An eight-month-old baby sloth Camillo yawns at the zoo in Halle, eastern Germany.
We share our world with many other species and live in an ever-changing environment. Fortunately, photographers around the world have captured the moments and beauty that allow us to see amazing views of this awe-inspiring planet. This is a collection of favorite photos from The Natural World gallery in 2011, a showcase of images of animals and environment that runs on Boston.com throughout the year. Next week's posts will take a look at the year in photos, so stay tuned.
Seahorses are displayed at an endangered species exhibition at London Zoo.
Lightning flashes around the ash plume of the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano chain near Entrelagos, Chile.
An Abyssinian Colobus baby yawns at the Nogeyama Zoological Gardens in Yokohama, Japan.
Clouds roll in and out of Paris, Texas, behind the Eiffel Tower replica.
A zebra stands in its enclosure in the Berlin zoo.
A buffalo cools off in a pond in the outskirts of Jammu in Kashmir.
A female Amur tiger, Iris, licks its 7-week-old cub during one of their first walks in an open-air cage at the Royev Ruchey zoo in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The Amur tiger is an endangered species.
A snake at a snake farm in Zisiqiao village, also known as the snake town, in Zhejiang Province, China. Residents raise more than 3 million snakes a year for food and medicinal purposes.
A swarm of bees, partly loaded with pollen, returns to its hive in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
A one-week-old jaguar cub plays with her mother Rosa Salvaje at the National Zoo in Managua, Nicaragua.
A lion's mane jellyfish swims beneath the waters at the Farne Islands, England. The archipelago of 16 to 28 separate islands (depending on the tide) off Northumberland is a summer home to many kinds of wildlife.
A water bird flies over a Danube Delta canal next to Tulcea city, east of Bucharest.
A rare baby Siamese crocodile hatches from an egg at the Lao Zoo outside Vientiane, Laos. Last month, 20 baby crocodiles were hatched from eggs found in a lake in southern Laos; they will eventually be released into the wild.
Two 3-month-old crowned lemurs lay on their mother's back at the zoo in Mulhouse, France. Every year there are about 250 to 350 births at the Mulhouse zoo.
Horses fight during the Rapa Das Bestas traditional event in Sabucedo, Spain. Hundreds of wild horses are rounded up, trimmed, and groomed in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia on the first weekend of July.
A chameleon waits to be weighed and measured in the reptile house at the London Zoo. Every year the keepers record the heights and weights of more than 750 different species in the International Species Information System, where they can be shared with zoos across the world.
Iblis, an Asiatic lion, plays with a recycled Christmas tree in his enclosure at the Chester Zoo in England. Unsold Christmas trees donated to the zoo are used in the animal enrichment program.
A pony grazes in a meadow at sunset in Lausanne, Switzerland.
A murmuration of starlings fill the evening sky above Gretna, Scotland
A swan walks through a green field in Kamp-Lintfort, Germany.
Kamchatka brown bear Mascha and one of her two 3-month-old cubs nuzzle in Hagenbecks Zoo in Hamburg, Germany.t
Ana Julia Torres kisses Jupiter, a lion rescued from a circus 12 years ago, at Villa Lorena shelter, in Cali, Colombia. Torres, 52, a teacher, founded the shelter, which protects about 600 animals seized from drug traffickers, circuses, animal traffickers, or abandoned by their owners.
Lesser flamingoes rest on their only breeding ground, Lake Natron, at the foot of Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania
Marine life is rich in the Indonesian waters of Raja Ampat between the Pacific and Indian oceans.
Water drops cling to the bottom of a leaf in Harrisonburg, Va.
A new blue phalaenopsis orchid called "Blue Mystique" is sold by Bachman's florists in Minneapolis. The color is achieved using a patented process from Europe that colors the flowers from the inside.
A colony of Gentoo penguins enters the water at the Sea Life London Aquarium in central London. The nine Gentoos are a new adition to the aquarium after being transfered from Edinburgh Zoo's thriving colony.
A cat clings to a rock surrounded by rapids in Akron Falls Park in Akron, N.Y.
A giant panda cub holds on to a log at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China.
An Egyptian goose attacks its reflection in Anish Kapoor's sculpture "Sky Mirror 2006" in Hyde Park in London.
Csui, a male African leopard, reacts after being vaccinated in Nyiregyhaza Animal Park in Hungary.
A bird sits on a perch in Sausalito, Calif., as clouds passed over the San Francisco skyline.
Tam Dao, a 2-week-old Francois leaf monkey, is presented to the media at Taronga zoo in Sydney. Less than 1,000 of the monkeys exist in the wild.
A polar bear jumps into the water at the St.-Felicien Wildlife Zoo in Quebec.
A black rhino is transported by helicopter in South Africa. Nineteen of the critically endangered animals established by the WWF Black Rhino Range Expansion Project were moved from the Eastern Cape to a new location in Limpopo province.
A 4-day-old African spurred tortoise, one of eight babies, sunbathes on its mother's head in the animal park in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary
An owl perches in front of Greenpeace activists who were arrested for raising an inflatable model of a wind turbine in front of Congress in Brasilia.
Long-tailed mayflies mate on the surface of the Tisza river near Tiszakurt, Hungary. Millions of these short-lived mayflies engage in a frantic rush to mate and reproduce before they perish in just a few hours.
A pink flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) rests at the zoo in Cali, Valle del Cauca department, Colombia.
A cicada emerges from its shell at a home in Fort Smith, Ark. There are more than 1,500 species of cicada.
An Asian elephant sprays sand in its enclosure at the zoo in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Shinmoedake volcano erupts between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, Japan.
Rapeseed blooms in a field near Prevonloup, Switzerland.
A pair of great gray owls, or Lapland owls, sit inside an open air cage at the Royev Ruchey zoo in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.
Sheep graze on a field at the Siennese clays area near Asciano, Italy. The Crete Senesi, located in Tuscany, consists of an untouched natural landscape of hills and woods.
A turtle swims with sardines at the COEX Aquarium in Seoul, South Korea
A duck sits on top of volcanic ash from the eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano on a farm west of Skaftafell, Iceland.
A hawk attacks a rabbit during an annual traditional hunting competition near the village of Uzynagash, Kazakhstan.
Tree frogs sit on a leaf at an amphibian feeding camp outside Hanoi. Vietnam's first amphibian breeding farm was established in 2004 with the aim of promoting environmental awareness, conservation, and for export as pets.
