MONKEY TRAINING FOR A CIRCUS29 November 2014A monkey cowers as its trainer Qi Defang approaches during training for a circus in Suzhou, Anhui province, China. With more than 300 circus troupes, Suzhou is known as the hometown of the Chinese circus. YONGZHI CHUNAT (...)
BONOBOS - OUR UNKNOWN COUSINS 01 June 2011Salonga National Park, Lui Kotale, Democratic Republic of Congo A young female bonobo rests after a large meal. Her lips are colored orange by mud she has eaten to counteract toxins in unripe fruit she consumed. Bonobos, along with chimpanzees, are our closest living relatives. They are also among the (...)
WOLVES WALKING IN THE DESERT 14 November 2013Xinjiang, China Wolves cross the desert snow in northwestern China. Wild animals such as wolves and boar are thriving in the region. Wolves are legally protected in China, though in some areas the law is not rigorously enforced. Herders in Xinjiang have called for hunting to be resumed, as wolves are (...)
TOXIC BEAUTY 05 September 2013Polkowice, Poland The flotation tailing reservoir at KGHM Polska Miedz copper mine. Tailings are waste streams produced by the process of extracting metal from ore, and consist of crushed rock and chemical effluent, much of it toxic. Views from the air reveal an impact of industry on the environment that is hard to see from the ground, as effluent (...)
A FLOCK OF GUILLEMOTS09 March 2013Vardø, Norway Common guillemots (Uria aalge) fly over northeastern Norway. The largest of the auk species, guillemots are one of the most abundant seabirds in temperate and colder parts of the northern hemisphere. The bird is gregarious, and breeds in colonies that can number into the tens of thousands. MARKUS VARESVUO (...)
COUGARS21 February 2013Gros Ventre Wilderness, Wyoming, USA A camera trap set up at the mouth of a cave captures a female cougar and her cub seeking refuge from the cold. Cougars, once in decline, have for the past 40 years been making a comeback across the western United States—though they remain extremely elusive. The cats are protected in California and Florida, but (...)
FENNEC FOX, A SPECIES IN DANGER22 April 2013An adult fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is illegally kept in a sheep pen for about a year. It shows clear signs of distress (ears kept low) and aggressiveness. The general lack of protection is destroying its fragile habitat and posing the species at risk. Kebili Region, Tunisia. BRUNO D'AMICIS (...)
Whale Sharks28 August 2008Hanifaru Bay, Maldives A whale shark breaks the surface while waiting to capture plankton drifting in on the tide, in the Hanifaru Bay marine reserve. Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) are slow-moving, filter-feeding sharks found in tropical and warm oceans, and are the largest non-mammalian vertebrates on the planet. The species originated some 60 million (...)
Caribbean Trumpet Fish01 April 2012Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles A Caribbean trumpetfish (Aulostomus maculatus), off the coast of Bonaire, in the Lesser Antilles. Trumpetfish are named for their elongated snouts and bodies, and can expand their mouths widely to suck up the small fish and crustaceans they feed on. They are able to change skin (...)
The Cage02 April 2012Fuzhou City, Fujian, China A white-cheeked gibbon, at Fuzhou Zoo, Fuzhou City, Fujian. Story Xiaoqun Zheng Nationality: ChinaAbout: Xiaoqun Zheng was born in 1955 in Zhejiang Province, China, and graduated from Tokyo Institute of Polytechnics. He has worked as a photographer for (...)