The week in wildlife

Rio Segundo de Alajuela, Costa Rica: Endangered great green macaws in a captive breeding centre. Experts are meeting this week to establish a strategy for saving the rare birds, only around 200 remain Photograph: Kent Gilbert/AP

Oakland, US: A large yellow garden spider hangs in a summer squash plant Photograph: Robin Loznak/The News-Review/AP

Sao Paulo, Brazil: A green vine snake at the Butantan Institute. The institute is a biomedical research centre specialising in snakes and producing antivenom Photograph: Andre Penner/AP

Uchiza, Peru: Ex-coca farmer Willian Montejo in his plantation of cacao. Cacao beans, used to make cocoa and chocolate, are being promoted by the Peruvian government as an alternative to the cultivation of coca, the plant that is used to make cocaine Photograph: Martin Mejia/AP

Sarkad, Hungary: A herd of female fallow deer runs across open grassland Photograph: Sandor H Szabo/EPA

Cerknica, Slovenia: A fisherman holds a handful of young pike during a rescue operation at the intermittent lake Cerknica. Every year in autumn and spring, the lake dries up and fishermen transfer the pike to available pools of water Photograph: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters

Heidelberg, Germany: Two-toed sloths hang on to a branch in their enclosure at the zoo. Sloths inhabit South American rain forests, sleeping up to 15 hours per day Photograph: Ronald Wittek/EPA

Civaux, France: Nile crocodiles fight to eat a piece of meat at the animal park La Planete des crocodiles. The park, which opened last August, presents 200 species of crocodile gathered in pools heated up by the cooling waters of a nuclear power plant Photograph: Alain Jocard/AFP

Custer State Park, US: A herd of buffalo charges down the hill towards the corral at the annual round-up. The park's bison are rounded and herded for vaccination, branding and sorting for auction in November Photograph: Elisha Page/Argus Leader/AP

Donetsk, Ukraine: Pigeons fly in front a fountain on a sunny day Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

Melbourne, Australia: A seagull spreads its wings Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Reuters

Bangkok, Thailand: A mahout (elephant driver) sits on an adult elephant in the red-light district of Nana. While the elephant is a symbol of Thailand, it is a fairly common sight to see the animals roaming the city streets. The tame elephants dodge the traffic as their mahouts sell sugar cane by the bag to tourists who feed them Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty

Wuppertal, Germany: A keeper holds a young Asian golden cat (Catopuma temminckii) at the zoo. Fire tigers, as they are also called, originate from tropical forests ranging from northern India to Malaysia Photograph: David Ebener/EPA