The week in wildlife – in pictures
Italy’s hedgehog hospital, starlings in flight and a comical fox are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
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An egret hunts for fish in Tokyo, JapanPhotograph: Kunito Imai/Rex/Shutterstock
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The Halnaker tree tunnel in stunning autumn colour, West Sussex, EnglandPhotograph: Benjamin Graham/Barcroft Image
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A flock of starlings take flight under trees in Frankfurt, central GermanyPhotograph: Frank Rumpenhorst/AP
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A European polecat visits a woodland pool near Corwen, Wales, UKPhotograph: Richard Bowler/REX/Shutterstock
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The Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards 2016 overall winner and ‘On the land’ category winner: Angela Bohlke’s image of a fox face planting in the snow in Yellowstone national park, USPhotograph: Angela Bohlke/Barcroft Images
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Pheasants in the snow near Hamsterley forest in County Durham after an overnight blizzard hit parts of the UKPhotograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
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Escaping it all in Llyn y Fan Fach, Wales. Tiny figures are dwarfed by the majestic landscapesPhotograph: Daniel Alford/Rex/Shutterstock
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A red squirrel in the the snow on the Weardale Moors, Northumberland. New research has found leprosy in red squirrels across the British IslesPhotograph: Alec Jones/Rex/Shutterstock
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An egret among a group of cormorants on remote Bu Tinah island in the Unesco Marawah protected marine area on the Persian Gulf, United Arab Emirates. A new study has found that seabirds eat floating plastic debris because it smells like foodPhotograph: Kamran Jebreili/AP
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A vet treats a hedgehog at the ‘hedgehog hospital’ – the Wild Animal Rescue Center of Bernezzo in Novello, northern Italy. The hospital takes care of around 60 hedgehogs that are freed following their recoveryPhotograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images
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Leading British primatologist, Jane Goodall, poses with school children with hand prints as she attends a campaign to raise awareness on the illegal wildlife trade. Goodall said that those who care for the planet would have to work harder in response to Donald Trump’s shock US presidential election victoryPhotograph: Bobby Yip/Reuters
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A seal cow and her newly born pup rest on the sand dunes of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust’s Donna Nook nature reserve near Grimsby, northeast England. Every November and December thousands of grey seals give birth to their pups here at one of four grey seal colonies on the English east coastPhotograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images
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One of the 240 endangered African penguin chicks is seen through a paper box, part of a rehabilitation programme at the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coast birds (SANCCOB) in Cape Town. Due to rapid population decline the species was reclassified as endangered with less than 25,000 breeding pairs remaining in the wildPhotograph: Nic Bothma/EPA
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A golden eagle in Cairngorms national park, Scotland. Numbers in Britain have risen and there are now more than 500 breeding pairs, up 15% and passing the threshold at which bird’s long-term future is thought viable.Photograph: Peter Cairns/RSPB
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Caper white butterflies. Millions of butterflies descended on south-east Queensland in Australia this week – only to be replaced by a plague of fliesPhotograph: Parks Australia/AAP
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Illegally traded rhino horn products recovered during investigations in Nhi Khe, VietnamPhotograph: Wildlife Justice Commission Investigation/AFP/Getty Images