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Galápagos marine iguanas, feeding penguins and a camouflaged owl are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

Wilderness study areas are more wild and untouched than national parks. But a Republican proposal threatens this unique terrain, environmentalists say

The Big Snowy Mountains wilderness study area in Montana represents 91,000 acres of the wildest land left in America. Viewed from a limestone bluff high in a timbered gulch, no houses are visible. No transmission lines or roads interrupting the expanse of green. No smoke curling up from cabin stovepipes.

A visit to the narrow lane of Ka Faroshi bird market brings comfort to war-weary Afghans

Canadian government viewed Trump’s election as “positive news” for Keystone XL and energy industry

The Trudeau government treated Donald Trump’s election as “positive news” for Canada’s energy industry and welcomed the help of Canada’s main corporate oil group in lobbying the US administration, documents show.

Meetings conducted by senior government officials with TransCanada and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) reveal an one-sided approach more reminiscent of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s secret oil advocacy than Justin Trudeau’s green electoral promises.

The International Garden Photographer of the Year is one of the world’s premier competitions specialising in botanical photography. There are 11 main categories and numerous special awards including Young Garden Photographer of the Year, and the mobile-only category Gardens on the Go. It is run in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where the winning pictures will be exhibited, followed by a rolling programme of touring exhibitions in the UK and abroad

Sinah Common, Hayling Island, Hampshire: Despite years of dedicated gorse-scanning this was the first time I’d seen one of these secretive little birds on my patch

The gorse thicket was ablaze with flower, but the heady coconut-suncream scent of the golden blossom was at odds with the biting wind and overcast sky. As a shower began to fall like a haze of iron filings, I decided to take shelter behind one of the well-preserved anti-aircraft gun emplacements – a relic from the second world war, when decoy fires were set on Hayling Island to draw the Luftwaffe away from the important military targets on nearby Portsea Island.

As I hunkered down against the concrete wall, I noticed a small, dark-coloured bird flitting through the furze like a restless sprite. I followed at a discreet distance as it crept through the low branches, gleaning insects from the needle-like leaves with quick, jerky movements. At first glance I thought it was a wren, but as I raised my binoculars it turned and cocked a disproportionately long, slender tail – not the short, stubby appendage I was expecting to see. I realised that I was looking at a Dartford warbler, Sylvia undata.

While the species has recovered from the 1960s population crash, continuing to increase in numbers and expand its range in recent years, Dartford warblers are largely sedentary birds. They breed exclusively on lowland heath and rarely travel far from their natal habitat. When food is scarce they will range more widely and can occasionally be spotted in coastal scrub during the winter months, but despite years of dedicated gorse-scanning this was the first time I’d encountered one on my local patch.

I wasn’t content with this fleeting glimpse, but “Darties” are secretive, skulking birds. My fingers reddened with cold as I waited in the hope that this one would emerge from the dense, dark undergrowth. As the rain eased off, my patience was finally rewarded. The bird – a male – perched up on the crown of a bush and I was able to admire his slate-grey upper parts, ruddy breast and vermilion eye-rings.

The instant he caught sight of me, the feathers on his domed-shaped head began to rise in the suggestion of a crest. Tail wagging, he scolded me with a harsh nasal “dzurr”, before vanishing back into cover.

Poultry group which sold out-of-date meat to supermarkets may close three factories

Nine hundred jobs are under threat at three poultry plants belonging to 2 Sisters Food Group, the UK’s largest supplier of supermarket chicken, which has been dogged by a controversy over food standards.

The potential closure of two of the firm’s West Midlands factories in Smethwick and Wolverhampton, plus a third in Cambuslang in South Lanarkshire, follow a nightmare year for the company, which has included the closing of a further site in Smethwick as well as a Guardian and ITV undercover investigation that prompted production to be suspended for five weeks last autumn at the group’s West Bromwich plant.

CSIRO researchers use world-first genetic analysis to estimate population, but believe numbers could be as high as 12,800

About 5,500 great white sharks are cruising in the waters off Australia’s east coast, new research has revealed.

For the first time, the CSIRO has been able to put a number on the size of the white shark population using world-first genetic analysis.

It estimates there are about 750 adults living in waters east of Victoria’s southern coast, up to central Queensland and across to New Zealand.

Taking juvenile sharks into account, researchers believe the total east coast population sits at 5,460 – but could be as high as 12,800.

Related: Shark attacks in Australia: how common are they really?

A new study finds strong agreement that flood risks in central and western Europe are rising due to global warming.

As humans continue to emit greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, the world continues to warm. We see that warming everywhere – in the atmosphere, in the oceans, with rising sea levels, and melting ice. But while we know conclusively that humans are causing the warming, an equally important question is, “so what?” Really, we want to know the consequences of warming so that we can make informed decisions about what to do about it. We really have only three choices: mitigate, adapt, or ignore and suffer the consequences.

A very new study was just published that helps answer this question of “so what?” The research was conducted by lead author Lorenzo Alfieri (European Commission – Joint Research Centre, Italy), Richard Betts (University of Exeter and Met Office, UK), and their colleagues.

Sandy, Bedfordshire: It should have been hibernating, but there it was, bashing its head against a cold window. Something had to be done

It is a curious fact that the most beautiful parts of a butterfly are also the least palatable. When I lifted a log from the woodpile, the eye of a peacock in an insect wing beneath looked back. It was a sail without a ship, a cover without a book. The wing was still fired with fresh colours, as lustrous as a birthday balloon and just as nutritious. The thick body that had been provisioned with sweetness to sit out the winter in darkness had gone.

The day before, another peacock, inadvertently transported indoors in the log basket, was hours away from cremation when it woke into living room summer. I did not see it fly up to the sunlit window but heard a loud thrumming from behind the blind. There it was, improbably animated out of season, bashing its head incessantly against a cold window. How could it understand that the golden orb beyond was a false god, offering only frost and ice?

Concerns raised over weakened regulations on imports in potential post-Brexit trade deals

Livestock raised for food in the US are dosed with five times as much antibiotic medicine as farm animals in the UK, new data has shown, raising questions about rules on meat imports under post-Brexit trade deals.

The difference in rates of dosage rises to at least nine times as much in the case of cattle raised for beef, and may be as high as 16 times the rate of dosage per cow in the UK. There is currently a ban on imports of American beef throughout Europe, owing mainly to the free use of growth hormones in the US.

Tasmanian scientists are trialling  a new tactic to help the shy albatross fight extinction: constructing artificial nests. Over one hundred specially built mudbrick and aerated concrete artificial nests were airlifted on to Bass Strait’s Albatross Island in July 2017 as a trial program. So far the results are looking promising with the breeding success of pairs on artificial nests 20% higher than those on natural nests. Conservationists hope the nests will boost the population of the threatened seabird, which is vulnerable to climate change.

EPA administrator says ‘There are assumptions made that because the climate is warming that necessarily is a bad thing’

Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has suggested that global warming may be beneficial to humans, in his latest departure from mainstream climate science.

Pruitt, who has previously erred by denying that carbon dioxide is a key driver of climate change, has again caused consternation among scientists by suggesting that warming temperatures could benefit civilization.

Beaches, wildlife, the Great Barrier Reef, unspoilt natural wilderness and national parks all considered threatened by climate change

Tourism is Australia’s most vulnerable and least prepared industry to deal with climate change despite the fact it is already feeling its effects, according to an advocacy group report.

The report by the Climate Council, based on 200 source documents and articles, says while tourism is growing at an extraordinary pace – an 8% jump in visitors last financial year – not enough is being done to prepare for damage to the country’s greatest drawcards.

Exclusive: documents show Katrina Hodgkinson changed plan to allow irrigators to extract 32% more after industry ramped up its lobbying

A water-sharing plan for the Barwon-Darling was altered by the former New South Wales minister for primary industries, Katrina Hodgkinson, even though public consultations on the draft plan had ended and her bureaucrats had already submitted a draft for her to sign.

The changes made it more favourable to irrigators and delivered valuable additional water during low flows. According to some modelling it may have increased legal extractions by irrigators by 32%.

Marbled crayfish have developed the ability to self-clone – and now a million-strong crustacean army exists in waters stretching from Europe to Japan

Name: Marbled crayfish. Marmorkrebs in German.

Age: Potentially infinite.

Genome study finds the invasive clonal freshwater crayfish is descended from a single female and reproduces without males

A voracious pest that mutated in a German aquarium and is marching around the world without the need for sexual reproduction may sound like science fiction, but a genetic study has revealed that a rapidly spreading all-female army of crayfish is descended from a single female and reproduces without any males.

The clonal freshwater crayfish is regarded as an invasive species which threatens endemic wild species, but its success may help scientists better understand how cancer spreads.

Indonesian authorities say male orangutan was found with 130 airgun pellets and machete wounds in the second known killing this year

The body of a Borneo orangutan has been found riddled with some 130 airgun pellets, Indonesian authorities have said, the second known killing this year.

The male orangutan, which also showed signs of machete wounds, was found by villagers in Borneo’s East Kutai district this week, police said, adding that an autopsy had been carried out.

In a sixth year of consecutive growth, organic sales rose by 6% to a record £2.2bn, driven largely by independent outlets and home deliveries

Sales of organic food and drink in the UK rose by 6% last year to a record £2.2bn, fuelled by strong growth through independent outlets and home delivery which outpaced sales in rival supermarkets.

Almost 30% of all organic sales now take place online or on the high street, according to a new report from Soil Association, the trade body which licenses organic products and promotes organic farming.