The week in wildlife – in pictures

An old man's beard, a lichen shrub, in Bamberg, Germany Photograph: David Ebener/ Corbis

A jumping pied wagtail bird in Falmouth, Cornwall, Britain. The bird uses bouncing behaviour as a display of threat to warn rivals to stay off its territory Photograph: Jack Perks/Rex Features

White storks (Ciconia ciconia) on a treetop in Madrid. Throughout Europe they have advanced their spring migrations, arriving in Spain 40 days earlier than expected Photograph: Jorge Sanz/Corbis

A west African lion cub peers out of the foliage in Nigeria's Yankari game reserve. West Africa's lions, which once prowled across the region in their tens of thousands, are close to extinction as farmland eats up their ancient habitats and human hunters kill the animals they feed on, a study has shown. Only 400 remain across 17 countries, according to the paper published in scientific journal PLoS One Photograph: Philipp Henschel/Handout/Reuters

A group of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) run across a meadow after being released on forest land outside Fort Stanton, near Capitan, New Mexico. Officials from the state department of game and fish captured and relocated dozens of the antelope-like animals over two days in an effort to rebuild dwindling pronghorn herds in remote parts of New Mexico and Arizona Photograph: Jeremy Wade Shockley/AP

A pair of olive ridley turtle mate in the Bay of Bengal sea off the mouth of Rushikulya River in Ganjam district, 87 miles from the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar. The turtles gather here for their annual mass nesting on the coast of Orissa state, home to the world s largest nesting site for turtles Photograph: Biswaranjan Rout/AP

Red kites fly in front of a rainbow at the Red Kite centre, Rhayader in Wales. Professional photographer Drew Buckley captured these rare images at the centre while hosting a photography workshop. 'We had a heavy rain shower and then brilliant sun right on cue at feeding time. The kites were already circling but now they were encapsulated by the rainbow and its colours. It was so vivid!' he says Photograph: Drew Buckley/Rex Features

Fifteen heat-stressed baby flying foxes (bats) are lined up ready to feed at the Australia bat clinic near the Gold Coast in Queensland. Thousands of bats near Brisbane and the Gold Coast have succumbed to the extreme heat, falling out of trees and dying in heat waves in what is turning out to be Australia's hottest year so far Photograph: Trish Wimberley/AP

The blue iguana of the Cayman Islands. Their numbers dropped to just 12 in 2002 but has now recovered to 750. The animal remains seriously threatened, with a highway proposed that would go right through its remaining stronghold Photograph: Jonathan Hall/RSPB

Chestnut-headed bee-eater birds perch on a branch of a tree at Moeyungyee wetland wildlife sanctuary, Burma. Every year, the sanctuary sees thousands of migratory birds come to Moeyungyee as part of a network of wetlands located along the east-Asia–Australia flyway Photograph: Lynn Bo Bo/EPA

An alarmed rabbit stranded in the middle of a flooded park in Windsor, England Photograph: Ed Brown/Rex Features

A fallow deer stag (Dama dama) stands in a snow-covered meadow near Langenhennersdorf, Germany Photograph: Arno Burgi/Corbis

A flock of geese takes off from a field in the Sloughs Wildlife Area in Henderson county, Kentucky, US. Snow and ice further north forces the birds south in search of food Photograph: Mike Lawrence/AP

A heat-struck koala is given much-needed water on an outback dirt road near Gunnedah, New South Wales, Australia Photograph: Peter Lorimer/Rex Features

A green turtle in the waters off Derawan Island, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Green sea turtles remain a rare sight in many parts of the world, but one Indonesian island tasked with protecting them is now being overrun by far too many. New research suggests that the gentle endangered creatures are crowding into a marine reserve in numbers never recorded anywhere, gobbling seagrass to the point that they risk destroying the food source that's vital to their survival Photograph: Marjolijn Christianen/AP

A vicuna runs across a salt flat in Uyuni, Bolivia Photograph: DAVID MERCADO/REUTERS

A lizard struggles as it is trapped in hardening volcanic ash from Mount Sinabung, Indonesia's North Sumatra province. More than 26,000 villagers have been evacuated since authorities raised the alert status for the volcano to the highest level in November 2013 Photograph: Beawiharta/REUTERS

Northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita) fly in formation. A new study released this week says the birds choreograph the flapping of their wings, getting a boost from an updraft of air in the wake of the flapping wings by flying behind the first bird and off to the side. When a flock of birds take advantage of these aerodynamics, they form a V shape Photograph: Markus Uns ld/AP

The Dallas Safari Club auctioned off a black rhino hunting permit in Namibia for $350,000 last weekend. Corey Knowlton said he has had to hire full-time security due to the death threats he has received Photograph: Brad Loper/AP

Seagulls fly above the frothy ocean waters of Bass Strait looking for fish caught in the wake of a large ferry as it crosses between the Australian cities of Melbourne in Victoria and Devonport in Tasmania Photograph: Barbara Walton/EPA

A rare albino calf swims close to its mother as a pod of more than 250 bottlenose dolphins including babies, juveniles and one baby albino dolphin was herded into the killing cove at Taiji, Japan. The cove on the south-west coast of Japan was made famous in the Academy Award-winning film The Cove Photograph: Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians