The Associated Press’ most striking images from nature in 2025 show existence as fragile as an albino turtle hatchling among its peers or a cicada’s translucent wings.
Beyond the headlines and sometimes dangerous human impacts on their worlds, animals and other creatures persist.
A polar bear sprawls outside an abandoned research station on an island off Russia, surrounded by grass, not snow.
A raccoon eats peanuts on a boardwalk in Panama City.
Sheep are herded through central Madrid.
The photos show a world without us and without borders, one of extraordinary beauty in the everyday.
A hummingbird is poised to sip from a flower.
A pollen-flecked ladybug explores a dandelion.
A humpback whale surfaces with a splash.
All things end. An insect is trapped in a glistening carnivorous plant. Vultures fly over an unseen carcass in India. Eagles clash while hunting.
And then, as a baby bird peeks from among its parents’ feathers, life begins again.
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Photo editing by Courtney Dittmar and Anne-Marie Belgrave.