BASKING in smug satisfaction, a confident squirrel gives a wink to the camera. After spending a morning stealing a stash of nuts and seed from his squirrel friends, he sits down to enjoy his well-earned lunch. The pictures of this cheeky squirrel were captured by emergency services worker Claire Hartley, 35, on a trip to Hartsholme Park, near Lincoln. “Several squirrels had been competing to get as many nuts as possible,” says Claire, of Lincoln.
This is the moment a nimble red fox and a lumbering Alaskan brown bear were locked in a tense stand-off .
Raising his arms above his head and lying flat on his back, a polar bear stretches as he sprawls out across the ice .
FLOATING effortlessly on his back, this little otter laps up a rare glimmer of English spring sunshine .
Fetching a tiny carrot and a head-shaped snowball, a red squirrel builds the perfect snowman .
THIS incredible shimmer of silver fish mirrors the image of that of an underwater tornado .
A group of otters put on a show of aqua aerobics, as they raise their flippers perfectly in sync .
An Italian photographer travelled to Chile where he visited several star-gazing sites, home to some of the world's most advanced telescopes, located in the spectacular setting of the Atacama desert .
Families in an Indian slum put their lives on the line by living on top of an ACTIVE railway track .
THESE LOVE BIRDS can’t keep their beaks off each other as they share a very public display of affection .
BRAIDED, sculpted and beaded, these are the eye-catching hairstyles worn by the tribal women of Angola .
COURAGEOUS climbers descend 400 metres as they manoeuvre their way through thick walls of ice .