The week in wildlife – in pictures

An Indian spotted owl on alert for prey in broad daylight, in the Mayong forest in Guwahati city, India Photograph: STR/EPA

A bee stocks up on nectar from a sunflower near the northern Swiss town of Leibstadt. This week, Syngenta and Bayer, two major producers of the pesticides blamed for a sharp fall in global bee populations have proposed a plan to support bee health to try to forestall an EU ban on the products Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

A mink emerges from its den in the Naliboki Pushcha reserve, near the village of Rum, Belarus Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters

A grey seal at Blakeney Point, Norfolk, UK. One of the largest expanses of undeveloped coastal habitat in Europe, Blakeney Point is a great location for wildlife lovers, and well-known for its large numbers of grey seals Photograph: Jamie McDonald/Getty Images

An African fishing eagle carries a fish over Lake Baringo, Kenya. The species is under threat in this area, as local goat farmers have taken to throwing fish laced with poison into the river to kill off crocodiles which eat their cattle Photograph: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images

An amur leopard looks out of its enclosure at Twycross Zoo, Leicestershire Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA

A dragon blood tree on the Indian Ocean island of Socotra, some 250 miles off Yemen's coast. The island was listed as a world natural heritage site by Unesco in July 2008, and has 825 rare species of plants, of which more than a third are endemic Photograph: Yahya Arhab/EPA

A squirrel monkey is still for a split second at the River Safari theme park in Singapore, which opens on 12 April. It will have 69 exhibits featuring 150 plant species and 300 animal species Photograph: Mohd Fyrol/AFP/Getty Images

An orange tip in the spring rain. The UK's butterflies suffered a devastating 2012 after the wet summer Photograph: Julian Dowding/Butterfly Conservation

A whale shark opens its huge mouth as fish hitch a ride on its back in Azores, Portugal Photograph: Nuno Sa/Barcroft Media

A seagull with a shell in its beak, off the Baltic coast near Scharbeutz, Germany Photograph: Holger Hollemann/EPA

A holly tree heavy with snow, on Helvellyn in the Lake District, UK
Photograph: Rex Features

Black-necked cranes at the Dashanbao nature reserve in Zhaotong, China Photograph: Xinhua /Barcroft Media

The first ever remote camera picture of a critically endangered Sumatran rhino, taken in the forest of Sabah in Malaysia. The WWF in Indonesia said it had found traces of the rhinos on Borneo, where the species was thought to have been extinct for some 20 years. The Sumatran rhino population has dropped 50% over the past two decades, and it is believed there are fewer than 200 left in the world Photograph: RAYMOND ALFRED/WWF/AFP/Getty Images

Two common starlings perched on a tree stump in the snow. The UK's garden bird populations have suffered a further decline over the past year Photograph: Clément Philippe/Alamy