The week in wildlife - in pictures

Scientists have freed a whale shark caught in a fishing net in Indonesia's Cenderawasih Bay. Conservation International have completed the first expedition to tag whale sharks with radio-frequency identification making them easier to track and film. Whale sharks swimming into fishing nets has become a problem in the area Photograph: Mark Erdmann/AFP/Getty Images

Patrick Karabaranga, a warden at the Virunga national park, plays with an orphaned mountain gorilla in the gorilla sanctuary in the park headquarters at Rumangabo in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Virunga park is home to 210 mountain gorillas, approximately a quarter of the world's population. The four orphans that live in the sanctuary are the only mountain gorillas in the world not living in the wild, having been brought here after their parents were killed by poachers or as a result of traffickers trying to smuggle them out of the park Photograph: PHIL MOORE/AFP/Getty Images

A grasshopper sits on a dried up leaf on a stalk of corn in a field near Edmond, US. Oklahomans are preparing for another hot, dry summer as the drought in the state intensifies and forecasters say triple-digit heat with little chance of rain is to continue Photograph: Sue Ogrocki/AP

A blue-eyed black lemur. Leading conservationists have gathered at a workshop of the International Union for Conservation of Nature this week to review the conservation status of the world’s 103 lemur species — the most endangered primate group in the world Photograph: Russell A. Mittermeier/CI

Two kingfishers after catching insects to feed some newly hatched chicks in Ganghwa City, South Korea Photograph: KIM JAE-SUN/EPA

An Andean bear at the bear sanctuary Iznachi in Las Palmas, Ecuador. Due to the reduction of his habitat by agricultural expansion the Andean bears in Ecuador are threatened with extinction, experts say Photograph: Armando Castellanos/Andean Bear Foundation/EPA

A herd of endangered Przewalski horses trot across the Takhin Us national park in the south-west part of Mongolia. The Prague zoo transported four Przewalski horses to Mongolia as part of its efforts to reintroduce the endangered species into its native environment Photograph: Petr Josek/Reuters

A hoverfly sits on a blossom of a poppy flower covered with rain drops in Hanover, Germany Photograph: Julian Stratenschulte/EPA

The eye of a mud-covered female African southern rhino named Shova at the Singapore zoo Photograph: Wong Maye-E/AP

A recent study conducted for the IUCN red list found that 86% of the populations of parrotfish and surgeonfish face a low risk of extinction globally, but they do face a heightened risk of extinction regionally, especially in areas like the coral triangle in the tropical marine waters of Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea Photograph: Bill Watts/IUCN

A tree at Cameroon's Korup national park Photograph: STAFF/REUTERS

An employee of Artis Royal zoo, Amsterdam, places a garlic toad (Pelobates fuscus) tadpole in a fenland pool. The garlic toad is one of the most endangered amphibian species in the Netherlands Photograph: Jeroen Jumelet/EPA

Trees reflected in an art structure in the Olympic Park as preparations continue for the London 2012 Olympics Photograph: Jae Hong/AP

An ostrich peers through acacia bushes in the Kisaju area of Kitengela, on the outskirts of Kenya's capital Nairobi Photograph: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters

Adult and juvenile bald eagles fight over the remains of a salmon in Juneau, Alaska. Salmon returning to the nearby fish hatchery attract fishermen and wildlife Photograph: Michael Penn/AP

A eastern grey kangaroo looks around at a farm in Mudgee, New South Wales, Australia. The Australian government allows up to 5.2 million kangaroos and wallabies to be commercially hunted in 2012 Photograph: Jin Linpeng/Corbis

A dragonfly perches on a lotus leaf at Xuanwu Lake Park in Nanjing, China Photograph: Wang Xin/ Wang Xin/Xinhua Press/Corbis

A 46-foot juvenile fin whale that was struck by a cargo ship and carried into the Long Beach harbour in Long Beach, California. Whales, including endangered blue whales and humpbacks, have been feeding off the coast in record numbers in recent years, colliding with large ships coming in and out of San Francisco Bay at higher-than-usual rates Photograph: Alisa Schulman-Janiger/AP

An endangered yellow-crested cockatoo is cared for at a temporary station for animals after it was seized from a resident in Jakarta. Tens of thousands of wild birds exported from the Solomon Islands have been laundered into the global wildlife trade by declaring them as captive-bred, a new Traffic study has found Photograph: Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images

Male swordtail characins, who 'fish' for mates using flag-like baits on the end of a line, custom-made to appeal to hungry females Photograph: Kolm et al/Current Biology/PA

David Cole, 70, from Petworth, Sussex took this winning shot of the Prince’s Countryside Fund photography competition. The competition, in association with Archant Life, challenged professional and amateur photographers to capture the beauty of the UK countryside Photograph: David Cole/The Prince’s Countryside Fund