic at the TPC Treviso Bay in Naples, Florida Photograph: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

A handout photo issued by the Zoological Society of London of a rare photo of a cheetah that has been photographed by scientists in the Algerian Sahara using special camera traps. There are thought to be less than 250 adult north-west African or Saharan cheetahs, making the subspecies critically endangered, but very little is known about the cat Photograph: Farid Belbachir/ZSL/PA

A boot among fish skeletons at "la Chueca" rubbish dump, next to Xolotlan lake, in Managua, Nicaragua. A sewage treatment plant, built with German aid, to clean up the polluted lake into which a main part of Managua's sewage has been poured since 1927, began operating this month Photograph: Esteban Felix/AP

A family of foxes who have baffled wildlife experts after setting up home in a tree - 30-foot off the ground. Donna Martell, 26, of Ipswich, Suffolk, first spotted the animals in her back garden earlier this month. Since then, she and her partner, Carl Clark, 33, have seen them on an almost daily basis, with three spotted at one time. Julian Roughton, of Suffolk Wildlife Trust, said it was an "unusual" nesting place for foxes, which are normally associated with underground burrows Photograph: Handout/PA

Grey cranes flock over the Agamon Ha-Hula Lake at the Hula valley in northern Israel. Local farmers feed the birds with corn to prevent them from destroying their crops Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images

Signs of spring - snowdrops bloom in Waveney valley, Norfolk. Share your photos of spring on our Flickr feed and you could win a Nikon camera Photograph: Graham Turner

A bird sits on a branch to sip nectar from an almond blossom at a public park in Amman, Jordan Photograph: Ali Jarekji/Reuters

Brown hares, which are famous for 'boxing' in spring, have declined 75% in the past 50 years, said the Wildlife Trusts. Losses have been caused by the conversion of grassland to arable farming, changes to planting regimes and reductions in different habitats in the countryside Photograph: Wildstock/PA

A shop owner displays carved ivory items at his antique shop in Hanoi, Vietnam. Illegal trade in ivory is threatening the elephant population in south-east Asia. There are thought to be less than 150 wild elephants left in Vietnam Photograph: DAI KUROKAWA/EPA

View of an Asian orchid at the National Orchid Exhibition in San Jose, Costa Rica. Some 300 different species of the plant, the majority of them from Costa Rica, are on display during the 10-day exhibition Photograph: Jeffrey Arguedas/EPA

Spring flowers on a branch are covered with snow in Skopje, February 19, 2009 Photograph: Ognen Teofilovski/Reuters

lan Humphries sprays water on a burnt-out tree at Cofters Cottage Guest House after a wildfire at Belgrave Heights, south-east of Melbourne Photograph: Andrew Brownbill/AP

Two flamingos are released from the winter shelter for the first time this year at an amusement park in Gwacheon south of Seoul Photograph: Kim Jae-hwan/AFP/Getty Images