Natural World in Pictures

Chamari Senanayake

Our earth is a beautiful place. And its most precious children are the animals, including us humans. Sadly, we, the most intelligent bring distruction and tragedy to earth’s other children. Because of our greed and over population, tempreatures are soring and that has destroyed endless animal species and amazing scenery. We can see our impact on earth everyday.

The trees are disappearing and concrete structures are rising. Sights of animals and songs of birds are diminishing day by day in the cities and suburbs. In these pictures, captured from around the world, you can see the beauty and comical side of earth’s amazing creatures and also can see human impact in their surroundings.

Nuts about coconuts A pair of comical squirrels immersed themselves in their task of nibbling every last morsel from the coconut shells, which had been hollowed out for them by householder Jane Roberts. They are regular visitors to Ms Roberts’ garden in Fareham, Hampshire and often used to steal the food put out for the birds, but now they are just nuts about coconuts.

Pic: Mike Walker

I have my own Website This Impala antelope has become a home for a contented spider. The insect appears to have settled in the web after it became caught between the antlers of the small antelope as it walked through a national park. And now the antelope has his own website thanks to his tiny partner. Pic: Frank Solomon/ Solent News and photo Agency

Not my time to be up yet A hibernating dormouse curls up in the palm of a hand, blissfully unaware he has just been rescued from almost certain death in sub-zero temperatures. The tiny animal can only be held for just a few seconds because its carer’s warming touch would wake it prematurely.

Dormouse expert Dave Williams saved the three-inch creature from a back garden where he was left exposed to frost, wind and rain. A gardener accidentally raked its woven grass nest from under a box hedge he had trimmed near Leatherhead, Surrey. It may have died if left exposed to freezing temperatures or struggled to find the seeds, nuts and berries it eats if woken early.

Pic: Solent News and photo Agency

Underwater Car Wash The Hawaiian green sea turtle floated in mid water while the almost luminous yellow tang fish busied themselves with the task of removing the algae from his body. In a similar scenario to a normal car wash, the turtles take it in turns to swim into this make-shift ‘cleaning station’ for their daily wash. Not a bad way to get a free service.

Pic: Mike Roberts/Solent

That Gentleman in the black suit This all-black penguin on the South Atlantic island of Fortuna Bay is a ‘one in a zillion’ rarity’ according to experts. The bird on the South Georgian island, about 860 miles off the Falklands, is thought to suffer from a condition known as melanism, a mutation that turned it black and standing out in a crowd of black and white penguins.

Pic: Barcroft Media