Ann & Steve Toon / Cheetah (Aconinyx jubatus) female in scrub habitat, Samara private game reserve, Karoo, South Africa, January 2011

Diane McAllister / Newly hatched Western scrub jay chicks (Aphelocoma californica) huddling together in their nest near one last egg. This nest is in a backyard in Reno. Nevada, USA, June

Donald M. Jones / Black Bear (Ursus americanus) yearling cub up in a Lodgepole Pine (Larix laricina), Alberta, Canada

Piotr Naskrecki / Grasshopper, newly discovered species, from fynbos habitat, Jonaskop, Western Cape, South Africa

Warwick Sloss / Male Red kangaroo {Macropus rufus} feeding, Fowlers Gap Research Station, New south wales, Australia

Tim Fitzharris / Vervain (Verbena officinalis) at Franklin Mountains State Park, Chihuahuan Desert, Texas

Michael Durham / Western Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus hesperus) bat flying over desert scrub, near Pine Creek in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Clarno Unit, Oregon, this is the smallest bat found north of Me...

Michael Durham / Western Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus hesperus) bat chases a moth over desert scrub, near Pine Creek in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Clarno Unit, Oregon

Mark Moffett / Argentine Ant (Linepithema humile) group feed on soft nutritious eliasome at the tip of a fynbos shrub and discard the seeds without burying them, jeopardizing the fynbos community, South Africa

Claus Meyer / Parrot Snake (Leptophis ahaetulla) with mouth open in defense display, Caatinga ecosystem, Brazil

Pete Oxford / Yellow Armadillo (Euphractus sexcinctus) walking beneath a cactus, Caatinga habitat, South America

Thomas Mangelsen / Florida Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens) perching in tree, Oscar Schever State Park, Florida