Best Wildlife Photos of the Week

‘Frost flowers’ on the frozen surface of Lake Akan in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan.
Photograph: The Asahi Shimbun/(Credit too long, see caption)

Two mute swans show their courtship on the Rhine river in Au am Rhein near Karlsruhe, Germany.
Photograph: Ronald Wittek/EPA

A white-letter hairstreak butterfly – experts have said that the butterfly, whose numbers have seen dramatic declines in recent years, is breeding in Scotland for the first time in 130 years.
Photograph: Tim Melling/Butterfly Conservati/PA