The week in wildlife - in pictures

An adult male red-backed shrike at Lake Farm country park in Hayes, Middlesex. This migratory bird, about the same size as a starling, is a very rare visitor to the British Isles. Birdwatchers have been gathering in the park since this one arrived last week Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

A sunflower in a field near Duesseldorf, Germany, where temperatures of up to 30C are being forecast for next week Photograph: Martin Gerten/AFP/Getty Images

A pair of young gannets huddle with one appearing to wear a garland of wildflowers on the Bempton Cliffs near Bempton, east Yorkshire. In 1967 there were just 22 breeding pairs, but as many as 8,000 were recorded in 2009. The UK's coastline is crucial for northern gannets, with roughly 60% of the world's population nesting here Photograph: Steve Race/RSPB/Reuters

A close-up of a pig in a Buren mud pool, which was crowned 'best mud pool in the Netherlands' by Dutch animal welfare organisation Wakker Dier (Awake Animal) due to its perfect size, depth and muddiness Photograph: Koen Van Weel/EPA

A spotted deer in Yala national park, about 300km (190 miles) from central Colombo, Sri Lanka Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Leopards cross a dirt road before heading into a jungle, also at Yala national park Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

Wild ponies cross a creek in Virginia, after being rounded up for next week's annual swim across the Assateague channel to Chincoteague Island. Each year the wild ponies are auctioned off by the Chincoteague volunteer fire company Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

A male rhinoceros beetle sports its enormous pitchfork-like horn. Horny beetles and stag deer share a common mechanism that helps them attract mates with ostentatious ornaments, scientists believe Photograph: Will Freihofer/PA

A butterfly called 'kleiner fuchs' (little fox) settles on a flower near Ingolstadt, southern Germany Photograph: Michaela Rehle/Reuters

A juvenile red-footed booby (Sula sula) in Tubbataha, the Philippines, gazes into the photographer's lens Photograph: Gregg Yan/WWF

A tiger lies in a concrete shelter, at a tiger farm in southern Binh Duong province, Vietnam. The WWF said this week that Vietnam's 2007 decision to legalise tiger farms on a pilot basis has undermined its efforts to police illegal trade in tiger products Photograph: Mike Ives/AP

Young gorillas have been observed by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund working together to destroy poachers' snares Photograph: The Dian Fossey Gorilla fund

Elephants forage in the Tsavo East national park, Kenya, during the second phase of a collaring exercise, following a dramatic increase in elephant killings for their prized tusks. China, Vietnam and Thailand are among the worst offenders in fuelling a global black market that has led to record numbers of elephants and rhinos being killed in Africa, says the WWF Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images

A normally secretive, nocturnal hunter, an American mink on the Isle of Mull, Scotland, approaches the photographer in an unusual display of confidence Photograph: Martyn Lewis/Rex Features

The arrival of warm, sunny conditions has come too late to help one of the UK's most well-known summer birds, the swift, which has been hit by this year's miserable weather. Flocks of swifts are already starting to head back to Africa, where they spend the winter, following a 'disastrous' breeding season, conservationists said Photograph: Richard J Nicoll/RSPB/PA

Yuniar, a six-year-old female Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) prior to being transported for release into north Sumatra's Aceh province, Indonesia Photograph: Mast Irham/EPA

Close up of a large white rattail, caught off the New Zealand coast at about 2,600m. The rare species has not previously been recorded in New Zealand waters Photograph: Peter McMillan/NIWA

A greater adjutant stork flies in search of food in flood waters, on the outskirts of Guwahati, India. Its diet includes carrion, fish, frogs, reptiles, crustaceans, large insects, even young ducks and other birds Photograph: STR/EPA

An increasingly rare sight in the wild, that of the European hamster, this one transporting food in its bulging cheek pouches around the central cemetery in Vienna, Austria. They are critically endangered in many individual European countries, largely because they are considered to a farmland pest or are trapped for their fur Photograph: APA/GmbH/Rex Features

An adult peregrine perches on a rock face in Glenwherry, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. Two such young peregrines were being watched over recent months in their nest, one of which was recently found shot dead Photograph: Dreamstime.com/NIRSG/PA