Best photos of the week

Our Photographer of the Year 2020 is now in full swing and open for submissions!

? A sub-adult lion comes in to steal a kill made by spotted hyenas, only to find very little for himself. The hyenas did not bother getting their meal back because they had had their full. Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya © Pranav Chadha

? This huge bull elephant was busy drinking water in the Zambezi River. I crawled down to the riverbank and, with a low angle, I got this image. Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe © Kevin Dooley

? A meerkat enjoys a scorpion meal. Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa © Braeme Holland

? An orange-breasted sunbird in search of the sweet nectar from a common pagoda. Taken Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Cape Town, South Africa © Braeme Holland

? A mother baboon looks protectingly over her baby as another adult endeavours to gently touch the young one. Chobe River, Botswana © Braeme Holland

? A variable bush viper in its rainforest habitat. This area of Uganda is mostly agricultural, and only a few small pockets of lowland rainforest remain. Mityana district, west of Kampala, Uganda © Daniel Wakefield

? Week-old lion cubs suckle from their mother. Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya © Matrishva Vyas

? A macro closeup of a male carpenter bee on a salvia plant. Carpenter bees construct their nests by boring tunnels in wood – hence their name. They are important pollinators of open-faced flowers. The males are greenish-yellow in colour, and the females are black with two yellow bands over the hind thorax and first abdominal segment respectively. Cape Town, South Africa © Peet J. Van Eeden

? A leopard descends a large tree. South Luangwa National Park, Zambia © Raymond Stone

? Every year between October and December the largest mammal migration on Earth takes place when over ten million straw-coloured fruit bats take up residence in a few hectares of the ‘Bat Forest’ in Kasanka National Park’s mushitu swamp forest. Each evening at sunset, they leave their roosts to search for food. Kasanka National Park, Zambia © Ralph Stutchbury

? Cheetah cub exploring a concrete drainage pipe under the road. Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya © Nick Dale

? A purple heron proudly displays a Mozambique tilapia before swallowing the sizeable fish. Intaka Island Wetlands, Cape Town, South Africa © Braeme Holland

? The Milky Way and night sky over our tent. Serengeti National Park, Tanzania © Bill Klipp

? A marabou stork scavenges at a rubbish tip. Talek, Kenya © Diana Knight

? An elephant mother with her calf. Okavango Delta, Botswana © Kevin Dooley

? A lioness in the process of moving one of her cubs to a new den site. Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya © Lennart Hessel

? An elephant family herd pass by with Mount Kilimanjaro in the background. Amboseli National Park, Kenya © Josef Friedhuber

? Interwoven brittle stars with a sandy anemone. Outer Photographer’s Reef near Simonstown, South Africa © Peet J. Van Eeden

? A caracal spotted near the Rooiputs waterhole. Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa © Margie Botha

? A leopard sits in the forked trunk of a tree. Serengeti National Park, Tanzania © Nick Dale

? Migrating wildebeest – nature’s most accomplished endurance athletes – soar through shadows and dust as they hurl themselves into the Mara River. The few minutes required for this crossing are the most perilous of their hazardous, 800-kilometre trek. Mara Triangle, Kenya © Deji Odetoyinbo

? Gemsbok in the early morning. Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa © Hilda Le Roux

? An elephant takes a dust bath. Chobe National Park, Botswana © Nick Dale

? Lion cubs play on their mother while she tries to rest. Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve, South Africa © Julie Escoffier

? A water monitor carries a fish through a rocky section along the Sand River. Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve, South Africa© Cal Butler

? A rather mischievious-looking vervet monkey eyes out the photographer. Greater Kruger, South Africa © Braeme Holland

? A young lion chews on the remains of a wildebeest. Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya © Eduardo del Alamo

? Two painted wolf (African wild dog) puppies frolic playfully in the late afternoon sun. Zimanga Private Game Reserve, South Africa © Braeme Holland

? Up-close of lichen growing on a bougainvillaea plant. Pietermaritzburg, South Africa © Leon Heyes

? A rock kestrel on the lookout for potential prey. Giant’s Castle, Drakensberg, South Africa © Leon Heyes

? The lioness named “Longneck” and three of her cubs. Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya © Ivan Glaser

? Aerial photo of the wetlands in the summer season. Gauteng, South Africa © Deborah Jordan

? A lilac-breasted roller carrying a dead grasshopper in its beak lifts its wings to take off. Tarangire National Park, Tanzania © Nick Dale

? An aardvark foraging in the evening light. In winter, these elusive and usually nocturnal animals tend to come out of their burrows in the afternoon to maximise their feeding time. Southern Kalahari, South Africa © Laura Christie

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