The week in wildlife – in pictures

With the rutting season just beginning, stags join the herds and stake out their territory in parkland at Studley Royal near Ripon, Yorkshire Photograph: John Giles/PA

A crimson speckled moth. The recent heatwave has seen hundreds of rare moths arriving in the UK, in what experts are describing as the best migration for the insects in years Photograph: Butterfly Conservation/PA

A flower covered in dewdrops in a meadow near the Elbe river in Dresden, eastern Germany Photograph: Arno Burgi/AFP/Getty Images

One of the entries in our Green shoots reader photos of spiders Photograph: Flickr

Some of the 20 million bats emerging from Bracken cave in Texas. A depleting insect population has forced millions of bats around drought-stricken Texas to emerge before nightfall for food runs, making them more susceptible to natural predators. Some experts have already noticed fewer bats emerging from caves and have seen evidence that more infant bats are showing up dead, hinting at a looming population decline Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

A komodo dragon in the national park on Komodo island, Indonesia. The former Indonesia vice-president Jusuf Kalla has been appointed as the ambassador to campaign for the island's recognition as a new seven wonders of nature Photograph: Beawiharta/Reuters

Grey herons (Ardea cinerea) fight over fish in Porvoo, Finland. A new book, Birds: Magic Moments by Markus Varesvuo, aims to provide an intimate insight into the secret world of bird behaviour and the colourful lives of European birds Photograph: Markus Varesvuo /Rex Features

A butterfly resting on the leaf of an organically grown corn farm in a vacant lot in Jakarta. Young Indonesians are breathing new life into their polluted concrete capital city with little more than buckets of soil and seeds. A group of mostly young professionals, known as Gardening Indonesia, has joined the global urban farming movement, converting vacant patches of land between Jakarta's skyscrapers into lush green vegetable gardens Photograph: ROMEO GACAD/AFP/Getty Images

Reika the tiger at London zoo with a limited edition print that the zoo has created to raise money for their Tiger SOS campaign - which aims to save to save the Sumatran tiger. The print, A Streak of Sumatran Tigers, by WOOP Studios, features 300 tiger striped dots to illustrate the estimated number of Sumatran tigers left in the wild Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

Highly commended in the mammals behaviour category of the 2011 Wildlife Photographer of the Year is this image, Balancing act by Joel Sartore (US). In a death-defying manoeuvre, a mountain goat stretches to reach a mineral lick Photograph: Joel Sartore/WPY

Bees hover around a flower in Lompoc, California Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Magnified 20 times, a green lacewing larva's mandibles look fierce in this winning picture from the 2011 Small World Microphotography Competition Photograph: Igor Siwanowicz/Nikon Small World

Sun rises behind the Oder River in Lebus, eastern Germany, near the Polish border Photograph: PATRICK PLEUL/AFP/Getty Images

Pheasants in fields near Hoxne, Suffolk Photograph: Graham Turner/Guardian

A cable restraint trap in Coolbaugh, Pennsylvania. Over the next few months, tens of thousands of Americans will fan out in the backcountry for trapping season, partaking in one of the nation's most polarising outdoor pursuits. For its practitioners, trapping is a skilled avocation evoking frontier traditions and playing a vital role in wildlife management. Opponents see a different reality: pervasive cruelty inflicted on millions of wild animals each year, largely to help supply domestic and overseas markets for fur Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

A rutting stag bellows in a wildlife park in Aurach near Kitzbühel, in the Austrian province of Tyrol Photograph: Kerstin Joensson/AP

A chipmunk sits on the stump of an old growth tree in the forgotten mining ghost town of Cody, British Columbia. The stump is one of many left when residents of the town cut down trees to build homes and shops. Cody grew around a silver mining operation that existed from the mid 1890s to 1910, when it was abandoned. British Columbia has one of the largest collection of ghost towns, or derelict communities, in Canada Photograph: Andy Clark/Reuters

Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) hovering in flight, Iceland. Another image from the book Birds: Magic Moments, by Markus Varesvuo Photograph: Markus Varesvuo/Rex Features