An emerald glass frog (Espadarana prosoblepon) in Ecuador. Researchers say that global biodiversity loss caused by human industrialisation is significantly more alarming than previously thought. Almost half of the animal species on the world’s surface are currently undergoing declines in their population sizes, research has found

A Lear’s macaw (Anodorhynchus leari) flies over a reserve near the Canudos Biological Station close to the Canudos Wind Energy Complex in Bahia state, Brazil. A wind farm in north-eastern Brazil sounds like a welcome climate-friendly energy solution, but it is causing controversy over another kind of environmental worry: the impact on the endangered Lear’s macaw. Wind turbines are a known threat to birds in flight and the Lear’s macaw is already endangered, with an estimated population of no more than 2,000 in the wild, as farming and logging have vastly reduced their habitat

Broad-snouted caimans lay on the shore of a polluted sub-basin of the Canal das Tachas, in the Recreio dos Bandeirantes neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Thousands of caimans, living in lagoons adjacent to what was once the Olympic golf course, are closely monitored by scientists, who hope to protect their numbers and encourage local residents to be environmentally conscious about living next to them

A lizard on a chopped tree in Lalitpur, Nepal

A snow leopard in the Mount Qomolangma reserve area in south-west China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. Snow leopards are under first-class state protection and usually live in mountains between 2,500m and 5,000m

Theloderma khoii, known as Khoi’s mossy frog, Vietnam is one of almost 400 species discovered in Greater Mekong region in Asia. See more images in our gallery

Indian buffaloes lie down to cool themselves off in a lake running dry on a hot summer day near Ajmer, India

A red-tailed bumblebee gathers pollen from a flower in a garden in Manchester, UK

A great egret perches on a tree branch at a garden in Ajmer, India

Mute swans and cygnets at Birnie Loch, in Auchtermuchty, Fife, UK

A dolphin swims alongside ships and fishing boats in the Bosphorus Strait in Arnavutköy district of Istanbul, Turkey

Monkeys rest under the shade on a hot summer day in Prayagraj, India

Milu deer at Shishou milu deer national nature reserve in central China’s Hubei province. After years of efforts by protectors and continuous improvement of the local ecological environment, the population of milu deer at the nature reserve has increased rapidly

A kestrel lands on a branch in Riva, which is on its migratory route, in Istanbul, Turkey

A still from a video of a bear using the door handle to open the front door of a home in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, US

A crab spider (thomisidae) on a flower as air temperatures increase at Botanik Park, Ankara, Turkey

A gannet preens its feathers at RSPB Bempton Cliffs near Bridlington, UK. Seabirds migrate in large numbers from warmer climates to nest on the chalk cliffs at Bempton where they will spend the summer breeding and rearing their young

Cats lounging at the Rumah Kucing Parung shelter in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia. Dita Agusta established the shelter for stray and abandoned cats in 2014. She now takes care of more than 800 cats in the shelter

A metallic green sweat bee gathers pollen in a cactus flower at Mounts Botanical Garden in West Palm Beach, Florida, US

A stingray swims in the Gador sea and nature reserve in the Mediterranean sea off Hadera, northern Israel

Cygnets walk through the grounds of The Lensbury resort, Teddington, UK

Elpidiidae, one of a family of deep-sea cucumbers. This is just one of thousands of newly discovered deep-sea species that have been catalogued by scientists in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a vast area of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico