Week in wildlife: rare gorilla twins, racing camels and a psychedelic spider

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Meet Benedict Cumberbat. The first admission of the year to RSPCA West Hatch, Somerset, UK, came in the form of a brown long-eared bat. He was found in a bird box and had no injuries but was cold and low on weight. Benedict will be nursed back to health for a few days before being released into the wild

On the lamb: a group of sheep stands in the checkout area of the Penny store in Burgsinn, Germany. About 50 sheep had separated from the flock and gone into the discount store. The sheep were eventually coaxed back outside and had resisted the urge to eat the merchandise

A robin searches for food and water in a frozen park in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, UK during the recent cold snap. Its feathers are fluffed up for warmth, making it look even more spherical than usual

Snoopy the echidna gets ready to enter a ball pit at Healesville sanctuary in Victoria, Australia. Snoopy has marked 40 years at the sanctuary since being rescued in 1985, when she was deemed unsuitable to return to the wild as a youngster. The hardy echidna has been living out her days in the simulated bushland haven, and also enjoying an enrichment ball pit

A white-handed gibbon feeds in a tree in Thailand’s Kaeng Krachan national park

This amazing creature has a fittingly amazing name: the psychedelic earth tiger, also known as the Indian rainbow tarantula. It appears on  Fauna & Flora’s 10 species to watch in 2026, a list of animals the conservation charity is hoping to protect. The list also includes extremely venomous vipers, a highly prized falcon and a guitarfish which looks like it has been sewn together from two different species in a “misguided scientific experiment”

One of five Dartmoor ponies that have arrived at a National Trust estate, where they will help restore the landscape by grazing on thistles and other vigorous plants. The conservation charity hopes that the three mares and two geldings will help create the right conditions for wildflowers and grasses to thrive beneath scattered trees at Wimpole estate in Cambridgeshire, UK. “Within minutes of arriving, one of them was happily munching on a thistle, which is exactly what we were hoping for,” said the farm manager

Giant honey bees cluster on a newly formed honeycomb at a school construction site near the India-Bangladesh border fence in Nabin Nagar, West Bengal, India

Mafuko, a mountain gorilla, holds her newborn twin sons at the Virunga national park, Democratic Republic of Congo. The rare birth in war-ravaged eastern Congo has been described as “a major event” for the endangered subspecies. Much of the park is under rebel control and fighting has accelerated forest loss

Cover photo:  Mafuko, a mountain gorilla, holds her newborn twin sons in Democratic Republic of Congo. Photograph: Virunga National Park/PA