The week in wildlife – in pictures

Migratory birds fly above wetlands near Srinagar, India. More than half a million migratory birds have arrived in Kashmir, according to wildlife department officials Photograph: Dar Yasin/AP

A golden maple leaf stuck to the roof of a bus stop by rainwater, in Portland, Oregon Photograph: Don Ryan/AP

A tree with heavy fog in the background in Sarzens, western Switzerland Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

A great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) in the new Chitwan National Park, 200km southwest of Kathmandu, Nepal. The park covers 932 sq km of jungle and is the first wildlife park in Nepal, providing a safe environment for endangered species such as the one-horned rhino and the royal bengal tiger Photograph: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images

A winning photograph in this year's 2011 Raja Ampat underwater photo competition, of the rich marine life in the waters of Raja Ampat in the eastern Indonesian region of Papua Photograph: Agung Djaja Rachwan/AFP/Getty Images

A pair of sandhill cranes at a refuge near Socorro, New Mexico. Biologists at the refuge are expecting record numbers of migrating birds this year due to severe drought in neighbouring Texas Photograph: Marvin DeJong/AP

A monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) on a flower in Angangueo, Mexico. Monarch butterflies migrate from the United States and Canada to Mexico in the autumn Photograph: Sashenka Gutierrez/EPA

A Hainan gibbon, the world's rarest primate with just 23 believed to be remaining in the wild, in the rainforest of Hainan province, China. According to Greenpeace, Hainan's rainforests have been disappearing at a rate of around 400,000 sq m every two days for the past ten years due to illegal logging and plantation establishment
Photograph: Reuters

Larvae gather around a flower submerged in a pond in Karachi, Pakistan Photograph: Rehan Khan/EPA

A giant clam which appears a dull brown under natural light, fluoresces bright red in the ultraviolet. A new collection of photographs capture the beauty of underwater life, and award-winning photographer Louise Murray took this at Tondoba Bay at te Red Sea, Egypt Photograph: Louise Murray / Rex Features/Louise Murray / Rex Features

Morgan the orca in her tank at the Dolfinarium in Harderwijk, Netherlands. The whale was transferred to the Loro Parque marine park on Tenerife this week, after animal rights activists lost a last-ditch appeal to have her released back into the wild Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP

A baby spider monkey cruises on the Fernando lake, in the Serere Natural Reserve in Madidi, Bolivia Photograph: David Mercado/Reuters

Hundreds of sea lions at the Palomino islands in Callao, Peru, near where a two-year old and a nine-month sea lion were released back into the ocean by Peru's Organization for Research and Conservation of Aquatic Animals Photograph: Martin Mejia/AP

An orangutan prior to its release into a forest in Tanjung Puting National Park, central Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is one of six out of 40 illegally captured orangutans to be released following rehabilitation at the Orangutan Care Center and Quarantine (OCCQ) Photograph: Stringer/Reuters

A child stands in the Avenue of the Baobabs, a natural reserve in western Madagascar. It was designated as a protected zone in 2007 after a sugar factory flooded the area, causing ancestral baobab trees to rot and fall. The site has been restored since receiving state protection Photograph: Aline Ranaivoson/AFP/Getty Images

Two of the hundreds of magellanic penguins that have arrived in the southern Argentinian province of Chubut since September Photograph: Stringer/Reuters

A squirrel searches for food up a pine tree in Dresden, eastern Germany Photograph: Arno Burgi/AFP/Getty Images